Frozen Puff Pastry is a wonderful thing. Many a time it has bailed me out of culinary dilemmas, helping to create fabulous tarts, interesting accoutrements, or sublime nests on which to rest entrees. Well this weekend puff pastry did it again, in a simple yet delicious manner I was able to make fresh morning pastries.

On a beautiful Sunday morning, the full day laying before me with errands to run and work to get jump-started on, I still wanted a bit of something special. Scouring the refrigerator and freezer for something to make, eggs were too heavy, waffles weren’t doing it for me, but maybe that lone box of frozen puff pastry would do the trick. Why can’t this box hold the key to my morning time delights?

I set to work assembling my pastries. I tucked in shards of dark chocolate, making a sort of pain au chococolat. Dried peaches were simmered and reconstituted, then rolled neatly in triangular pieces of dough, croissant style. Egg-washed, then dusted lightly with cinnamon-sugar, and baked for 20 minutes, the pastries were golden brown, and puffed to a glorious finish.

The pastries were light and buttery. The croissants were crisp, the pain au chocolat, decadent. It is true these pastries did not have the heft or substantiality of your traditional morning buns, but eaten still-warm from the oven, and enjoyed with a cup of dark, rich coffee, the pastries proved to be just the food for the lazy man’s weekend breakfast.

Okay, so I know that we are months away from those warm summer nights, but what is a girl to do when flipping through her latest cookbook, spotting a recipe just so deliciously bourgie that she can’t not make it?Brimming with plump cherry tomatoes (hothouse grown of course) and loosley torn bits of fresh basil, this Cherry Tomato and Basil Clafoutis was the perfect solution to those winter blahs.

Everyone loves a good clafoutis, that delicately sweetened fruit and egg custard. They are the perfect thing to eat on a Sunday morning, still warm from the oven, and bursting with ripe fruit flavor. But how are they when made as a savory lunchtime meal, and not neccesarily bursting with juiciness but rather sighing with almost-sweetness? Well, despite being out-of-season, I must say this clafoutis was still a wonderful treat.

The heat from the baking process caused the cherry tomatoes to swell and burst, emitting an intense juiciness. The skin of the fruit bubbled and blistered, making the clafoutis look as if it were simply overflowing with flavor. And then there was the custard, that was really more like a quiche filling, flavored with yogurt, then seasoned with fresh basil and parmesan cheese, softly set, which made the entire house smell of a summer holiday.

You can make the clafoutis in small, individual gratin dishes, simply adjust the baking time, but this is a recipe for one large 9 inch pie plate.

Cherry Tomato and Basil Clafoutis
adapted from Vital Vegetables

If you have a mortar and pestle, then you have a versatile kitchen tool. With it you can make a slew of different rubs for meat, spice mixtures for the grill, and marinades to both tenderize and give flavor to otherwise monotonous chicken breasts. Or you can make flavored salts, adding a freshness and an interest to dishes that are already great, and to those that need a little something more.

Blissfully simple to make, calling upon a variety of different aromatics to flavor, the core of this seasoning is, of course, salt. Now don’t get too frantic about the mere mention of, gasp– sodium. This is simply a seasoning, available to sprinkle on food, to perk up the flavor, not drown in that high-blood-pressure-inducing kick of salt. Made in abundance yet used judiciously, flavored salt is a delightful accoutrement to any dish.

This batch of salt I made had a Mediterranean bent to it. With fresh lemon zest, carefully scraped off the fruit with a microplane; branches of green, herbaceous rosemary; a clove of garlic, paper and all, bashed around in the mortar and pestle; and with a 1/4 cup of Kosher salt; this salt was fresh, and bright. It is important to make flavored salts with a larger crystaled salt like sea, or Kosher– a salt that will stand up well to all of the bashing about. The mortar and pestle is crucial. Not only will you give yourself a workout, but also it gives the salt the opportunity to muddle well with the aromatics.

Virtually any flavor salt can be made: chili and lemon grass for a Thai bent, basil and lime zest for a summery flavor, or a blending with cumin and tumeric for an Indian version. Once the salt is made, it lasts for weeks closed tightly in a jar, waiting to be used any way you choose, sprinkled on a grilled skirt steak, or lightly flavoring a soft-boiled egg. So go bash about, and salt with abandon!

Absolutely not! Rich? Sure. Decadent? Maybe. But overkill? I would have to say not. These Banana Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins are a bit of a mouthful to say, but they are homey and delicious to eat in the morning with a good, strong cup of coffee, or even in the afternoon as a not-so-lite snack, with a cup of tea.

These muffins had a little bit of everything contained in the crinkly foil wrapper. Who doesn’t like a banana muffin? Even me, who doesn’t love a plain, ol’ banana thinks they impart a starchy sweetness when baked. And the mocha, really just a bit of a cooled, strong coffee, did not actually make a coffee muffin, but simply lent a richness to this already rich morning treat. Eating these muffins in the morning, accompanied by my usual strong cup of morning brew, was not redundant, it was complementary…very bourgie.

Dense, with a sturdy crumb, and even with the addition of one cup of chocolate chips, not overly sweet, these muffins had it all. In a tasting race, Banana Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins would beat the pants off of an ordinary Blueberry Muffin (struesel top or not), and would flatten the competition of those sturdy Bran Muffins (fiber and all)! Plus, the addition of coffee in the batter lends a subtle richness that even coffee-haters will enjoy.

Banana Mocha Chocolate Chip Muffins
from The Cheese Board Collective Works

Makes 12-18 muffins depending on size of muffin cups

1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
2 1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and generously butter bottom and sides of muffin cups, or use paper liners.

In a medium bowl, combine the egg, egg yolk, bananas, vanilla, coffee, and sour cream. Whisk well to blend.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder together into a large bowl. Add salt and sugar, and mix well. Using a hand beater, or electric stand mixer set at a low speed, add the butter pieces one at a time, until completely incorporated, about 4 minutes. Butter should be cut into flour mixture slowly, eventually resembling small peas. Mix in chocolate chips. Make a well in the mixture. Pour in wet ingredients. With a wooden spoon, blend in the wet ingredients, careful not to overmix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, until batter is just peaking over the top of the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before eating.

There is quite a bit of lore surrounding granola, and I’m not exactly sure why. I do not chug shots of wheatgrass juice before delving into a cup overflowing with fruits and nuts scavanged on my last camping trip, but I do enjoy a good granola from time to time. But I am particular about just what goes into my granolas– no sunflower seeds, no walnuts, not too much cinnamon, and preferabley no raisins. See…picky. So the easiest way for me to enjoy my fiber, is to make it myself.

So there are many ingredients that I do not favor in my granola, but just what do I like? Well, in the batch that I made there were coarsely chopped hazelnuts, shavings of dried coconut, chopped dried apricots, a handful or so of dried cherries (for sweetness), and of course, rolled oats. Simple and delicious, the granola was lightly kissed with cinnamon, and flavored with a touch of pure vanilla.

How did granola get its oh-so-healthy reputation, when in fact many recipes for it are drowning in vegetable oil, and struggling under mounds of sweeteners? All granola does not have to be this way. In fact this granola uses no unsightly oils, but it does rely upon a bit of melted butter. The butter, when melted, becomes toasty, lending a richness to this cereal. First, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan, then add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, and toast gently over medium heat. The nuts will begin to brown, contributing to the toasty flavor of the butter. Then 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of honey, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract are added to the nut mixture. Continue cooking over low heat until the sugar has melted, about 3 minutes.

Then it’s time to go wild, add the nut mixture to 1 1/2 cups rolled oats, and any other ingredients you like. I added 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots, 1/2 cup flaked coconut, a handful of dried cherries, and a light dusting of ground cinnamon. Toss the granola mixture well, as you want the butter to gently coat the oats. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 325 degrees for one half hour, tossing every 10 minutes. Your granola should be golden brown, and the dried fruit should just be beginning to color.

Then each time you dig in to a batch of your own homemade granola, you too can kick off your Birkenstocks, sway calmly to Sugaree , let your braided hair down, and be proud of the nourishing food in which you are about to take part.

I don’t suppose it really matters if these chicken patties look appetizing, because they were delicious. Deeply savory, with just the right amount of salt from bits of crisply fried bacon– who knew that something so blase as ordinary minced chicken, could truly be so sublime?

It all started out with a pound of bacon, bought on the weekend. Some of it was fried and crumbled in a salad, a few slices used as an accoutrement to a soft-boiled egg, but what to do with the remainder? While flipping through the pages of my newest, favorite cookbook, I found a recipe for Chicken Patties with Rosemary and Pancetta, and I knew that would be it. I know, I know, pork products are not all interchangeable, but I have been on a “use up everything in your fridge” kick lately, and so I substituted the pancetta for the bacon. A quick trip outside to pluck a few sprigs of woodsy, herbaceous rosemary, and a stroll to the market to buy minced chicken, and I was halfway there.

Clean and simple, yet immensely flavorful, these gems were calling out to be nestled upon a pillow of coarsely mashed potatoes. Boiled with the skin on, the potatoes had that extra hominess, that can only come from hand-mashed potatoes, lumps and all. Laying in the shallow dish before me, with splashes of reduced chicken broth from the cooking process, this meal was the bourgie meatball. A meatball +, if you will, and I ate up my meatballs with abandon.

Chicken Patties with Rosemary and Pancetta
from The Kitchen Diaries 

Growing up, I was an Adam’s Peanut Butter sort of girl. That all-natural, no sugar added, no trans-fat, oil resting on the top, waiting to be mixed in, was the only sort of peanut butter I was allowed. But when you are a kid, you get to go over to your friend’s house, and you learn the “finer” points of culinary life. You are shown how to make FlufferNutter sandwiches. For those of you who don’t know, a FlufferNutter is a sandwich slathered in smooth Skippy or Jif peanut butter, and doused with an unhealthy dollop of Marshmallow Fluff. They’re very full of preservatives, very fake, but unduly delicious to the tastebuds of a 10 year old, reared on that all-natural junk.

Over the weekend, I began thinking of those Saturday afternoons at my best friend’s house, scraping clean the jar of peanut butter. I still love peanut butter; warm peanut butter toast; the occasional PB & J sandwich, with the ratio of peanut butter to jelly exactly correct; and peanut butter cookies, crisp yet chewy. So why not peanut butter cake? And aren’t cupcakes so much cuter, just a bite of scrumptious sweetness? And if I’m making peanut butter cake, why not recreate that sandwich from my youth– the FlufferNutter.

A quick internet search led me to this Peanut Butter Cake recipe. Minorly tweaked by adding 1/2 cup instead of just 1/3 cup peanut butter, this cake had a dense, muffin-like texture, and was not overly sweet. The shock of white frosting adorning this cake was that old stand-by 7 Minute Frosting, a frosting that seems to have fallen out of favor by today’s standard. It is light, fluffy, and super-sweet, just like the contents of those jars of Marshmallow Fluff.

These cupcakes were especially nice, baked in bite-sized portion cups, an idea I got from Cupcake Bakeshop, a true artist of cupcakery. Topped with a lightly salted, dry-roasted peanut, so snackers knew what they were about to bite into, these diminutive cakes were a pleasant twist on the standard cup cake, and a lovely reminiscence of a childhood snack.

Even a bourgie needs to eat something clean and ascetic from time to time. During the chilly days of January, fresh from holiday gluttony, and steeped in cold-weather comfort foods, sometimes you need something pure, and maybe a little warm-weather, to rev up your gustatory sensibilities.

These Salmon Kebabs were just the trick. Light, crisp, yet gently charred from an indoor grill pan, and carefully brushed with a marinade that had a Japanese bent, the kebabs were a delight. Made with fresh salmon, and the vegetables of your choosing, I opted for wedges of zucchini, and squares of pungent and sweet red onion– these babies were definitely healthy. But for all of the Omega-3, and nutrients, the salmon kebabs were not, “all dietetic and lame,” to quote my husband.

The marinade was super simple. Combine 2/3 cup of sake with 1/4 cup of both sugar and soy sauce. Bring the mixture gently to a boil, and add 2 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger. Brush the marinade onto the kebabs, several times during the cooking process. The sugar from the sauce will crystallize and caramelize, creating a lovely charred effect on the kebabs.

Served with steamed basmati rice, gently drizzled with the leftover marinade if you like, this dish is perfect. And I won’t even make mention of the fact that it’s sort of healthy as you take your first bite.

I don’t know why Nigel Slater is not a bigger deal in the United States. Like his British cohorts, he too brings simple, fuss-free food to the forefront, and does so in an engaging, straight-forward fashion. I love this man. That is why, when book shopping in Oxford, I was thrilled to find his latest book, The Kitchen Diaries. Half food chronicle, half traditional cookbook, it takes the reader through the months of the year, telling us what the author ate on any particular day. And on January 9, there was Double Ginger Cake to be found at the Slater household.

I adapted this recipe a bit, baking it in a round springform pan, and omitting the golden raisins (because really, who wants those in their cake anyway?). What I ended up with was a wonderful, not-too-sweet cake, with a loose crumb, packing quite a punch of spicy ginger flavor. But this seemingly everyday sort of tea-time cake, will really only be a special occasion sort of cake for me. Full of traditional English ingredients like golden syrup; dark brown demerara sugar; and cured ginger, packed in sweetened syrup, all purchased at Tesco before making the journey home, I’m afraid I will only be able to make the cake a few more times.

The book was purchased in England, as well as the ingredients, and the only reason I was able to make this recipe with a modicum of success was my handy kitchen scale. You see in most other countries, and in American bakeries, baking is all about weights and measurement. It is not approximately one cup of self-rising flour; it is precisely 250g of self-rising flour. Baking is all about precision, unlike cooking you cannot simply toss in a bit of one thing, and more of another. So I broke out the scale, and did what I was told. I carefully measured out my golden syrup, and my demerara sugar, and you know what, the cake turned out perfectly.

One addition that I did make was the luscious Caramel Glaze that you see spilling over the sides of the cake. Made very simply by melting one half stick of butter in a saucepan, adding a 1/4 cup each of white sugar and light brown sugar, and stir until blended, about 2 minutes. Then add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and bring to a boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. The glaze will be viscous and luxurious, with a cool caramel color. With a toothpick or bamboo skewer, while the cake is still warm, puncture the top of the dessert at regular intervals. Pour on the glaze, working it into the cake with the back of a spoon if necessary. Save a bit of the glaze to spoon on the cake plate when slicing and serving.

So you don’t get the cake recipe, but the glaze would be wonderful on any sort of plain, unfrosted cake, be it bundt, chocolate, or even a ginger cake of your own.

My sister says that hands-down, the thing to order at McDonald’s is the Egg McMuffin. Occasionally she will get this breakfast food of champions and share one-quarter with her eagerly awaiting dog, Noodle. However, in 27 years of eating, I had never tasted an Egg McMuffin (26 if you count the years consuming solid food). Chalk it up to a lack of interest, or perhaps it had something to do with my not really liking scrambled eggs, but I was a McDonald’s breakfast virgin.

That is until last week, when suffering from horrible jet-lag, I sent Brian out at 6 AM on a Saturday, to bring back a sampling of McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches, proclaiming that it was time to eat like true Americans. He came back home with a small assortment of McTreats: the McMuffin (ehh), the McGriddle (weird), and the Sausage Biscuit with Egg (the best of the bunch) , for us to share, along with one dessicated hash brown patty. I am sorry to say, my sister and I have a difference of opinion on the sandwich front. I think it’s the American cheese that puts me off the McMuffin– that slick, greasy slice of preservatives and processed milk, does nothing for me. But the Sausage Biscuit was fine, however it was only as good as each of its components. I knew I could do better.

With real scrambled eggs, not the powdered and perfectly formed MickyD’s sort, and maple syrup tinged sausage patties, all nestled onto a warm biscuit, imperfections and all, my sausage biscuits were a thing of beauty. Warm, hearty, and satisfying, all delightfully hand-held, it made me wonder why everything is not eaten sandwich style.

These sausage biscuits were a taste of true Americana– no bourgie trappings here! But I do suppose they could become a bit more sophisticated. Some freshly chopped herbs mixed in with the scrambled eggs, a bit of gorgonzola cheese, a slathering of grainy mustard, perhaps I’ll give the Bourgie McMuffin a try on another day.