STAFF REPORT

During these lazy, hazy days of summer ... Wait a minute. We don't know about you, but even though it's summertime we're pretty darn busy. And we think there's nothing better to eat on hot, hectic days than a great salad. Here, Accent staffers share their favorite recipes for super summer salads.

Sacré bleu! Despite being a French food fanatic, I somehow neglected to realize that today
is Bastille Day until approximately four minutes ago. Celebrated on July 14th, Bastille Day is
essentially the French version of the 4th of July, complete with fireworks, festivities, and
-- most importantly--- excuses to indulge in decadent French food. 

If you're like me, lacking in free time and the several thousand dollars needed for a plane ticket to Paris, never fear--- here are some delicious French recipes that are good for any time of year. Bon appétit!   

Croissants: the perennial symbol of all that is right and good in French cuisine and notoriously difficult to make from scratch. But this blog breaks croissant-making down with some helpful, step-by-step pictures. In the event that flaky, buttery croissant goodness is not enough, crank it up a notch and make this pain au chocolat...a croissant with a chocolate center.

Poulet à la Marengo: A delectable-yet-easy chicken recipe that trace its roots back to the Napoleonic wars.

Roasted Ratatouille: Have a taste of Provence with this scrumptious vegetable dish.

Macarons: Hands down, this is my favorite french dessert, and I can never find it anywhere. Guess it's time to start making my own! 

If you have never had chile rellenos, you're missing out on one of life's greatest pleasures.  A chile relleno is Mexican food at its finest: a cheese stuffed pepper deep fried in oil and served with tomato sauce. They're easy, delicious, and dinner guests will abandon their diets in the pursuit of second helpings. As a lover of both good food and healthy living, I've developed my own recipe for a slightly healthier version of this classic Mexican dish. Give it a try and dig in.

Kira's Chiles Rellenos

4 or 5 Anaheim chili peppers (I like using these since they're a mild kind of pepper, but if you like it hot and spicy, you can switch them for something else)
1 small block of Monterey jack cheese 
2 eggs, separated 
2 cups of whole wheat flour 
Vegetable oil

Sauce:

4 or 5 garlic cloves (minced)
6 tomatoes, peeled
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup vegetable broth                                                                                                   ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of corn starch
Salt to taste

Directions:

Turn the oven on broil. Place chili peppers on a lightly greased baking sheet, and wait until the skin on each side has blackened (turn over if necessary).  Remove the peppers from the oven and place them a large bowl. Cover with saran wrap and wait at least five minutes.  While you're waiting, cut the block of cheese into thin strips.

Remove the saran wrap and place peppers on a cutting board. Slowly peel the pepper skin off using your fingers; if you've roasted your peppers long enough and kept them covered, this should be easy. 

Using a knife, make a small slit at the top of the pepper. Carefully insert sticks of cheese into the pepper; use toothpicks if necessary.

Pour vegetable oil into a pan until it's roughly a quarter inch deep.

Prepare three bowls. Beat the egg whites in first one and the yolks in the second.  Fold the beaten yolks into the egg whites. In a third bowl, place two cups of whole-wheat flour.  

Roll each cheese-stuffed pepper first in the flour, then in the egg mixture. From there, place the peppers in pan and fry them until they're golden brown.

Drain the peppers on paper towels to remove some of the excess oil.

Serve with tomato sauce and enjoy!

Directions for sauce:

Remove the skins from your tomatoes (sometimes I'm too lazy to do this, so if you want to skip this step, it won't make a dramatic difference in the outcome)

Put tomato skins and garlic in blender and blend until it's a puree. Heat the three tablespoons of olive oil in a pan then add your puree. Cook for 5 minutes or so before adding the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes. Pour over your chile rellenos.

There's a lot of stuff in this world that requires meticulous attention to detail, but it's pretty hard to screw up pizza. The combination of cheese, sauce, and dough guarantees good results right from the get-go...which is why you should put down the phone and make it yourself instead of ordering from Pizza Hut.  

Homemade pizza is tastier, healthier, and easier on your wallet. Best of all, it requires minimal cooking skills...or at least, my version does. Ignore the baking purists who scoff at buying premade dough---the flavor is delicious, and it keeps the preparation time under fifteen minutes.

Cheese Pizza  

1 bag of pre-made pizza dough (look for this in bakery section of the grocery store)

1 can of pizza sauce

1 12 oz. bag of assorted Italian cheeses (mozzarella, asiago, etc.)

5 or 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped

Pinch or two of dried oregano

Pinch of salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Spread the pizza dough into a circular shape with either a rolling pin or your hands. Fold the edge of the dough to create a crust.

Next, spread a layer of pizza sauce over the dough and cover it completely with cheese. The amount of sauce and cheese is entirely up to you---if you like tons of sauce, slather it on there...no one's judging! Finish your pizza up by sprinkling the surface with basil, oregano, and salt and pepper.

Bake until the crust is golden brown (I usually set the timer for twenty minutes and eyeball it).

Enjoy!  

 Still hungering for take out? Discuss who has the best pizza right here at the forums.  

Do you remember your first brownie? I do. It was soft and fudgy, a little slice of chocolatey perfection courtesy of a Betty Crocker mix, and so shamelessly delicious that I promptly ate three in a row.

Ever since that fateful introduction, the hunt has been on. Some people search for the perfect pizza. My personal culinary quest is to track down the perfect brownie.  

Fortunately, technology has made my epic search a little easier. Thanks to Google and various cooking websites, I've found every kind of brownie imaginable---from black bean brownies to thousand dollar brownies to peppermint patty brownies. Everyone has their own variation of America's long cherished dessert, but no one seems to know who came up with it. Some say that the 1896 Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer held the first recipe; others argue that a housewife in Bangor, Maine, neglected to add baking powder to her chocolate cake and decided to serve the failed dessert in flat slices instead of throwing it away. 

I haven't found the perfect, melt-in-your mouth brownie recipe quite yet, but here are a few favorites worth mentioning:

Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies  

Peanut Butter Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookie-Topped Brownies

And of course, the recipe I've been developing myself the last couple of years (pictured right). It's not perfect -- not yet anyway, but it comes pretty darn close.

Here's the recipe:

Fudge Brownies with White Chocolate and Pecans

18 tablespoons of butter

2 cups of white sugar

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of chocolate chips

1/2 cup of white chocolate chips

1 cup of chopped pecans 

powdered sugar
 
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and spray an 8 by 8 pan with some cooking spray.   

In a medium pot, combine butter, sugar, cocoa powder. Over a low cooking heat, stir the mixture occasionally until it's smooth. Remove from heat and add the vanilla and the eggs. Stir in the flour. Once the batter is thick and well mixed, add in the regular chocolate chips, the white chocolate chips and pecans.

Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes(depending on how gooey you like your brownies, the shoter cooking time the gooier).

Garnish with powdered sugar and pecans.