So let’s get back to food, shall we? Actually I sort of wanted to talk about kitchen gadgets. Gimmicky kitchen gadgets. Do you own any? I’m talking about silly things like Slap Chops (I own one! It’s collecting dust.), avocado slicers,  mango splitters and the like. Basically anything that a good ol’ knife would do FASTER. And then there is a whole new level of ridiculousness with the likes of egg poacher + english muffin toaster combo, andmarinade express tabletop unit(it’s $300!!). The good news is that some gadgets are AWESOME… even if you can in fact use something simpler to get the job done.

You are going to laugh at me but I love my strawberry stem remover. Yes, I can use a knife but it’s honestly so much fun using that little guy (and no, I will not be buying the strawberry slicerthat Amazon recommends with it… I do have my limits). And I recently purchased this cupcake corer. It looks gimmicky but I hate doing the job with a pairing knife. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Why am I even talking about kitchen gadgets anyway? Because the shredder attachment to my food processor rocked my world the other day. I sort of want to shred every single food item in the house now just to watch this beast process it into perfect little strips. Three pounds of potatoes processed in less than 1 minute. Box graters are so last year!

The recipe I used my favorite new gadget for was for kugelis, which is a Lithuanian potato dish reminiscent of a large hash brown cake. It took a little work (I wish those potatoes peeled themselves!) but the end result was a beautiful potato bake with a golden crust on the outside and tender potato on the inside. Adam and I both enjoyed it for our “restaurant meal in” (our new thing since our going out budget is tighter… there are no tvs, no computers, just the two of us enjoying a more indulgent meal together – catching up on random stories from the week)… but this would be a great dish to serve for brunch as well. I hope you make it and let me know how it goes!

Kugelis – serves 6-8 (recipe is largely based on the Please to the Table cookbook)

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs potatoes
• 4 oz bacon
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup milk (if you want a richer dish, use all cream)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*.

2. Fry bacon in an oven safe 10” skillet. Pour out most of the bacon grease, leaving enough to coat the pan. Blot bacon on paper towels then crumble.

3. Peel potatoes, coarsely grate.

This is where the food processor is your friend!

4. Wash grated potatoes in several changes of cold water, then place in a kitchen towel to squeeze water out.

Nice and dry! Watery potatoes are no good.

5. Combine potatoes, bacon, milk, cream, and eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Transfer back to the pan and dot with butter.

6. Bake at 375* for about 1 hour, until the top is golden brown.

Crusty on the inside…

…soft and buttery on the inside:

These potatoes were definitely the star of our steak dinner. I also used these Green Giant green beans for a super quick side veg (*Disclaimer: I received a coupon for a free Green Giant product through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program).

Quick steam:

Then a 2 minute sautee with some EVOO and garlic.

Perfect

What are your favorite kitchen gadgets?

So the other day I happened to stumble upon Anne Burrel’s Secrets of a Restaurant Chef. During the episode she showed how easy it was to make ricotta cheese. I couldn’t believe it. The whole thing literally took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Of course I had to try it myself… and make it lower fat!

Ricotta is milk and heavy cream (3:1 ratio), curdled by the addition of acid (vinegar in this case… I’ve seen buttermilk used as well). Super easy! I subbed low fat milk for whole milk in Anne’s ricotta recipe and got to work.

Mixture before and after. See the curdles forming? I let it simmer for quite a bit (probably 20 minutes) but there was still a lot of liquid.

I don’t know if that’s normal but it didn’t seem like more curdles were forming with more time so I decided to go ahead and move on to the straining stage.

15 minutes later…

Homemade ricotta!!!

Deciding what was for breakfast couldn’t have been easier!

Ricotta + sour cherry preserves = heaven!

This ricotta was a bit drier than the whole milk stuff but I just loved the mild taste of cream in each little curdle. Adam and I snacked on it straight out of the bowl last night. The stuff is crazy addictive!

PS – Does the background in the photos look familiar?

PPS – I have a new recipe up on Russian Bites. Check it out

And now a question for you… What should I do with the strained out whey? I can’t bring myself to throw it away. I’m sure I can make something genius with it… help me!

So here we go – 3 new favorites from the past few weeks

Healthified zucchini bread from The Sweets Life

I made 2 loaves of this bread last weekend and have been enjoying a slice (or 2) each morning with some Greek yogurt and a cup of coffee. I can’t imagine a better breakfast to wake up to! This bread/cake is slightly sweet, moist and full of cinnamon flavor. And who doesn’t love hidden veggies for breakfast?

In the perfect world, I’d start my morning with the above zucchini bread and have these grilled pork chops with peppers and capers from Mario Batali’s Italian Grill cookbooksince these were the best pork chops I’ve ever made!!

The secret is brining the pork chops overnight (actually since salt is a preservative, I left them in the brine for a few days since I was too busy to cook – extra bonus points for ease!). You know how salt makes you retain water and bloated? Well brining does the same for meat. The water retention makes them super juicy!

These peppers with capers were fantastic as well – smoky and briny. Yum! And no, these aren’t onions – they’re purple peppers from the farmers market. Cool, right? I have not made one thing out of that cookbook that I wasn’t completely head over heals for. LOVE.

How about something packed with veggies for dinner? When I saw Ranjani blog about this grain salad with corn and poblano peppers, I knew those wheat berries all the way in the back of my pantry had to come out of hiding.

I will take advantage of the last days of summer, fresh corn, heirloom tomatoes, local hot peppers and all!

I went light on the olive oil, used goat cheese instead of queso fresco (when is goat cheese not the way to go? amiright??), added chickpeas for extra protein… and apparently forgot the toasted pumpkin seeds. Oops. (I didn’t miss them though)

I loved the chew from the wheat berries, the sweetness of the corn, spice from the 2 kinds of chili peppers and the wonderful garlic infused olive oil dressing the grains. It’s fantastic room temperature but even better warmed (the goat cheese gets all melty and seductive. Do it!)

Oh and as proof that I’m committed to reinstating some old favorites – here is an oldie but goodie. My favorite chocolate chip cookies. Everyone needs a go-to choc chip cookie recipe. Could this one be yours?

Get a little closer…

Hungry yet?

That’s a whole lot of favorites. What are your favorite recipes? Do share. And yes, I want details!!

PS – A new post on a summery Russian dessert is up on Russian Bites. Check it out!

As you know, I spend the week on a conference in NY (btw, Adam is loving all the meals I made him… and thank you for your sweet comments. I did feel like an awesome wife for doing that). This weekend I’m staying at my sister’s place in Brooklyn – hanging out with her and my friend Katy, and of course, baking and cooking. The natural light is too good at her place to miss such an opportunity! [Remember last time’s cookie baking extravaganza, rice crispie treats, sugar-free brownie dough balls, and baking with protein powder? Those are my favorite pictures from the blog!)

I’m focused this year with the list so I knew I wanted to tackle at least a few items from it and maybe a thing or two for Russian Bites. Every single Saturday morning, my sister and her boyfriend make French toast for brunch so I decided to take on the challenge and make French toast with homemade challah bread [challah was part of my 30 by 30 challenge.]

I used the Bon Appetit recipe that my blog friend Michelle recently tested. Wanna see some pics from the process?? [Say yes!]

[yeast, sugar and warm water get all bubbly]

[Mixing dough by hand]

It got pretty gluttonous.. and sticky for a while. I just kept kneading and adding flour.

Eventually it was time for it to rise… and time for me to go out with my friend Katy (we went to the Westville Restaurant btw, and ohmygod guys… if you’re ever in NY, go there!!!! Best meal in recent memory and not expensive!)

The dough was supposed to rise for 30 minutes… it’s been many hours. So yeah, it got a little over ambitious

I punched it down and put it on a well floured countertop. It was all good!

Love the pockets of air!

At this point I divided the dough into 2 balls (it makes 2 loaves) and braided one and put the other half in the fridge. I read right after that if you don’t want to bake it right away, you can actually store the dough in the fridge for up to 2 days so I put away both the braid (which you shouldn’t do anyway) and the other dough ball, and went to sleep.

Next morning, it was time to braid the other dough ball. Here is how we do it:

Roll (by hand) into three 9-10” ropes (if you want a fat braid for sandwiches, etc… you can also have longer ropes which would make a longer but skinnier challah… just make sure they’re all the same length.

Now, right over middle; then left over middle

Repeat… (new) right over middle, (new) left over middle

Pinch the ends; flip the braid

Repeat the same process (left over middle; right over middle… pinch the ends)

Yay, it looks like challah!

Cover with towel and let it rise for another 30 minutes while the oven is preheating. Then it’s egg wash time!

Pretty!

I’m obsessed with this picture (below)!!!!

Don’t you just want to rip a piece off? We did

Ready for the best french toast of your life?? This one goes in the “sane” category because there is not much healthy about it… but man, is it good. Going on the favorites list for sho

Crème brulee French toast (note I attempted the broiling method for the sugar topping but was so scared to burn the tops that I ended up just taking them out and shaking off most of the sugar. It was beyond fantastic even without it… and hey, just a tad healthier )

Custardy (not to be confused with soggy… it definitely was not) french toast with some organic raspberries… and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. This tasted like it came straight from a fancy restaurant’s brunch menu, and I felt pretty good about making it all from scratch!

Mmm, this was slightly reminiscent of lemon pound cake with berries.

When can I have this again??

Have you ever made challah bread? I definitely plan on doing it again to perfect it. It will be even easier with my KitchenAid at home. I do think I’m going to try a different recipe though… this one was slightly lacking in the salt and maybe even sugar dept (although pure perfection in French toast form).

Oh and… this is off topic but… Taste of Cambridge this year is on June 28 (this coming Tuesday) and I scored tickets over the weekend and am beyond excited to attend the event. I wasn’t around last year and read numerous recaps from my blog friends and was super jealous, so I know it’s going to be a fantastic evening of food, drinks and friends! You can find more info about the event here. This year’s beneficiaries include The Salvation Army Cambridge/Somerville Corps “Restoring Lives Capital Campaign and The Saturday program of the Cambridge special olympics. If you come, definitely say hello!!

Spinach can’t be scary when it’s in flower shaped muffin cups, don’t you think? [Btw, my mom bought me these so I’m not sure where they’re from but these Wilton flower silicone cups look very similar!]

Back to my kitchen… these muffins are so easy to make – just mix…

Spoon

And bake!

Now admire your cuties…

These muffins made my mornings that much brighter!

PS – there is a lot of natural sweetness in bananas and blueberries so I’d actually cut on sugar next time I make them. And there WILL be a next time!

This was my contribution to St. Patty’s day. Oh and a drink (or 2) were involved. Doctor’s orders! (Seriously!!)

Have you ever tried something that looked scary but turned out very delicious and craveable?

What healthy muffin recipe should I make next? I only have 2 muffins left!

Have a fantastic weekend!!

For every picture of breakfast that you upload, Kellogg’s will donate 1 meal to a hungry child. This is such an amazing cause so I decided to take a few minutes of my time and find some old breakfast pictures (this is where having a food blog comes in handy!). Want to see my favorite breakfasts? I’ve been very lucky in the breakfast department!

I went through a breakfast pizza phase for a while. No complaining here!Breakfast pizza with blueberries and crunchy cereal…

Breakfast pizza with yogurt and raspberries

[Fun fact: I had this for breakfast the day I met Siggi!!]

Carb + Barney Butter + fruit (and coffee, of course!) seems to be a very popular equation

Sometimes I throw some yogurt on top for good measure

… and sometimes I double the carbs (LOVE waffle sandwiches… I really need to recreate this stat)

There is also the yogurt + fruit + nut/cereal standby…

… that’s anything but boring (how fantastic are these colors?!!)

And then there are a few odd ducks that perk up my mornings!

Whole wheat bagel with jalapeno olive cream cheese and fresh tomatoes

Banana pb&J oats (I OD’ed on oats a few years back and now they are a rarity ‘round these parts)

Carrot cake breakfast sandwich anyone??

Or protein YAMcakes? Veggies totally belong at breakfast!

Lobster omelet. Need I say more?

Anyone else is now hungry for breakfast? I’m off to send these to Kellogg’s. Hope you do the same!! The campaign ends in June so keep those pictures coming!!

Question of the day: sweet or savory (for breakfast)? I think you know my preferences from the above.

The very first night we watched Eat, Pray, Love on demand (which btw, I was not a fan of… probably because I read the book and movies never live up to books) and the Italian bel far niente (aka “the beauty of doing nothing”) really stuck with me. Why should I feel guilty for taking days off to accomplish a whole lot of nothing and just relax? We all need to recharge our batteries. The rest of the weekend was definitely dedicated to bel far niente. You better believe that cooking and eating was no trouble at all! [My mother in law, Jane, and I shared the responsibility.]

There was seafood…

Shrimp with penne in a creamy herb sauce (+ garlic bread)

I made lobster mac & cheese

[The men cooked and shelled the lobster, I did the rest. It was cheesy and creamy – the perfect Maine treat!]

And couldn’t pass up the seafood lover’s omelet (crab + lobster) at the Boathouse in Rockland.

SO good!

I <3 lobster!

And then there were blueberries… we dug deep into Jane’s recipe archives and found some gems from 1994!!! I was 12 at the time. Good thing I’m older because I could make these babies. Oh my! <—that’s me blushing, yes that good!

Lemon blueberry muffins. Heaven!

The very last morning, Jane treated us all to freshly made yogurt blueberry pancakes. They were moist and full of giant blueberries bursting with flavor.

[Email me if you want the recipes for either of these, I took pictures of the printouts!]

These were my favorite food things but the best part was definitely doing only things I felt like doing. I spent some “quality” time with magazines (scissors in hand – what can I say, I found it relaxing!) and watched more House Hunters than I’d care to admit… but that ended up being for the greater good too! The second we got home to Boston, I hooked up my laptop to the internet (together at last! ) and started researching bathroom vanities, tiles, window curtains, table runners, area rugs and more. Apparently the beauty of doing nothing has its advantages. My creative juices were flowing and I was dying to put them to use. Better yet? I was happy to come back to work today. They were happy to have me back too!

Are you able to take time off and just enjoy it or do you need to be forced into relaxation (like being “locked” in a cabin with no internet access and cell reception)? I think the Italians got this right. I’m going to try to bring some of that bel far niente spirit more into my life. It really is fun!

Last chance to enter the UNO’s giveaway!

As you know, I was in NY for a few days with big plans to cook my heart out in an apartment filled with natural light (something our condo is unfortunately lacking). Aside from baking cookies galore and trying new and old Russian recipes, I also wanted to try baking with protein powder again. So far I’ve made delicious protein cookies and rubbery banana muffins.  I think with further trials this weekend I realized protein powder’s limitations.

Here is how it went down…

I went to my trusty protein expert – Janetha and found a yummy sounding recipe for an apple cinnamon protein coffee cake. I followed the recipe exactly, except that I used real sugar and an 8×8 pan. Here, come with me!

Isn’t it pretty?

The thing is… it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great. It tasted like it had some alien ingredient in it. Yeah, like protein powder! It wasn’t really rubbery like my banana muffins (I mean, I did follow an expert’s recipe instead of making a rookie mistake and trying to wing it) but I just didn’t love it.

Here is my conclusion – protein powder alters muffins’ and cakes’ texture for the worse. This was definitely edible (I think my sister had it for breakfast for the next few days) and I did use a pan that was larger than Janetha’s (so it was more flat than hers) but I think I’ve given up on serious baking with p/p.

Protein pancakes, however, I’m a fan of. I’ve tried Cara’s protein pumpkin pancakes before (unpictured) and yesterday morning whipped up a batch of Emily’s yamcakes.

You see, in pancakes, protein powder adds cheesecake-like consistency. It’s still not your diner’s pancakes but I like them. The extra protein keeps the hunger at bay a bit longer. That’s a good way to start your day!

My take away- don’t use it in anything that requires long baking time but for simple things like protein shakes, pancakes and protein bars that require either no cooking at all or a very quick trip to the oven, it’s a great way to boost up the protein content of food.

If you’ve ever used protein powder, how was your experience?

With a busy day ahead of me, I was excited to start with a 2 minute breakfast. Enter: Three Sisters instant oatmeal I received from the company to sample.

[My sister had the brown sugar & maple kind for breakfast yesterday and was kind enough to model the packaging for us. ]

I thought the pouch design was genius! Once you pour the oatmeal out of it into your bowl, you can use it to measure the right amount of water to make your oatmeal. Totally brilliant!

She dumped a bunch of frozen fruit into her bowl (together with the oats) so the end result was a bit too watery. Despite this mishap, she did say she enjoyed the flavor (but her breakfast was camera shy ). Since the first batch was an “operator error,” I’ll show you my chocolaty breakfast.

Wanna get a little closer?

The oatmeal was definitely sweeter than my typical morning bowl of oats but it wasn’t so sweet as to qualify for dessert. I liked it paired with some cool plain Greek yogurt. In all honesty, in the future I’d probably leave these for a mid-afternoon snack. Still a bit too much sugar to start off the day with.

Three Sisters makes plain instant oats which I think would be perfect for a rushed morning and can be spiked with your favorite flavors (or protein powder… adding pp to the above flavors produced an overly sweet concoction… yes, I already experimented with it since this morning. All in the name of research.] While I’m sure the plain instant oats are comparable to other brands’ in taste, I really love Three Sisters’ packaging and the Company’s commitment to sustainable practices, so I think for those reason I’d chose them over their competitors next time.

Now, onto the really fun part. Remember the last time I mentioned Three Sisters cereals? I mentioned that the bag of Cinnamon Sweets the Company sent me disappeared before it got a chance to have a date with my camera. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. When I got another free product coupon, I decided to purchase my “old” favorite but this time I wanted to take it one step further and make a fun treat and share it (through the screen) with you!

Not sure how this idea came to me but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it for weeks. I decided to make the traditional Rice Krispie recipe but sub the Rice Krispies for Three Sisters Cinnamon Sweets. Oh yes, this was brilliant!

This is how you do it…

Sweet, sticky, comforting. I cut these into little pieces and included them in our cookie favors. Everyone loved them!

Would you like to win a month’s supply of Three Sisters cereal? That’s FOUR free bags of any cereal. Pretty awesome prize if you ask me.

Here are the rules; there are 6 ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment on this post – tell me about your favorite oatmeal or cereal.

2+3) Follow me on Twitter (please tell me in the comments what your twitter name is so I can confirm). For an additional entry, you can also tweet about this giveaway (my twitter name must be included to qualify – that’s @elinacooks fyi)

4) Like Healthy and Sane on Facebook.

5) Add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll.

6) Link to this post on your blog, if you have one. If you don’t, let someone else know about this giveaway and tell me so in the comments section after they’ve entered the giveaway.

Please leave a separate comment for each entry. The giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry) and will end on Saturday, December 18. I will randomly choose a winner using random.org and announce him/her in the following post. Good luck!

This recipe is my entry for the Nature’s Pride recipe contest – six winners will get an all-paid trip to this year’s Foodbuzz Blogger Festival and will serve their creation at Nature’s Pride tasting pavilion. I really want to attend the festival so I put my best foot forward with my favorite breakfast treat – french toast… but a little better.

I purchased Nature’s Pride whole wheat bread because I really enjoyed it last year when I received 2 loaves from the company (P.S. This time I also received a free coupon to one Nature’s Pride bread product… I’m sure it’s somewhere in the house. yeah…). This bread is soft with a touch of sweetness, perfect for french toast! Since the winners will serve their creations to a large group, I wanted to make something that can be prepped ahead of time with minimal work during the event. This recipe definitely fits the bill (you can make it the night before and bake it for breakfast or just 1.5 hours before you’re ready to eat – like I did. This was my dinner tonight. ). Caramelized cinnamon apples, creamy baked ricotta, indulgent taste without the high calorie and fat bill – what else can you ask for?! (Maybe a trip to the Foodbuzz festival? lol ). Let’s let the photos do a little more of the talking, ok?

The back-side

The perfect bite!

This really tasted like apple pie yet consisted of such basic, quite healthy ingredients. I used just a little butter for sauteeing the apples, whole milk in place of cream and just a touch of sugar. The aroma in the kitchen while this was baking was intoxicating and the first bite proved that my nose knew what’s up. I ate this like a ravenous animal afraid that someone may take it away from me any moment (yes, I liked it that much – I wasn’t actually that hungry). I hope you try it! There may be more original recipes here in the future since this one was such a success.

Apple Pie Ricotta-Stuffed Baked French Toast (serves 3-4, can be easily scaled up)

Ingredients

• 2 small-medium apples, sliced thinly
• 1T butter
• 2T brown sugar (divided)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup whole milk (divided)
• cinnamon (to taste)
• 6 slices Nature’s Pride whole wheat bread (stale bread ok)
• 1/2 part skim ricotta

Directions

Spray 9×5 loaf pan with oil spray. Set a side.

Melt butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once melted, add apple slices and toss them to coat with butter. Add a touch of salt. Cover with lid for a few minutes until they sweat and soften. Add 1T brown sugar and cinnamon to taste. Set aside.

If your bread is stale, move on to the next step. Otherwise toast bread, cube into ~1″ squares.

Whisk egg and egg white with 3/4 cups of milk. Add a touch of salt and the remaining 1T of brown sugar.

Assemble – Layer apples in a loaf pan, follow with 1/2 of the cubed bread slices, add blobs of ricotta cheese, cover with remaining bread cubes, pour egg/milk mixture over the pan. Use remaining milk to cover any dry spots.

Refrigerate 1 hour – overnight (overnight if bread was very stale or you want this for the next morning).

Bake at 350* for 30 minutes. When ready, invert the pan onto cutting board (apples should be on top). Cut into 3-4 servings (my picture shows 1/3 of a pan). Serve warm and enjoy!

BONUS RECIPE

I made this for lunch today and since it also involved Nature’s Pride ww bread and was quite delicious, I figured I’d share it here. Sandwiches I’m fearless with!

Ingredients:

• 2 slices Nature’s Pride whole wheat bread, toasted
• strawberries
• baked tofu (I used TJ’s organic baked tofu in savory flavor)
• tomato
• goat cheese
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded

Directions:

Layer up and enjoy! I loved the sweet and spicy combo. Made me feel like summer was back.

.

Are you a recipe follower or do you feel comfortable making up your own?

PS – Did you get a chance to read my post on a luxury dinner I prepared? I hope you enjoy it and VOTE for me to advance to round 4 of Project Food Blog. I worked really hard on that dinner and need your help to get to the next challenge! Thank you in advance!!