Easy Chai Tea

I got this from a Real Simple magazine someone left on the break table at work. The March 2010 issue, I believe.

Makes 4 cups
Hands-On Time: 05m
Total Time: 20m

Ingredients
* 8 cardamom seeds
* 8 cloves
* 4 black peppercorns
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 1 1-inch piece fresh ginger, sliced
* 2 cups whole milk
* 4 bags black tea (such as Darjeeling)
* 8 teaspoons sugar or more, to taste

Directions
1. Place the cardamom, cloves, and peppercorns in a resealable plastic bag and crush with a heavy skillet.
2. Place the crushed spices in a medium saucepan, along with the cinnamon sticks, ginger, milk, and 2 cups water; bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add the tea bags, cover, and let steep for 10 minutes.
3. Strain into cups. To each cup, add 2 teaspoons sugar or more, to taste.

You can make this tea and refrigerate it for up to 2 days. Reheat in a saucepan or a microwave.

Results:
I like this recipe because you can adjust the spices to how you like it. So, for example, I can make it with decaf tea and add more cloves, whereas Bethie can make it with her crazy lactose-free milk. Crushing the spices in the bag didn't work so well; the spices are sort of pointy, and they ripped holes in the plastic. I think one of those mortar and pestles would work great, or a spice grinder. This might turn out to be reason enough for me to finally invest in one of those.

Hey kids, it's almost March which means, it's almost time for Irish Soda Bread! I'm going to stick with this time frame, even though spring is going to be a lot longer coming up here than it was in Indiana. Send me you recipes to test drive. Jean, I still have that iron skillet recipe you sent me last year, I'm going to try to put that one one the docket. Any other requests?

Nordic Mardi Gras

As current residents of a Scandinavian-heavy area of the world (I've met some people who've lived here their entire lives and still have Swedish accents), I thought the perfect way to celebrate Fat Tuesday was to cook up some Danish pancakes called Ebleskiver. I'm not going to post the recipe since you need a special pan to cook them (thanks Kathy and Dave!), but they're pretty fun. I'm finally getting my technique down so the inside is done before the inside burns. And, as an added bonus for Chris, I filled them with bacon (well, pancetta), which he's been asking for since we got the pan two years ago.

Candlelit snowshoeing...finally!

Chris and I finally went snowshoeing by candlelight after meaning to go several times this winter. It was about 20 minutes outside of Eau Claire at a nature preserve. Between chilly temps and the new moon the sky was incredibly clear, and I can't remember when, if ever, I'd see so many stars. We were all bundled up so we didn't feel the cold, and almost everyone we passed remarked at what a perfect night it was for 'shoeing. The bonfire at the end of the trail was very welcome, though.

We saw a couple tribes of children. They must have been either scout troops or a couple really ambitious parents rounded up their children's friends to go. Personally, I would have been terrified of losing one of them, but they were mostly well behaved, if a little loud. I was generally impressed that these kids got out there at all and weren't grousing about being cold.

This was the same place where I had been cautioned by my co-workers about coyotes and wolves if I went by myself. In retrospect, I think that was probably a small concern for this night event because the loop was so close to the visitor's center and there were a fair amount of people there. However, I am glad I didn't go by myself, it was far too romantic (other than the yelling children).

Spaghetti with cheese and black pepper (or Spaghetti cacio e pepe if you want to sound impressive)

Bethie sent this to me from Smitten Kitten:

Adapted very loosely from Mario Batali

As I’ve mentioned, for something with such a simple ingredient list this dish manages to fall all over the map. Some versions use just oil, no butter, some use neither oil of butter; some stud the sauce with large, barely cracked peppercorns and half-melted pebbles of romano; some opt for a smoother cheese, cacio de roma, which I located, auditioned and discovered I liked the saltier and more accessible Pecorino Romano better. There are a lot of ways to approach the dish and people who will find something inauthentic with each of them. I say ignore them all and just enjoy your spaghetti.

Serves 4 as a main, 8 as a first course

1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound dried spaghetti
2 tablespoons butter
4 ounces Pecorino Romano cheese, finely grated
1 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Salt (optional)

Cook spaghetti in well-salted water to your al dente tastes in a large, wide-bottomed pot. (You’ll have fewer dishes to wash if you use this pot to assemble the dish as well.) Drain spaghetti, reserving 1 1/2 cups of pasta cooking water.

Dry out your pot, then heat the olive oil over high heat until almost smoking. Add drained spaghetti and 1 cup of reserved pasta water and jump back, this will splatter mightily, also known as “I made this three times, and never once learned my lesson. Do as I say, not as I do.”

Add butter, 3 ounces cheese and ground pepper and toss together with tongs. Taste, adding more pasta water, cheese, pepper or salt (which should not be neccessary, as Romano is very salty) to taste.

Serve immediately, sprinkling with reserved cheese and an extra grind or two of black pepper.

RESULTS: This was really easy and the taste, proportionally, was way impressive for the work put into it. Chris had concerns about the pouring spaghetti and water into hot oil thing, but I was using our really tall spaghetti pot and I had the lid on hand to slap over the top immediately and minimize disaster.

When I read the recipe, I was thinking, what's the big difference between this and just putting butter and cheese over spaghetti our your plate? I think the pasta water makes all the difference. It comes out looking and tasting like a less-heavy cheesy alfredo sauce. We were in a hurry to eat, so I didn't make any vegetables or meat to go with this, but I think you really need it. It's just a little too plain to eat as an entire meal, but it would be delightful as a side to sauteed mushrooms or some fish or chicken. (So says me. Chris, who happily makes himself pasta and butter for dinner each and every time I don't cooks something believes it wasn't plain at all.)

New spice!

I found a fun new item in the spice section. Old Hickory Smoked Salt. I've already had it on sauteed greens, homemade kettle chips, tortellini... regular salt is ruined for me. Ruined!

warm spinach salad

Lately I've been really into making a warm spinach salad based on the recipe for Warm Spicy Greens with Bacon and Eggs in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which is a great cookbook, by the way. But I think you could basically make it anyway you want, so I'm not going to type up the recipe, I'll just give you the basics.

Warm some olive oil in a skillet and saute, brown, toast or otherwise cook whatever in the salad (other than the egg) that needs to be cooked. I've been doing some onions and chopped almonds. Bittman does bacon and shallots. I've also thrown some dried fruit in the skillet in the end to warm them up, and I tried a segmented orange at the VERY end. I think the important thing is to remember cooking times. Onion takes longer to cook and is less likely to suddenly burn on you than almonds, so put the onions in first and get those almost done, then throw in the almonds. You're on your own with the bacon, I've never been good at that.

Make the dressing by putting in the skillet whatever you want, in addition to the olive oil. I've been using dijon mustard and red wine vinegar (and salt and pepper). Be careful not to have the skillet too hot, or the mustard will do weird stuff. Low to medium-low is good.

Mix in the greens, either by throwing them in the skillet and tossing it there or by pouring the dressing over the greens in the bowl. I like spinach slightly wilted much better than raw, so I've been mixing it in the skillet and letting it sit for a little bit.

Top with a poached egg or a medium-boiled egg.

This really hits the spot when I get home from swimming laps at the gym.