deliciousness

white sangria

via nytimes
makes 8 cocktails

2 small white nectarines or white peaches
1 small green pear or green apple
1 small navel orange
1 bottle cava, moscato d’Asti or other sparkling wine
1 3/4 cups apple juice
1 1/3 cups Cointreau
1 cup club soda

Slice fruit into thin bite-size pieces. Place in large pitcher. Pour in sparkling wine, apple juice and Cointreau. If possible, refrigerate an hour or two to draw out sweetness and floral aromas of fruit. Add club soda, and stir. Spoon some fruit pieces into glasses filled with ice, and pour.

white wine and tarragon steamed mussels

adapted from jon shook and vinny dotolo’s two dudes, one pan
serves 4

olive oil, salt, pepper
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like spicy)
3 lb mussels, cleaned (see note below)
2 cups heavy cream
1 loaf bread
1 bunch of fresh chives, finely chopped
2 1/2 tbsp roughly chopped tarragon

NOTE: Make sure your mussels are ALIVE when you get home. They should be closed - if they’re open (and stay open when you tap them), they’re dead. Likewise, if they are closed after being cooked, they are dead. UNSALVAGEABLE! To clean mussels, dump in a big bowl of water with a little flour or corn starch mixed in. Rinse, then debeard - pull off the hairy threads that poke out around the tip.

Heat oil in dutch oven over medium high heat. Add shallots and garlic, lightly season (think of mussels as pre-seasoned), and cook until they begin to brown (2 min). Make sure you don’t burn the garlic! Pour in wine, scraping browned bits off the bottom of the pot, and stir in red pepper flakes.

Add mussels to pot, cover, and steam until just beginning to open (3 min). Pour in cream, cover, and cook until all mussels are open (3-5 min). Remove from heat, sprinkle with chives and tarragon and serve with bread.

spaghetti with white wine and shrimp

serves 4
adapted from giada de laurentiis’ everyday pasta

1 pound spaghetti (3/4 pound if your family likes the sauce/stuff more than the pasta)
olive oil, salt, pepper
2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
handful of sun-dried tomatoes, sliced (also used 1 14-oz. can of diced tomatoes, drained)
1 1/2 cup white wine
1/2 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined (she also used 2 cups of clams)
2 large handfuls of argula

Boil large pot of salted water and cook pasta according to instructions.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil (use oil from sun-dried tomatoes jar for more flavor) over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic, turn down heat to medium, and cook until tender but not brown. Add both tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook until softened/heated through. Add wine and shrimp (and clams if you want), and bring to a boil. REduce heat, cover, and simmer until cooked, 7 minutes. 

Add pasta to shrimp mix and combine so that pasta soaks up some wine sauce. Gently fold in arugula. I know it’s taboo to mix seafood and cheese, but I added a lot of grated parmesan cheese to the pasta before folding in arugula. Add in some pepper flakes if you want some heat too.

chocolate stout cupcakes with chocolate ganache filling and disaronno frosting

via smitten kitchen
makes 19 cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined.

Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

When the frosting looks thick enough to spread, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk) and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.

Ice and decorate the cupcakes.

Do ahead: You can bake the cupcakes a week or two in advance and store them, well wrapped, in the freezer. You can also fill them before you freeze them. They also keep filled — or filled and frosted — in the fridge for a day. (Longer, they will start to get stale.)

Notes: Just used a grapefruit spoon and a plastic bag with a corner cut out.

notes on cheddar tomato fondue.

recipe found here.

1. regular sharp cheddar is much, much, much tastier than using white cheddar.
2. red wine (i used 337 cabernet sauvignon) is just as tasty as white wine.

maker’s mark bourbon-soaked dark chocolate cake

via nytimes
yield: 10-12 servings

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup bourbon, rye or other whiskey, more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Confectioners’ sugar, for garnish (optional).

Grease and flour a 10-cup-capacity Bundt pan (or two 8- or 9-inch loaf pans). Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In microwave oven or double boiler over simmering water, melt chocolate. Let cool.

Put espresso and cocoa powders in a 2-cup (or larger) glass measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to come up to the 1 cup measuring line. Mix until powders dissolve. Add whiskey and salt; let cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, baking soda and melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.

On low speed, beat in a third of the whiskey mixture. When liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat additions, ending with whiskey mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for Bundt pan (loaf pans will take less time, start checking them after 55 minutes).

Transfer cake to a rack. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey. Let cool before serving, garnished with confectioners’ sugar if you like.