By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

‘Mon petit chou’ is a French term of endearment that translates to ‘my little cabbage’.  I use this playful term when expressing my long-term affection for the humble, cruciferous cabbage.  I honestly believe (and sometimes rant) that it is one of the most overlooked, under-utilized vegetables readily available in markets.  Sturdy, abundant, and inexpensive, cabbage is a longstanding dietary staple throughout the world and stores so well that it is available throughout the year.  Although, it is at its best during the late fall and winter months when it is in season.

When I have a head of cabbage in the fridge that starts looking tired, I look for inventive ways to use it up.  A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this simple recipe and have fallen in love with cabbage more deeply.  This recipe deserves a try, not only as a side, but as a center plate ‘star’ on nights you’re looking for an easy supper.  Add some cheese, poach up an egg to serve on the side, drizzle with balsamic, or serve with pierogies.  I don’t think I’ll ever stop adoring cabbage, especially when it’s caramelized and nutty-tasting with bacon sprinkled on top.

Roasted Cabbage with Bacon
From theKitchn.com

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 large head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 slices thick bacon

Method:

Heat the oven to 450°F. Cut the cabbage into quarters and slice the bottom of each quarter at an angle to remove the stem core. Cut each quarter in half again so you have eight wedges. Lay these down on a large roasting pan or cast iron skillet and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Cut each slice of bacon into small strips and lay on top of the cabbage.

Roast for 30 minutes, flipping the cabbage wedges once halfway through. If the edges aren’t browned enough for your taste after 30 minutes, put them back in for five-minute increments until they are. Serve immediately.

Saturday, April 3^rd from 12-4pm, The Bake Sale, one of CSR’s most anticipated community events is hopping onto the calendar. This year, the Bake Sale will be held over Easter weekend. Get a jump start on your sweet shopping and place a preorder for your favorite Bake Sale goods. The Bake Sale is CSR’s Professional Pastry Arts Program’s student-run bakery. All of the proceeds benefit CSR’s Scholarship Fund. Don’t miss out on a sweet time to shop for your Easter basket sweets and Holiday treats for Easter!

Choose from the following items for your preorder:

• 9“ Fruit Tart $22
• 8″ Layer Cake $36 (Choose from the following filling flavor options: Mango Buttercream, Passionfruit Buttercream, Raspberry Buttercream, Chocolate Ganache)
• 8″ Cuatro Leches Cake $40
• Baguette $4
• Challah $8

To place a preorder, email Sarah, CSR’s Office Manager, with your order and contact information.

If you find yourself drooling over cupcakes and soufflés and day-dreaming about caramels and truffles, CSR has the perfect class for you. Pastry Skills! In just over a week, we’ll be starting our most advanced and in-depth pastry class. In Pastry Skills you’ll learn to master over one-hundred tricks and techniques under the guidance and instruction of award-winning Pastry Chef, Amy DeWitt. Chef Amy will share her humor, art, and pastry wisdom with you as you create edible masterpieces from croissants to candies. Pastry Skills is only offered ONCE A YEAR, so don’t miss out on this chance to be a part of the sweetest class CSR offers.

Pastry Skills – 10 Sessions
Mondays & Tuesdays, March 22 – April 20, 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Hands-On. Cost $1,185

Please call our office at 303.494.7988 to register or to find out if this class is right for you. Happy baking!

From a review of one of Sarah’s (CSR’s Social Media Expert and Office Manager) personal hometown favorite drive-ins to a fantastic recipe for Carrot Cake Jam, there’s no going wrong in this edition of the Daily Nibbles. Check out these adorable decorated marshmallows for Easter, and listen to Molly Wizenberg in her new foodie podcast on your commute into work. There’s a bite for every taste today!

Carrot Cake Jam

Springtime Marshmallows

Listen To: Spilled Milk Podcast

Have YOU Eaten Here? Superdawg!

Are you having an Oscar party this Sunday? Instead of making dinner for your guests, why not serve a few small plates, tapas-style! They’re smaller, quicker to prepare, and very chic. Get bold and creative with your Oscar menu: Add some spice, sizzle, and color – you’ll then be ready to party like the stars.  

Here’s a recipe to inspire your menu: Chèvre and Tomato Tartlets. We could nosh on these savory, petite pasties all day. They are a perfect treat for your Oscar gathering!

Chèvre and Tomato Tartlets

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients for Dough:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

4 oz butter, very cold

4 oz water, cold

1 egg yolk

Ingredients for Filling:

12 oz goat cheese

2 eggs

1 tablespoon cake flour

2 oz cream

4 large tomatoes, very thinly sliced

salt and white pepper to taste

½ cup fresh basil, very thinly sliced

 Method:

1.       Sift flour and salt together. Cut butter into small pieces. Using fingertips, mix the butter and flour together, flaking the mixture until it begins to resemble coarse meal.

2.       Mix together the water and egg yolk. Add the liquid to the flour mixture and fold together just until it begins to hold the shape of a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3.       Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out onto a marble surface using extra flour for dusting until the dough is approximately 1/12 of an inch thick. You should not be able to dent the dough by lightly pressing with a finger. Cut into 2 inch circles.

4.       Lightly oil tartlets molds. Press the dough circles gently into the mold, removing any excess with a sharp knife.

5.       Preheat oven to 350°

6.       While the oven is preheating, mix the goat cheese with the eggs. Sprinkle flour over the mix and stir in well. Add cream and season to taste.

7.       Pour the goat cheese mixture into the tartlet molds. Arrange the tomato slices nicely over the goat cheese and sprinkle with basil. Season generously with salt and pepper.

8.       Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until custard is set and edges are browned.

9.       Serve warm or at room temperature.

By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

 With a title like ‘Million Dollar Chicken,’ who wouldn’t want to try this recipe?  I’ve seen various blog posts last week about a simple Moroccan-style chicken recipe  prepared with cumin, cinnamon, dried currants, and a jar of salsa that won the million-dollar prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off.  So when I had a whole fryer on hand and no lemons or fresh herbs for a classic French preparation, I decided to try my own take on the million dollar chicken. 

The recipe I followed was in Food & Wine and uses a whole fryer.  It was simple to make and produced tasty results.  It’s a great Sunday afternoon kind of meal, but if you choose to use thighs over a whole bird, it will go much quicker.  This would be a great meal to serve when you host guests for the simple fact that you can eat it slightly warm, but not necessarily hot out of the oven, which leaves time for cocktails or aperitifs. It works well over a bed of couscous, is wonderfully filling, and improves as it sits.

Have you ever entered a recipe into a cooking contest and won a prize?  Share your recipes and stories with us.  Or let us know if you happened to stumble upon this Million Dollar Chicken recipe and give it a try.  Lay it on us (no chicken pun intended) – we love hearing from you!

 Moroccan Roasted Chicken

Adapted from Food & Wine

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Salt and freshly ground pepper

One 4-pound chicken, at room temperature

1 onion, quartered

5 garlic cloves

4 Roma tomatoes, quartered

2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks

2 cups chickpeas

1 cup water

1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium broth (used when making sauce at the end)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 425° and position a rack in the lower third of the oven. In a bowl, mix the butter with the honey, cumin, coriander, sweet paprika, cayenne and cinnamon and season with salt and pepper.
2. Pat the chicken dry. Rub half of the spice butter under the skin and the rest over the chicken; season with salt and pepper.
3. Set the chicken breast-side-up on a rack in a roasting pan. Scatter the onion, garlic cloves, tomatoes, carrots and chickpeas and add 1/2 cup of water. Roast for 30 minutes, until the breast is firm and just beginning to brown in spots. Using tongs, turn the chicken breast-down and roast for 20 minutes longer, until the skin is lightly browned.
4. Using tongs, turn the chicken breast-side-up. Add another 1/2 cup of water, if needed. Roast for about 20 minutes longer, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the inner thigh registers 175° to 180°.
5. Tilt the chicken to drain the cavity juices into the pan; transfer the bird to a cutting board. Remove the rack from the pan and spoon off the fat. Set the pan over high heat. Add the stock and cook, scraping up any browned bits. Carve the chicken and pass the chunky jus at the table. Serve with couscous. 

Move your party to the couch this Sunday and celebrate Tinseltown’s most talented stars. Dim the lights, raise the curtains and snuggle up on the sofa to catch what all the celebrities are wearing and what they’re winning. To celebrate the nomination of Julie & Julia, we’re sharing one of Julie Powell’s favorite cocktails. If you’ve read the book, you know: Toast the stars with a classic Gin Gimlet!

Gin Gimlet

Makes one drink

Ingredients:

2 oz. Gin

½ oz. Fresh Lime Juice

Method:

 Pour the gin and lime juice into a mixing glass half-filled with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the lime slice or wedge.

There’s no better time to celebrate bacon and all-things pork than on National Pig Day! In honor of the pig, CSR is sharing a tasty bacon tart recipe with our fellow bacon-loving fans. This tart is cheesy, oniony and most of all bacony! Try it for dinner tonight and let us know what you think.

 Bacon, Gruyere and Vidalia Onion Tart

Serves 10

Ingredients for crust:

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 oz (or more) ice water

Ingredients for filling:

9 thick-cut bacon slices, chopped

3 large Vidalia (sweet) onion, thinly sliced

½ oz of sugar

3 cup whipping cream

3 large eggs

3 large egg yolk

3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Generous pinch of salt

Generous pinch of ground nutmeg

1 1/2 cup (packed) coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

1 cup Riesling Wine

Method for crust:
1. Blend flour and salt in processor. Add butter; by pulsing blade until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more ice water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured work surface to about 3/8” thick.  Roll out dough to fit 9” tart and pan and line dough in tart pan. Pierce crust all over with fork. Freeze 10 minutes. Line crust with parchment paper, top with a sheet pan and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake crust 15 minutes or until crust holds it shape on its own. Remove parchment paper and beans. Bake until crust is set and partially cooked through, about 10 minutes longer. Cool crust while making filling. Maintain oven temperature.

Method for filling:
1. Sauté bacon in medium skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.

2. Add onion and pinch of sugar to drippings in skillet and sauté until onion is deep golden brown. Deglaze pan w/ wine. 

3. Whisk cream, egg, egg yolk, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in small bowl to blend, and add onion and bacon. Pour mixture over the cooled tart shell and bake at 350°F until the tart is puffed and filling is set, about 25 minutes. Cool tart on rack 10 minutes. Remove pan sides. Serve warm.

This week, we’ve found something for everyone. From Chocolate Covered Peeps, to Yakisoba, to a Honduran bread called Pan de Coco – here is a read for every taste bud.  

 Have you ever read a great article you think your fellow foodies would enjoy? Send it to Sarah, CSR’s resident blogger, for next week’s Daily Nibbles. We’ll take a look over submissions, select our favorites, and make sure to give honorable mentions.

Chocolate Covered Peeps!

What is: Yakisoba?

How Do You Chew?

Pan de Coco. Yum Yum.

By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

 I’ve always been a fan of the ‘black stuff’, but even more so after a recent trip to Ireland.  I had the best pint in the world at The Strand in Strandhill which is a small surf town really close to Sligo on the western coast.  My life seemed to change after that experience.  A good pint of Guinness can have some very magical effects, as one may know.  So as we get closer to the month of March and St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to try a very simple and much-talked about recipe: Guinness Caramel Sauce.  I modified the recipe a bit since Guinness can have a slightly bitter edge.  Once modified and poured over a good vanilla bean ice cream, this sauce is absolutely delicious. And as simple as picking a shamrock!

Check out our festive Traditional Irish Cooking class, if you’re looking for a pub-and-parade alternative for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  We’d love for you to share your favorite Guinness recipes from cake to stew too.  Sláinte!

 Guinness Caramel Sauce
Adapted from Food Network Magazine

One 15 oz can Guinness or other stout beer
2/3 cup sugar
3 – 4 Tbsp butter, cold and diced

Pinch of salt
Vanilla bean ice cream
Accompaniments:  Shortbread cookies or crushed pretzels for topping

Bring one 15 ounce can Guinness and 2/3 cup sugar to a simmer in a saucepan over low heat and cook until syrupy, about 40 minutes (the bubbles will get foamy and it’ll start to thicken quickly).  Whisk in 3 – 4 Tbsp diced cold butter and a pinch of salt.  Drizzle the Guinness caramel over vanilla bean ice cream.  Serve with shortbread cookies or crushed pretzels, if you have some.