adventures of mascarah.

[Life: Make] Rice Krispie Treats

The easiest (although certainly not healthiest) dessert. Impossible to mess up and much better homemade than store bought.

1/4 cup butter
1 10 oz. package regular marshmallows (or 4 cups miniature marshmallows)
6 cups Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows, stirring until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in Rice Krispies until well coated. Turn out mixture into a pan and cut into squares when slightly cooled.

[Life: Make] French Onion Soup

Whether we like it or not, fall is coming. One of my favorite fall dinners is this soup. I’ve tried probably 10 recipes and sometimes just do it straight from the Campbell’s can and this recipe by Cooks Illustrated is by far the best I’ve found. Sounds like a lot of work, homemade soups tend to appear that way sometimes, but this one is really quite easy and makes for a great dinner with plenty left over for lunches.

Ingredients (serves six):

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
• 6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• Salt
• 2 cups water, plus extra for deglazing
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups beef broth
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine
• 1 bay leaf
• Ground black pepper

Cheese Croutons

• 1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)

Directions: For the soup:

• Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Generously spray the inside of a heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and 1 teaspoon salt.
• Cook, covered, for 1 hour (the onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot.
• Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.
• Remove the pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Cook onions (make sure you handle hot pot with oven mits!), stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly.
• Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.)
• Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes.
• Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
• Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

For the croutons:

• While the soup simmers, arrange the baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in a 400-degree oven until the bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

[Note: Most people don’t have these mini crocks lying around. Use this serving method only if you have broil-proof serving ware and are eating it right then. If not, it tastes almost as good with the final step microwaved and of course, the rest of the soup saved later for lunch]

[Life:Make] Ultimate BLT

What’s better than a plain old bacon, lettuce & tomato sandwich? Not much…But add a few things and you might have the best dang BLT ever.

• mult-grain bread
• red onion
• lettuce (I like good old romaine, spinach can be great though too)
• cheese (sharp cheddar is my fav)
• local heirloom tomato
• spicy mustard (I mix 2 parts mustard, 1 part sriracha and make my own)
• berkshire bacon (or turkey bacon)
• 2 eggs, fried (salt, pepper, pinch of paprika)

Guaranteed to be simple, cheap, filling.

[Life: Make] THE Breakfast Taco

When I lived in Austin I ate breakfast tacos (usually from Rudy’s - Austinites, I’m sure you know why) at least 5 times a week. I am sure that was beyond unhealthy, but they are just so damn good. In NYC I don’t know of a single breakfast taco place (although many places attempt the Huevos Rancheros or Migas - it isn’t the same as grabbing a taco on the go) so I have taken matters into my own hands. It is a simple, cheap, spicy and delicious breakfast.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of corn tortillas (to me, them being corn is an absolute)
• organic eggs
• 1/3 lb of chorizo, sausage or bacon (or turkey bacon - or no meat)
• 1 bunch of spinach
• 2 jalapenos, diced
• 1/3 of an onion, chopped finely
• Any other veggies of your choice
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded Ppperjack, Monteray Jack or crumbled Cojita cheese
• hot sauce (I like Cholula) to taste
• 1/2 cup salsa (prefer the homemade but if not Whole Foods has some great options -  to the canned but if get canned please don’t get Old El Paso - yuck)

Instructions:

Crumble the sausage or chop the chorizo or bacon and place into a skillet over medium-high heat with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika (and I do a bit of habanero). Cook and stir until evenly brown. Set aside.  In another pan saute all your veggies with same salt, pepper, paprika, habanero combo.  In order to do this best simultaneously you need 2 pans going - so once you have your cooked ingredients done- rinse and use same pans -and put one on high heat, one on medium. High heat is for warming tortillas (microwave doesn’t cut it). In a  bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Spray the medium heat skillet with some cooking spray, and pour in the eggs. Cook and stir until almost firm. Add the sausage/chorizo/bacon and veggies, and continue cooking and stirring until firm.  In your other pan, warm tortillas for about 45 seconds per side so they are hot and crispy on the edges but can still bend. Sprinkle a little shredded cheese onto each tortilla while it is still hot. Top with some of the scrambled egg and sausage, then add hot sauce and salsa. Delicious. Also perfect in a tupperware or wrapped in foil for lunch.

[Life: Make] Super Simple Guacamole

What’s better on a summer afternoon than guacamole? Not many things, me thinks…

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, chopped finely
• 1 jalapeno, remove seeds & stem, chop
• 2 serrano chiles, remove seeds & stems, chop
• 2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon seasalt
• Few cranks of fresh black pepper

Cut avocados in half. Remove pit. Scoop out avocado from the peel put into a bowl. Using a fork, mashup the avocado. Then add the chopped onion, peppers cilantro, lime, salt and pepper and mash some more. Add in the tomatoes right before you serve (otherwise can make it mushy).

Cover with plastic immediately to keep it from turning brown. Yummy!

[Life: Make] Fudge-y Pops

You know I’m a fan of the popsicle. Having a fudge version to cool off this 90 + degree weather seems only practical, right? ;)

Ingredients:

8 ounces bittersweet (or dark or white) chocolate, chopped until very fine
12 ounces of heavy cream
1 cup of whole milk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Note: Will need popsicle molds - no DIY with this - fudge is serious… (I got mine at Ikea on the cheap)

Instructions:

1. Place chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl.

2. Combine heavy cream, milk, and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until cocoa is dissolved. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for about 3 minutes and then whisk  until all chocolate is melted, while whisking add in the vanilla extract.

3. Pour mixture into the molds and place in the freezer. Freeze for at least 5 hours. Willl keep for about a week, but I recommend eating them asap!

Recipe from Serious Eat’s take on Alton Brown’s recipe.

[Life: Make] Minty Cubes

The older I get the more I appreciate the little things. Minty ice cubes are one of those great little things in life - sooo easy to make and make a huge difference - be it in water, lemonade, ice tea or vodka! I love them with basil or rosemary too.

Ingredients:

-fresh mint (or basil, rosemary)
-water (purified)
-ice cube tray

Directions:

Clean the mint leaves, and put one leaf (or two!) in each section of ice tray. Add water and freeze, then put ice cubes into beverage of choice. Voila!

A great improvement to any drink (and looks fabulous for dinner parties!)

[Life: Make] Orange & Arugula Salad

Arugula is one of my favorite summer ingredients. And this salad is simple and totally delicious. If you aren’t an orange fan, substitute watermelon, strawberries or grapefruit for another great salad. Delicious!

Ingredients:

3  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
1  tablespoon  olive oil
3/4  teaspoon  honey
2  garlic cloves, crushed
6  navel or blood oranges
4 heirloom tomatoes (or a bunch of grape)
4  cups  trimmed arugula
2 ounces of crumbled feta cheese

Instructions:

Combine first 4 ingredients in a  bowl, stirring with a whisk to form your dressing. I like this pomagranate dressing from Tyler Florence on this salad also.

Peel oranges and cut crosswise until you have bitsize slices. Wash and cut tomatoes.  Add oranges and tomatoes to arugula. Sprinkle feta on top and lightly drizzle with the dressing.