donna's daily dish

chocolate indulgence

2/12/2023

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I just wanted to share two new recipes for chocolate. The first is for a Chocolate Dutch Baby and is in the latest edition of “Southern Living” magazine. One Sunday, my son and grandson were coming over and the little guy didn’t have his breakfast. I naturally assumed if my grandson hadn’t eaten, perhaps my son didn’t either. With no buttermilk in the house to make pancakes, I quickly pivoted and made one plain and one Chocolate Dutch Baby. Both recipes use pantry staples such as eggs, flour, milk, sugar, unsalted butter, nutmeg, unsweetened cocoa, salt, vanilla and ground cinnamon. For garnishing, powdered sugar, fresh strawberries or raspberries.

Both recipes come together quickly. You can measure out both the wet and dry ingredients the night before, combine in the morning and bake in the oven while you get ready for the day. Both recipes take approximately 20 minutes to bake.

what to serve a football crowd

1/19/2023

With food prices on the rise, preparing home cooked food for your Super Bowl viewing party will save you money and perhaps give you some extra cash to purchase an extra square or two in the football pool.

I’ve looked over my extensive recipe listing and have some ideas for your Super Bowl party. First on my list are some favorite appetizers such as hot dogs and bourbon, Mixed Antipasto is a great do ahead salad or Tomato Olive Focaccia. You can use the focaccia recipe as a starting point and add any type of toppings you desire.

December 27th, 2022

12/27/2022

Sometimes I prepare so many new and exciting recipes, that we never have them twice.

As it’s been so cold the past few days, I would like to suggest a Broccoli and Arugula Soup. This recipe was found in the January 2022 issue of “Charleston Magazine.” The soup was thick and creamy despite there being no cream in the soup. Both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some of the best recipes from 2022 came from The New York Times/NYT Cooking. One such recipe is Kay Chun’s Korean Cheeseburgers with Sesame-Cucumber Pickles. These are not your parents’ cheeseburgers. The burgers are flavored with soy sauce, scallions, garlic, pepper and sugar. They’re served with a mayonnaise dressing flavored with the same ingredients as the burgers plus toasted sesame oil. These burgers were incredible. I also made Ali Slagle’s Chicken Parm Burgers that were fabulous. Between the aromatic basil, the intensity of the tomato paste, these burgers were packed with flavor.

Spice up your holiday cookies

12/17/2022

UPDATE December 17, 2022 -
I just baked off my Gingerbread Latte Cookies, what a delicious cookie. I loved the coffee/gingerbread flavor. They are a little chewy, but I'm curious to see how they taste tomorrow.

I followed the directions in Vreeland Vaughn's recipe and they came out just as he described. I only prepared half the amount of sugar coating, which was sufficient. I also, used my cookie scooper, which was not a full two tablespoons as he suggested, but the size was perfect. This is a wonderful recipe and a delightful change. A wonderful accompaniment with your favorite hot beverage.

I am a subscriber to The New York Times and part of that subscription give me access to their webpage NYT Cooking. I love the variety of contributors to their website as well as the variety of recipes that they showcase.

One of their contributors is Eric Kim, who is a NYT staff writer. One of his recent recipes that caught my eye was for Gochujang Caramel Cookies. It just so happened I had gochujang in my refrigerator and was curious as to what they would taste like. For the recipe you’ll need unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, gochujang, granulated sugar, an egg, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, baking soda and all-purpose flour. Just a suggestion, I recommend that you click here for a video demonstration by Eric Kim as I found it helpful in making the cookies.

can they be dunked?

6/19/2022

My husband occasionally likes to have an iced cold glass a milk and dunk several cookies for a snack. There aren’t many varieties that can be dunked in milk besides chocolate chip, oatmeal or sugar cookies. Biscotti are great for dunking in hot beverages, but not necessarily milk. Is there another cookie out there that can be dunked?

anyone for a brownie cookie

6/18/2022

Although my go to cookie is a chocolate sugar cookie, my husband prefers something else. I’ve tried numerous versions of chocolate chip, but this time I opted for Brown Butter Brownie Cookies. The recipe is by New York food stylist, Jesse Szewcyk and was found on the website “Vanilla Bean Blog.”

For the recipe you’ll need bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips, unsalted butter, eggs, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, all-purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, instant espresso powder (optional), baking powder, kosher salt and flaky sea salt (optional).

Sunday round up

5/29/2022

Spring is here and my herb garden has expanded. My husband went a bit overboard and selected some varieties I wouldn’t have thought of. Besides the stalwarts of basil, parsley, oregano and rosemary, chives and sage, which were saved in the cold frame over winter, I now have dill (for homemade refrigerator pickles), chamomile (for making tea) and lemon-flavored varieties such as lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon thyme plus flat and curly leaf parsley. This should make for a flavorful summer.

About a week ago my local ShopRite had Atlantic cod fish on special. I found a delightful recipe on The New York Times cooking app, Cod Baked with Prosciutto, by Nigella Lawson, using just a handful of ingredients. Besides the cod and prosciutto, you’ll need butter, salt and pepper. After reading the cooking notes of other cooks, I used some fresh thyme from my garden.

a classic with a twist

3/2/2022

I bake a batch, sometimes two, of cookies every week. My husband’s tolerance for sugar and chocolate has changed over the past few years. He now finds Toll House Chocolate Chips too sweet for his taste. So last week, I made him Amy’s Oh So Very Best Cookies which are oatmeal cookies minus the chocolate chips in the recipe.

I'll take my tea in my cookie please

2/28/2022

The Sunday New York Times of February 20, 2022 included the supplement “Brilliant Baking.” After leafing through it, I found some marvelous recipes that I wanted to try. The first of these was Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies by Yossy Arefi. Ms. Arefi is a contributor to The New York Times Cooking section. She is also photographer and baker with a website called Apt. 2B Baking Co. As luck would have it I happened to have some loose Earl Grey tea in the house. This recipe came at the perfect time as I need a small hostess gift to bring to a friend’s house for dinner.