Cook with Me! – Page 4 – The Salted Table

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate I feel as though the holidays snook in the back door on me this year. There I was mowing the grass and lounging at farmer’s market sorting through summer’s harvest and before I knew it, it was time for windbreaker’s and flu shots. But nonetheless, I love the holiday season and the first sighting of fiery leaves are an indication of warm family gatherings, the crackling of fire places and bottomless eggnog and hot chocolate. Check!

If you’ve been following along with me here at The Local Forkful long enough, then you know I’m a believer in eating dessert first, no shame necessary, because my sweet tooth is insatiable and we won’t discuss my gummy candy addiction, at least not in this post. Today, I made you a dessert that embodies the spirit of the holiday season to me–I mean, chocolate, pumpkin, graham cracker and marshmallows…how can we go wrong? (we can’t.) So dive head first into this delicious little holiday pie infused with some Olive & Sinclair goodness!

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate

Thanksgiving is all about family, friends and delicious food. Luckily, the food blogging community is all about these things as well. To celebrate the holiday, Meghan from Cake ‘n’ Knife and Susannah from Feast + West are hosting Blogsgiving Dinner. There are 20 awesome blogs sharing 52 recipes

The idea is based on the old-fashioned progressive dinner party, in which you’d eat each course at a different guest’s home. Each blogger is bringing one or more dishes to the party on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of this week, so be sure to stop by each one and get some ideas for your own Thanksgiving meal. Be sure to check out today’s recipes for entrees, salads and side dishes.

We’ll be posting to social media with the hashtag #blogsgivingdinner. Hope you can join us! Blogsgiving Dinner 2014

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate

2 cups roasted pumpkin or squash (pureed
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
smidge of kosher salt
2 eggs (room temperature)
2 tsp. Nielsen Massey Vanilla
1 cup miniature marshmallows

Temper Chocolate

1.5 ounces %67 Olive & Sinclair Chocolate
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Graham Cracker Crusts

1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker
3 tbsp. AP flour
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 ounces unsalted butter (melted)
smidge of kosher salt

method

1. Using your fingers, combine graham cracker, flour, salt, sugar together and add butter one tablespoon at a time until mixture holds ball form when squeezed, set aside. Meanwhile, whisk together salt, pumpkin, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, vanilla and eggs in a bowl until smooth; set aside.

2. bring a small pot of water to a rolling simmer. chop the chocolate up and place it into a non-reactive metal bowl with the oil. stir chocolate with wooden/plastic spatula until chocolate is smooth, remove from heat and set aside.Do not leave unattended.

3. Heat oven to 375°. Place 3 tbsp of crust mixture into the bottom of a cupcake pan and using your fingers press the mixture around the sides and leave a pool in the center to pour the pie mixture into.Pour filling into crust; drop a dollop of chocolate into the center and swirl a toothpick around to create a design, bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle, but avoid piercing an area with chocolate. about 20 minutes.

4. Turn your oven on low broil or whip out your blow torch and go to town. While waiting for the oven to come up to temp, strategically place marshmallows on the top of the mini pies. Place under broiler with the door cracked and wait, do not walk away from the pies, once they are a light brown, remove and let cool to room temperature before serving. And I always recommend a scoop of ice cream.

Here is the rest of today’s menu. Go check out what the other bloggers are providing for your holiday feast!

Dessert

Grandma’s Pecan Pie from The Wetherills Say I Do

Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting from My Cooking Spot

Gluten-Free Apple Berry Crumble from Twin Stripe

Paleo Pumpkin Pudding from Wit Wisdom Food

Cranberry Almond Coconut Bars from Love & Flour

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate from The Local Forkful

Poached Pears with Salted Maple Caramel Syrup from Home at Six

Sweet Potato Pie from Think Fruitful

Nutella Pumpkin S’mores Tart from bethcakes

Gluten-Free Acorn Squash Spice Bars from I Cook. I Eat. It’s Life.

Drunken Pecan Pie Bars from The Speckled Palate

Torched Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie with Olive & Sinclair Chocolate

Herbed Roasted Chicken & Vegan Spiced Apples & Potatoes

You know those dishes that you create without any plan and you find yourself surprised at how well they come out? Well, needless to say this is one of those dishes. And yes, despite being trained to know how to cook, chefs indeed have those moments of ah-hah, that’s delicious. It’s not like the roasting of chicken is a complicated process that requires the need of bells and whistles because it doesn’t. And that’s why we flock to it as our go-to meal when there is minimal time for fussy dinner preparation. Not that I make fussy meals or anything, cough.

Over the summer my wife and I visited Asheville, NC for the Food Blogger Forum. An event where food bloggers gather and discuss our passion for food, blogging, and the art of creating community. I received a little jar of what was labeled vegan spice. At first, I had no idea what the heck the stuff was or how I was going to properly utilize it to fit into our meals, but one night I saw the spice while in the midst of trying to decode what we were going to eat for dinner based upon the scant selection of ingredients in our fridge. If there’s anything I hate more than folding laundry, its trips to the grocery store once I’m already home for the evening.

I looked in the fridge and there it was staring at me, a whole bird, two sweet potatoes, three new red potatoes and some Mutsu apples from Chattanooga that I had just purchased at Whole Foods Market. Before I knew it, I had reached for the cast-iron skillet on the shelf and I set the chicken in the pan. After a brief moment of hesitation I placed the chicken back onto a cutting board and proceeded to cut it in half after realizing we probably won’t eat the whole thing. I turned the oven to 425 degrees. I seasoned both halves of the chicken with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper, finely minced thyme, oregano and I tucked two pats of unsalted butter beneath the skin, set it aside. I rinsed the potatoes and apples, removed any eyes from the potatoes that didn’t look edible and cut them into chunks. Just in case you were wondering I cored the apples. I tossed the potatoes and apples in two teaspoons of the vegan spice, one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and a smidge of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste.

I put the chicken in the center of the cast-iron skillet and nestled the potatoes and apples around it but being careful not to completely cover the skin, because crispy skin is the key to the perfect roasted chicken. I walked away and began to write this post while I waited for it to cook and for my wife to come home. The cooking time is somewhere between 45 min to an hour, of course this is subjective based upon your oven, so properly temp your chicken for a internal temperature of 165º. There may have been some Parks & Recreation in the backdrop, laugh-out-loud, because that show slays me! I’m so grateful for Netflix…sigh. But any-who, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as the wife and I did. I’m already in need of ordering more of that vegan spice because I’ve been using it so often. You can order it here. Enjoy and I’d love to hear about some of your ah-ha dishes that turned out un-expectedly well.

Three Decades and Salted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies I simply don’t know where to begin. It’s been thirty-years of life here on this earth, breathing in this air , writing down my thoughts in books with tattered and torn edges. Thinking about ways to make life one big coffee break on a patio in a foreign country, or maybe just in my own backyard? What is age truly? Simple numbers on a piece of paper awaiting to be marked off in a brisk motion lined with disdain and contempt for yet another year of aging? Or maybe I’m being a bit dramatic?

It’s been thirty years, and in those thirty-years were born my insatiable love for ~~food~~–I mean chocolate. I’m not sure what to share with you. I feel as though at times my life has been such a roller coaster ride–one in which I wanted to get off of many-a-time. But I can truthfully say that “I wouldn’t change a thing.” And yes, I’m fully aware of how cliché that statement is but it’s too late to drink coffee and wait for fresh phrases to surface.

If you look back over your past and find that there are things that you desire to change. You end up living a life stuck in the past and you become a victim of your past mistakes–living like this can be debilitating and you’re worth more than that, I’m worth more than that. Life is to be learned from and we are only to focus on the future not the past. I’m looking forward to what the next three decades will bring. I mean, just in the last ten years, I found my beautiful wife, we fought cancer, moved to Nashville where we have successful careers and purchased our first home. Now, I’m not insinuating that life has been idea, there’s a whole slew of bumps in the road, grey skies and unplanned events that are meant for another post. But that’s enough ranting for now, let’s talk cookies. Salted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

My wife, Jenna, is no baker and she refuses to pretend to be and I’m ok with that because if need be, my girl can bake break-apart cookies like a champ. She’ll tell you that her mom tried to get her in the kitchen and she declined with pleasure every-time. So I wasn’t surprised when she walked in the door with one of my favorite desserts, chocolate chip cookie cake! Ahhhh, it’s a beautiful thing and has been one of my favorite birthday gifts since I can remember and oh yeah, I occasionally get a jones for Pillsbury funfetti or strawberry cake. Guilty!…judge away!(#noshame).

I feel like I have been blessed beyond all that I deserve. God has been so good to me despite my constant neglect of Him in my life from day-to-day. You know, when you feel as though life is just too busy to stop and pray or simply tell Him thank you for that brisk wind beneath your chin. Life is a thing of beauty and I look forward to another three decades of taking it all in, appreciating the little things more often and stopping to say, thank you for a life I never could’ve created.

So clearly, my wife and I are fans of chocolate. It’s safe to say if dessert comes up in conversation, we’re typically on the same page unless I’m having a gummy candy craving. But these chocolate chip cookies have been taunting me from Food52 for quite some time now. I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect chocolate chip recipe that doesn’t need a ‘secret ingredient’, just the perfect balance of sweet and savory as it should be. There’s not a whole lot of things more satisfying than a well-executed textbook chocolate chip cookie and I know–I know, we could go around and around about salty over sweet and dark over milk, crunchy over chewy. But the truth is–for me, the ‘perfect’ chocolate chip cookie gives a little when you apply pressure with your finger, like a ripe avocado. The edges shatter and leave a trail of salty and bitter tip-toeing around your palate and last but certainly not least–the chewy center. I remember as a child eating the edges of the cookie first and the slow destruction of that chewy center always left me longing for one. more. cookie.

And this recipe I’m sure will leave you with the same nostalgic feeling of course, you must change some of the wording and make the story your own, so on and so forth. Enjoy these as much as I did last night. The last. day. of twenty-something. Salted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups French Broad Bar Chocolate (coarse chopped)
1 cup large bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup salted & toasted whole almonds, coarse chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, tightly packed
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 River Cottage Farm eggs
2 teaspoons Nielsen Massey vanilla extract

pre-heat oven to 375° F. Sift flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside. Mix together coarse chopped chocolate and chopped nuts. Set aside. On medium speed in a standing mixer, with the wire whip attachment, cream the butter and sugars until well mixed and light (you’ll notice a change in color). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add one egg. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add second egg. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides. Add vanilla. Mix for a few seconds. Scrape down the sides.

You’re going to add the sifted flour mixture in 4 rounds, stopping before adding the final round. For the first 3 rounds, mix at low speed just to combine, scraping down the sides between each addition. When you get to the final round of flour, add the chocolate chip/nut mixture. They will get a bit crushed. That’s okay. Mix until there’s barely a trace of flour visible. Don’t over-mix. Sometimes, it’s better to be safe and do the final bit of mixing by hand. Set up a sheet pan with a silpat or parchment paper. Bake one tray at a time or they will all cook at different rates. Make them spherical, not flat. The cookie size is up to you. I find the bigger they are, the better ratio you have between gooey interior and crisp exterior. 2 ounces is about right for that. Leave a few inches between the raw cookies. Place sheet pan in the oven. They cook relatively fast at this temperature. I didn’t bother setting a time. My internal cookie alarm is pretty good about keeping track. Somewhere around 8-11 minutes. Make some coffee and wait.

They’re done when they’re brown and crispy on the outer border and raw in the very center. Remove the sheet pan and allow them to cool for a few minutes, then, with a spatula, transfer cookies to a cookie rack to cool. And I must tell you the cookies are even better the next day, so if you can stand it, its worth the wait. If you’re not going to eat them right away, they should be frozen. If you’re not baking them off right away, portion them out with an ice cream scoop, place them on a sheet pan, and freeze them. Once they’re firm, store them in a sealable bag. Works great to bake them off when they’re frozen. Enjoy.

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Southern City Flavors Sweet Potato Butter

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Southern City Flavors Sweet Potato Butter Autumn here in Nashville is settling in quite nicely and I’ve enjoyed the few Indian Summers we’ve already experienced (keep those coming mother nature). I believe this season is going to be a busy one and I’m not afraid of the challenge. Sometimes I find myself straddling the fence when it comes to major changes in my life but change is what keeps life interesting.

Lately, I’ve been contemplating ways to bring you guys more blog posts because I seem to be consistently getting the same feedback from my readers, “We love the blog, but we want more.” and I truly want to give you that but you must understand that working in the kitchen full-time plus my side projects doesn’t make it easy to find the time to sit down and process my thoughts not too mention take photos. So here’s what I’m proposing–I’m going to bring you blog posts that are shorter in photography in order to bring you more posts. Because it just so happens that food photography is the most time consuming part of preparing a blog post. My self-diagnosed OCD kicks in and all bets are are off–I could food style for hours and still not be happy with the final product.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Sweet Potato Butter Pancakes Here’s the first post that introduces this new format, less photos, more posts, boom! I’m sure it will work out better this way and I’ll be giving you more poetic posts about the seasons with still life and random food knowledge because that’s me in a nutshell–random, poetic, food-loving freak.

Enough about me, let’s talk pancakes! A couple of months ago I received an e-mail from Southern City Flavors asking if I would like to try some of their most popular products. I typically turn down these offers because the pressure of receiving a product and disliking it feels so overwhelming sometimes. The thought of people putting all their hard work into these products and for it to be wasted on me if I don’t like it, can be a little exhausting. But that’s not the case with these products from Southern City Flavors. Southern City Flavors, Franklin TN

I still have several items to dig through but I’m under the impression that if the sweet potato butter is any indication of what the other products are like then I’m sold. The recipe for these pancakes are an adaptation from Esquire Magazine and I’m pretty sure it’s one of my new favorite recipes. The texture of the pancakes are dense, not light which I like a heavier pancake–I like that it absorbs the syrup and still keeps body unlike light pancakes that fall apart due to syrup overload. I actually split the batter in half and mixed in three tablespoons of the sweet potato butter and the other half received half of a cup of mini chocolate chips. Those of course were for the Mrs., she likes chocolate in everything which is one of the reasons I married her. I’ll be sharing more about these products as I find time to test them out in the future. Now, make yourself some breakfast for dinner, you deserve it!

Sweet Potato Butter Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/4 tsp.. cinnamon
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 ½ cups milk
2 tbsp butter, melted
3 Tablespoons of ‘Southern City Flavors’ Sweet Potato Butter

Mix together first three ingredients with a wooden spoon. (typically you would sift it for a fluffier pancake but I didn’t for the more dense texture). In another bowl, mix egg and milk, then add it to flour mix, stirring until just smooth. Then stir in butter. Now is the time to add in your sweet potato butter, or chocolate chips. I used my Black & Decker griddle but you can use a non-stick pan with a little cooking spray if you wish. Heat griddle on medium heat (250 degrees) for about ten minutes. Ladle batter to form pancakes of whatever size you prefer. Cook first side until bubbles form on top, and there won’t be many bubbles because this batter is heavier than your norm so you’ll have to use your pancake intuition, probably about three minutes; then flip and cook other side until it, too, is brown, about two minutes. Serve immediately with butter and syrup or just dollop a little more sweet potato butter on top if you’re not a syrup fan. Serves four.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes & A Sweet Adieu.

ovenroastedtomatoescover.1 I woke up this morning in our recently purchased home and decided to stop making excuses as to why I’m too busy to sit down and blog–because truth be told, I’m not. Though I do feel overwhelmed at times and all I want to do once I arrive home from work is wander aimlessly in my boxer shorts, turn the A/C down to some unbearable icy temperature and watch Netflix, it doesn’t make for the most efficient use of my time, but it’s what often happens.

Time is a precious thing and to squander it on frivolous things often convicts this ol’ heart. Not to mention, home-ownership requires more discipline than I ever thought I’d need to exhibit since being forced to stay in my seat during elementary arithmetic. I actually have to live with greater intent to accomplish tasks by specific times, times I didn’t have to allot for with apartment living. The summer has been good to us. We found our new home after a long and tedious search. I can’t tell you the number of times my wife didn’t even get out of the car upon arrival to some potential residence, quite comical. But many disputes over more land, less land, more kitchen, less dining room have led us to our new home and we are elated. It’s not quite photo-shoot ready but I’ll slip you a few shots of our sacred space in the near future.

I’m rather in love with the natural lighting in my kitchen and if the truth be told–my whole kitchen would be made of windows if I could have my. My cooking space has quadrupled from that of our apartment where the kitchen was an afterthought but the dining and living room conquered all. Any-who, we feel blessed and overwhelmed with gratitude for what we believe was a gift from God after months of searching and losing homes to higher bids and ridiculous inspections. oven roasted tomatoes.2

oven roasted tomatoes.3 I love the summer time. I love the warm weather, seeing people riding their bikes, families spending time together in backyards, and the smell of smoky meat funneling through your window. It evokes the free-spirit in all of us and we’re off to the lake on the weekend, mini road-trips pursue and we’re tending to our gardens on the patio. Just about every Summer I’m left feeling convicted that I didn’t quite enjoy it enough. I didn’t eat enough tomatoes, there’s not enough squash in my freezer and I didn’t can anything. I’m still dealing with that aching feeling this year but trying not to let it ruin taking advantage of Autumn’s produce, I do love some root vegetables, figs, apples, winter squash and greens. oven roasted tomatoes.1

This recipe for oven-rooasted tomatoes is as simple as it gets and there is still time for some of you to gather from the summer’s harvest to make these. And if not, the recipe works just as well with slightly out of season tomatoes from your local grocer. The roasting process helps to concentrate the sugar so that tomato-y flavor is amplified and leaves you with this sweet, chewy little piece of ‘summer candy’ you won’t regret making. oven roasted tomatoes.7 oven roasted tomatoes.8

I’m simply going to walk you through this recipe because it is so simple that it hurts. First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. I had two pints of grape tomatoes, Sungolds and heirloom Cherokee purples I got from the Franklin Farmer’s Market and some from Maxwell’s Produce on Nolensville Pike. I rinsed them off under cold water and patted them dry with a kitchen towel but paper towels will work just fine. Then, cut the larger ones in half and leave the smaller ones whole. I like the contrast of some juicy and some dryer. I generously coated them with about a quarter of a cup of evoo, two-teaspoons of kosher salt and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Place the tomatoes on an ungreased sheet pan and cook for three and a half hours or until the desired shriveled-ness is reached, you be the judge. Once tomatoes are done, allow them to cool and I stored them in my Weck Jars because I’m pretty much addicted to the aesthetic of their containers. This recipe also works fantastic with grapes and figs, though cooking times can be scaled back to about one hour and a half to two hours. And I want to hear how you used to tomatoes this Summer, so prey-tell?

What to do with them?

I’m guilty of eating a quarter of the tray once they came out of the oven. Some of the ones around the edge of the pan get really dry and crunchy and they have little bits of clumped pepper and salt. Those drive me crazy because their so good and barely make it into another recipe. But I have been using them in pastas which you will see if you follow on Instagram, as well as salads or just as a snack on bread and butter. I’m sure you’ll find your own creative use but I hope this helps! Bon Apetit!