Chocolate pudding cakes with ice cream and homemade caramel

I finally had some time to bake this week. I've been furiously trying to get things done before I go on vacation.

Last night, I decided to make chocolate pudding cakes with caramel sauce from a recipe in the latest Everyday Food magazine.

"You're the only person I know who rewards herself with more work," my husband told me as I started measuring out ingredients late at night.

I ignored him.

I already had made the caramel sauce on a previous night.

I should make homemade caramel sauce more often. Even if you store caramel sauce in the fridge, it melts easily in the microwave.


Caramel sauce
Source: Everyday Food magazine October 2009
For the recipe, click here.

Chocolate pudding cakes
Source: Everyday Food magazine October 2009
Serves 4
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min plus chilling
Ingredients:
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed, plus more for ramekins
1/3 cup sugar, plus more to coat ramekins
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60 percent cacao), chopped

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Caramel sauce (see recipe)
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter four 6-ounce ramekins, then coat lightly with sugar, tapping out excess. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine butter and chocolate. Microwave until melted, about 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Or, melt mixture in a heatproof bowl set over, not in, a pan of simmering water.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, yolks, flour and salt; add chocolate mixture and whisk to combine Fill each ramekin three-quarters full with batter; place on a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate 15 minutes.

Bake until center of a cake is soft but not wet when pressed, 27 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Serve cakes warm, topped with caramel. Add vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Print recipe

An early breakfast

This past Saturday, I woke up really early to take my husband to his LSAT test. I didn't have to wake up at 6 a.m. or so, but I did. While he did some last minute studying, I fried an egg and smothered it in roasted tomato salsa.

I had made the salsa with San marzano heirloom tomatoes I had gotten from the Cold Spring Farmers' Market. The salsa came out thicker with a more concentrated flavor.

Hmm. I should make breakfasts like that more often.

Vacation is so close, yet so far

Rose of Sharon planted in the Joint Security Area in the Demilitarized Zone on the South Korean side.

I feel like I'm crawling toward vacation. There's so much to do at work and at home before I leave for Seoul on the red-eye flight on Friday. 

Whenever I walk by the Rose of Sharon on some neighborhood street in New York, I'll say to my husband, "That's the national flower of South Korea."

He knows the flower. He knows what I'm going to say and sometimes he'll say it before I do.

What's for dinner? Dominican

Roast pork with rice and beans

For every place that closes in Beacon, N.Y., a new one opens. Dona Julia's on Main Street in Beacon has been open for a couple months. I decided to get Dominican takeout instead of burgers.

The roast pork was heavenly, utterly tender and oh so fatty. The beans came in a tomato sauce (I think). They had a lot of flavor. It reminded me of the way they make beans in Puerto Rico. We had enough yellow rice to last for days.

My husband is on vacation. He'll get to eat all the leftovers unless I sneak in a few more bites tonight.

Dona Julia's
Authentic Dominican Cuisine
303 Main St.
Beacon, NY 12508
845-765-2539

Trout glazed with chipotle and maple syrup infused with ginger

You may think this is an odd combination: Trout glazed with chipotle and maple syrup infused with ginger, plus peaches glazed with the maple syrup.

It's not horrible. It's pretty wonderful actually.

The trout took to the maple syrup's sweetness, as well as the chipotle. If I wanted more sauce, I broke apart a peach slice and sopped up a piece of trout in the maple syrup-ginger glazed juices of the peach.

I found maple syrup infused with ginger at the Cold Spring Farmers' Market in New York.

Joni Lanza, of 3 Chicks Sugar Shack, makes maple syrups with different flavors. I tasted the gingered maple syrup. Surprisingly, ginger goes well with syrup and makes the syrup taste refreshing.

You may remember how I made banana milkshakes using maple syrup matured in a Kentucky Bourbon barrel. Joni makes that maple syrup, too.

She adds ginger maple syrup to her tea. Although she hadn't tried it, Joni said her husband thought the ginger maple syrup might go well with salmon. I thought I'd test out her husband's theory.


Steelhead trout glazed with chipotle and maple syrup infused with ginger
Makes 2 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 pound steelhead trout or salmon, cut in half to make fillets
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers
1 tablespoon maple syrup infused with ginger or plain maple syrup
2 peaches with pits removed and sliced into fourths
extra maple syrup for peaches

Preheat broiler. Combine adobo sauce and maple syrup in a saucepan. Heat sauce until it has thickened a little. Baste trout fillets with sauce. Another option is to baste fillets with just maple syrup. Brush maple syrup onto peach slices.

Broil fillets and peaches in a sheet pan for 5-6 minutes or until fillets are flaky. 

Print recipe

Some notes:
I bought steelhead trout instead of salmon. When I saw the trout in the glass case at the chain grocery store, I couldn't get over how pretty it looked. It had such pristine flesh. A lot of times, fish look so beat up at retail grocery stores.

I glazed one trout fillet with equal parts adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers and ginger maple syrup. I glazed the second fillet with just the maple.

chipotle-ginger maple syrup sauce (left); ginger maple syrup (right)

I had some maple syrup leftover. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I glazed some peaches that had been sitting in the fridge for a week. I broiled the peaches with the trout and everything turned out well.

Apple picking at Fishkill Farms, Hopewell Junction, NY

Jonamac apples

M. and I went apple picking on Sunday on our first wedding anniversary at Fishkill Farms in Hopewell Junction, N.Y. It was so nice being among the trees on a sunny day.

Cider donut sprinkled with cinnamon sugar

We had these freshly baked donuts at the farm.

 

If I couldn't reach the apples, M. did.

"I could be a hand model," my husband joked when he held up an apple for me.

The apples we got

For dinner, we went to Serevan in Amenia, N.Y. The chef/owner merges Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. Dinner was excellent. I didn't take photos of food because it was our anniversary.

I forgot to have our picture taken though.

Here are our stand-ins. ;)

Korean bride and groom dolls

San marzano tomatoes

San marzano paste tomatoes

I bought these San marzano paste tomatoes from the Cold Spring Farmers' Market in New York. There's a vendor who sells boxes of heirloom tomatoes. I chose these plum tomatoes because I want to make some more roasted tomato salsa.

I cut open a tomato just now. It seems a little sweeter than the average plum tomato. There's a little bit more depth of flavor. 

I've heard people rave about the tomatoes. They're considered the best tomatoes for sauces.

My father's sudden burst of song

I haven't been able to cook much this week, but I'll leave you with photos of my dad.

My dad loves to sing and dance. He is obsessed with karaoke, or norebang (the Korean translation of the word). He will burst into song.

My family and I were at Incheon International Airport, waiting to board a flight to China for a family trip in 2006. My dad was listening to music and dancing in his seat.

He began to sing and he didn't care who heard him.

 My dad cracks me up.

Hoping to see the real Korea

Hwangwonjeong Pavilion, Gyeongbokkung Palace, Seoul, S. Korea

I've never really seen Korea. Yes, I've visited family and eaten authentic meals. And yes, I've been to every tourist attraction from palaces to museums to historic sites. But, I've never really experienced the street food.

My father is a physician. Whenever we walked through neighborhoods, I'd look longingly at the street food vendors. But my father would be deathly afraid I'd get sick. We'd always bring fruit or snacks on our tourist jaunts, so my parents didn't want to waste money to buy food.

My husband and I will visit Seoul next month. It'll be the first time M. has traveled outside the United States. My grandmother wasn't able to come to our wedding last year. I haven't seen her since 2007. So, I really want to visit.

my grandmother

This trip, we plan on being on our own. My parents will be there, but they're staying at another hotel. My older brother and his wife will be visiting, but they'll be seeing her side of the family.

I've been looking at Korean food blogs to plan our trip, namely:

Seoul Eats
ZenKimchi blogs
FatManSeoul

I've been looking at the photos I took during the last two trips I've made to South Korea. They just remind me of so much.

This pavilion is one of my favorite spots in Seoul. It may be touristy, but I love looking at Hwangwonjeong, the pavilion of far-reaching fragrance. Gyeongbokkung Palace was built in 1394 during the Joseon Dynasty. In the late 1500s, the Japanese destroyed the palace when they invaded the Korean Peninsula. Later on, the palace was rebuilt.

South Korean soldiers (foreground) tense up as North Korean soldiers approach the border in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

In 2006, my family and I stood on the south side of the Military Demarcation Line, or the line that marked the ceasefire during the Korean War. As we watched, three North Korean soldiers approached the border between north and south. The South Korean soldiers clenched their fists and planted their feet. Soldiers are directed to stand that way to look intimidating.

It was very scary. But now I wonder if it was staged for the tourists. Maybe the charade happened whenever any group of tourists arrived. I don't know.

My family did a tour of Panmunjom, or the Joint Security Area, where North and South Korean officials occasionally meet to discuss military, economic and political problems. If you look at the photo, you'll see the buildings are in both countries. That's where officials meet.

Gochujang aging in earthen pots

I love scenes like these. We were visiting a friend of the family and I saw the pots in the back. For those who don't know, gochujang is a common condiment in Korean dishes. It's made of red chili powder, powdered fermented soybeans and glutinous rice powder. I put gochujang on rice and then roll it up in seaweed.

I'm planning our trip very carefully. I have a long list already.

Thai Palace, a pinch hitter

Note: This place is undergoing renovations. For more info, click here.

crispy rolls

When I have a late night at work, I head to Thai Palace in Fishkill, N.Y., because the food is always good.

First, I get egg rolls. They are perfectly rolled, nice and tight. I just pick up that swathed bundle of fried goodness and take a bite. I love the crunch as I press my teeth into the crispy skin of the egg roll. That's the best part.

Then I wash it down with Thai iced tea.

Usually, I get pad thai or pineapple fried rice as an entree. But this time, I get woon sen pad thai, or pad thai with mung bean noodles. These noodles are clear, unlike rice noodles.

woon sen pad thai

I grew up with mung bean noodles, or mung bean threads. A traditional Korean dish called chop chae has mung bean noodles, vegetables and beef.

I like the woon sen pad thai. But the pad thai sauce sticks better to rice noodles than mung bean threads. That's the big difference.

When I want Thai food in the area, I always go to this place. The owner is from Thailand and makes sauces from scratch. The food tastes authentic. It isn't bland. It isn't Americanized. Most of all, it's made with heart.

Thai Palace
985 Main Street (Route 52)
Fishkill, NY 12524
Phone: 845-765-1055

Improvisation when you're missing ingredients

This is a tale of improvisation out of necessity.

I had a few bananas getting browner each day. On Monday, I wanted to make banana chocolate chip muffins.

I searched for recipes on Foodblogs.com and found one on Whisk: a food blog. I used the recipe as a template until I veered away from it. The recipe called for making muffins in cookie cutters and I don't have any.

I started measuring out the ingredients.

1 stick of butter: check.

1 cup sugar: check.

3 ripe bananas: check.

2 eggs: check.

1/2 cup chocolate chips: Uh. wait...

I opened up my pantry, hoping to see a bag of chocolate chips somewhere. No. None. No yellow bag of Nestle Tollhouse chips. But I still had some bittersweet 60 percent cacao Ghirardelli chocolate bars.

I chopped up 5 squares of chocolate to make 1/2 cup of chips.

1 teaspoon baking soda: check

2 cups flour: check

1/4 cup buttermilk: Definitely do not have. Crap.

I opened my refrigerator, hoping I had some plain yogurt somewhere. I had eaten all the Greek yogurt the day before. I looked at a container of organic vanilla yogurt and it had expired in August and the week-old heavy cream and half-and-half from the farmers' market had lived their lives of freshness.

I opened my cheese drawer. Right there was an unopened container of mascarpone cheese. I decided to use that.

I combined all the ingredients in the mixer and tasted it. The batter tasted all right. I baked them, cooking them longer than 20 minutes until a knife inserted in a muffin came out clean.

I ate a muffin. Sweet bananas with the bittersweet of the chips. A nice balance.

Banana bittersweet chocolate chip muffins
Makes 12-14 muffins
Ingredients:
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup bittersweet, 60 percent cacao chocolate; chopped into chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash the bananas in a bowl. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until it looks light and fluffy. Mix in the bananas. Then mix in the eggs.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Whisk together. Add part of the flour mixture into the batter and then add the mascarpone cheese. Alternate until everything is combined. Add the chocolate chips.

Line muffin pan with paper liners or grease muffin pan with butter. Bake for 20 minutes. Insert a knife or toothpick into a muffin to see if it comes out clean. If not, continue to bake until knife comes out clean. Bake muffins roughly up to 25 minutes.


Print recipe

I was pretty excited about using my new ice cream scooper that I just bought from Crate & Barrel the day before. It's great for dropping batter into muffin pans.

Pork chops with apples and shallots

After M. and I got married last year, his parents drove all the way from Illinois to visit us.

It was the first time my in-laws saw how M. and I lived. I wanted to make them dinner and show them how well I could cook, that M. wasn't going hungry.

I thought of a simple dinner, something I could make without much hassle.

I decided to make pork chops with apples and shallots, a recipe from Everyday Food's Great Food Fast. I really like the cookbook because the title describes the recipes aptly. They're easy to make and fast.

As a side, I made green beans with shallots. For dessert, I made Ina Garten's apple, pear crisp.

My in-laws enjoyed the dinner. My mother-in-law loved the apple, pear crisp and asked for the recipe.

Tonight, I made the pork chops again. The apples and shallots are sauteed with white wine, adding a richer flavor.

The recipe called for Granny Smith apples. But I used McIntosh apples from the farmers' markets because those are the apples being harvested now. Since I had some fresh spinach I hadn't used, I decided to try the recipe paired with the dish, wilted spinach with nutmeg.

Pork chops with Apples and Shallots
For the recipe, click here.

Wilted spinach with nutmeg
For the recipe, click here.

Hudson Valley Wine & Food Fest Sept. 12-13

Rows of wine. Wonderful bites of food.

I went to the Hudson Valley Wine and Food Fest in Rhinebeck, N.Y. today. I covered the event for my newspaper. Although I couldn't sample wine, I still had a lot of fun.

After I was done with interviews, I treated myself to a lunch of samples.

Banana mascarpone with chocolate sauce and bacon lardons

This little item was the best thing I ate at the fest.

I was standing there ogling the tiny dessert when a staffer described the ingredients and offered the sample to the girl next to me.

"Uh, I don't think I'm that adventurous," the girl said.

I stared at her.

I popped one in my mouth right away. I bent backwards, savoring the flavor of the banana mascarpone with the crunchiness and saltiness of the bacon.

People who don't try things annoy me. A lot.

I just want to say to that girl, "Why? Why won't you try it? Is it the use of bacon in a dessert? Why do you want to be so bland and boring?"

*deep breath*

Oh well, at least I had it.

The dessert came from one of my favorite restaurants: Twist in Hyde Park, N.Y.

"Chocolate goulash," Lamb with a chocolate sauce, pistachios and polenta

I liked the "chocolate goulash" a lot, too. Twisted Soul, a restaurant in the Town of Poughkeepsie, offered this morsel.

The lamb was in a chocolate sauce, more like a mole sauce, with prosciutto, pistachios and polenta. I'm not sure how the ingredients fit together, but it tasted of comfort.

Twisted Soul fuses Latino and Asian cuisine.

Scallop mango poblano ceviche

I decided to try the ceviche. I haven't had a lot of ceviche in my life. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the chocolate goulash. I like anything with mango. But I wish I tasted more of something in that tapa. The scallops didn't have any oomph to them. I don't know. 

Here are more tapas from the Sabroso menu. Sabroso is located in Rhinebeck, N.Y.

 I sampled some Golden Peak iced green tea. It was sweet, refreshing.

 Wine glasses ready to be handed out.

Chicken with mango chipotle sauce

I tried another Ellie Krieger recipe, only I improvised a little. In her cookbook, "The Food You Crave," she has chicken with mango barbecue sauce. In a blender, she mixes mango, tomato sauce, jalapeno peppers, unsulfured molasses, lime juice, onion and other ingredients for her sauce. Since I didn't have anymore jalapenos, I dropped in chipotle peppers instead. I also didn't have any tomato sauce, so I used canned diced tomatoes. I opted to broil the chicken instead of grilling it.

The mango chipotle sauce was sweet and spicy. I still have some leftover. I wonder if I could eat it with chips...

Chicken with mango chipotle sauce
Adapted from chicken with mango barbecue sauce recipe, The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, diced (about 1 cup)
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced (about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
3 tablespoons unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 medium ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced
2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2.5 pounds skinless, boneless, chicken breasts pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
(Krieger calls for 8 chicken breasts that weigh a total of 2.5 pounds, which I feel is odd. At my grocery store, there's usually 3 large chicken breasts that way 2.3 pounds.)
cooking spray

Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the bell pepper, garlic, salt, black pepper and allspice and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes more. Stir int he vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, lime juice and diced tomatoes and cook for 1 minute more. Transfer mixture to a blender and add the mango and chipotle peppers. Blend until smooth.

Put 2 cups of the sauce in a resealable plastic bag with the chicken and marinate for 30 minutes to an hour in the refrigerator. Reserve the rest of the sauce for serving.

Heat your broiler.

Remove chicken from the sauce and discard the sauce from the bag. Use cooking spray to grease a rimmed baking sheet covered in tin foil. Broil chicken for roughly 5 minutes on each side. But if you have a broiler that cooks unevenly like mine does, keep watch over the chicken and cook it more if you need to or pull it out early.

Print recipe

Chocolate pots de creme; no oven necessary

I nabbed the last chocolate pot de creme this morning. M. had been eating one every night he came home from work. I got to relish the creamy chocolate.

I made 8 chocolate pots de creme during Labor Day weekend. I used a recipe from America's Test Kitchen. Instead of baking them in the oven, the recipe calls for making the custard on the stove, using that custard to melt the chocolate and then refrigerating the chocolate pots de creme. It's really easy. You don't have to worry about them being undercooked in a water bath.

I've made pots de creme before, only with strawberries, back when no one had heard of my blog. But I thought I'd show off the pots de creme again.

As I was taking photos of the dessert, my husband peeked through the patio door. 

M. was impatient. We were heading out to see Inglourious Basterds in the movie theater. (Awesome movie that makes you want to say, "Yeah, kill those Nazis!" even though you're a petite Asian girl who probably wouldn't be able to lift a gun if she tried.)

Chocolate pots de creme
Source: America's Test Kitchen
Serves 8
Ingredients:
10 ounces bittersweet chocolate with 60 percent cacao, chopped fine
5 large egg yolks
5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup half-and-half
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder mixed with 1 tablespoon water or 1 tablespoon strong brewed coffee

Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy cream (cold)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Garnish (optional)
Cocoa powder for dusting
Chocolate shavings for sprinkling

For the pots de creme: Put chocolate in medium heatproof bowl and set a fine-mesh strainer over the bow. Set aside.

You can use a double boiler for the next step or follow the directions.

Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in medium bowl until combined and then whisk in heavy cream and half-and-half. Transfer mixture to medium saucepan. Cook mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and scraping bottom of pot with wooden spoon, until thickened and silky and custard registers 175 to 180 degrees on instant-read thermometer, 8 to 12 minutes. Do not let custard overcook or simmer.

Immediately pour custard through strainer over chocolate. Let mixture stand to melt chocolate, about 5 minutes. Whisk gently until smooth, then whisk in vanilla and espresso. Divide mixture evenly among eight 5-ounce ramekins. Gently tap ramekins against counter to remove air bubbles.

Cool pots de crème to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours or up to 72 hours. Before serving, let pots de crème stand at room temperature 20 to 30 minutes. (Letting it stand allows the pots de creme to soften up, or you can just eat them right away.)

For the whipped cream: Using hand mixer or standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat cream, sugar, and vanilla on low speed until bubbles form, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium; continue beating until beaters leave trail, about 30 seconds longer. Increase speed to high; continue beating until nearly doubled in volume and whipped cream forms soft peaks, 30 to 45 seconds longer.

Dollop each pot de crème with about 2 tablespoons whipped cream; garnish with cocoa or chocolate shavings, if using. Serve.

Print recipe

Roasted tomato salsa and huevos rancheros

Pureeing roasted tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and garlic, all seasoned with cumin, cayenne and olive oil, can make salsa taste so utterly good.


America's Test Kitchen has one of the best salsa recipes. I use it for chips and huevos rancheros.

I didn't have any tortillas in the apartment, but it didn't matter. See the layers of egg, roasted tomato salsa and black beans? Dig in.

Huevos Rancheros
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen
Serves 2 to 4
3 medium jalapeno chiles, halved, seeds and ribs removed
1 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes (about 8), cored and halved
1/2 medium yellow or red onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
2 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon tomato paste
table salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons fresh lime juice from 1 or 2 limes, plus additional lime cut into wedges for serving
4 corn tortillas
4 large eggs

For the salsa: Adjust oven rack to middle position. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mince one jalapeno and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, remaining jalapenos, onion, garlic, tomato paste, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons oil, cumin and cayenne. Toss to mix thoroughly. Place vegetables cut side up on rimmed baking sheet. Roast until tomatoes are tender and skins begin to shrivel and brown, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool on a baking sheet for 10 minutes.

Increase oven heat to 450 degrees for tortillas.

Using tongs, transfer roasted onions, garlic and jalapenos to a food processor. Process until almost completely broken down, about 10 seconds, pausing halfway through to scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Add tomatoes and process until salsa is slightly chunky, about 10 seconds more. Add 2 tablespoons cilantro, reserved minced jalapeno, salt, pepper and lime juice to taste. The salsa can be made a day ahead.

For the tortillas: Brush both sides of each tortilla lightly with remaining tablespoon oil, sprinkle both sides with salt and place on clean baking sheet. Bake until tops just begin to color, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip tortillas and continue to bake until golden brown, 2-3 minutes more.

For the eggs: Meanwhile, bring salsa to gentle simmer in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Remove from heat and make four shallow wells in salsa with back of large spoon. Break 1 egg into cup, then carefully pour egg into well in salsa. Repeat with remaining eggs. Season each egg with salt and pepper to taste, then cover skillet and place over medium-low heat. Cook until desired doneness: 4-5 minutes for runny yolks, 6-7 minutes for set yolks.

The America's Test Kitchen recipe does not have black beans when I've seen huevos rancheros with them. I decided to add them to the recipe.

Seasoned black beans
1 (14.5-ounce) can of black beans
salt
pepper
cumin
cayenne pepper
garlic, minced or roasted garlic

Saute black beans in a skillet. Season with salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper and garlic to taste. If you use roasted garlic, just use a spatula to spread out the garlic and mix it into the beans.

How to serve huevos rancheros: Place tortillas on plates. Layer beans on tortillas. Gently scoop one egg onto each tortilla. Spoon salsa around each egg. Sprinkle with remaining cilantro and serve with lime wedges.

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Ellie Krieger's Peach French Toast

I remember I first had baked peach French toast at the Sunday brunch after my friend's wedding a few years ago. The brunch was at her parents' house and the French toast was homemade just out of the oven. It was so tasty that I had to have a couple helpings.

After I bought The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger, I saw a recipe for peach French toast. I made it for the first time this weekend. It's super easy. You just make it the night before and bake it the next morning.

Krieger uses whole wheat bread and egg whites to make the recipe healthier. I mentioned to my husband about the whole wheat bread and he crinkled up his nose. He believes French toast should always have white bread. It doesn't matter to me. But I got a regular baguette from the farmers' market.

Krieger also likes to use frozen peaches for the recipe. If you watch a video on the Food Network Web site, Krieger said fresh peaches are fine, but add lemon juice to prevent the slices from going brown. I thought that was a great tip.

When I took the baking dish out of the refrigerator this morning, the peaches looked fine to me. I slid the baking dish in the oven, while M. was still sleeping. Forty minutes later, breakfast was ready! The peach French toast was sweet and very filling. It felt refreshing because the peaches.

Peach French Toast Bake
Adapted from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger
Serves 6
Cooking spray
1 large whole-wheat or white baguette (about 8 ounces)
4 large eggs
4 large egg whites
1 cup nonfat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups frozen unsweetened slice peaches, thawed
or use fresh peaches (directions included below)
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups plain nonfat yogurt (optional)
pure maple syrup (optional)

Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Cut the baguette into 1/2-inch-thick slices and arrange them in a single layer in the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg whites, milk and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread in the pan.

If using fresh peaches, peel them or blanch them to get the skin off. Slice the peaches and then toss with lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.

Scatter the peach slices evenly over the bread. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Uncover and bake until it's slightly puffed and the bread is golden brown, about 40 minutes. Top with yogurt or drizzle with maple syrup, if desired.

Print recipe

Farmers' markets

Cold Spring Farmers' Market, N.Y.

How many grocery stores and farmers' markets do you visit a week?

For me, it's around three times.

There's something about walking past tables of fresh blackberries, peaches, scallions, sweet potatoes, zucchini and corn. Seriously. I feel more relaxed.

Fridays, I walk to the Poughkeepsie Farmers' Market for lunch. It's way too easy to visit because it's only a couple blocks from work. Twisted Soul restaurant has a stand there and they offer 18-hour pulled pork over arepas. Eating it makes your heart ache. The pulled pork is doused in a sweet sauce and the arepas cut through that sweetness nicely.

I get peaches and other fruit from Dave Page who has orchards in Milton, N.Y. He has some of the sweetest peaches and nectarines I've ever tasted. I can't buy stone fruit from grocery stores anymore unless it's winter.

Saturn peaches

Sometimes I buy peppers, scallions and sun sugar tomatoes. I get stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be refrigerated. I try not to put them in our smelly fridge at work.

Saturdays, I head to the Cold Spring Farmers' Market. It's 20 minutes from our apartment.

I keep coming back for blueberry and raspberry honey from White Oak Apiary. I'm afraid that someday I'll run out of Mike Bruen's honey so I feel like I need to buy more.

Then there's my new addiction to maple syrup matured in a Kentucky Bourbon barrel from 3 Chicks Sugar Shack.

Some beautiful fruits and vegetables:

At some point during the week, I've gone to a regular grocery store to get mangoes, meat and other essentials.

Other markets I go to occasionally:

Rhinebeck Farmers' Market



Beacon Farmers' Market