Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Chako, Boo, Bean and I, as well as these good friends of Tiniest Kitchen....

Belated Bits + Pieces

1. Madame Princess Lady Boo sleeping on Chako

2. Golden Baby Tomatoes 

3. Kale, Apple & Walnut Salad

4. Rosemary Cheese Twists

5. Photo booth kids!

6. Photo booth buddies!

7. Devil cats hijack the bed

8. Meringue Ghosts

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 

I have some fun spooky, fall recipes to be posted later today or tomorrow. Have an amazing Sunday!

Gougères

Oh my goodness gracious. I can't even pronounce Gougères, yet I am deeply in love.

Seriously. Make these right now.

I have been to exhausted every night after work to do any cooking, especially any cooking and photographing, so I decided to do some cooking at work, while my little friend takes his morning nap. I am so happy I did.

These are literally puffs of joy. Teeny, tiny, crunchy, fluffy (yea, at the same time), cheese filled puffs of joy. I used sharp cheddar and pecorino along with a heavy dose of thyme. Next time, I want gruyere and rosemary...yum yum yum.

I also got to try out using a freezer bag as a pastry bag, something I've been meaning to do and have been too lazy to bake a cake to try, and it worked great! Cheap and easy way to do some pastry work without buying a ton of extra equipment. Handy...since the Tiniest Kitchen could also be called the Destitute Kitchen on many occasions...

I didn't bring any home for Chako, whoops. Also, I didn't realize I was going to cook at work, so I didn't bring our camera, this was all shot on the iPhone.

Ingredients...

Some warm, melty dough

Add eggs...creamier...

 Savory thyme and cheese!

Makeshift piping!

 Make some little blobs

Add some more cheese!!! Always more cheese.

Bake and enjoy! Eat warm..trust me.

Gougères (French Cheese Puffs)
Adapted from David Lebovitz


You'll Need...
1/2 cup of water
3 tbsp salted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
Dash of hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup of flour
2 large eggs
2 tsp thyme (fresh is best, I only had dried, still awesome)
1/4 cup of sharp cheddar, finely grated
1/2 cup of pecorino cheese, finely grated

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a saucepan, heat the butter, water, pepper, hot pepper flakes and salt until the butter is fully melted. Add all the flour and mix quickly until you form a wet ball of dough that is not sticking to the sides of the pot. Remove from heat and transfer your dough into a bowl. Add the eggs (one at a time!) and mix quickly to prevent them from cooking in the hot dough. Keep mixing until both eggs are fully incorporated in the dough. Add the thyme and cheese (keep a few tbsp of cheese to sprinkle on top!) and mix well. Scrape your dough into a pastry bag, or a freezer bag. If using a freezer bag, cut the corner off...woo hoo!! Pipe little mounds of dough, for bigger puffs, make them about the size of golf balls, for perfect bite sized puffs, about the size of a cherry tomato. Top with the remaining cheese. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 375 degrees and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until they are golden brown all around. Serve warm.

Tiny Notes: I experimented with Lebovitz's tip of poking a little hole in the side of your puff at the last 5 minutes of cooking to get super crispy crusts, I didn't notice too much of a difference, but I made tiny puffs and I do think it would make a noticeable difference for larger puffs. Also, experiment with other cheeses and herbs, rosemary or gruyere as I mentioned above. If you need to make these ahead of time, either wait until right before serving them to pipe and bake them, or just stick them back in a low heat oven for a minutes right before serving.

For Breakfast Today....

For breakfast this morning I had...

Three egg omelette with provolone, baby spinach and a dash of smoked hot sauce

Sauteed golden baby tomatoes

Whole wheat toast with orange marmalade

What about you??

Apologies...

So no posts this week...very lame. I'm sorry! I've missed blogging this week a lot, it's just been an insane week with work, and things with the show I am producing and my family being around. I have barely been in my kitchen! This week I am hoping to get my act together and be back on track. I didn't even snap enough pictures this week to do a Bits + Pieces post! Pictures and cooking and yummy stuff to come this week. I also got some fun new kitchen stuff that I am hoping to use ASAP. Get ready.

Bits & Pieces

1. Fresh figs prepped for Fig Infused Gin! Get ready...

2. A lovely flower Willa & I came across walking around Prospect Heights

3. A cat drinking a martini. She's a drunk.

4. Chili for Chako

5. Another coconut brownie show

6. A Calico Devil. Drag Queen. (Check out her nails...)

Exciting news! I got a waffle iron! WOOOO HOOOOO. Waffles this weekend!!!!

Have a happy weekend all.

Coconut Brownies

I love brownies. I love coconut. I love saying coconut. co-CO-nut. Yea don't judge.

Anyway. I thought, when you love things so much, why don't you combine them and see if they love eachother. Brownies and coconut are married now and will soon have babies, who will be Brownie-Coconut Macaroon, and of course, Brownie-Coconut cake. Get ready.

So get some chocolate and some coconut and some milk and have a party! You're welcome.

Ingredients! Notice the coconut has been sent through the food processor.

Butter & Chocolate. Love.

 Melty...

Eggs and sugar...

Mix all together with your coconut...

Bake it! Happiness!

Beauty. Get milk.

Coconut Brownies

You'll Need...

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chopped into small pieces

1 stick of unsalted butter

3 eggs

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups of sweetened coconut

1/2 cup of all-purpose flour

Salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a medium baking pan. Put the coconut in a food processor until very fine. Melt the butter and the chocolate in a sauce pan over a low heat until fully combined. Remove from heat. Mix the eggs and sugar together. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture, add the vanilla, flour and coconut and a dash of salt. Mix until well combined. Pour into your greased baking pan and cook for 10-15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of your brownies comes out clean. Enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom Soup

I love dinner parties. I love having my dearest friends over and enjoying a great meal. Last night we had an impromptu dinner party with two of our best friends, Chloe and Sarah. I wanted some feel good food, and I  was awaiting having a very painful wisdom tooth pulled (which happened this morning, ouch), so in preparation I made a huge pot of creamy mushroom soup. I also made a huge batch of bruschetta with homemade ricotta, two kinds, one with honey and cracked pepper and another with truffle oil (my great love) and raspberry balsamic.

I say the soup is creamy mushroom rather then cream OF mushroom because I used triple the amount of mushrooms one would normally use to make a super creamy and ultra smooth cream of mushroom soup and was going for a more purely blended mushroom concoction, trying to imitate my favorite mushroom soup at this little tiny French cafe in the West Village, Cafe Henri. When I get the soup there it has the taste and consistency of just pure mushrooms...heaven. I think we got pretty close with this soup recipe!

 Today I am endlessly thankful I made this soup for I can eat it with my chipmunk face and numb left side of my mouth. Soup and well...ice cream...yea we live over a Baskin Robbins...yea Chako is a great boyfriend who's going to get me a sundae soon... :-)

Chloe wanted to be the photographer for this post, so to be clear, PHOTOS BY MADAME CHLOE K.

Lots of mushrooms!

Chopping chopping

Onions

Oh yea, more mushrooms

This recipe does not mess around, butter AND oil...

I love garlic

World of mushrooms

Don't forget to do a garlic rub when making bruschetta!

Add other yummy stuff and simmer away

Sarah thinks it smells yummy

Cream! Obviously.

Always bruschetta

Drizzle on some truffle oil and DELICIOUS

Creamy Mushroom Soup

You'll need...
3 pounds of mushrooms, I used baby bella and white buttons, would be great with some shitake as well..., all cleaned and coarsely chopped
4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tbsp virgin olive oil
1/4 cup minced shallots or white onions
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt & Pepper
3/4 cup of white wine
5 tbsp flour
5 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of beef stock
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup heavy cream
Truffle oil for drizzling

Chop everything! Melt the butter with the oil in a large pot. Add the onions or shallots and cook until soft, then add the garlic. Cook about 1 minute then add ALL the mushrooms. Cook for about 5-7 minutes until they are soft and brown. Add the wine and cook until it's reduced, then sprinkle in the flour to coat. Add in the stocks, thyme, sage, and nutmeg. Let simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Slowly add in the cream. Let heat throw but don't boil! Using an immersion blender or working in batches with a regular blender, blend until your soup is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and drizzle with a little truffle oil.