Strawberry & Chocolate Hand Pies

I made these "hand pies" this morning as soon as I saw the recipe on Two Peas & Their Pod, figuring I could freeze them until Valentine's Day. I halved the recipe and now I really wish I hadn't - they are amazing! So cute and delicious.

I make empanadas sometimes, so I made these more like empanadas - actually they look exactly like my empanadas. The original recipe calls for dark chocolate, which I didn't have, so I used chopped up semi-sweet and white chocolate chips. I'm sure they're great with dark chocolate, but the one I've tried so far was white chocolate and it was pretty amazing! I could also see these being great with a little bit of Nutella instead.

I think the Red Velvet Cheesecake cookies (also originally from Two Peas & Their Pod) would make a great Valentine's Day treat as well!

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Strawberry Dark Chocolate Hand Pies

From Two Peas & Their Pod

MAKING THE PIE DOUGH

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cold water, plus 2 tablespoons

Put the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor or mixer. While gradually adding a teaspoon of cold water at a time, combine until the dough becomes a little clumpy. Once clumps have formed, turn the dough out onto the counter and form two balls. 

MAKING THE HAND PIES 

2 cups chopped strawberries 
1 tablespoon granulated sugar (or more depending on sweetness of berries)
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup chopped dark chocolate
2 tablespoons heavy cream or half & half

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on pies (optional)

Limoncello

While reading one of the local food magazines in Pittsburgh, Table, I came across this recipe. The article I read brought up a good point- citrus is actually in season during the winter! So it was time I tried some lemony recipes starting with this simple infused vodka. It is pretty sweet, so I enjoy it over ice cream.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups vodka
5 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

1. Cut the lemon peels in long strips from the lemon getting as little of the white pith as possible onto the peel (it makes the drink bitter).

2. Pour the vodka into a mason jar or a container with a lid. Drop the lemon peels into the vodka.Wait for 4 days until the lemon peels infuse the vodka with their oils.

3. You will see the vodka turn a bright yellow color. Strain the vodka and reserve the lemon peels to make candied lemon peel!

4. Make simple syrup by heating up the water and sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Let the syrup cool and then add as much as you like to the vodka mixture. I think this recipe would be even better with some lavender simple syrup!

The lemon peels being candied:

Avocado Cupcakes

There's this lady in Pittsburgh that makes vegan treats and sells them at various farmer's markets and fairs. At the I Made it Market before Christmas time, I tried one of her avocado cupcakes and it was phenomenol. I finally got around to making them myself. You can really taste the avocado in the cake part and the cupcakes turn out to be a really great pale green color. The avocado replaces the fat in this recipe which is pretty cool. I found this recipe off of epicurean vegan's blog. I did, however, substitute actual yogurt instead of soy yogurt so my version is not vegan.

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes:
1-1/2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 avocado, pitted and peeled
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
3/4 C almond milk
1/3 C plain yogurt
2 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
1/4 C Earth Balance margarine
1 C confectioner’s sugar
Coconut cream
Sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin with liners. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the food processor, puree the avocado.
Add the almond milk, yogurt, sugar, and vanilla; blend until smooth and creamy.

Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture with a whisk until there are very few lumps.

Divide the mixture among the muffin tins and bake for about 15-20 minutes.

To make the frosting, I did not measure anything but I combined the ingredients a little bit at a time until I liked the taste and consistency of it. Let the cupcakes cool before frosting! I actually like to wait until I'm ready to serve them and then just frost them right before.

Miso Soup with Vegetables

After eating out at the Ramen Bar in Squirrel Hill (which was very good), I decided I should try and make my own miso soup. It turns out it is pretty simple to make with very few ingredients. I found a recipe on the kitchn's blog. They have great instructions about how to make almost anything. Most of my Google searches for recipes and how-tos refer me to this site. I found all the ingredients at the East End Food Coop.

Miso Soup with Vegetables and Poached Egg

Dashi
2 quarts water
2 sheets of dried kombu (sea kelp)
1/4 cup dulse flakes (some sort of dried sea vegetable?)

Miso Soup
2 quarts dashi
1/2 cup miso paste (I used white miso)
1 block firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 small bunch scallions, green tops and white parts sliced thinly

Vegetables and Toppings
1/2 small head cabbage, thinly sliced (Napa cabbage is ideal)
4 carrots, thinly sliced
1 bunch enoki mushrooms, sliced
eggs (1 for each person)
buckwheat noodles (1 bunch per person)
Soy sauce
fish sauce
Sriracha
Black sesame seeds

To make the dashi (basically seaweed broth)
Pour 2 quarts of water in to a large soup pot. Place the kombu in the cold water. Turn the heat to high, and heat just to boiling.

Turn off the heat and remove the kombu and put into a strainer. Once the kombu has cooled off enough to handle, chop into bite sized pieces. Add the dulse flakes.

To make the miso soup:

Bring the dashi to boiling with the vegetables and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Ready the miso paste in a measuring cup or small bowl. After the broth has boiled, pour 1 cup hot broth into with the prepared bowl with the miso. Whisk until smooth and completely combined.

Pour the miso and broth back into the pot and turn the heat to low. Whisk the miso until it is incorporated into the broth completely. Keep over low heat; do not let the broth boil after the miso has been added.

Stir in the tofu cubes and the sliced scallions, and heat just until warmed through.

To prepare a bowl of soup:

Poach an egg for each bowl of soup. Cook buckwheat noodles (1 bunch per bowl of soup) in boiling water for about 5 minutes.

Pour about 1 cup of miso soup over the buckwheat noodles in each bowl, and place a poached egg on top. Serve with a dash of fish sauce or chili sauce and garnish with extra scallions.