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>Sprouts Cooking Club Fundraiser at Pizzaiolo

4 Feb

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300 apple fritters. 19 frittatas. Toast, jam, butter, homemade pork rillette. Straus yogurt and granola parfaits with bananas and berries. Espressos and Americanos. Volunteers arrived early Sunday morning to help prepare for the Sprouts Cooking Club fundraiser brunch held at the trendy Oakland restaurant hot-spot, Pizzaiolo.


Sprouts Cooking Club is a children’s cooking program located in the Bay Area. The program emphasizes hands-on cooking with local, sustainable ingredients and with chefs from around the area. Donations from Straus Creamery, Whole Foods Market, McLaughlin coffee, Organic Valley Farms, and Alter Eco Fair Trade supply the kids with the ingredients and materials necessary to get their hands busy and their creative juices flowing.

Here are some of the kids from the summer. They are very serious about chopping their ingredients to make homemade salsa fresca and guacamole at Picante restaurant in Berkeley:


These Sprouts go above and beyond in the kitchen—not only are they excited about all of the fresh meals they get to prepare, but they act so maturely and are not afraid to connect with all of the guest chefs, asking questions and experimenting with different textures and flavors! Going into a restaurant and seeing where their food is coming from and how it is prepared is another integral portion of the program.

Cooking and enjoying a meal together is a real treat, and in April 2010, some of these lucky kids will have the chance to travel to FRANCE to cook! This trip will provide the kids and their families an opportunity to experience first hand what another country’s culinary and cultural lifestyle entails.

At the fundraiser this past Sunday, we had Jed working the frittatas and overseeing pretty much everything. Jed is actually going to go to France with the kids in April!


Tony was manning the coffee.


Volunteers from UC Berkeley were all over the dining crowd, directing people to their seats, clearing tables, washing dishes.

And I was standing over a hot pot of oil, frying up some delicious apple fritters. Dunked in glaze, these fritters were sweet and soft, and the apples gave them a nice bite.



This blogger sums up the exciting story of how Karen Rogers, founder and director of Sprouts Cooking Club, came to start the camp and foster an ever-growing next generation of chefs and food lovers.

Hooray for young, budding kid chefs!

>Thumbprint Cookies

21 Jan

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Today I woke up when it was pitch black, the wind was howling, and pouring sheets of rain managed to break my umbrella. As my day progressed, I sat down on a chair and some sharp object of destruction crept up on me and ripped a hole in the derriere of my jeans. Later, I sloshed through a grove of wet, sticky mud which managed to get all over my rain boots (at least this can wash off).

I walked home up a bazillion steep hills while carrying 3 huge textbooks, a messenger bag, an extra coat, and a wet, broken umbrella. After shoving mounds of chocolate chips down my throat and collapsing onto my cushiony desk chair in my warm house, I feel slightly better. Slightly.

Thumbprint cookies. Reminiscing about these thumbprint cookies makes me feel a bit better, too. I made these back down in sunny Los Angeles just before I drove back up to rainy Berkeley. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE being back in Berkeley, I could not be happier, but today is just one of those days.

Whether it is sunny or rainy, snowy or hail-y, these cookies with hit the spot.


When making thumbprint cookies, you literally push your thumb into the ball of dough, making a small indent that cannot wait to be filled with goodness!

And guess what? This dough is exactly the same dough that I used to make my apple tart! It’s like when you see a spread in a magazine where the same skirt or jacket can be worn for work, weekend, and a night-out-on-the-town. Crazy, I know, but true. Even though I used the same dough recipe, I can really taste a harder, crumblier tart shell crust in my apple tart and a softer, chewier, cakier cookie dough in the thumbrpint cookies. Isn’t it amazing how different the same thing can turn out when paired with something new?!

And the best part? I get to fill these babies with anything I want! Not only have I been on a Meyer lemon kick lately, but Nutella is now my new obsession. So, I chose to do variety of fillings–Meyer lemon curd (homemade of course), Nutella (the store-bought kind of course), and I threw in some fig/walnut jam as well as some strawberry jam. Mmmm mmm mmm now I can have one of each because of course, I must taste them all!

And look, this Nutella one came out looking like a little Hershey’s kiss, cute!

Thumbprint Cookies
(NOTE: this is the same “Sweet Tart Dough” used to make my apple tart)

makes about 30 cookies

Beat together until creamy:
8 Tablespoons (1 stick)
1/3 cup sugar

Add and mix until completely combined:
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Add:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour

Mix well, stirring and folding, until there are no dry patches. Chill for a bit, maybe 3o minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Take your dough out of the refrigerator and roll into little balls about the size of a large walnut in its shell (1-inch?). Fill a shallow bowl or plate with about 1/2 a cup of:
granulated sugar

Roll each ball into the sugar.

Press your thumb gently into the top of each ball until a small indent forms. Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven, and fill the indents with:
lemon curd
or
jam (If using Nutella or chocolate kisses, wait)

Bake for another 5 minutes, or until light and golden. Let them cool. Now you can fill them with:
Nutella (I just plopped some in with a spoon)
or
Hershey’s kisses

Meyer Lemon Yogurt Cake

16 Jan

Pucker up and get ready for some Meyer lemon madness. I’ve been busy with Meyer lemon yogurt cake, thumbprint cookies filled with Meyer lemon curd, Meyer lemon sorbet, and Meyer lemon marmalade => I think I’m in love.

According to Alice Waters’ book Chez Panisse Fruit, Meyer lemons “…are sweeter than other lemons, and…a hybrid of lemons and mandarins…they are juicier and their skin is more tender (than other lemons)…”

These lemons have super soft and smooth skin.

What I love about this Meyer lemon yogurt cake is how moist and wholesome it tastes. Four of us finished more than half of the loaf in one sitting. This is good stuff!

If you’ve got an overabundance of Meyer lemons, check out this website for some tantilizing Meyer lemon recipes.

AND…if you’re feelin’ frisky, this yogurt cake also likes the addition of berries or poppyseeds!

Meyer Lemon Yogurt Cake
recipe adapted from Ina Garten

makes 1 loaf pan’s worth of cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 cup plain yogurt (I used non-fat)
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 t. Meyer lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup lemon juice
~1/3 cup sugar (I used a little less than 1/3 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan and line with parchment and then grease and flour the pan.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together yogurt, sugar, eggs, zest, and vanilla.

4. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the vegetable oil.

5. Bake for 50 minutes.

6. While the cake bakes, cook your lemon juice with your sugar until the sugar dissolves and the mixture runs clear. Pour it over the cake.

>Nutella-Stuffed French Toast

13 Jan

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Nutella-Stuffed French Toast. Do you see it? Do you see the oozing chocolate hazelnut spread? Do you see how perfectly golden the rustic Italian-style bread becomes when I dip it in an egg/milk/vanilla/cinnamon batter and cook it on the skillet? Do you see how the dusting of powdered sugar gives this ‘twist on a classic breakfast’ that finishing touch? People, this is Nutella-Stuffed French Toast. Can breakfast really get any better than this?

Nutella-Stuffed French Toast
inspired by World Nutella Day

-Bread (challah bread, sourdough, brioche, cinnamon raisin bread, regular sandwich bread…)
-Nutella
-Jam

-1 egg
-milk (I just eyeballed it, maybe it was about 1/2 to 3/4 cup?)
-a pinch of salt
-cinnamon
-a dash of vanilla

-butter or earth balance spread

-powdered sugar

1. Take one slice bread and spread it fairly generously with Nutella. Take the other slice of bread and spread with a thin layer of jam, I like to use raspberry jam. Press the two slices of bread together like a sandwich.

2. Using a fork, whisk together your egg, milk, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Dip your sandwich into the batter on both sides.

3. Heat a skillet and place a bit of butter in the pan. Fry your sandwich until gorgeous and golden on each side (aka about 1-2 minutes per side?).

4. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy with fresh fruit and a tall glass of milk (or milky coffee…yum!).

Warm Tortilla with Cheese and Egg

6 Jan


Oh brother. How I spoil you.

You are my little experiment. I like to test my recipes and make you eat them. Not so bad, right?

I made you the most rockin’ lunch today. It started with a warmed tortilla, topped with cheese and a fried egg. I threw together some tomato, avocado, and red onion and splashed it with lemon juice, salt/pepper, and a sprinkle of cayenne. With a dash of hot sauce! The warm, slightly browned and crunchy yet soft tortilla is out of this world! Cheesy? You betcha. Eggy? Uhhuh. Colorful? Duh.

Yes, there is a bit of butter and cheese and egg, but you get your protein, your whole grain carbs, and your vegetable/fruit serving. It fills you up and tastes so so so good. You can eat this like a pizza or cut into bite-size pieces. Warning: It can get messy!

Warm Tortilla with Cheese and Egg

tortilla (I used a whole wheat tortilla)
a bit of butter
cheese
egg
salt and pepper
salsa or hot sauce

tomato
red onion
avocado
lemon juice
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper

1. Spread the tortilla with a bit o’ butter on both sides. Heat a non-stick skillet to med-high heat. Place your tortilla on the skillet and cook for about 1-2 minutes or until browned. Flip and cook the other side. Take it off the heat and put some cheese over it. Keep in a warmed oven while you make your egg.

2. Fry your egg, scramble your egg, cook your egg sunny-side up, over-easy, poached, whatever way you like.

3. Place the egg atop your tortilla and cheese and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. For your “salsa,” chop up your tomato, red onion, and avocado, sprinkle with salt pepper and a dash of cayenne and squeeze some lemon juice over.

Gorgeous!

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