Caramelized French Toast with Cinnamon and Berries

Um, yum. This recipe ups the crunchy outside, pudding-y inside deliciousness of French toast by the nth degree by using brown sugar butter. The caramelized brown sugar produces a beautiful toffee color on the toast surface as well. What I really love is that the ingredients that make the difference here are simple pantry ingredients-- brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg-- that take only a few minutes to add. The only downside here is the time to soften butter; I find there is rarely an hour prior to breakfast to let butter sit. The first time I made this I made the butter ahead of time and refrigerated, which doesn't quite work because you need the butter soft in the second application after you flip the toast over. Although I hate doing it, I think this calls for the microwave.

Cacio e Pepe

Still heart-ing the bon appetit pasta article... this time, the cacio e pepe, or cheese and pepper pasta. The recipe was even simpler than the pasta al pomodoro-- literally, it's pasta, cheese, salt, pepper and butter. As a result I have nothing to add, other than it's 7:45 a.m. and I would eat a plate of this right now if it were in front of me.

Pasta al Pomodoro

O.m.g.

Who else got the fabulous May 2011 bon appetit Italy Issue? This is the pasta on the cover, from an amazing article called "Pasta Perfect: a BA cooking manifesto." bon appetit, this is what you should be doing every issue: putting together an article based on skills the home cook can use to elevate the featured dish to restaurant quality. One of my favorite quotes: "It's a unified, flavor-packed dish, not a bowl of noodles with a bunch of sauce dumped on top." So true! Why have I never noticed that I dump at home, but restaurants blend sauce and pasta together?

And the gushing continues: never again will I underestimate a simple pasta with pomodoro sauce. The sauce, made with only olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes, crushed red pepper, basil and parmesan, was simple and classic, yet also tangy, spicy, creamy and fresh. The sauce took a bit of time to put together, but for me, from now on, this is it. No cheating, no substitutes.

Next up from this article? The cacio e pepe. Can't wait!

Grilled Mahi-Mahi with Thai Coconut Sauce

The first time I made this grilled mahi mahi from Bon Appetit's July 2010 issue I almost chickened out midway through. Clam juice does not smell good; neither does fish sauce. Also, the "Dinner in Half an Hour" tag is a lie, and it became painfully apparent that my rice had cooked past the point of eatability while I was prepping the first seven ingredients. But! I perservered, and I would like to tell all the clam juice-hating commenters on epicurious.com to try this recipe again as written. Give the sauce the full amount of time to reduce (8 to 9 minutes wasn't enough for me; try 12-14) and you will be rewarded with a complex, spicy, authentic Thai-style sauce that wakes up the mellow mahi mahi and rice. Their cooking time for the mahi mahi was also accurate for my grill pan on medium high; both times I've made this I've wanted to take it off early, and then realized the center of the fish hadn't quite cooked through. 2 teaspoons of serrano chile is very spice; I think I'll try 1 1/2 next time. If you want something mild, I'd try 1/2 teaspoon instead of the full teaspoon. Another note as to proportion: because the sauce is so yummy, I prepare this as a two-serving meal, using the same sauce measurements but 14 to 16 ounces of fish. I know this sounds gluttonous, but per Bon Appetit's measurements, 2 servings of the recipe as prepared is only 438 calories, and my version with a smaller portion of fish would be slightly less than that (plus calories for rice, obviously, but still not a bad dinner count).

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars (including Dulce de Leche)

Prior to last weekend, I can't say that "dulce de leche" was really on my radar, other than the Girl Scout cookie flavor (which I obviously didn't buy, because that would have cut down on the space I had for Samoas) and the Starbucks flavor (again, spot previously filled by caramel macchiatos, now even available in a skinny version). Anyway, I can't speak for the quality of Girl Scout or Starbucks DDL products, but obviously there is something wrong with their marketing because I had a fundamental misunderstanding of DDL. "Mexican caramel" is a seriously lacking description. What DDL really is, as I discovered, is a rich, creamy toffee-like sauce, which unlike caramel (sorry, caramel) stands on its own.

But back to my life before last Sunday. I had plucked this recipe out of the June 2010 bon appetit because it fit an obscure category, desserts that complement Mexican food (a category that is made all the more difficult by the fact that after consuming chips, salsa, margaritas and fajitas the thought of more food is generally disturbing). An occasion presented itself, and off to the store I went. I wrongly assumed trusty Central Market would not fail to carry DDL, but I was saved by a lovely woman I met in the store who informed me that she had an easy DDL recipe that was also cheaper than the prepared stuff. Sold. It's available here, and it fit her description so well I truly wish I could thank her in person (and then roll my eyes at the silly bon appetit staffer who didn't find the recipe in their archives). The DDL recipe makes just enough for the cheesecake bars recipe, with a little leftover to serve on top of strawberries or ice cream, or to lick off several spoons.

Back to the cheesecake bars. The only real trick is timing. There are numerous "cooling" steps, which really only work on a lazy Sunday where you are doing loads of laundry and reading Agatha Christie novels. An ideal timetable would go like this:

(1) set out cream cheese to soften and preheat oven.

(2) make and bake graham cracker crust.

(3) make DDL.

(4) let graham cracker crust cool on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.

(5) let DDL cool and thicken in fridge, probably 30-45 minutes.

(6) take a break while #4 and #5 are going on.

(7) assemble cheesecake filling; this is easy.

(8) bake cheesecake bars; another long break while they cook.

(9) let cheesecake bars cool, which takes at least an hour and a half.

(10) when finally cool, glaze and let sit for an hour (although overnight is better, and will prevent the DDL from running over when you slice, as mine did in the picture).

Fancy Fish Sticks

Of course that's not the real name of a recipe from bon appetit... it's "Halibut Fish Sticks with Dill-Caper Tartar Sauce." It's very on-trend: it has all of the classic flavors of fish sticks, but with gourmet ingredients like cornichons, panko crumbs and halibut. The nutritional stats, assuming they're true, are also substantially better than Gorton's or Long John Silver's, especially when you reduce portions on the substantial amount of tartar sauce the recipe makes. This is definitely something I would have ordered out, so I'm happy I can make it at home.

Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash

Sometimes it's best to start at the very beginning...

Other times, you realize that it's February, and that poison ivy, a broken foot and the holiday season beget procrastination, and procrastination beget anxiety over your overflowing recipe folder/camera memory card. So let's start with something easy: chili for the S[o]uperbowl.

And when I say chili, I mean black bean soup, and not this black bean soup, which I now want you to pretend you never read on my blog. Back then, I had no idea that what I really wanted was black bean soup with butternut squash... with bulgar wheat... with "fire-roasted" tomatoes... with chipotle chiles with adobe sauce.... with heat, with texture, with fullness and with every trend at Trader Joe's thrown in. Because that's how bon appetit rolls, and I just can't help myself from buying in.

Three-Cheese Mushroom and Spinach Calzone

I used to be a vegetarian for six years. I was a terrible vegetarian; I ate a lot of cheese, french fries and chocolate. These calzones would have fit the bill. Now, I say calzones because I made four individual calzones as opposed to one large calzones and cooked the calzones for a few minutes less. Since there are just two of us, we eat a lot of leftovers and making four individual calzones enabled us to easily package the extras in a brown bag lunch. I used the frozen pizza dough from Central Market-- it's next to the pizzas in the freezer section and is softly garlic-flavored. Next time, I may substitute mozzarella for fontina; I doubt I could taste the difference and it'll be cheaper.

4/10/11 update: tonight, substituted 1/2 lb. of hot italian sausage for the spinach and omitted the fennel seeds and red pepper flakes-- worked well. Also, learned that fontina is easier to grate if you freeze first-- 15-20 minutes.

Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries

The April 2010 issue of bon appetit contains on article on "The Great American Cake," and this Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries stuck out as the perfect "dinner party" cake-- a cake that even a group with diverse tastes will love. Given my obsession with bundt cakes and the current strawberry clearance, I was sold! Sure enough, this buttery treat is a true vanilla (not white) cake and the slightly crunchy crust created by the bundt cake pan makes this a superior version of the Sprinkles vanilla cupcake.

The cake recipe is uber-simple except for the bizarre grease, flour AND non-stick cooking spray combo used to prep the pan. I like to follow instructions to the letter so I couldn't stop myself, but I would suggest that less OCD bakers nix the Pam. Also, don't worry about how thick the batter is when you fill the pan-- this is a not a light and fluffy angel-food type bundt cake.

One more thing-- don't tell my husband I opened up a new bottle of Woodford Reserve for this recipe... I only used a teaspoon...