30 Before 30: Fresh Cheese and Herbs on Italian Bread (#5)

Sandwich recipes really should be called sandwich inspiration. You know how to make a sandwich. You know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Here's an idea for one. Seek out the fromage blanc if you can. It really does make a difference. If you can only find ricotta, sub out an ounce or two for sour cream and blend them together. Fromage blanc has a really interesting tang that shouldn't be missed. And use fresh rosemary. It's much more herbaceous and interesting than dried.

Fresh Cheese and Herbs on Italian Bread via Great Grilled Cheese:

Makes 4 sandwiches

8 oz. fromage blanc, at room temperature

2 Tb. finely chopped fresh mint

2 Tb. finely chopped fresh chives

1½ tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary or ¾ tsp. dried

Freshly ground pepper

8 slices hearty Italian bread, ¼-inch thick

2 Tb. olive oil

In a medium bowl stir together the cheese, mint, chives, rosemary, and pepper to taste. Brush one side of each slice of bread with the oil. Place 4 slices on your work surface, oiled side down. Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the 4 slices. Place the remaining 4 bread slices on top, oiled side up.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes. Put the sandwiches in the skillet, in batches if necessary, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the undersides are golden brown and the cheese has begun to soften. Uncover, and turn the sandwiches with a spatula, pressing firmly to flatten them slightly. Cover and cook for 1 minutes, or until the undersides are golden brown. Turn the sandwiches again, press with the spatula, and cook for 30 seconds, or until the cheese is soft and creamy. Serve immediately.

A new grilled cheese! I think if you love it, you should try different versions of it. Plus, I have a kid now. I foresee much grilled cheese in my future.

Recipes Complete: 5

Recipes to Go: 25

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and Mint Oreo Cream

Aaron and I celebrated our fifth (wow!) anniversary on August 4. Clearly this was a very busy time for me and I didn’t actually make these cupcakes on our anniversary. They ended up being presents for that weekend including an amazing trip to the Oregon/Washington Coast with my friends before Adam moved off to NYC to get his PhD. They were well received and I actually ate one this time. It combines several things Aaron and I love: ridiculous chocolate cake (is there one better than North Douglas? Nope. I used a half recipe), Oreos, amazing vanilla frosting, and Star Wars. Did I mention I got these stencils recently? Yeah. Awesome. Eat and share it with someone you love, even if that love is Han Solo.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and Mint Oreo Cream:

Makes 12 cupcakes

North Douglas Chocolate Cake from The Fiddlehead Cookbook-

½ c. water

½ stick butter

¼ c. oil

2¼ Tb. sifted Dutch process dark cocoa

 1 c. unbleached white flour

1 c. granulated sugar

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 egg

¼ c. buttermilk

½ tsp. vanilla extract

Mint Oreo Cream-

½ -¾ c. whipping cream

12 oreos, crushed

2 drops peppermint extract

Vanilla Frosting from howtoeatacupcake.net-

½ c. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1¾ c. powdered sugar, sifted

Pinch of salt

1/3 c. whipping cream

½ tsp. vanilla extract

To make the cupcakes, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with pretty cupcake liners. Combine water, butter, oil, and cocoa in a small pan and bring to a boil. While butter and water are coming to a boil, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

When butter and water are boiling, pour over sifted flour. Stir until just combined. Add egg mixture and gently fold together. Pour into prepared liners.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to rest briefly in pans and then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

While it is cooling, beat whipping cream until light and fluffy. Add in crushed oreos and then peppermint extract. Set aside.

To make the frosting, mix together butter, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt until creamy. Increase your mixer speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Add whipping cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Set aside.

To assemble the cupcakes, follow the directions from these amazing cupcakes: core, fill with oreo cream, gently frost. When the frosting has hardened a bit, use your stencils and gently tap cocoa powder to the tops of the cupcakes to decorate.

I loved these! I would add in slightly less peppermint extract as that flavor easily takes over, but otherwise everything was great. North Douglas chocolate cake is always the perfect base for any chocolate based project. These are fantastic and a lot of fun to make.

Mint Chimichurri

What goes great with grilled burgers? Chimichurri. Lamb loves mint, so even though the original recipe does not have mint, but mint + lamb = perfection. The first chimichurri I ever had was with mint, so why not? I added in all of the optional spices and it really pops.

Mint Chimichurri Sauce modified from Closet Cooking:

Makes 2 cups

1 c. mint (packed)

¼ c. parsley (packed)

¼ c. cilantro (packed)

1 Tb. fresh oregano (chopped, optional)

4 cloves garlic (peeled)

1 tsp. red pepper flakes

¼ tsp. cumin (optional)

¼ tsp. hot smoked paprika (optional)

¼ c. oil

2 Tb. white wine vinegar

½ lemon (juice and zest)

Salt and pepper to taste

Puree everything in a in a food processor. Put on food. This is awesome with lamb, but would be great just on toast or a veggie packed sandwich. It is full of ridiculous flavor.

Thin Mints

To start of baking day, it turns out I started with the most difficult recipe. In the end, everything worked out, but I will never make these again. Well, not like this anyway. They are really good, though, so if you want to see for yourself, give it a try.

Slim Mints modified from Chow:

Makes a lot of cookies

1 large egg yolk
½ tsp. peppermint oil
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1¾ c. all-purpose flour
1 c. powdered sugar
½ c. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ tsp. fine salt
½ c. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
Chocolate chips
Canola oil

Place egg yolk, peppermint oil, and vanilla extract in a small bowl and whisk to break up the yolk.

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment and pulse a few times to aerate and break up any lumps. Add butter and pulse until the mixture looks like sand, about 25 1-second pulses. Add yolk mixture and pulse just until the dough forms into a ball, about 15 1-second pulses.

Turn dough out onto a clean work surface and roll into 2 logs, each about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. It was at this point that I knew something was wrong. It was still super powdery and not at all dough like. So back into the processor it went (well, not all of it. It was a bit messy for a bit) and I added in about 1/3 cup cold water until the powder turned into actual dough. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate until just firm but still pliable, about 1 hour. The logs will flatten slightly while chilling. Reshape the logs so they are perfectly round and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour more. I know what they look like.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees (where it was at all baking day) and arrange a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Remove a dough log from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap, and slice the dough into 1/8” coins. Place the cookies ½” apart on the prepared baking sheet. Rewrap the extra cookie dough in plastic and refrigerate until ready to bake the second batch. Bake the cookies until the edges are firm but the tops are still soft, about 9 to 11 minutes. Ours took closer to 13. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

 Their directions for dipping the cooled cookies into chocolate are ridiculously long and unnecessary. Corey melted some chocolate chips with a bit of canola oil over a double boiler and dipped the cookies in. We then put them in the fridge to cool.

These are tasty, but not worth the hassle. If I do something like this again, I’m going to use a basic chocolate cookie dough recipe, add in more mint (many weren’t very minty at all), and dip them in chocolate the way we did. Corey has a theory that the reason we had issues with this recipe is that the Girl Scouts don’t want us to know how to really make them. She might be right!

Chicken with Lemon, Cumin, and Mint with Orzo

When I made this recipe the first time, I didn’t have a food blog (oh horror of horrors!). I honestly can’t remember what I thought of it the first time, so I figured let’s do it again. I was pleased and I have some ideas about what to do next time. The orzo was my idea because I love orzo. It always cooks perfectly and just wants to be friends with lemon and garlic. It was the perfect accompaniment.

Chicken with Lemon, Cumin, and Mint from epicurious.com with Orzo:

Serves 2-3

Zest of 1 lemon
½ c. fresh lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)
1/3 c. olive oil
2 Tb. finely shredded fresh mint leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp paprika, preferably hot
½ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 chicken legs, skin on
Lemon wedges for serving
1 c. cooked orzo
A little extra lemon zest
A little extra minced mint
A little extra minced garlic

Stir together the zest, lemon juice, olive oil, 1 tablespoon of the mint, half the garlic, the paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper with a fork, in a large bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. I found it easiest to mince the garlic and mint together in a small food processor.



Preheat the broiler. Place the chicken on the broiler pan and broil 4 to 5 inches from the heat, turning once, for about 5 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and just cooked through. Meanwhile, cook your orzo, mix with the extra lemon zest, mint, and garlic, and set aside.



Transfer the chicken to a platter, garnish with the lemon wedges, sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon mint and garlic, and serve.

I also quickly fried a couple of lemon slices to serve with it. I ended up eating both, but I think they went very well.

My ideas for next time are to marinate the chicken for far longer. Like an overnight amount of time or something of that nature. The flavor is there, I just don’t think 30 minutes is enough. I’d also love to do this on the BBQ. Good thing spring is coming!