First, You Make a Roux

Fat Cow

 

If you live in or around Baton Rouge and have not yet tried Fat Cow I recommend that you do so immediately. In my opinion their hamburgers are the best in Baton Rouge, no contest.

It opened up about 2.5 weeks ago, and today I went for the 6th time. In my defense, it's less than half a mile from my house, and they do serve things other than fries deep-fried in duck fat and sprinkled with parmesan (although those are tasty).

My favorite burger so far is the Napa, which is topped with goat cheese, red onion marmalade (!), and pears. The Creole Cream Cheese Malt is dangerously good. And once when Patrick wanted to go for dinner and I didn't want to tell him I'd already been for lunch I ordered a salad - the Baby Bleu with blue cheese crumbles, candied pecans, dried cherries, and champagne vinaigrette. And it was delicious.

 

Today, because of my obsession I got the leftovers when the owner made a little too much chocolate shake.

This is kind of like that time in college when I got breakfast at New York Bagel every day before my summer class and stopped going when the cashier said, "see you tomorrow." Only I'm not going to stop eating at Fat Cow.

Here's a link to their menu.

No-Yeast Molasses Wheat Bread

This is my beautiful Mawmaw Joyce (and Pawpaw Aubry) -mother of eight, grandmother of twenty-four(?), great-grandmother of... many. Every Friday morning for years my grandma has folded bulletins at the church with several other ladies. This is a recipe she passed on to me from one of her bulletin-folding friends.

The honey and molasses make it moist and slightly sweet.

 

You'll need:

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c. white all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 c. honey

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1 1/2 c. buttermilk

1/2 c. molasses

 

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease loaf pan with oil.

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, and stir to combine thoroughly. In a separate bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, and stir until just combined to form a sticky dough.

Turn into prepared loaf pan, and bake for one hour.

So yummy and makes the house smell so good.

Thanks, Mawmaw Joyce! <3

Rosemary Cookies

These are delicious little cookies that you can make on a whim with things you probably already have on hand. They take about 25 minutes from start to finish and make 25-30 bite-sized cookies. They’re wonderful with coffee or tea. I found the basic recipe in Cookin’ Up A Storm and modified it slightly.

 

Here’s what you’ll need.

 

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

½ c. confectioner’s sugar

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature.

2-3 tbsp. rosemary

Splash of lemon juice

Granulated sugar for sprinkling

 

Special equipment:

Small rubber stamp

(There are probably special cookie stamps, but I just used a regular rubber stamp with a fleur de lis design.)

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Lay out parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Mix all ingredients until they form a cohesive dough.

 

 

 

Roll teaspoons of dough into balls and place on parchment paper. 

 

 

      

 

Stamp each cookie with the rubber stamp. This serves to flatten them out and creates a pretty imprinted design. (If you don’t want to use a rubber stamp you can flatten them out with the bottom of a glass.) Sprinkle each cookie with a tiny bit of granulated sugar. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned. 

 

 

Place cookies on a rack to cool.

 

 

Arrange on a plate and share.

 

Drying Herbs - Part 2

 

Once the herbs were dry I picked the leaves off the stems ...

 

 
 

and stored them in spice jars labeled with the contents and date.

 

   

I got these pretty little labels in my Christmas stocking and have been waiting to use them. Santa got them from Anthropologie.

I ended up with LOTS of sage

... a few jars of basil

... some oregano

... some rosemary, and not enough thyme to fill a jar.

 

I also combined some of the herbs to make an Italian seasoning mix. I used 2 tbsp. each of basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage. It's great to toss into spaghetti, lasagna, etc.

 

Herbs are so easy to grow and can be expensive to buy fresh or dried at the grocery, so I love having fresh herbs right outside my door for most of the year and my own dried herbs to use in the winter.

Drying Herbs - Part 1

This summer our herb garden exploded with basil, sage, rosemary, thyme, and oregano (the tomatoes and cucumbers in the vegetable garden not so much). So, I decided to dry some to store for the winter. Here's what I did:

      

Cut whatever fresh herbs you want to dry, wash carefully, and dry thoroughly.

Tie a few sprigs together. It's a good idea to tightly wrap the ribbon/string around several times so none of the sprigs fall out when they begin to lose moisture.

Hang them upsidedown to dry in a place where they won't be disturbed or get direct sunlight. I hung them up in the kitchen where I could enjoy seeing and smelling them while they dried. These are rosemary and thyme.

Sage and oregano.

 

Now, leave them there for a week or two. Above are two bunches of sage - one that's been drying for several days and another that I just hung.

The length of time it takes the herbs to dry depends on the type of herb and your environment. For me in hot and humid South Louisiana something small like thyme takes about a week. Herbs with bigger leaves and more moisture, like basil or sage, may take two weeks.

 

I also experimented with cayenne peppers for the first time. They still weren't quite dry after two weeks, and I was impatient, so I ended up baking them on a low temp after I'd crushed them to get the remaining moisture out.