orange-vanilla meringue swirls

A little sweet, a little crispy and a little chewy. These Orange-Vanilla Meringue Swirls are a perfect little treat. It’s amazing what a few great ingredients can become when combined with simple techniques.They taste almost like one of those delightful orange creamsicles.

Featured in the May issue of Martha Stewart Living, I’ve been looking forward to making these meringues for weeks. But first, I needed to find a half-inch plain pastry tip. After searching many stores, I had to settle for a half-inch star tip. And to be honest, I kind of prefer the look of the meringues with the decorative ridges.

The recipe calls for half of a vanilla bean’s seeds. I threw the other half and the seeded bean into the jar where I’m making homemade vanilla extract. I’m still about a month or so away from it being ready. More on that in another post, on another day.

Finally, I love the design left on the parchment paper after I removed the baked meringues. I’m thinking about framing the design. You can see a portion of the meringue imprint in the lower left image of the collage below.

Orange-Vanilla Meringue Swirls – Martha Stewart Living, May 2012

• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Large pinch of salt
• Large pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• Gel-paste food color, orange

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place egg whites in a heatproof mixing bowl. Add vanilla seeds and sugar, and whisk by hand to combine. Set bowl over a pot of simmering water, and whisk constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes. Add salt and cream of tartar.

Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes. Beat in orange zest.

Using a small paintbrush, paint 3 vertical stripes of food coloring inside the pastry bag fitted with a half-inch tip. Fill bag with meringue, and pipe 1 3/4-inch circular shapes 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft on the inside, about 75 minutes. (I baked mine an additional 15 minutes.) Let cool completely on a wire rack.

homemade dill pickles

A few weeks back we received quite the bounty of pickling cucumbers in our CSA share. About the same time, a co-worker was telling me about how she was making pickles from the cucumbers in her garden. She described a pretty simple method for making pickles that will keep for about a month in the refrigerator.

After doing a bit more research from my friend Martha’s website I came upon the recipe that I’d use for the pickling. The recipe takes about an evening to work through. There’s a bit of waiting between preparation steps. And then, the final great wait. One week in refrigerator before the first taste. I made it five days before I cracked open a jar and tasted the best dill pickle.

I adjusted the original recipe just a bit. An addition of a tablespoon of mustard seed gave the final product just the right look. If you’ve never made you own pickles, I’d strongly recommend that you give these a try. They’re crisp, flavorful and perfect to eat just as a snack on their own or perched on top of a juicy grilled burger.

Dill-Pickle Chips - adapted from Martha Stewart Living, August 2004

• 2 pounds Kirby (pickling) cucumbers
• 3 tablespoons coarse salt
• 3 cups water
• 2 cups distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon dill seed
• 1 tablespoon mustard seed
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bunches fresh dill, coarsely chopped

Cut the cucumbers into 1/2-inch thick rounds, and transfer to a colander set in a bowl. Toss well with salt. Refrigerate cucumber rounds for 1 hour.

Rinse the cucumber rounds well; drain. Pat dry between paper towels. Transfer cucumber slices to a large bowl.

Bring 3 cups water, vinegar, dill seed, mustard seed and garlic to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring. Reduce heat; simmer 4 minutes. Let mixture cool slightly, about 10 minutes.

Add chopped dill to cucumber slices, and toss to combine. Pour in the brine. Let cool completely, about 30 minutes. Transfer mixture to airtight containers, and refrigerate at least 1 week. Pickles will keep for 3 weeks more. They won’t last that long. Ours were all gone in under 2 weeks.

Enjoying my blog? I hope that you’ll consider becoming a fan on facebook or that you’ll follow me on twitter.

penne frittata with basil and ricotta & roasted fingerling potatoes with seasoned salt

Ladies and gentlemen, my longest blog title yet. Sorry about that. Well, not really because these two recipes from Martha Stewart Living magazine are pretty great.

It all started when I was at the grocery store and came across a big bag of multi-colored perfect little fingerling potatoes. There’s just something about them, that I can’t resist. Particularly the purple ones. After a bit of research, I found that Martha had a very simple recipe for Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Seasoned Salt. My partner Greg was particularly enamored with these roasted potatoes. I wanted some baked eggy-goodness to go with the fingerlings. A few moments later after searching for frittata recipes, I was sold on the Penne Frittata with Basil and Ricotta. Thankfully, our grocery store had some pretty great looking basil in the middle of January. And really, how can you go wrong with eggs, pasta, basil and cheese?

Paired, these two relatively simple recipes made for a filling comfort-food inspired dinner. They turned into great left-overs the next night too.

chewy chocolate chunk-cherry cookies

As you are reading today’s post, I am in a car with three of my favorite people (ok, I really like you too, but there wasn’t enough room in the car for anyone else) traveling through America’s heartland from Akron, Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri. No road trip is complete with out a great selection of treats. When Greg and I travel there is always a can of Pringles (original flavor, please) and after a stop at a gas station, a bag of pretzel and nacho cheese Combos. How’s that for class? For this trip I made some homemade goodies too. There were the dark chocolate and pretzel crispy treats that I wrote about earlier this week. Also, after receiving the new issue of Martha Stewart Living (the chocolate issue!), I just knew that I needed to make the chewy chocolate chunk-cherry cookies. They are insanely good.  Insanely, I say!  That means that I can’t stop eating them. I find excuses to go to the kitchen and walk past the container on the counter. Well it would be rude not to eat one…two…three…  The tart dried cherries matched with rich chocolate chunks and sweet cookie base….You have no idea how great these are until you eat one yourself. I’m pretty sure that they’ll make for three happy friends in the car with me.  Hopefully they’ll be so happy, they won’t ask me to take a turn driving. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and be sure to check out that new clear glass bowl on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. That was my most favorite birthday gift from Greg this year. Now I’m just like all the celebri-chefs on tv.