No need to buy those kits for dying Easter eggs this year! You probably have all of the ingredients hiding in the back of your cupboards from pickling over the summer or making Christmas cookies during a snowstorm. Just pick up some fresh eggs follow our instruction for dying them to perfection.  Whether you celebrate Easter or not, dying Easter eggs is an age old tradition that is fun for everyone and a great way to kick off a springtime celebration.

If you’re planning on making Easter baskets too, make sure to stop by CSR’s Bake Sale this Saturday from 12-4pm to pick up all kinds of goodies to stuff your baskets with. From Cake Pops to Marshmallows – someone will think the Easter bunny went all out this year!

Handmade Easter Eggs

Ingredients:

For each color:

1 teaspoon white vinegar

About 20 drops liquid food coloring

White-shelled hard-boiled eggs

Method:

1. Line a large baking sheet with paper towels and top with wire cooling rack.
2. In small bowl or cup, stir together 1/2 cup boiling water, vinegar, and food coloring. Immerse eggs in dye, turning occasionally to ensure even coating until desired color, about 5 minutes. Using slotted spoon or tongs, remove eggs from dye and transfer to rack to drain. Refrigerate when dry.

And, here are some crafty tips to make your eggs just little bit more special:

• Wrap a portion of the egg with a rubber band before dyeing. Once the egg is dry, remove the rubber band to reveal the white, undyed strip underneath.
• Another way to block off portions of the egg: Affix stickers or tape in shapes such as daisies or dots before dyeing. Remove once the egg is dry.
• A third way to block off portions: Before dyeing, draw on the egg with a light-colored crayon or wax. If desired, once the egg is dry, the wax can be softened by holding the egg over a candle flame and then wiped off
• Dip a portion of the egg in one color and another portion in another color. If the two sections overlap, that area will turn a combination of the two colors to create a tie-dyed effect.

Congratulations to a happy couple who’s engagement started right here, at CSR. Friday evening in the widely popular Dinner Date class, we had a lovely gentlemen propose to his long-time girlfriend during dinner. After the cooking was finished and the dishes were out of the way, during a quiet meal filled with Bacon Wrapped Dates, French Onion Soup, Chicken Saltimbocca, and Chocolate Chunk Cookies, he knelt on one knee and proposed; and she said yes! The office staff heard word of the big proposal weeks before and left a bottle of champagne chilling for Chef Adriana Perez to toast the newly engaged couple with. We at CSR, wanted to be the first ones to wish the couple a lifetime of happiness together filled with love, cooking and many wonderful meals to come.

I am pleased to share all of these exciting links with our lovely readers today. On the menu: Cookbooker. Have you seen this site yet? It’s a new recipe finder site. Hooray! Shrimp Jambalaya, anyone? The perfect dinner to make from a weekends worth of cooking. Check out local Boulder/Denver chefs up for the James Beard Awards. And, maybe the most tantalizing of all, Morning Muffins from one of Amuse-Bouche’s readers and blogger from Circle B Kitchen, Patty Berry. I cannot wait to try these yummy-looking (and healthy) muffins for breakfast this week.  Bon Appetit!

Cookbooker

Fast & Easy Recipe for Shrimp Jambalaya

Local Chefs Up For James Beard Awards

Healthy Morning Muffins

By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

This past weekend it was my boyfriend’s birthday and we decided to throw a Pigs & Pints party.  We prepared a very basic menu and asked guests to bring a pork-centric dish or snack, and a new craft beer they’ve never tried before.  Our short, simple menu included Cuban Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Pickled Slaw; Drunken Beans; Bacon-Caramel Popcorn; and several growlers of Great Divide beer.  The guests brought along plenty of imaginative side dishes…and plenty more hoppy brew.

Deviating from the party details, you’ll have to once again bear with me as I express my fond affection for a very humble food item: Beans.  Beans are way up high on my ‘favorites’ list right alongside cabbage.  But I don’t used canned beans, oh no…I like starting with dried varieties of heirloom beans.  When I stumble across them, I snatch them up and try new recipes with them.  Heirloom beans are an absolute culinary gem!  So, the morning of the party I pulled out my beloved Rancho Gordo Heirloom Beans cookbook and followed the Cuban pulled pork and drunken bean recipes.  The beans I selected for the drunken bean dish were a mix of standard red beans as well as Jacob’s Cattle beans (gorgeous mottled maroon and white beans with small black flecks). The dishes were an absolute hit.  I usually have to use a pressure cooker to speed up the cooking time of the beans, but near the end I pop the top off and let the beans finish the traditional way allowing them to reduce and acquire the richness and flavor they are so lusciously capable of.

 Rancho Gordo Drunken Beans

 Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 cups beans, cooked
1/2 bottle beer
1 piece bacon
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 whole serrano peppers, minced
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
limes
 

Method:

1. Warm cooked beans. Add beer. These beans should be somewhat soupy. Add more beer if too thick; or turn up the flame, cook off excess liquid if too thin.

2. Cook single rasher of bacon in an ungreased frying pan. Remove bacon and excess fat, leaving about a tablespoon. Sauté onion, garlic and chiles. When soft, add mushrooms. Cook until soft. Chop bacon and add to mixture.

3. Add mushroom/bacon mix to the pot of beans. Mix thoroughly and cook for another 10 minutes. Test for seasoning. Serve with a lime wedge.

If you are one of the many people in the Boulder area who has a snow day today, we have the perfect recipe for you to whip up. On a cold, snowy day there isn’t anything better than a warm grilled cheese sandwich. The simple goodness of melted cheese on toasted bread is the perfect anecdote for a chilly afternoon. We’re sharing the ultimate grilled cheese recipe with you, Fancy Grilled Cheese filled with prosciutto, tomato and crushed red pepper. Yum.

And, if you’re as excited as staff at CSR about ooey-gooey sandwiches, make sure to check out our new class Melt: An Intro to Sophisticated Sandwiches taught by sandwich fanatic, Chef Michael Montgomery.

Fancy Grilled Cheese

Makes 2 Sandwiches

Ingredients:

Butter

4 slices country white sourdough bread, cut on deep diagonal into 1/3-inch-thick slices (each about 7×3 1/2 inches)

4 thin slices prosciutto

8 large fresh basil leaves

8 (1/4-inch-thick) slices young Asiago cheese or drained fresh mozzarella cheese

1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 (1/3-inch-thick) slices tomato

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly butter 1 side of each bread slice. Place 2 bread slices, buttered side down, on work surface. Top each with 2 prosciutto slices, then 4 basil leaves, then 4 cheese slices. Sprinkle with salt and crushed red pepper. Top with remaining 2 bread slices, buttered side up. Heat olive oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add sandwiches to skillet and cook until golden on bottom, about 4 minutes. Turn sandwiches over; transfer skillet to oven and bake until golden and cheese melts, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven. Carefully lift off top bread slices from sandwiches and insert 3 tomato slices into each, then cover with bread tops and serve.

If you live in Boulder you may be able to attest to today being the perfect spring day. Tomorrow it may snow, of course, but it’s best to savor the spring flavor while it’s in the air. This leads us to the nibbles, which all point towards warmer weather and spring Holidays. Matzo Brittle? Could anything be better for Passover? I doubt it. And, Cherry Blossom Doughnuts along with new ice cream flavors. I don’t even need to say more. Check out all of these lovely links for a nice springtime afternoon read; and if your cookies didn’t bake to perfection this weekend or your bread didn’t rise, maybe you’ll find out why.

Matzo Brittle

Has Your Baking Soda Expired?

Ben & Jerry’s Unveils New Flavors for Spring

Cherry Blossom Doughnuts

Passover is right around the corner – which means the Matzo Balls are not far behind.  Matzo Ball Soup is a Passover tradition in many households. Their salty, dough texture makes for the perfect comfort food and well worth the wait after a long seder. Everyone’s “grandma” always makes the best Matzo Ball Soup. Sarah, CSR’s Office Manager, is sharing her Nana’s secret family recipe. They are soft and melt in your mouth, just mix them into your chicken soup. Nothing compares to a hot bowl of Matzo Ball Soup. Enjoy.

Nana’s Matzo Balls

Makes a Dozen Matzo Balls

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 tablespoon minced celery leaves

3 teaspoons coarse salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup unsalted matzo meal

4 tablespoons low-salt chicken broth, boiled until reduced to 2 tablespoons, cooled

6 quarts water

2 10 3/4-ounce cans double-strength chicken broth

Method:

1. Whisk eggs, celery leaves, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, ginger, and pepper in medium bowl until well blended. Stir in matzo meal and reduced chicken broth.  Cover dough with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cold and firm, 3 hours or overnight.
2. Bring water and broth to boil in large pot. Add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. For each matzo ball, roll generous tablespoon of dough between moistened palms into 1 1/2 inch round. Add to liquid; return to boil, stirring to prevent sticking. Cover; boil 50 minutes.
3. Remove 1 matzo ball. Using sharp knife, cut in half; dough should be tender throughout. If not, boil 5 minutes longer. Drain well and add into chicken soup.

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By guest blogger Sharon Halkovics

Where does one begin when you’ve just experienced an eight course meal prepared with a rainbow of animal organs?  I can confidently say that the dining experience I’m referring to was one of the most adventurous and memorable I’ve consumed to date.  What was this all about and why?  The Denver Adventurous Eater Club and Parallel 17 teamed up to co-host a dinner.  The challenge for P17’s chef Mary Nguyen, was to assemble the most one-of-a-kind offal eating experience imaginable to present to a group of 50 adventurous diners.

First, let’s quickly define offal for those who are not familiar with the term:

“Offal is a culinary term used to refer to the entrails and internal organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of organs, but includes most internal organs other than muscles or bones. People in some cultures shy away from offal as food, while others use it as everyday food, or even in delicacies that command a high price.”  Generally speaking, this specific dinner was not for the average eater or faint of heart.  Especially eating eight courses filled with it.  That’s a lot.

Chef Mary, a native of Vietnam, is incredibly passionate about food that is exotic and this was reflected in the event’s menu.  On a normal day, her Denver restaurant, P17, features an array of modern French-Vietnamese dishes.  This past Sunday, the restaurant closed to the general public and opened its doors to members of the Denver Adventurous Eaters Club.  The menu for the evening was transformed into a wonderland of tantalizing dishes (showcasing offal) from Mary’s native country.  Many of these dishes were very familiar to her, but were far from commonly eaten items for us.

So with further adieu, I present the menu from Sunday night’s dinner:

1st Course: P17 Charcuterie—Headcheese 2-ways, tongue pastrami, blood sausage, salted back fat, kim chee, pickled green peppercorns, pickled onions, radishes, green beans and garlic, “nem chua” pickled sour pork sausage

2nd Course: Duck Porridge Soup, boiled pigs blood, sautéed gizzards, 1000 year egg
3rd Course: Grilled Baby octopus, lemongrass, grilled frisee, kaffir lime aioli, nuoc cham gelee
4th Course: Wok-fried pork brain lettuce wraps, crispy noodles
5th Course: “Hot Vit Lon” Poached Fetal Duck Egg, shaved Himalayan red salt, rau ram
6th Course: Be-Tuoi-Fire roasted skin on baby cow carpaccio, crispy shallots, lemongrass oil, key lime, shrimp chips
7th Course: Frog Curry, jasmine rice, Saigon baguettes
8th Course: Durian Four Ways – Bavarois, Ice cream, crumpet, and layered chiffon cake

Every dish was beautifully presented and fabulously tasty.  There were a few items I wasn’t incredibly fond of (‘hot vit lon’ and durian), but I’m happy to have tried everything on the menu and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  An offal lot.

Check out what the Denver Adventurous Eaters are up to.

This St. Patrick’s Day celebrate by baking a loaf of Irish Soda Bread, a tradition from the Emerald Isle.  Nothing beats a sweet bite of this bread with a pint of Guinness or a Black and Tan. Irish Soda Bread is surprisingly simple and easy to whip up, so get your oven preheated, put on your green and get ready for a fun St. Patty’s day in your kitchen!

Irish Soda Bread

Makes 1 Loaf
Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour, unbleached organic all purpose or bread flour
1/4 cup bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
2 cups fresh buttermilk
Sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or a whisk. Stir in buttermilk to form a soft dough.
3. Spray a loaf pan with canola oil spray and roll mixture into pan. Smooth dough out to sides. Sprinkle the top liberally with sesame seeds.
4. Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour at 400; the top will rise in the center and it will pull away from the sides of the pan when done.

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.