Ever since I started writing about vanilla, I’ve been asking this question: How can vanilla be used in a savory dish? After all, countless blog recipes feature vanilla as a mainstay in cookies, cakes and other sweet delights. Few, if any, coax vanilla into serving as a flavor foundation for main courses.

Enter Sarah Tomsic and Jan Findlater, proprietors and chefs of the Fly By Diner, an innovative commercial kitchen come gourmet order-and-carry eatery that is parked every Thursday at the entrance to the employee parking lot of New Belgium Brewing Company. I figured, if anyone could take vanilla and do something savory with it, it would be Sarah and Jan!

This dynamic duo met five years ago through Whole Foods Market where Sarah, a former chef at Beauregard’s in Wellington, taught cooking classes that Jan coordinated. Their mutual affection for healthy, flavorful and inspired cooking eventually led them to entertain a partnership resulting in the Fly By Diner, which opened for business in September 2009.

The Fly By Diner represents everything I aim for in my own cooking. Each week, Sarah and Jan create a thematic menu inspired by the season’s freshest ingredients (sourced locally when possible), whole grains, the weather (if it’s going to be freezing out – warm food choices may rule the day), even holidays. Think on this. Most restaurants create a menu that you might eventually learn by heart – because it never changes. Sarah and Jan create a new menu, usually three to four main dishes offered in small and regular portions, plus a baked goodie or other dessert creation, every week.

What spurs such change?  “We look at each menu as a balance between vegetarian and non vegetarian options,” Jan – the vegetarian of the duo – explains. “We’ve also been recently looking at menu options for people with dietary restrictions. The vast majority of what we make is from scratch down to our pestos, chutneys, and spreads. Love for great food – and international flavors – is a daily inspiration for us.” Vanilla is no exception.

When I asked her if she could incorporate vanilla into a savory dish, Sarah didn’t bat an eye. “No problem,” she said. “This will be fun.” When I opened Sarah’s email the following week (she sends each week’s menu to Fly By Diner fans), I wasn’t prepared for the level of creativity that my savory vanilla challenge had birthed.

In just a few days I was going to have the pleasure of tasting Chiles en Nogada (which includes real vanilla bean seed) with Walnut Cream Sauce (which includes real vanilla extract). Oh, and just to give a confident nod to the traditional use of vanilla as a baking ingredient, Sarah and Jan decided to offer triple vanilla cupcakes for dessert snacking. Dazzled yet? I was.

As it turns out, Sarah knows her vanilla. “Vanilla is versatile – it can be tropical or seductive or rich,” she told me later that week as I shoveled her triumphant Chiles en Nogada into my toothy, greedy funnel of chewing. “It adds a dimension of depth and completion to a dish – whether savory or sweet. Try making chocolate chip cookies without vanilla. They still taste good, but you know something is missing. I think consumers tend to take vanilla for granted. It comes in a little bottle and you put a teaspoon in baked goods. But, it can be so much more. A dash of properly made vanilla in a savory meat dish creates a surprising effect.”

Surprised I was. And just so very pleased. Or maybe drugged. While Sarah prepared me a plate of the Chiles en Nogada, I took a healthy bite of the triple vanilla cupcake she placed in my hands for safekeeping, presumably, until the end of my meal. Duh! Dessert first! The butter cream frosting, flavored with vanilla and sprinkled with vanilla infused sugar, had a thickness and appeal to it that when eaten with the cakey portion of the affair made this girl forget that there was any other reason to be standing outside a brewery parking lot on a Thursday afternoon with a daunting to-do list burning a hole in her pocket other than enjoying a triple vanilla cupcake.

Oh, and the Chiles en Nogada? One look at the recipe (see below) and you’ll see why I make it a goal to enjoy culinary treats from the Fly By Diner as often as possible. The combination of the walnut cream sauce with peaches, pears, pork, poblano peppers, cinnamon and vanilla was like licking the inside of Christmas, Easter and autumn treats all at once.

You can find the Fly By Diner at (insert address here) on Thursdays from 11 am to 2 pm. The Diner hopes to travel to other locations in Fort Collins this upcoming summer. Check their website for weekly menus and upcoming events.

Chiles en Nogada with Walnut Cream Sauce

6 pablano chiles, roasted, peeled and seeded
1 lb. ground pork
2 T. oil
2 peaches (we used frozen peaches from Ela Farm)
2 pears (frozen from Ela Farm)
1 onion, diced
2 cl. garlic, minced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 t. cinnamon
1 vanilla bean, split open and scraped
1 t. salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. raisins (optional)
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped

Roast, peel and seed pablano chiles and set aside.  Saute the pork, peaches, pears, onion, garlic and tomatoes in a skillet until pork is cooked through and vegetables are soft.  Add the cinnamon and vanilla bean, salt and pepper.  Cool this mixture and add the almonds and raisins.  Stuff each pablano with a handful of filling and fold the chile back together.  Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment, cover with foil and place in a 350 degree oven until chiles are hot.  Drizzle with nogada sauce and top with pomegranate seeds and parsley.

Walnut cream sauce

1/2 c. toasted walnuts
4 oz. Haystack Mountain Chevre
3/4 c. milk
1 t. Rodelle vanilla
pinch salt

Put ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Place in a saucepan and heat gently before drizzling over chiles.

Until the next,

Carol

We’re coming up on a holiday rich with history and tradition.  While paper hearts strung together and Hallmark cards adorned with chubby angels that strongly resemble pigs wearing wings may not say “romance” to you, February has long been celebrated as an amorous time of passion and love.  Although nobody can say for sure how Valentine’s Day really began (or even which St. Valentine is being honored on February 14th), there is no doubt that it is very much celebrated in today’s society.  In fact, did anyone else notice the Valentine’s paraphernalia start to make an appearance only a few short weeks after Christmas?

While there are a lot of things that are associated with love and Valentine’s Day (roses, jewelry, those gross message hearts that taste like chalk, anything pink or red…) chocolate is probably the most well known.  Frankly, that is perfectly fine with me.  I adore chocolate.  Whether it’s milk, dark or white chocolate (even though I know that white chocolate is not technically chocolate), paired with peanut butter, caramel, or served plain, I will devour it all.  Is there anything as beautiful or luscious as the way a bite of good quality chocolate can simply melt in your mouth?  I think not.  This has left me convinced that chocolate is the perfect food.

And it is not just me. Did you know that we’re wired to be chocoholics?  Seriously, I’m not making this up!  Our very biochemistry encourages us to eat more chocolate. When we consume chocolate, a whole mess of endorphins are released, thus earning the long-standing reputation of chocolate as an aphrodisiac.  Even though the modern medical community doesn’t always support this status, ancient Aztecs and Mayans understood the connection and revered chocolate as the food of the gods.  Personally, I choose to agree with the ancients.

Something I did not know, though, is that vanilla is also thought to be an aphrodisiac!  The Totonca, an indigenous people from Mexico, have an old legend about a goddess named Xanat, who happens to be the youngest daughter of the Mexican fertility goddess.  Xanat falls in love with a mortal man.  Desperate to be with him but prohibited by her immortalness, she transforms herself into the vanilla orchid, happy at last that she can bring everlasting beauty and joy to her human love and his people.  I think that might be the most romantic story ever.  However, the romantic nature of vanilla was extended beyond tragic tales and into the bedroom by people like Dr. John King, who in the 1800s advised the American Dispensary that vanilla should be used to “stimulate the sexual propensities” and swore by taking a swig of pure vanilla extract before bedtime.  Neurologist Alan Hirsch also found a connection between the scent of vanilla and special blood flow within mature men. Wow!

So with Valentine’s Day approaching, I have the perfect excuse to make lots of aphrodisiac treats (and if I happen to accidentally make too many and they linger around my apartment for a few weeks, who can blame me?)  This recipe for Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl Tartlets is like a two for one, with both vanilla and chocolate flavors. Then these Molten White Chocolate Cupcakes use both regular and white chocolate, along with vanilla extract.  If you really want to enhance the richness and complexity of chocolate, add some pure vanilla extract. You can believe I’ll be incorporating it into my baking!

Along with these two recipes, I was also dying to try out these “Life By Chocolate” mini cupcakes that Pioneer Woman posted.  I have little heart shaped molds that I knew would turn them from “cute” into “adorable.”  Too mushy?  I don’t think so…this is Valentine’s Day!  If this isn’t the time to pull out all those little sappy accessories and molds, when is?  I say bring on the mush! I decided that I had to make a test batch and they were just as delicious as promised, although the silicone molds didn’t pop out the baked cupcakes very easily.  I ended up baking the rest in a regular mini cupcake tin, but all of them tasted delicious!

The recipe was beautifully simple.

My favorite part was watching the colors swirl and blend as I mixed in the chocolate.

While the silicone molds didn’t work out, these little heart-shaped measuring spoons and whisks were too adorable to pass up and, thankfully, more functional!

What’s your favorite Valentine’s treat?
Thanks to Leo_Reynolds for the picture of the cherubim!
~Laura

Although single and without kids, I have an affinity for small children. I can relate to their needs (I require play time, too), I can usually act more goofy than they can (I have scared the occasional child with my zeal for dancing), and I have a fantastic repertoire of silly voices. So it should come as no surprise that given the choice to exercise myself to extreme pain at the gym last Saturday morning or bake cookies with my friends’ two daughters – Chloe, 7, and Becca, 5 – I opted for the latter.

I love baking cookies with kids, especially kids that are not my own, and especially in advance of a holiday – like Valentine’s Day. Their eyes sparkle with the anticipation of sneaking a taste of batter and decorating cookie tops with insane amounts of colored sugar.

I also find that kids love working with holiday-specific cookie cutters. This time of year they have no qualms about dipping into the Christmas cookie cutter collection because there are only so many heart-shaped cookies you can make. And, bless their little munchkin souls, they even forgive you when you realize you can’t make frosting because you forgot to buy powdered sugar. You simply agree to let them have not one but two cookies before lunch (in addition to the giant one you let them set aside for dessert after lunch) and everyone is happy again.

Like most children finding themselves in the kitchen with a grown-up, Chloe and Becca were eager to help prepare the batter for the cookies we set out to make. The recipe: Rodelle’s Rolled Sugar Cookies. In a stroke of brilliance, I let Chloe measure out the flour and sift it into a small bowl while Becca and I set out to cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Each kid needed her own sense of empowerment and this strategy worked like a charm. Of course, I had to let Chloe take a turn with the hand mixer while Becca tried out the sifter. Then, they each took a turn with the hand mixer as we added flour to the wet ingredients. Becca let me know at least four times during this process how much she likes cookie batter. I mean, she really likes it. Can I blame her?

Once we put the dough into the fridge for a brief cooling period, the girls came somewhat unglued with the prospect of checking out my stuff, running around the house dressed in my scarves, and parking themselves on the bathroom counter as they painted their small faces scary pink with my ‘make-up stick’. I did what any smart adult would do: the dishes.

After this interlude of fashion and frolic came to its sad but eventual end, we got to work rolling out dough and cutting cookies. I was clever a second time to avoid possible sibling disquietude by cutting a line down the rolled dough to designate their private dough property. Of course, I then learned again how much Becca loves cookie dough (by now she had managed to casually sneak about a pint of dough into her wee mouth). I also learned what Chloe and Becca love most about Valentine’s Day: the color pink. Not love. Not chocolate. Not even cookies. Pink.

As their little hands plied dough away from the heart-shaped cutters and we talked about how much we loved dough and couldn’t wait to eat a fresh out-of-the-oven cookie, I knew with certainty that Valentine’s Day was just a lovely excuse to spend a morning in the kitchen with little girls who would one day discover their own joy for baking with friends.

I hope your own adventures in baking include small children and their valentine, as well as a great story. Just wondering – how much cookie dough can your kids eat?

Dreaming of cookies,

Carol