Barefoot Contessa Party: Onion & Fennel Soup Gratin

I was most excited about making this one. Ina explains that this is her take on french onion by "turning up the volume" with fennel. It was so good. The recipe calls for 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 1/4c olive oil, 3lbs spanish onion, 2lbs fennel (core removed), 1/2 c dry sherry, 1/2 cognac or brandy, 1 1/2 c dry white wine, 8 cups beef broth, 3 bay leaves, 1tbsp kosher salt, ground black pepper, sliced sourdough, 6 oz grated Gruyère cheese. The soup takes a good amount of time to make but probably the most labor intensive part is slicing the onions and fennel--5lbs total is a lot! It was well worth it though. Definitely going to make this again. All and all I would say the Barefoot Contessa party was a delicious, fun and cheese-y success.

Barefoot Contessa Party: Baked Fontina

Ina's Baked Fontina is basically cheese fondue that you scoop up with bread. The recipe calls for 1 1/2lbs of Italian Fontina Val d'Aosta cheese, olive oil, 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced, 1tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves, 1tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves, kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and some bread. Dice the cheese into cubes and distribute evenly in a 12-inch cast iron skillet. Drizzle the EVOO and sprinkle the remaining ingredients on top of the cheese. Broil for 6 minutes and serve piping hot with bread. We served it with some baguette, sourdough and a yummy green salad.
The dish was delicious but very rich. Next time I would use half the amount of EVOO she calls for (1/8 of a cup instead of 1/4).

Barefoot Contessa Party: Old-Fashioned Banana Cake

Today I am having a Barefoot Contessa cooking party with my friends Lauren and Liat. Lauren and I had talked about doing this for a while because we are both huge Ina Garten fans and my mom recently got me her new cookbook, How Easy is That? We picked three recipes to make for an early dinner tonight. It was hard to pick but we ended up choosing the ones that just made our mouth water looking at the pictures in the book, and despite the lack of variety in the meal (lots of cheese!) it's going to be so delicous. This morning I made our dessert: the Barefoot Contessa's old-fashioned banana cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake calls for 3 ripe bananas, 3/4c sugar, 1/2c packed light brown sugar, 1/2c vegetable oil, 2 eggs at room temp, 1/2c sour cream, 1tsp vanilla extract, 1 grated zest of orange (which I didn't include, so I'm hoping for the best), 2c flour, 1tsp baking soda, 1/2tsp kosher salt and 1/2c chopped walnuts. Sift the flour, salt and baking soda together. Mix the sugar, brown sugar and bananas in a mixer on low until combined, then add the oil, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix on low until smooth. Finally add the sifted flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in chopped walnuts, and then bake for 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees. After baking, let cool in pan for 15 minutes and then take out and cool on a cooling rack.
The cream cheese icing calls for 2 1/2c of confectioners sugar (sifted), 6 tbsp butter (room temp), 6 oz cream cheese (room temp) mixed together with a mixer on low speed. Totally decadent and unbelievably delicious. And I have to say, the cake turned out astoundingly like the one in the beautiful photograph in the cookbook.

My Inner Ina

Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That? cooking party tomorrow...stay tuned!

Knots!

I made these garlic knots from store-bought pizza dough. I cut the dough into 12 pieces, folded a pinch of minced garlic and some parmesan cheese into each piece, then rolled the piece into a ball and placed it into a muffin tin (PAMed, of course). Then I brushed a little bit of melted butter on top and added more garlic. Baked them in the oven and voila! Next time I'd make 24 knots--these were a little too big.

A Barefoot Wedge Salad

I made this salad dressing from my new cookbook, a fantastic gift from my awesome mother, How Easy is That?, a new Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) cookbook. This salad dressing calls for chopped scallions, fresh basil, greek yogurt, buttermilk, a bit of mayo, fresh ground pepper, all thrown into the food processor. I made a wedge salad with it one night but Adam also enjoyed it for a few days as a dip for crudités. I highly recommend this cookbook. Look for more Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That? recipes coming soon!

Nachos!

I made nachos for Sunday football last week: I started with a layer of chips with a thin layer of monteray jack cheese. Then I put a layer of black beans, chicken, diced white onion, and another layer of cheese. I baked the nachos in the oven for about 15 minutes. When they came out of the oven I topped them off with homemade pico de gallo and chopped scallions. We enjoyed them with guacamole and salsa on the side. Delicious!

Fish Tacos

I just can't get enough of the fish tacos. I think the fresh pico de gallo is partially what makes them so delicious, but I also think we were really able to master cooking the fish. See previous fish tacos posts here to find out how.

Baked Brie

I wouldn't call this cooking per se, but my friends Krystal & Tom came over a few weeks back to watch a movie and I put out a few snacks. My amazing grandmother had given me a brie baker over the summer so I did it up. Placed a round brie in the ceramic dish, topped with apricot preserves and baked it for about 20 minutes. Needless to say, it was delicious.

QCC is back with a steak salad!

QCC has been out of commission for a few months now. Apologies to all my loyal readers. My favorite sister has been begging for some new posts...so here they are. This first one is a steak salad I made Adam a couple weeks ago. Wegman's sells "perfect portion" strip steaks. Pan seared these babies, cut them up and placed them on top of a lovely green salad. Yum!