Welcome back to another Saturday edition of The Weekend Dish. Thank you for the great feedback last week; I’m so happy that this is something you all enjoy. So here we go! Amazingly, I made nothing with chocolate this week. I must have a fever. Oh well wait, the Cowboy Cookies had chocolate chips. But you know what I mean, that doesn’t truly count. But cookies, ice cream and dip, are good, yes? I think you’ll like the variety and there are some great finds in the bookmarked section too, so check them all out!

On Brown Eyed Baker This Week

Cowboy Cookies – Massive cookies packed full of oats, chocolate chips, coconut and pecans. They will certainly satisfy any cowboy-sized cravings!

Pan-Fried Onion Dip – A homemade version of fabulous French onion dip. You’ll never want to buy that plastic tub of dip from the store again. You’ll also not want to share this with anyone else, guaranteed.

Gingered Carrot Cookies – Tender cookies that could just as easily be classified as a scone. They are full of ginger flavor and chock full of carrots, coconut, raisins and pecans. If you like carrot cake, you will love these!

Cinnamon Ice Cream – Ice cream perfect to keep in the freezer for the upcoming fall season and all of the apple recipes it brings. Scoop this onto a warm slice of apple pie, apple crisp, pumpkin pie… you get the idea (In fact, this is great with the carrot cake cookies!)

Most Viewed Recipe This Week: Monkey Bread

What I Bookmarked This Week

Recipes from other blogs that I thought looked especially delicious and that I thought you would like too:

Bacon Polenta with Mushrooms & Thyme (Cookin’ Canuck)
I come from a traditional Italian family and grew up eating polenta. This version sounds to-die-for! My grandma used to make it sometimes with bacon and Italian sausage, and I think the mushrooms and herbs in this dish will knock her socks off.

Honeyed Apple Peanut Butter Tart (Picky Palate)
Apples and peanut butter are a classic snack. Throw in puff pastry and honey, and holy wow, amazing!

No-Bake Peanut Butter Tart (Joy the Baker)
I know, more peanut butter. But I loooooove peanut butter. And I love things that are quick, require no oven, and make me weak in the knees. Pretty sure this tart qualifies.

Noir Bars (Sugarcrafter)
I can’t resist chocolate and cheesecake together. I just can’t.

Roasted Banana and Rum Raisin Ice Cream (montcarte)
This is going on my must.make.immediately list. Roasted bananas, rum-soaked raisins, more rum, and ice cream? My kinda recipe!

Weekend Fun

How was your week? Crazy busy? Getting the kids back to school? I celebrated September 1st by churning the cinnamon ice cream I featured yesterday. Cinnamon, apples, and pumpkin just scream fall to me, and since it’s my favorite season I welcome it with open arms!

Remember last week I told you we were going to an open house at the new Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh? Well, it was beyond fabulous. Most times when something new is hyped so much, it’s inevitable that it will be at least somewhat of a letdown. I was astonished that this was nowhere near the case, and in fact, I actually believe that it exceeded the hype. I couldn’t stop gushing about every single thing. They did an amazing job and I can’t wait to watch a game there. We tried sitting in all different areas of the arena, including the very top, and honestly – not one bad seat in the entire place. Awesome! Below are a few pics:

The jumbo tron is out of this world and the sound system is ridiculous, just ridiculous. One of the upper walls in the main concourse has a painting of Sid, naturally. One of the unique things they did was dedicate an entire hallway to a display of local high school and college hockey jerseys, with the school name next to them. Really cool idea and great way to tie the team to the community. And lastly, the new arena sits right.next.to a church, which at first seemed weird (and some thought those building the arena would lobby for it to be torn down), but it really adds character. One entire side of the arena is floor to ceiling glass (again, awesome), and in one area you can look out and see the church, and then the Mellon Arena (the old arena) a little further back. Really a neat view.

In other news, even though I love fall, can you believe the summer is coming to a close already? It has absolutely flashed before my eyes. I feel like it was only last week that it was Memorial Day weekend and I was excited at feeling the fresh, warm air in the early evenings. Do you have any big Labor Day weekend plans? My fantasy football draft is on Monday night, so stay tuned for the results. Do any of you play fantasy sports? Last season was my first year playing and I got terribly addicted! It was so much and totally feeds my competitive tendencies. I was the only girl in our league, and I ended up coming in 2nd, getting to the championship game and getting beat by my boyfriend (watching those games during the final Sunday was intense and there was much trash talking going on, so much fun!). Well, look out, Baker’s Dozen is back! (Fitting name, don’t you think? We do draft 13 players, after all!) Wish me luck!

I hope you all have a fun and safe weekend that’s full of lots of great food!

I’ll be completely honest with you. I was both excited and nervous about making this ice cream. Excited, obviously, because it’s cinnamon ice cream and it’s now September and I had all kinds of delicious visions of apple pie with cinnamon ice cream dancing in my head. A little nervous because, well, I was afraid that the ice cream might taste like a giant piece of Big Red gum. Not that there’s anything wrong with Big Red, but it’s just so, well, cinnamon-y in an obnoxious-drunk-person-at-the-bar kind of way. I was so elated when I took my first freshly-churned spoonful and the clean, light cinnamon flavor danced around my mouth in a graceful-ballerina kind of way.

Now aside from the obvious pairings of pies and crisps, I thought that this ice cream would make a fabulous base for a sundae with sauteed apples and a drizzle of caramel. My suspicions were correct – this is a fantastic combination of warm and cold, sweet and tart. A fabulous way to enjoy an ice cream sundae once the fall season settles in. Love. Love, love, love.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

Yield: About 1 quart

Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Chill Time: 8 hours | Churn Time: 20 minutes

1 cup whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
Ten 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up
2 cups heavy cream, divided
5 egg yolks

1. Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and 1 cup of the heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Once warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

2. Rewarm the cinnamon-infused milk mixture. Remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (should reach 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

5. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

(Recipe adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

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You know one of the reasons why hot dogs are such favorites with kids? Well, at least when I was a kid we got to choose our own toppings. The act of getting the toppings on just right, without making a complete mess, was challenging. But we had such a feeling of accomplishment, keeping the mustard or ketchup inside of the bun instead of all over the floor. Of course, eating the hot dog was another matter. Hard to avoid that mess. ;-) My favorite topping, next to mustard of course, was sweet relish, which I would pile on with gusto. I do believe the reason they wrap hot dogs in paper at ball games is to catch the relish, so you can still eat it, and not waste a morsel. Right?

Continue reading "Corn Relish" »

I packed a number of things for last weekend's getaway to Mendocino. One pair of flip-flops, one book, a stack of magazines, a bottle of bubbles, ten rolls of film, three cameras, a tripod, and a bag of limoncello macaroons. I bookmarked these Pinched Orange Macaroons a while back, and when my sister gave me a bottle of limoncello (made from lemons in her yard), I decided to do a twist on Patrick Lemble's cookies using the homemade citrus liqueur and zest. I thought they'd be a nice little treat for the cabin. The cookies are made primarily from almond paste and they bake into golden-crusted, powder-coated, almond-citrus gems. A tad messy to make, but well worth it.

Before we dive into the minutiae of macaroon cookie making, I thought I'd share a few photos. For those of you who have missed previous mentions of the cabin, it is waaay off the grid, and a bit rustic - in the very best way possible. I like to sit on the porch and do a whole lot of nothing. We played board games and cards, cracked jokes, and talked a lot about the mountain lion that has been spotted at the cabin over the past few months.

The mountain lion seemed like an abstract concept to me. Abstract in the way that I know there are bears around when I go camping, but I don't really think about it much because they don't bother me. There's a difference here. This mountain lion has apparently killed a couple goats in the area. And then, there's that photo up above. Lori & Lisa's cousin rode down the driveway on his quad one afternoon to show us. He'd rigged a motion capture camera near his cabin, just up the road a bit, and apparently the camera captured that frame. It's hard to tell from my picture, but I assure you, that cat is large.

So, for the most part we stuck around the cabin. Or traveled in a pack when we were out and about. On the food front, Lori made an amazing grilled eggplant, arugula, and mozzarella salad as part of our dinner Saturday night, and if she posts it or publishes it at some point, I'll be sure to link to it and give you all the heads up. Strong, garlicky, and good. She makes a mean panzanella as well.

As far as the limoncello macaroons are concerned, let me say a few things. First off, they travel quite well. And while they seemed to be at their absolute peak roughly thirty minutes after baking, I placed the cooled cookies in a sealed plastic bag, and they were delicious for days. There wasn't as much textural difference between the outside crust and the super-moist middle after being bagged, but they were still 90% as good.

They're also made from one of the simplest batters imaginable. I made one batch following Patrick's original technique, then took a shortcut with the second batch which you'll see reflected in my version of the recipe below. In short, I found I didn't really need to do an egg wash/powder. I found the dough was quite moist. I threw a good amount of powdered sugar down on the counter top and shaped the cookies from there. They had a nice powdered sugar coating without the extra step. If you find you're not getting enough of a powdered sugar coating before baking, give each ball of dough a light brushing of egg white and a quick roll in more powdered sugar.