Corpse Reviver #2 Cocktail

Prior to the Prohibition era, the Corpse Reviver #2 Cocktail was originally meant to cure hangovers. Thus, the name "Corpse Reviver."

I first found a recipe for this cocktail in my 1948 edition of The Standard Bartender's Guide by Patrick Gavin Duffy (interestingly, the book does not contain a recipe for #1).

The least prominent, but the most interesting ingredient in this cocktail is absinthe. It has quite a history and ritual for consumption, and was often thought of as a hallucinogenic and associated with addiction. You can read more about absinthe here. It's pretty fascinating. It is a botanical liqueur with a very high alcohol content. It is traditionally prepared by holding a slotted absinthe spoon and a sugar cube over the absinthe and slowly pouring iced water over the sugar until it dissolves.

Romanian Easter Bread | Cozonac

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are making Romanian Easter Bread.

I posted my braided dough on a bread baking group, and a sweet person posted, "Cozonac! It looks perfect! I'm Romanian and I know!" How cool is that? I'm pretty sure she is referring to Elle's (the Bread Baking Babes' kitchen of the month) bread, which I also posted, but I still beamed with pride. Bread geeks do that.

Cantonese Style Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Broccoli | Wok Wednesdays

This Cantonese Style Stir-Fried Pork with Chinese Broccoli was amazingly rich and delicious.

This dish requires quite a bit of preparation prior to the stir-fry (there are 17 ingredients), but it is so worth it. The combination of all of the ingredients creates a sauce that is just simply amazingly flavorful. Once you have the ingredients prepped, the dish takes just minutes to make.

Matzos with Sesame Seeds

These matzo crackers are very hard to put down once you begin snacking on them. They are so crunchy and thin, that "just one more" doesn't seem like it would hurt.

Matzos, or Matzah, are a crisp unleavened bread traditionally eaten by Jews during Passover. It is baked quickly, to reenact the Exodus.

These would be delicious with hummus, Boursin and smoked salmon, or even butter (think buttered Saltines). They are also just as tasty plain. So good!

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

These chocolate mint sandwiches are super crispy (but still tender) and super chocolaty. The cookies themselves are similar to chocolate wafers (only way better), and would make an excellent chocolate wafer crust (if you want to take it to the next level)

The filling is made from melted white chocolate spiked with a little peppermint oil. As a result, the filling hardens pretty quickly, just like a chocolate bar, so there's no moisture to soften the cookies themselves. The cookies will last up to two weeks in a sealed container, which makes them perfect for make-ahead gifts. They can even be frozen for up to two months.

Garlicky Rib Eye Steak with Garlic Bruschetta and Aged Balsamic

This Garlicky Ribeye Steak with Garlic Bruschetta and Aged Balsamic was pretty much a revelation.

Placing the steak on grilled garlic bruschetta and having a bit of each on each forkful was sooooo good! Even my steak and potatoes Irish-born husband, who would just as soon skip anything garlic, said he would have skipped the potato (as did I) if he'd known how good this combination was.

Pane di Pasqua - Italian Easter Bread Wreath

This Pane di Pasqua is a southern Italian traditional bread for Easter, and is typically baked with colored hard boiled eggs nestled into the shaped loaves.

This bread is made from an enriched dough, and is somewhat sweet, with a faint orange vanilla flavor from Fiori di Sicilia, or "flowers of Sicily." The dominant flavors are vanilla and orange, so if you don't have Fiori di Sicilia, you can use a combination of orange oil and vanilla to achieve a similar flavor.

Senfbrot - German Mustard Bread

The recipe for this Senfbrot, or German Mustard Bread, was discovered by my friend David of Hearth Baked Tunes on a German bakers association website, in German of course, and proportioned for commercial bakers.

Stir-Fried Cilantro with Bean Sprouts and Shrimp | Wok Wednesdays

This week, the Wok Wednesdays group is making this Stir-Fried Cilantro with Bean Sprouts and Shrimp.

This recipe is amazing (okay, how many ways can I say this about recipes from Grace Young?). It is a vegetable dish with about 4 ounces of small shrimp for flavor.

The ingredients include chopped garlic, minced ginger, small shrimp, bean sprouts, carrots, and cilantro, including the stems, plus salt and sugar.

The combination of flavors is fragrant and delicious. I added more shrimp and ate this for dinner!

I also increased the amount of bean sprouts, and reduced the amount of cilantro called for in the recipe a bit, an option suggested in the book, Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young, the book we are all using for Wok Wednesdays.

I love the crunch of the bean sprouts and carrots, and the cilantro is delicious infused with the shrimp, ginger, and garlic flavors.

If you'd like to wok along, check out our Facebook page, hosted by Matt and visited often by Grace Young herself! She is so helpful!

The recipe for this dish can be found on Grace Young's website. I strongly encourage you to get the book! It's flawless.

Fudgy No-Butter No-Flour Brownies

These fudgy no-butter no-flour brownies are actually made with almond flour. They are really easy to make. All you need is one bowl.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip, Caramel, and Sea Salt Cookies

These browned butter chocolate chip, caramel, and sea salt cookies are not only gooey when they first come out of the oven, they stay gooey even after they have cooled. They're pretty magical.

"Browned butter?" you ask!

Instead of creaming the butter and sugar as you would for most chocolate chip cookie recipes, you actually boil the butter until it is golden brown. You have to watch very carefully when you do this, because the butter can quickly turn black... and you'll have to start over.

As you brown the butter, the water evaporates, and the wonderful buttery flavor gets even more concentrated.

The cookies are filled with chopped semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate chips, and caramel bits. Finally, they are sprinkled with flaked sea salt.

They are slightly under baked, producing an amazingly gooey center (P.S. for those of you who are squeamish about bite marks on food photos, I promise, this view is not of bite marks! No teeth were used to produce this photo).

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip, Caramel, and Sea Salt Cookies

Ingredients

14 T (200g) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1/2 C (100g) white sugar
3/4 C (150 g) packed dark brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt (table salt will do)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 C (255 g) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 C (135 g) semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 C (135 g) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 C (75 g) caramel bits
Flaked sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

1. Place the butter into light colored frying or saute pan and cook, stirring constantly, over medium high heat. When the butter begins to boil, pay very close attention. When the butter starts to turn golden brown, after about 3 to 5 minutes, immediately remove it from the heat and pour it into a large bowl. 
2. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, fine sea salt, and vanilla. Whisk until the mixture cools somewhat.
3. Add the egg and egg yolk, and whisk for about 2 minutes, until the mixture begins to lighten in color. 
4. Fold in the flour and baking soda until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate, chips, and caramel pieces. Do not over mix. 
5. Divide the dough into golf ball sized pieces, about 70 grams each. My dough yielded 14 cookies. Shape the dough pieces into balls, place them on a plate, and sprinkle them with sea salt. 
6. Cover the dough balls with plastic, and refrigerate over night. 
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F with a rack in the middle of the oven. 
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment and place the cookie balls about 2 inches apart on each sheet. 
9. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 8 to 12 minutes (it took 12 minutes in my case). Do not over cook. 
10. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack. 

This recipe is adapted from the amazing bread book Josey Baker Bread: Get Baking - Make Awesome Bread - Share the Loaves. Yes, a bread book! And a very good one.