guest post: cookbook author Nick Evans! plus GIVEAWAY

As much as I love doing guest posts about cookbook authors, bakers, chefs, etc.. I love it even more when some of my friends are the actual guest post. Recently thrilled to have my friend Jill from scarymommy do a guest post on her first book, and now I get another good friend Nick Evans of the famed "confidence in the kitchen" website Macheesmo.com, and also a newly famed cookbook author of the cookbook "Cornerstone Cooking"! A cookbook based on how you can bring new life into leftovers; using a theory on one cornerstone dish and recreating new recipes with its leftovers. Along with the cookbook he also developed cornerstone cooking website, with cooking forums, helpful tips, kitchen gadget reviews/info, and even discussions about new & old cookbooks (a really good idea).

Congrats to you Nick. I was wondering when your first book would appear.
Nick was kind enough to answer a few questions AND donate a couple cookbooks for a giveaway. (see details at bottom of this post).
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer a few questions from me and a couple of your fans.

CLICK ME!

I gotta be honest, I'm not a really good cook when it comes to using my leftovers. And I'm not very savvy at making sure I plan out easy meals that will last into leftovers. I'm sure many of you are in the same boat? Well, that is the whole premise of Nick's book Cornerstone Cooking. Planning better use of your meals BEFORE and after they're made; teaching you how to plan better meals and using them to your advantage. And we need to add in there: saving a lot of money too!

My favorite recipe from Cornerstone Cooking ? The crunchy black bean tacos: everything gets cooked in one pot! Even browning up the corn taco shells!



BIO:
Nick has been writing about cooking for almost four years now. He has posted over 700 recipes on his blog, Macheesmo.com He lives in Colorado with his wife, Betsy, and their two pets, Tipsy and Porter.

Questions:

The use of leftovers in a cookbook. Excellent idea. I wish other food writers would do more of these types of meals. What made you come up with this? Did you get a lot of requests from your fans?

While I do get a lot of emails about how to use up extras and leftovers, the book was formed more out of frustration. I wanted a book that I could reference for ideas based on the leftovers that I regularly found in my fridge. That book didn’t exist so I wrote it. I figured I couldn’t be the only one who constantly had stuff like leftover bread, roasted chicken, and black beans in my fridge. Rather than start from scratch every night, why not use some of that stuff to make new meals?

I don’t think a lot of food writers have tackled the subject because, while it is practical and actually useful, it is somehow seen as not sexy.

I know you get asked a lot of questions, from your fans, regarding food tips and tricks. Share with us some of the most common questions and their answers?

Beyond the occasional marriage proposal (joking – kind of) I get asked a lot about freezing meals. Most meals will freeze okay as long as you wrap them well and store them in an airtight environment. Things I never freeze though are eggs, cream-based things, or anything that I fried.



I know you test your recipes. Were there any recipes that you tested a little bit more than others?

Oh yea… I make everything on my site (and in my book) at least once. I’m pretty good at testing these days and usually I can nail down a recipe in one or two takes.
The recipe I’ve probably made and tested the most from Cornerstone Cooking is the Nick Nuggets recipe. I think the recipe in the book is about as good as homemade nuggets can get.

Your website macheesmo.com: macheesmo meaning confidence; is literally all about helping one become more confident in the kitchen. Was there a reason to go this route? Did you feel the need to personally become more confident in the kitchen?

Yea. I mean, the name is obviously a play on machismo meaning confidence almost to the point of arrogance and cheese which I love.
The site started because I wanted to develop more confidence in my own cooking. I wanted to be able to feed my friends and family without stressing that something was going to go wrong.
I always found some written recipes to be difficult to follow so I made an effort to take step-by-step photos of each meal so the cooking process is easy to follow and hopefully will give you the confidence to try it out.
I think one of the biggest reasons why people don’t cook more is they are afraid it will go badly. So I try to help people realize that they can do it. I also make sure to post failures as well as successes just to show that nobody gets it right all the time.

Do you have a favorite recipe on macheesmo.com?

Many, but right now I love my shredded chicken hard tacos.

They are very similar to the crunchy black bean tacos in Cornerstone Cooking. I use the method to make tacos very regularly and switch up the filling based on what is in my fridge.

Have you ever taught cooking?

Never officially. I frequently have groups of friends over though for theme-specific parties so people can learn basics. I’ve had a fry party, homemade pasta party, and even an eggs benedict party so people can learn how to do those things and also eat good food. I usually charge for such things in beer.

What was the first dish you ever cooked?

The first thing that I actually cooked on my own was a killer egg sandwich I came up with in high school that was basically two eggs and a metric ton of cheese between buttered toast. I perfected it. I ate it a few times a week and friends would even come over before school sometimes to have one. It was that good.



If you could invite three people to share a meal with you, who would they be and what would you cook?

I would cook homemade pizzas because it’s the thing I’m best at I think and I can do it with almost no thought so I could focus on the conversation.

Who? I would want fun, successful people so I could pick their brains. Off the top of my head: Anthony Bourdain, Brian Williams, and Michelle Obama. If Michelle isn’t available, Lady Gaga.

Any foods you just do not like?

Honestly, there isn’t much I don’t like. I’ve never tried it, but I don’t think I would like durian fruit. I literally can’t think of anything that I’ve tried and just wouldn’t try again.

Favorite pig out foods?

Anything Tex-Mex or ice cream. Give it to me.

There has to be some days when you just do not feel like cooking. What’s your favorite quick & easy go-to meal?

Oh of course. I get burned out in the kitchen for sure. The two things that I make a lot when I’m tired is a big salad with lots of veggies, homemade dressing, and some cheese and bread. I also make a lot of nachos which are easy.

If I’m really out of it, I have a pretty well-stocked freezer so I can usually make a meal out of stuff in the freezer also.

I gotta admit I’m just not a huge lentil fan. But after reading your chapter on “cornerstone lentils” and all the variety of dishes you can create with them—I was shocked in fact that you made lentil cookies!
I can’t even think if a chef has ever made lentils in the mini samosas or the spicy lentil wraps look so good. Who knew? What made you choose lentil as a chapter?

I wanted to do a lentil chapter because it’s a food that I don’t think people understand. They are one of the most versatile foods and are very underrated in America.



Which chapter in your cookbook Cornerstone Cooking was the most fun creating?

Actually, the lentil chapter. It was really fun to brainstorm ideas for that chapter and test the recipes. The cookies took some tweaking, but they are great and it was really fun to work on them. To be fair, I’m not the first person to make cookies out of lentils though. Alton Brown has done it also.

I know when I create recipes I like to have ‘taste-testers’; it’s hard for me to just rely on my husband. Did you have any ‘taste-testers’?

Oh yea. There was a period when I was testing recipes for the book that I swear I almost invited people in off the street to try things.
My wife is my first taste-tester and tried almost everything in the book, but I would also host dinner parties occasionally and have friends try out recipes. I’m also not above bringing recipes to a happy hour bar and having people try them out.

I noticed you have some sort of faux rival (cooking rival that is) with DAN from "Food In My Beard" are rivals. How did this come about?

Haha. It’s an old rivalry. We started our blogs at roughly the same time and started exchanging emails like, “I’m watching you, dude. Don’t mess with me.”

We’ve since become good friends and chat regularly. He also makes some of the most inventive stuff on the internet.

I see you graduated Yale with a degree in philosophy? And now you’re a cookbook author. Is there a connection I’m missing here? LOL

A vague one. One thing that philosophy taught me is how to take a complex thing and break it down into parts. That skill is pretty useful when it comes to explaining recipes.

A second cookbook in the works?

Always! My lips are sealed for now though.

And Nick has just recently created "Cornerstone Forums" where people can go and chat about the recipes in the book and just about anything else you need help with in the kitchen. (personally I love the 'no knead bread' discussion.

CLICK ME!

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling us what food/leftovers you'd like to see in Nick's second book?
Be creative.
One entry per person.
Please have a valid email address.
Drawing done Friday April 20, 2012

And the winner of the Funky Chunks Soap Basket giveaway is: lucky #21! "Flavors by Four" who said "pina colada would be my scent".
Please email me your mailing address and let's get that gift basket out to you!

raspberry-white chocolate filled chocolate thumbprints

Remember back when we had the guest post of Scary Mommy? Turns out she had asked me for a kicked up recipe for one of her book signing parties. A sweet treat of some sort. She wanted a red treat to go with her logo and new book Scary Mommy. I didn't have exactly red on my mind and was scared she would say "red velvet something or other". Thank goodness she let me go forth and be creative. I said "I have a nice raspberry filled choc...." "SOLD!" she said! I didn't even get to finish what I was saying.
She loved them so much she even featured them on her blog. Bless her. I do love her. With all the fame she has going now, tour dates, press junkets, today show appearances, etc...she is still the same down-to-earth person. She hasn't let fame go to her head. Thank God because I told her I'd kick her ass if she did. ;-)
She's on her book tour right now. You should meet her, she's a love.



This is what the cookies look like before the white chocolate-raspberry filling has set. And the first photo shows what they look like when they do set up.



It's a very dry dough. A touch or two of milk helps it come together.



Before baking make sure to give the cookie dough balls a little well. After baking you might have to do this again, ever so gently.





raspberry-white chocolate thumbprints
from vanilla sugar blog
print recipe

cookie
1 cup + 2 ½ TB all purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa
1 & ¾ sticks (7 ounces) unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 and ½ ts pure vanilla extract
2 TB (or more) of whole milk
¼ ts salt

filling
½ cup + 2 TB good quality white chocolate chips or chunks
¼ cup (more or less) raspberry coulis (see below)

raspberry coulis:
1 pint fresh raspberries
2 TB granulated sugar, or to taste
1 TB fresh lemon juice, or to taste

Cook notes: The raspberry coulis can be made a couple days ahead of time. Simply keep it in the fridge, tightly covered until ready to use. When ready to use, please let it come to room temperature before using. The melted white chocolate will seize up if you add a cold coulis to it. If you don’t want to make the coulis you could easily just fill the thumbprints with melted white or dark chocolate. Or even any flavored Hershey kiss would work. It is hard to tell when the cookies are done because of their dark color. They won’t brown, but look for dry cookies or cracked. Don’t bake them any longer than 10 minutes! Mine were done in 8 minutes.

for the coulis:
Put all the ingredients in medium sauce pan and cook over medium (not high!) heat until fruit is mostly dissolved and mixture has reduced a bit as well as thickened up; about 30 minutes or more. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pushing down on the solids. You might have to let this sit for a while to finish draining—it takes a while. Don’t forget to scrape off the bottom side of the sieve for all the juicy, thickened pulp. Discard the seeds. Taste and add more sugar or lemon juice if needed; it shouldn’t need anything. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Sift flour and cocoa together into a medium bowl. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and salt; continue beating until blended and smooth, about 1 minute more. Add the flour-cocoa mixture and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms, about 1 minute. Then add in the whole milk—it might not need the whole 2 tablespoons, but use enough to help it come together. This is a dry dough, so don’t add in any more than 2 TB. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until firm enough to roll into balls, about 60 minutes (or longer).

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners. Using your palms, roll heaping teaspoonfuls of the dough into 1-inch balls. Or 2-inch balls. Arrange them 2 inches apart on the lined sheets.
With a lightly floured thumb or index finger-tip, press straight down into the middle of each ball almost to the cookie sheet to make a deep well. (Or use the end of a thick-handled wooden spoon.)
Bake one sheet at a time until the tops of the cookies look dry, 8 to 10 minutes.
Gently redefine the indentations with the end of a wooden spoon.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes and then let them cool completely on racks. If you’ve made the coulis ahead of time, now is the time to take it out of the fridge and let come to room temperature.

For the filling:
Put the white chocolate over a double boiler over low heat. Melt slowly and keep stirring until melted. Once melted add in the raspberry coulis, slowly, a bit at a time, all the while stirring. You can use as much or a little raspberry coulis as you like. The coulis is strong, so a ¼ cup is plenty.
Using a small spoon simply fill each cookie with a teaspoon amount of filling. You could also pour the chocolate mixture into a pastry bag or plastic bag and pipe in the filling. I found a small spoon to work wonders. Cool completely before serving or storing. Should make: if you rolled them into 1-inch balls about 34-36 cookies; if you rolled them into 2-inch balls about 16-19 cookies.

friday links PLUS a giveaway

CONTEST CLOSED!

It's Friday! I love fridays. But you know I love Fridays even more when there is a SUPER fabulous giveaway.
The creative and GENEROUS folks over at Funky Chunks Soaps are giving away a basket full of goodies.
You may recognize the name Funky Chunks Soap as I am a HUGE supporter and user of their soaps. They are all natural, no chemicals, no junk and quite possibly the worlds best scents. They make all of their soaps in small batches to bring you the freshest soaps possible. Soaps are Vegan friendly and have highly fragrant big bubble lather that is kind and gentle to your skin.
Coming soon they will be launching a retro men's line of soaps, as well as plans to open their own store in 2013. Did you know that over 45% of their customers are men? Nothing better than a nice smelling man--well if he smells like Surf Wax then all the better! Surf Wax is my favorite: it smells just like the beach. No really. If you're going to buy just one thing, make it the Surf Wax. Amazing beachy-like scent. It's one of their top sellers.

The giveaway includes a filled with:
Funky Four Pack of soap chunks (green tea zen, tequila sunrise, secret sin, and hello sweetie)
2 ounce Beach Butter solid lotion
16 ounce Organic Cane Sugar Scrub
16 ounce Whip'd Body Butter

AND......
on top of the giveaway, they are offering the readers of vanillasugarblog a 25% off your total order! Yep, you read that right 25% off. No boring 10% or 20% but 25% off until May 6th, 2012!
Use coupon code: vanillasugar when you checkout; enter it in the coupon box. Easy peasy.
AND......
LIKE them on Facebook page. They have other offers and deals there too.
Right now, they have a contest (ends April 15, 2012) "Show us your soapdish".



Drawing ends Friday, April 13, 2012!
One comment per person, please have a valid email.
All you have to do to enter is tell us, if you could create your own soap, what scent(s) would you choose and why?
Be creative!

Friday Links:

Easter is this weekend. Are you interested in making Easter treats for yourself?
Chocolate-peanut butter eggs with crispy filling. Take two with an ice cold glass of milk--Happy Easter!





Or maybe coconut-almond truffle is your thing?
These are the MOST pinned item on my Pinterest.

Are you a horoscope junkie like me? I love my horo-tweets on twitter with these guys. I love them! Follow Zodiac Fact on Twitter.

The updated omelet pan. I want one not only for omelets, but for dual grilled cheese--hey it might work?

Raisins lower blood pressure? I think you might have to eat a fair amount though. Still good news.

Turmeric is really becoming a super-healing spice. Do you use it?

How many of the most common food related illnesses do you have?

Top 10 recovery foods post-workout according to Outside Magazine.




Another hobby I want to take up. I love little magical worlds.
How cute are these books?

DIY hanging garden globe terrarium? Love this website: full of nifty DIY crafts.



The sauce, the rolls, heavenly! I would add a touch of ground peanuts to the rolls. Don't these look good?
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma



I saw this on Pinterest. And now I must have it! I have no idea where it came from, sadly. If you do, tell me.



Using paint chips/samples to decorate a wall. Fabulous idea!!

Last minute Passover recipes.

1-hour NYC tour of Chinatown eats with chef Susan Feniger. She has the best gigs!

Chef Daniel Holzman of The Meatball Shop.
Giving us the scoop in his infamous meatball shop in this candid interview.
Anyone been there yet? It's on my list for NYC.

The Great Food Truck Race is currently casting!

Easter egg tree has a bumper crop!

Shockingly popular British dishes. Yeah, no thanks.



Peanut butter & jelly vodka is here! LOL

Geeky decorated easter eggs.



Best & worst supermarkets.

How about a gumball dress filled with real gumballs?

Cheesecake filled chocolate Easter eggs. Amazing. Hard work.

Spicy-sweet fried tofu buns! That's foodporn to me.

Winners of the "How to Cook Gluten Free" cookbooks are #3 Alexandra and #8 Caiti.
Congrats! Email me your shipping address.

Have a great weekend kids!

brownie bundt with coconut-cream cheese filling

Have you ever taken brownie dough and baked it in a bundt? Me either.
Had to try it, but wanted to kick it up a notch by adding something to the mix, hence coconut-cream cheese filling. I truly believe almost all bundt cakes are better off with a nice creamy filling of some kind. Don't you?
And the best part of all this? It was made with the Baked brownie mix (found at Williams Sonoma) so it's literally a cinch to throw together.
If you wanted to impress your friends with gourmet brownies, this would be the mix to use because they taste just like bakery quality brownies without all the work.
I promised you in the last post that these brownies are good, really good with minimal effort, and I'll say it again. I am super fussy when it comes to buying pre-made brownies mixes. This mix is very very good--high quality, worth every penny.

In case you missed the other two experiments I've made with the Baked brownie mix--here they are: peanut butter cookie crusted brownies and peanut butter & fluff fudgy brownies. Can you tell I have an affinity for peanut butter? No, neither can I.




Baked brownie mix from Williams Sonoma.




Use a small ice cream scoop to place coconut-cream cheese balls on top of brownie dough.



brownie bundt with coconut-cream cheese filling
print recipe

1 box of Baked brownie mix (found at Williams Sonoma)

filling
8 ounces of cream cheese, room temp
1 egg yolk
1/2 ts salt (people have said the salt was a bad addition, so add if you want too)
¾ cup toasted or untoasted coconut (sweetened coconut ok)

Cook notes: there will be leftover filling left. You can try to freeze it and use later (not sure how it freezes). Or you can use it right away on another batch of brownies or coconut-cream cheese cookies.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a small bowl mix all the filling ingredients, set aside.

In a large bowl mix the brownie according to manufacturers directions.
Grease up a Bundt pan with non stick spray.
Pour half the brownie mix in the pan, making sure to get it nice and evenly distributed in the pan
Using a small cookie scoop, out balls of the cream cheese mixture, and place on top of the brownie batter. If you like a lot of filling then place the balls close together, if you like less, then place the balls spaced apart. I did somewhere in between.
Pour remaining brownie batter on top, using a wet spatula GENTLY push brownie batter into all gaps. Don’t push down too hard or you’ll break the balls of filling.
Gently tap Bundt pan to get out any air. Bake 45-55 minutes. Baking times will vary according to ovens. So look for firm top, no loose brownie batter on top when you wiggle pan. A cake tester inserted will yield some small crumbs—this is good.
After baking, let pan cool a while before attempting to release.
I put my Bundt pan in the fridge after it was done cooling to ensure an easier release and easier slicing.

Should make about 10-12 slices, depending on how thick/thin you slice them.

deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie

Why? Why is this in a cast iron pan?
Oh that's very easy to answer, and I think once I answer this you'll agree.
Well, almost all of you will agree; there might be a 3% of you that won't agree because well, maybe you have been living under a rock or something?
So you want the answer?
You sure?
It's really a simple answer.....
CRISPY THICK EDGES with gooey cake-like middle.
Swoon.......



So when I say crispy thick edges, I mean edges that are really thick, like two inches thicker than a normal cookie. As the Barefoot Contessa herself says "how bad can that be?"


Make sure to grease up your cast iron pan reallyvwell with non stick spray.







deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie
adapted from eat live run
(I changed things around a bit)
print recipe

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 ts pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 ts baking soda
1 ts salt
1 & ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Cook notes: if you don’t have a cast iron, you can easily put this in little ceramic ramekins. Just don’t preheat at 400, only preheat at 325 degrees. Make sure you use a clean cast iron; we don't want your cookies tasting like dinner. *Cooking times vary GREATLY! Please check at the 25 minute mark!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease up your cast iron skillet with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and baking soda.
Cream the butter and sugars together. Add in eggs plus egg yolk, then mix. Add in vanilla and mix until just combined. Add in your dry ingredients, mix, then add in the chocolate chips.

Press the cookie dough down into your greased skillet evenly; using wet hands make sure the corners are good and even with dough.
Place in preheated 400 degree oven, then turn temp down to 325 degrees and bake for about 25-40* minutes. Might want to rotate pan halfway thru baking.
You are looking for golden brown edges and slightly cakey crumbs come thru when a cake tester is used.
Make sure to let this rest for at least an hour before slicing.