Deliciously Domestic

Fresh Frasiers

2011-07-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Well actually Fresh Cerise. The cherries looked so good at the grocery story I decided to use them instead of strawberries. It's a pick-your-own fruit kind of dessert.

The only problem with this recipe is that I am still working in my abbreviated kitchen. So no spring-form pan or piping apparatus for me. Just a good old-fashioned 9x13 and a butter knife. But it can be done! And it turned out a little, well, rustic. But that's okay, it was still delicious.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake:

Ingredients:
3/4 c. + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 c. cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large egg yolks
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to moderate 325°F
Line the bottom of an 8-inch spring form pan with parchment paper. Do not grease the sides of the pan.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Add in all but 3 tablespoons of sugar, and all of the salt. Stir to combine.
In a small bowl combine the oil, egg yolks, water, vanilla and lemon zest. Whisk thoroughly.
Combine with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly for about one minute, or until very smooth.
Put the egg whites into a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed using a whisk attachment on a medium speed, until frothy. Add cream of tartar and beat on a medium speed until the whites hold soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until the whites hold firm and form shiny peaks.
Using a grease free rubber spatula, scoop about ⅓ of the whites into the yolk mixture and fold in gently. Gently fold in the remaining whites just until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Removed the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack.
To unmold, run a knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan and remove the spring form sides. Invert the cake and peel off the parchment paper. Refrigerate for up to four days.

Pastry Cream Filling:

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Pour the milk, vanilla, and salt into a heavy sauce pan. Place over medium-high heat and scald, bringing it to a near boiling point. Stir occasionally.
Meanwhile, in a stand mixer add the cornstarch and sugar. Whisk to combine
Add the eggs to the sugar and cornstarch and whisk until smooth.
When the milk is ready, gently and slowly while the stand mixer is whisking, pour the heated milk down the side of the bowl into the egg mixture.
Pour the mixture back into the warm pot and continue to cook over a medium heat until the custard is thick, just about to boil and coats the back of a spoon.
Remove from heat and pass through a fine mesh sieve into a large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for ten minutes stirring occasionally.
Cut the butter into four pieces and whisk into the pastry cream a piece at a time until smooth.
Cover the cream with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill in the refrigerator for up to five days.
In a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until it holds medium-stiff peaks. Immediately fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream with a rubber spatula.

Simple Syrup:

Ingredients:
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup water

Directions:

Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil and let the sugar dissolve. Stirring is not necessary, but will not harm the syrup.
Remove the syrup from the heat and cool slightly.

To Assemble:

Take your cake out of the pan and cut it in half horizontally. I should have taken a picture. You're going to fill it up like a sandwhich. Drizzle half the simple syrup over it

Arrange your fruit around the edges of the pan all pretty-like

Smooth the pastry cream over the top

Put the other half of the cake on top and drizzle the rest of the simple syrup on top

Garnish with extra berries and enjoy

I Miss My Kitchen

2011-07-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

We've moved to Florida for three months so my husband can do an internship here. Since I am a stay-at-home mom letting him go alone was simply out of the question. Plus, we're in Orlando. It's awesome. We've gotten a season pass to to Disney World and have been there at least three times a week (although the recent weather has made it interesting).
In any case, we're about halfway done here and I find myself counting down the days I can get back into my kitchen with all my gadgets and dishes that I have come to rely on. I did insist on packing my stand mixer into our little tiny Subaru. It went under my daughters feet for three days. It's ok, she's pretty short.
Aside from that, I am working in a minimalist kitchen.
Here are my resources:
1 frying pan
1 stockpot
1 9x13
1 stand mixer
1 blender (it's summer!! can't live without it)
1 silicon wisk
3 wooden spoons
1 can opener
1 spatula
2 mixing bowls
measuring cups (but not spoons)

Things I miss the most:
rolling pin
portioners
single serving corningware
leftover holding dishes
rubber spatula
bread pan
cupcake pan

I keep going to make things and then realizing I don't have the tools. Oh well, five more weeks without baking, and then I'll probably go crazy. Watch out friends! There are baked goods headed your way!

Healthy Potato Salad x2

2011-06-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

I had a fun time with this challenge. I made two different kinds of potato salad, both completely out of my brain.
The first one was a traditional but low fat potato salad. Most of the time I use mayo instead of yogurt, but this is the stuff I bring to every BBQ I go to over the summer. It's fantastic and tastes even better as leftovers.

My Potato Salad
3-4 lbs potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces but not peeled, boiled until soft (about 15 minutes)
4 hard boiled eggs, cooled
6 - 10 chopped dill pickles
1/2 - 1 thinly sliced red onion
1/2 cup brown spicy mustard (or whatever mustard is your favorite)
2 heaping tablespoons of plain nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1) combine mustard, yogurt, the cooked egg yolks, cumin and mix until smooth
2) combine the other ingredients in a large bowl
3) pour sauce over the vegetables and stir to combine.
4) chill and enjoy

*I also make sure to cut some pieces of potato a little smaller than the others so when you mix it up so mashed potato gets mixed into the sauce. It add a little more creaminess without having to add mayonaise.

Tomatillo Ranch Roasted Potato Salad
3-4 lb potatoes cut into bite sized pieces, not peeled
1 red onion cut into bite sized pieces
1 white onion cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup low/no fat sour cream
4 tomatillos
1/2 package of ranch dressing mix (the powder)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 - 1/2 cilantro
salt and pepper
400 degree oven

1) place the potatoes and the onions on a cookie sheet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. roast them in the oven for about 45 minutes
2) boil the tomatillos in water for about 10 minutes until soft
3) Add the tomatillos, sour cream, ranch dressing mix, cilantro and buttermilk to the blender. Blend until smooth

4) let the potatoes and onions cool for a good hour, then place them in a bowl and pour the dressing over the top. Chill and enjoy.

* this would also be excellent with some lovely cotija cheese crumbled on top.

I hope you're inspired to develop your own variations on potato salad. One I thought would be great is potatoes and pesto and ricotta cheese. Someone should try it. Happy Summertime!

My Latest Article

2011-03-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I wrote another article for The Daring Kitchen. It's called 'How to Get Out of Your Food Rut' Enjoy!
http://thedaringkitchen.com/food-talk/get-out-your-food-rut

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2011-02-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

These recently won a 'best frosting award' in a local cupcake contest.

I still have not found a chocolate cake recipe that I absolutely love. Use whichever one you like, or you could even use a chocolate cake mix.
I used a condiment bottle like the one below to fill the insides with the peanut butter frosting and then dipped them in ganache and then piped more of the peanut butter frosting on top.

My ganache is always equal parts semi-sweet chocolate chips and whipping cream.

This frosting recipe is adapted from Women's Day Desserts

Peanut Butter Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 TB creamy peanut butter
3 TB milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

blend and enjoy.

Arroz Con Pollo

2011-02-28T18:06:00.000-08:00

And the Costa Rican recipe for February is Rice with Chicken!
This recipe was from bakespace.com (http://www.bakespace.com/recipes/detail/Costa-Rican-Arroz-con-Pollo/15058/)

It is her grandmother's authentic recipe. It is very time intensive. I have adapted it from her recipe and I don't think that it makes toooo much of a difference, although everything is better when it marinates forever and I skipped that step.

My husband took this picture right before he ate the last of it. It's his first picture of food. I think he did great.

CHICKEN
Approx 4 lbs. of chicken, dark and light pieces
1 can El Pato (the yellow can with the duck on it, usually found in the Mexican section of the grocery store)
4 bell peppers
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 bunch of cilantro
RICE
3 cups rice
6 cups chicken broth
½ stick of butter
½ onion, chopped
½ bell pepper, chopped
1 glove of garlic, minced
SAUCE
Chicken sauce (liquid from crock pot/pot)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 small (approx. 6oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup ketchup
sugar to taste
Salt / Pepper to taste
1 T Worcestershire Sauce
1 T Salsa (La Victoria Salsa Suprema was Grandma favorite)
Drops hotsauce -Tabasco is best (to taste)
Veggies
¼ onion
3 cloves garlic
¼ bunch cilantro
2 carrots, diced fine
Vegetable Oil (Crisco was always brand of choice)
1 cup frozen peas

And here he is eating it.... bwhahahahaha

DIRECTIONS

CHICKEN

Combine all ingredients, except chicken and El Pato, in food processor / blender, until it forms a paste.

Rub paste all over chicken

Place chicken in crock pot (or pot on stove), cover with El Pato and cook covered, on low for 8hrs, or until chicken falls from the bone

Let cool, de-bone, shred into bite sized pieces. Set chicken aside. Save sauce from crock pot/pot.

Boil chicken bones in water (6cups) to remove excess meat. Save bone water for rice.

RICE

In sauce pan, saute onion, garlic and bell pepper in butter

Add rice and saute until rice is popped majority of grains have turned opaque

Pour in 6 cups of broth. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until all liquid has evaporated (about 25 minutes). Rice should be fairly dry. Avoid lifting the lid until after 20 minutes, otherwise rice will be mushy.

SAUCE

In a large pot, saute veggies in Vegetable Oil

Add chicken sauce, tomato sauce, ketchup, sugar, salt/pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, salsa and Tobasco. Tomato paste is for thickening, so use only as much as you need.

Add chicken.

Add peas

Mix rice in with sauce.

Mix well until good consistency. Cook down if too wet.

Pork Chops and Golden Raisin Mustard Sauce

2011-02-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

I love this recipe. There aren't very many dishes I make super frequently, but we do this one quite often for us. This is the recipe I make for people when they come over to our house for the first time. It's unusual enough that it's memorable but not so unusual that people are reluctant to try it. I always get tons of compliments for it and actually the reason I am putting it on the blog is because I am always asked for the recipe. :)

Pork Chops with Golden Raisin Mustard Sauce

adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe in her 365 recipes book

Ingredients

pork chops

golden raisins

mustard

flour

butter

olive oil

chicken stock

red onion

dried thyme

whole milk or half and half

preheat the oven 375 degrees

1) finely chop your onion and set aside. Liberally season your chops with salt and pepper.

2) heat a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan and cook your pork chops, turning once. Just enough to caramelize each side, then put them in a glass baking dish and put them in the oven while you make the sauce.

3) IN THE SAME PAN, melt 2 TB of butter. Saute the chopped onions then dust them with 2 Tb of flour. Cook for about 1 minute. Then slowly whisk in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. The liquid should thicken

4) Add 3 TB of mustard, and 1/4 cup of the milk.

5) Serve the pork chops with brown rice and pour the sauce over both.

Panna Cotta and Florentines

2011-02-28T11:50:00.000-08:00

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

I'm pretty sure these were meant to be made and consumed together, but I did the panna cotta's for a Valentine's Day party and the florentines a couple weeks later to take to a friend. They were both delicious. The cookies are addictive and the panna cotta is luxuriously rich. I thought both recipes were very simple and easy to follow. The panna cotta is a great recipe to introduce you to using unflavored gelatin if you've never done it before.

I layered vanilla and chocolate panna cotta in the same cups. You can also layer some jello in if you want. It would add a nice pop of color. Just make sure you let each layer set completely before you pour on the next layer.

Vanilla Panna Cotta
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups whipping cream
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
pinch of salt
Directions:

Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit
Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon unflavored powdered gelatin
2 cups whipping cream ½ cup sugar
¾ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:

Pour milk into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside for 2-5 minutes.
Place a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a low boil.
Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk the milk/gelatin mixture into chocolate cream mixture. Whisk until gelatin has dissolved.
Transfer to ramekins, or nice glasses for serving.
Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight

Nestle Florentine Cookies

Sorry I don't have a better picture, I saved some to take pictures of and they were gone by the time I got back, they're that delicious!

Recipe from the cookbook “Nestle Classic Recipes”, and their website.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup unsalted butter
2 cups quick oats
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1½ cups dark or milk chocolate
Directions:
Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F. Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.

To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).

Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.

Groundhog's Day Menu

2011-02-09T15:08:00.000-08:00

Hello Groundhog's Day! This is what it looked like at our house. I know some of you had even worse. Oiy. We definitely needed some delicious food to perk things up.

Groundhog Meatloaf

Green Salad

Crust-less Mud Pie

These pictures are disappointing. Here was the overall idea:

1) eat a groundhog

2) eat what a groundhog would eat

3) eat the groundhog's habitat

Here is my meatloaf recipe. It is my mother-in-law's recipe and it is my favorite. I swapped the beef with pork in honor of Puxatony Phil. It was quite good. I highly recommend it. I then shaped him into a groundhog. My two year old was very excited to be eating his 'paw' and found it quite horrifying that I got his 'head'. Anything to get a toddler to eat protein.

Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef/turkey/pork
1 egg
1/2 chopped bell pepper
6 oz. V8 (tomato juice)
1 c. oatmeal
1 chopped onion
2 Tb ketchup
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients. Place in a loaf pan (or form into a groundhog). Bake at 350 for 1 hour. I always use a probe thermometer and cook until the temperature is appropriate for the meat I'm cooking. For beef it's about 160. See here for other meat cuts:
http://www.ochef.com/418.htm

Do you think it looks like a groundhog? I think next time I would add a little face with olive and pepper slices or something.
I don't have recipe for my salad. Just toss some green leafy stuff in a bowl and use a store-bought vinaigrette dressing, that way it looks like a pile of grass or something.
Lastly is this crust-less mud pie, which I am sure I am not the first to come up with. All I did was make some instant pudding, let it set and then mix it with a container of thawed whipped topping. Then crushed some chocolate sandwich cookies and put them on top. Very good, very rich.

I hope everyone else enjoyed Groundhog's Day as much as I did. I'm sure we're all happy to note that the groundhog did not see his shadow. :D

Lamingtons

2011-01-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday the 26th of January was Australia Day. It's kind of like their independence day, except that they celebrate the day that the British established their first colony there. Needless to say it's a little awkward as far as the native element is concerned. But that's the day they celebrate all things Australian and so in honor of that beautiful continent I made these lovely little treats.They are a sponge cake dipped in chocolate glaze and coated in coconut.

I got the recipe off the All Recipes website. It's a great site. I highly recommend it.

Here is the link: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/lamingtons/Detail.aspx

Here's the only issue with these lovelies. I had a difficult time dipping them. I think that the recipe here makes a glaze that is too thick. I little light on the powdered sugar and heavier on the milk would be a good idea I think. After growing frustrated dipping several of the little squares, I took my glaze and poured it over the top of the rest of the cake. Then sprinkled the coconut on top. They still tasted delicious. So there's a cooking lesson for today. If it's frustrating and stressful to you, just improvise. It's likely to still taste good.

Lamingtons

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 (8 ounce) packages flaked coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x12 inch rectangular pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
Pour the batter into the 8x12 inch pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Store overnight to give the cake a chance to firm up before Icing.
To make the Icing: In a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa. In a saucepan, heat milk and 2 teaspoons butter until the butter is melted. Add the milk to the sugar mixture and mix well to create a fluid, but not too runny, Icing.
Procedure: Cut the cake into 24 squares. Place coconut in a shallow container. Using a fork, dip each square into the icing, then roll it in the coconut. Place onto rack to dry. Continue for each piece. The Icing will drip, so place a sheet of parchment paper under the rack to catch the drips.

Biscuit Joconde Imprime aka Sponge Cake with a really cool design on the outside

2011-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

I am not easily intimidated. I've been doing these challenges for about a year and a half. I feel really good about the progress I've made as a at-home chef. I've learned a lot. But I got on the site to look at this challenge and saw this:

Oh man, oh man was I nervous. Then I begin to read and the gal hosting this month says 'oh I went to pastry school and this is one of the things they taught us to make... have fun!'
Ahhhhh!

I have to tell you though, this was shockingly easy to pull off. Not the easiest thing I've ever done but definitely not the hardest either. I was pleasantly surprised. This is a great thing to make for someone's birthday that doesn't really like cake. It looks like a cake, the cake just goes around the outside and you fill the middle with whatever you want: mousse, custard, pudding, pie filling, Jello, whatever.

So the DL: you make a sponge cake batter, then you make a sponge cake 'paste.' You put your silpat on your jelly-roll pan and pipe a design onto it with the paste. Then you put the pan in the freezer so your design freezes. That way when you pour the batter on top of the design it won't get mushed. Then you bake it! Woot. You have a beautiful design on the outside of your cake.

Here's my version. It's a Key Lime Mousse with Raspberry Sauce. It was shockingly good even though it is shockingly green. I went a little overboard with the food coloring... :) Not quite as professional as the example but I was still pleased with it.

Joconde Sponge

Ingredients:
¾ cup almond flour/meal
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons confectioners' (icing) sugar
¼ cup cake flour
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
2½ teaspoons white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. )
Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
Fold in melted butter.
Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

Ingredients
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites
1¾ cup cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid
COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
Fold in sifted flour.
Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:

Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one. I used the piping bag option. As I was sliding it into the freezer something fell on it and ruined part of my design. I just baked it as it was and didn't use that part for my finished dessert. I worked out fine.

Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.

Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste.

Bake at 475ºF /250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.
Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

Preparing the MOLD for entremets:

Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. CUT the parchment paper to the TOP OF THE MOLD. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.

Preparing the Jaconde for Molding:

Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.
Decide how thick you want your “Joconde wrapper”. Traditionally, it is ½ the height of your mold. This is done so more layers of the plated dessert can be shown. However, you can make it the full height.
Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length. (Use a very sharp paring knife and ruler.)

Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are cut perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to “wrap “your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.
The mold is done, and ready to fill.

Wellington Day Beef Wellington

2011-01-26T11:39:00.000-08:00

Wellington Day was Monday. As it turns out, New Zealand has a holiday for each of its provinces. Wellington is one of its provinces and therefore: Wellington Day. Celebrations seem to include a lot of the same things as American Memorial Day. Have a BBQ, hit the beach, go boating or swimming. I'm telling you, it was two degrees outside for the high and I was drooling over all the fantastic summerness that the Southern Hemisphere enjoys in January.

Anyways, I decided that trying to have an indoor BBQ would just be too depressing, sooo I looked to the namesake of the Province: the Duke of Wellington. Which of course led me to Beef Wellington. I still had some misgivings because I had heard that Beef Wellington was actually not named after the famous duke. Further research on Wikipedia reveled that no it's actually named after a similar dish that originated in, yes, Wellington, New Zealand. Awesome.

We had Beef Wellington with roasted orange vegetables: carrots, onions, sweet potato and butternut squash. It was delicious, but you really can't go wrong with Beef Wellington. We did Beef Wellington as a challenge for the Daring Kitchen a couple Christmas' ago, so here's the recipe:

http://imhungryonabudget.blogspot.com/2009/12/beef-wellington.html

Martin Luther King Day Menu and a New Challenge

2011-01-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

My husband and I were staring at our calendar the other day and we noticed that monday the 24th is 'Wellington Day' in New Zealand. My husband being the fan of my cooking that he is threw out a new challenge. Make a themed dinner for each 'holiday' on the calendar. I love holidays and anything that makes one day more fun then any other day, so I enthusiastically accepted the challenge.
So in addition to Costa Rican cuisine this year you can also look forward to food in celebration of each holiday that is printed on the calendar I have upstairs. Bwahaha.

Which leads us to Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Hurray! I've always wanted to celebrate this particular holiday a little more enthusiastically. How do you celebrate it? With Dr. King's favorite food of course. I was shocked at how much information there was easily available on this subject. He loved soul food and had particular weakness for pecan pie. Yum. Here are some of the best links I found:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n3_v46/ai_9312478/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_food

We could feel our arteries clogging when we ate this though, really. We're having fish, vegetables and no carbs for dinner the rest of the week.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day Menu

Southern Fried Chicken

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Collard Greens and Bacon

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Southern Fried Chicken (adapted from The Joy of Cooking)

Ingredients

3ish lbs several pieces of chicken (the breasts were the biggest hit at my house, I just cut them in half before I breaded them

2 c. buttermilk

2 c. flour

salt

pepper

garlic powder

onion powder

oil

1) marinate the chicken in the buttermilk for at least 1 hour

2) combine the flour and seasonings in a double bagged paper bag

3) preheat the oil to 350 degrees

4) shake the chicken in the bag of flour mixture and then put in the hot oil, cook it in batches and don't crowd the pot

5) cover the pot and cook for 10-15 minutes

6) drain on paper towels

Collard Greens and Bacon

Everything is better when cooked in bacon grease lol.

Ingredients

1/2 lb Bacon

1 bag Collard Greens

1) dice the bacon and cook over high heat until crispy and has rendered its fat

2) add the greens and cook until wilted

Baked Macaroni and Cheese recipe provided by Alton Brown

Chocolate Pecan Pie recipe provided by Paula Deen

Cassoulet: The Cliff Notes Version

2011-01-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

Hmmmm, Cassoulet. It was something I had heard of but didn't really know what it was. So if you're in the same boat: it's white bean stew. With a lot of fat. A lot. And it takes three days to make. Ingredients?
duck legs completely submerged in hardened fat
a pork roast
a pound of bacon, actually it's pork rind (ahhh!) but I used bacon...
sausages
sauteed onions pureed in the blender with butter
Sound delicious? I know they say that French women don't get fat, but after making this recipe I don't know how that's possible.
After going through this process and all it's insanity I have come up with a cliff notes version of this cassoulet recipe. It's not authentic but I think it hits all the high points of a cassoulet without feeling like you need to go see your cardiologist the next day. Plus I shortened the amount of time you work on it.

Part 1: Confit

OK, so the duck legs encased in hardened fat is worth it. Oh my gosh. So delicious. Instead of duck, my recipe calls for chicken drumsticks and instead of duck fat, butter. You can do this days ahead of making the stew if you want.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken drumsticks
3 cups butter
minced garlic ( 1-3 TB depending on how much you like garlic. I used like 5)
dried thyme
salt
375 oven

1) Rub the drumsticks with salt, dried thyme and garlic and place in an ovenproof casserole dish
2) melt butter and pour over the chicken, make sure the chicken is completely covered in melted butter
3) cover the dish in foil and bake in the oven for 1 hour. It will smell amazing!
4) cool and store in the refrigerator until ready to use

Part 2: Cassoulet

We're going to take out the bacon and sausages completely and modify the onion/butter puree.
Instead of three days it takes 1-2. Enough time to cook your pork roast + three cooking hours + assembly time

Ingredients
3 cans of white beans (cannelinni, great northern, white kidney beans, whatever you want)
1 1/2 - 2lbs pork loin roast: well trimmed of fat!
1 onion, cut into 4 pieces
1 bouquet garni (tie together two sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme and one bay leaf)
4 onions, thinly sliced
the confit chicken drumsticks from above

1) Precook the pork roast. This is why it takes soooo long. You can do this the day before if you want. Cover it in water with the quartered onion and the bouquet garni and boil it until it's tender and shreddable. Another awesome way to do it would be to stick it in the crockpot the night before. Reserve your cooking liquid. Once it's cooked you can shred it or cut it into bite-sized pieces. Whichever your family likes better.

2) warm the chicken confit enough to pull the chicken out of it without trouble. Put the chicken aside and reserve the melted butter separately
3) Sautee the sliced onions in some of the confit butter (maybe 1/4 cup) until they are caramelized. Reserve.
4) Now find the deepest ovenproof dish you own. I ended up using my crockpot, which happens to have an oven-safe insert.
5) Preheat the oven to 350
6) Layer: white beans, pork, 1/2 of the sauteed onions, white beans, chicken drumsticks (the whole drumstick, bone and all), other half of sauteed onions, more beans. Pour some of the pork cooking liquid into the dish to barely cover the top layer of beans. Cook in the oven at 350 for 1 hour
7) lower the cooking temperature to 250 and cook for another hour.
8) bring the temperature back up to 350 and cook for another hour. This time crack the crust on the top every 15 minutes and pour enough cooking liquid in to cover the beans again. If you run out of cooking liquid you can use water, it'll still taste delicious. The crust that develops is everyone's favorite part of the cassoulet.
9) when you serve make sure everyone gets a little of each layer and a drumstick.

So delicious. Slow cooking may take some planning. But it is definitely worth it.

Welcome to Costa Rica: Gallo Pinto

2011-01-10T12:44:00.000-08:00

My husband and I started a tradition when we were first married. We got married on December 28 and being the poor, starving college students that we were, we had no money to go on a big honeymoon. Instead we bought a calendar of pictures of Italy and decided that we would have to live our trip through those pictures for the year. Each year we buy a new place and a couple years ago we started getting a recipe book to go with the calendar. Looking and pictures and sampling the food... almost like being there!
We did make a goal as we were buying our calendar this year for our 5th anniversary. Year 10 gets a trip. I'll let you know how it goes.
Anyways, last year was Greece and this year is COSTA RICA!! We have yet to find a good Costa Rican cookbook so the food might end up being mostly Central American. But it didn't take me long on the internet to find this traditional dish.

Gallo Pinto

Ingredients
Equal amounts of cooked rice and black beans
onion
oil
salt and pepper

1) heat the oil in a large saute pan. Cook the onions until delicious looking
2) add the rice and beans. Season with salt and pepper.

And that's it!

They serve this with all kinds of different things but it seems to be common for breakfast with eggs and toast. So that's how we had it.
Let me tell you it was really, really good.
So Costa Rica, with your beautiful beaches on our wall and delicious food in our bellies, we love you already.

Happy 2011 Everyone!

Eggs Benedict

2010-12-14T19:50:00.000-08:00

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

I'm in love. It's true. I can't stop thinking about this stuff. Hollandaise sauce. Oh my goodness. I keep thinking of new and delicious ways to use it. The sad part is that it is soooo bad for you. It's butter sauce. Eggs Benedict: eggs and bacon smothered in butter sauce. Seriously? It doesn't get any more delicious or saturated fat laden than that. This recipe is definitely for special occasions. I think it will be my birthday breakfast for the rest of my life.

Eggs Benedict
Ingredients
4 eggs (size is your choice)
2 English muffins*
4 slices of Canadian bacon/back bacon (or plain bacon if you prefer)
Chives, for garnish
Splash of vinegar (for poaching)

For the hollandaise (makes 1.5 cups):
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp. (5 ml) water
¼ tsp. (1 ¼ ml/1½ g) sugar
12 Tbl. (170 g/6 oz.) unsalted butter, chilled and cut in small pieces º
½ tsp. (2 ½ ml/3 g) kosher salt
2 tsp. (10 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:
1. Fill a medium saucepan halfway with water and bring to a simmer.
2. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces and set aside.
3. Whisk egg yolks and 1 tsp. (5 ml) water in a mixing bowl large enough to sit on the saucepan without touching the water (or in top portion of a double boiler). Whisk for 1–2 minutes, until egg yolks lighten. Add the sugar and whisk 30 seconds more.
4. Place bowl on saucepan over simmering water and whisk steadily 3–5 minutes (it only took about 3 for me) until the yolks thicken to coat the back of a spoon.
5. Remove from heat (but let the water continue to simmer) and whisk in the butter, 1 piece at a time. Move the bowl to the pan again as needed to melt the butter, making sure to whisk constantly.
6. Once all the butter is incorporated, remove from heat and whisk in the salt, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper (if using).
7. Keep the hollandaise warm while you poach your eggs in a thermos, carafe, or bowl that you’ve preheated with warm water.
8. If the water simmering in your pan has gotten too low, add enough so that you have 2–3 inches of water and bring back to a simmer.
9. Add salt and a splash of vinegar (any kind will do). I added about a tablespoon of vinegar to my small saucepan (about 3 cups of water/720 ml of water), but you may need more if you’re using a larger pan with more water.
10. Crack eggs directly into the very gently simmering water (or crack first into a bowl and gently drop into the water), making sure they’re separated. Cook for 3 minutes for a viscous but still runny yolk.
11. While waiting for the eggs, quickly fry the Canadian/back bacon and toast your English muffin.
12. Top each half of English muffin with a piece of bacon. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon, draining well, and place on top of the bacon. Top with hollandaise and chopped chives, and enjoy!

Cream of Carrot Soup

2010-11-17T12:31:00.000-08:00

I might be able to trace my interest in cooking back to this recipe. Maybe. It's from an American Girl cookbook that is no longer in print. Back when there were only three American Girls. I just loved Samantha and how fancy everything was in her world. This soup was in a menu for a ten course meal that she would have had at her home on a special occasion. My mom and I made it when I was only about eight years old. It's a great recipe to learn how to make rue-based soups and sauces with.

Cream of Carrot Soup
2lbs carrots (I don't recommend using baby carrots, they just don't cook to be as sweet. Plus big ones are cheaper and they just get mashed anyways)
4 c. chicken broth
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 c. half & half

Peel the carrots and dice them into large pieces. Cook in a medium saucepan in the chicken broth until very tender. Drain the carrots, reserving the broth. Puree the carrots in the food processor, or if you have a immersion blender you can skip this part and just give it a whirl with that at the very end.
In a large soup pot, melt the butter until bubbly then add flour and cook for 2 minutes to make a rue.
Add the carrots and salt and mix.
Slowly whisk in the broth and cook until smooth and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
Add half and half. Stir and cook but do not boil again.

Souffle

2010-11-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

And did I use their recipe? Nope. "Souffle!" I said to myself, "You have to use Julia Child's recipe!" And I did and it was awesome. There are enough tributes to that hysterical woman on food blogs to make everyone sick of her, so I won't say anything else. I'll just point you to this great video

Classic Cheese Souffle

2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan cheese
1 cup milk, whole
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, unbleached
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground nutmeg
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
1 cup gruyere cheese, packed coarsely (about 4 ounces) I used Manchego cheese instead and it was amazing!

Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
Butter 6-cup (1-1/2 quart) souffle dish.
Add Parmesan cheese and tilt dish, coating bottom and sides.
Warm milk in heavy small saucepan over medium-low heat until steaming.
Meanwhile, melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour and whisk until mixture begins to foam and loses raw taste, about 3 minutes; do not allow mixture to brown).
Remove saucepan from heat; let stand 1 minute.
Pour in warm milk, whisking constantly until very thick, 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove from heat; whisk in paprika, salt, and nutmeg.
Add egg yolks 1 at a time, whisking to blend after each addition.
Scrape souffle base into large bowl.
Cool to lukewarm. DO AHEAD; can be made 2 hours ahead.
Cover and let stand at room temperature.
Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in another large bowl until stiff but not dry.
Fold 1/4 of whites into lukewarm or room temperature souffle base to lighten.
Fold in remaining whites in 2 additions while gradually sprinkling in Gruyere cheese.
Transfer batter to prepared dish.
Place dish in oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
Bake until souffle is puffed and golden brown on top and center moves only slightly when dish is shaken gently, about 25 minutes (do not open oven door during first 20 minutes).
Serve immediately.

I just love this picture even if it goes against all the photo rules I've ever read. I love my little souffle sitting in my windowsill next to my plants in my little apartment. It's just so homey and domestic feeling. I feel like it's what my blog is all about, trying to maintain this 'hominess' feeling for the benefit of my family. Who loved the souffle by the way. Even my two year old loved it and any way we can get protein in her is magic.

Food Talk Article

2010-11-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

Check out the article I wrote for The Daring Kitchen!
It's all about candy making for the Holidays, there are a ton of fantastic recipes from a bunch of different, lesser known blogs.

http://thedaringkitchen.com/food-talk/candy-candy-candy

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

2010-11-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

Since it's November, I have been craving pumpkin. I love pumpkin in baked goods. It's incredibly delicious. I was about to post a pumpkin recipe or two when I realized that all my pumpkin recipes come from my friend Shante, so I asked if she wanted to write a pumpkin guest post. She said sure and started listing off a few recipes. When she mentioned this one I started to salivate. How could I have forgotten?! I guess it's been a few years. Yes, yes! The cheesecake! So here is Shante with her uber-ge-awsome recipe. Thanks Shan!

This is my favorite pumpkin cheesecake ever. I have been making it since I was 16, which was 10 years ago so I've had plenty of time to tweak the recipe and make it my own. The first Thanksgiving I made it hardly anyone touched it, probably because it was my first cheesecake and it wasn't that great, but now it vanishes every time I make it. It's definitely a family favorite, and as Josalyn's brother Kenny told me, his favorite cheesecake ever. Maybe I'll save him a piece at Christmas ;)

Crust:

1 3/4 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons butter melted and slightly cooled

Directions:

1. Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until well blended.

2. Press the mixture on the bottom and around the sides of a spring form pan or if you don't have one use a plan ole' pie plate with maybe just 1 1/2 cups graham crackers instead.

3. Bake at 375 for about 6-7 minutes. Or you can just put it in the freezer to set for an hour. I prefer baking as I like it little bit more crunchy.

Filling:

3 (8oz) of cream cheese (softened)
1 cup of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 2 cups of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

3. Add pumpkin, and spices to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

4. You can either just stick it in the oven, or you can give it a water bath which helps prevent cracking. To do this place the springform pan (cover the bottom and sides with tinfoil to avoid water seeping through-which has happened to me so beware!) in a roasting pan. Boil about 4-5 cups water and pour the water in the roasting pan so that it comes up 1 1/2 to 2 inch up the side of the spring form pan. Then place in preheated oven. Bake for 50 mins, or until center is ALMOST set. (This just means it's a little jiggly in the middle. I've had different experiences with different ovens.) Once it is almost set turn OFF the oven and open the oven door a pinch letting the hot air escape. Leave it in there for an hour.Then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Cover with homemade whipping cream (especially if the cheesecake has cracks, which has happened to me many a time) and sprinkle cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice on top for decoration.

*Tip: If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can use the following combination: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves. Mix together and you have the equivalent of 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.

Peanut Butter Balls

2010-11-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

I think this is my friend Shante's favorite of all my holiday candy making. Here you go Shanie. Luckily we'll both be visiting our parents for Christmas this year, so she'll be able to get her hands on some quite easily. Only another month and a half! Hurray!
These are sooo good. I mean who doesn't love peanut butter and chocolate?

Peanut Butter Balls
6 oz. graham crackers: (about one and a half of the packages that come inside the box)
1 cup of nuts (any nuts will do, I usually use cashews, but the ones pictured have pecans in them and my husband likes that better)

1 cup peanut butter
2 cubes margarine softened
3/4 lb of powdered sugar

for dipping:
12 oz of semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup of vegetable shortening

1) in the food processor, grind the graham crackers and the nuts together, the more finely ground the better. But make sure it stays dry and the nuts don't release too many oils!
2) In the stand mixer, combine all the filling ingredients except the powdered sugar and mix well. Add the powdered sugar slowly and add less or more than called for in order to get a consistency you like. I use about 3/4 of a pound. You don't want the filling too dry or it will get hard to dip.
3) Use a portioner to form into small balls
4) Melt the chocolate chips and the shortening together either in the microwave (only 30 sec. at a time and stir in between!) or over a double boiler
5) Dip the balls of filling in the chocolate, making sure to let the extra chocolate run off.
6) I like to put a little bit of the extra graham cracker crumbs on top before the chocolate sets. This will set them apart from other chocolates if you are serving more than one, as I always do. :)

Old Fashioned Buttermilk Donuts

2010-10-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

So we've been dieting at my house... My husband came home from school one day and said "I'm the fattest person in my program" (which isn't true) and decided he needed to loose 30 ish pounds. I needed to loose a few pounds of baby weight too so I said "OK lets do it." We've been doing really good. My husband has lost about 17 pounds in four weeks and I've lost 9. Hurray -ah for us!
Anyways, we hadn't really had any desserts for a couple weeks when this challenge came up. Hmmmm. I made them right before we were going to have 10 kids at our house, so the donuts wouldn't be sitting around for forever and we did pretty good. We still lost weight that week and that's all I really care about. Oh yeah and the kids descended on them before I got any good 'finished product' pictures. So you can just use your imagination...

Because we hadn't had sugar for a loong time, these donuts tasted incredible. Like seriously the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. My husband took a bite and said "Oh my gosh, this is soo good. I think I'm going to die right now. OH MY GOSH!" as he stuffed his face some more. He's not really given to speaking in such an exaggerated way, so it cracked me up.
I can't guarantee that you will feel quite so strongly about them, but they are pretty ridiculously good. You'll love them. Make them. Do it. Do it!

Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts

Ingredients
Sour Cream ¼ cup
All Purpose Flour 3 ¼ cup
White Granulated Sugar ¾ cup
Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
Baking Powder 1 teaspoon
Kosher Salt 1 teaspoon
Nutmeg, grated 1.5 teaspoon
Active Dry Yeast 1 1/8 teaspoon
Buttermilk ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon
Egg, Large 1
Egg Yolk, Large 2
Pure Vanilla Extract 1 Tablespoon

Directions:

In a small stainless-steel bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water, heat the sour cream until just warm.
Heat the oil to 375°F/190°C.
Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.
Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Mix until it is completely incorporated. The dough will be very sticky. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.
Sift an even layer of flour onto a work surface. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of flour. You don’t want the doughnuts sticking to your counter. Scrape dough out of bowl onto the surface; sift another layer of flour over dough. Working quickly, pat dough into an even 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness. Dip cutter in flour and, cutting as closely together as possible, cut out the doughnuts and holes. Place holes and doughnuts on a floured surface. Working quickly, gather scraps of dough together, pat into 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness, and cut out remaining doughnuts and holes.
Drop three to four doughnuts at a time into the hot oil. Once they turn golden brown, turn them and cook the other side. Cooking times may vary, but with my oil at 375 °F/190°C, I found they only took about 20 to 30 seconds per side.
Once cooked, place on a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain.

Recipe Index

2010-10-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hurray!! I made a recipe index! I hope this is useful. I noticed that when I am randomly looking at other peoples blogs I really appreciate this feature, so I figured I'd make one for myself. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be and now I can see where some gaps are that I need to fill in. Get ready for some delicious breakfast recipes!!

NoNos

2010-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Another incredibly easy candy to make. Well it's actually a frozen treat. It's gets a little bit messy when it gets to room temperature, but when I'm doing up plates at Christmas I always stick these in. I figure they go directly from the freezer to the freezing outdoors to someone's mouth, so it won't be a big deal.
I love these recipes with only a few ingredients.

NoNos
2 tubs of frozen whipped cream (defrosted)
24 oz. of chocolate
Anything you would like to roll the NoNos in. Today I used cocoa powder and pecans.

Melt the chocolate either over a double boiler or in the microwave. If you use the microwave only put it in for 30 seconds at a time and stir well in between zaps.
Let the chocolate cool for 5-10 minutes
Stir in room temperature whipped cream
Put in the fridge to firm up a little 15-20 minutes
Use a portioner to roll into balls and cover with your chosen deliciousness (aka the nuts or whatever, sprinkles would be fun)

Freeze

Flower Pillow

2010-10-21T16:52:00.000-07:00

This was so much fun to make and so easy! I made it for a friend's birthday and it was the first gift I've made that I actually really had a hard time parting with. Doesn't it look great on my couch? By the way Shan, if green isn't your color anymore, you should really tell me. Whenever I make anything for you, I always grab green.

Anyways. I was inspired by Just Another Hang Up from The CSI Project who in turn was inspired by the gals that she cites in her blog entry about it. These little flowers with the burnt edges are really becoming popular. I've seen people make headbands and brooches and other things with them too. They are so easy to make. You just cut out a ton of circles in different sizes and burn the edges. Then you form them into flowers and add a button or bead in the middle.
The stems are embroidered. I honestly haven't embroidered since Mrs. Johnson's 7th Grade Home Ec Class. So it took me a minute to remember how to do it, but it's pretty easy so it came back pretty fast.

The pillow is made completely out of scraps. I did the get the silky fabrics for the flowers from the remnant bin at the store, so it cost me a couple bucks. It looks a lot more pricey though huh? Bwhahaha. It think I'm going to make another one for myself.

Cookies n' Cream Truffles, the easy way

2010-10-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

These are amazing. You're going to see the recipe and say 'what the heck?' but trust me, they're awesome. After eating one I could not guess the ingredients and I kind of pride myself on being able to do that. They're sooo easy and great for handing out at the holidays. Which is how I was introduced to them. My friend Sarah gave us some last year for Christmas. I tried really hard to save a few for my husband but... I'll blame their disappearance on the baby.
Anyways. You'll love this. Three ingredients.

1) Crushed chocolate wafer cookies with cream in the middle (whirl them in the food processor, the more finely crushed they are, the better these will work)
2) 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3) almond bark or chocolate chips: chocolate or white chocolate (I used almond bark in attempts to make this recipe really easy, you can melt almond bark without worrying about tempering and all that jazz)

Combine crushed cookies and cream cheese in a stand mixer and beat until combined
Roll the truffle innards into small balls
Melt the almond bark or chocolate chips and dip.
Allow to set

Try not to eat too many...

Apricot Chocolate Custard Cake

2010-10-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

aka Pantespani me Krema Tsokolatas
This is a sponge cake. In general I'm not the biggest sponge cake fan, but the idea of jam as frosting intrigued me and we are pretty much addicted to my mom's homemade from homegrown apricots jam. So I decided to try this. I've been wanting to get a better feel for Greek desserts since our year of Greek cooking is quickly coming to a close.

This was a fail recipe for me. Ever since I scrambled the eggs in my custard I've been a little skittish about making them. This chocolate custard was quite good, but I undercooked it and it never set up. This was bad news because I had company coming (yes I always experiment on company...) so guess what I did? I used instant chocolate pudding! Bwahaha! I love it. It totally worked. And just drank the custard later... ;)

Cake
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
350 degree oven

Beat eggs until light. Gradually beat in sugar, salt, vanilla and continue to beat until the batter is crazy thick. A ribbon of batter should take its time settling back into the rest of it. Fold in flour two tablespoons at a time.
Pour the batter into a 10 inch round and bake for 25 minutes. When completely cool, split into two layers.

Chocolate Custard (or you can just use instant pudding)
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tb cornstarch
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 ounce semisweet chocolate
1 stick butter at room temp.

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan and add eggs, blending well. Stir in milk and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thick, about 10 min (or if you're scared like me even longer at lower heat). The custard should thickly coat the back of the wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and chocolate. Cover and cool. Cream butter until soft. and add to cooled chocolate mixture. Blend well and cool.

Assemble
Spread the custard/pudding between the layers then spread the apricot jam over and around it. Finish by sprinkling with mini chocolate chips. Yum!

Hawaiian Quilt Floor Pillows

2010-10-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm new at crafting, so you have to be nice to me. I'm not to the point where I really come up with my own ideas for things yet. Sometimes a flash of inspiration, but mostly just copycatting. That's how I started out with cooking though too and now I am definitely comfortable enough with the basic chemistry of everything that I don't mind making up recipes. I hope that's what will happen as I continue to craft.
My cooking and crafting projects are backing up a little bit, and since my awesome husband is out of town interviewing for an internship (fingers crossed) I decided I would go on a blogging rampage today. Bwahaha!
I've been soooo excited about this project and I think it turned out awesome. My husband didn't want to give these away.

So here's the dilemma: you're going to a wedding out of state. Flying is the easiest and cheapest way to get there, so you're going to fly. You are just getting your crafty groove on so you want to make something for your brother and his bride, but it's got to fit in your suitcase. What do you make?
Pillows!! Here's the genius part. You sew them here, then stuff them there. My fantastic sister in law was my partner in crime on this one. I was staying at her house so she just picked up the stuffing for me and I finished them off at her house. Awesome.
My brother served his mission for our church in the islands so I thought that this Purl Bee project would be perfect. They are huge yard by a yard floor pillows. Perfect for lounging around on with your new spouse. After a little reconn on his registry at Bed Bath and Beyond I decided black and white was the way to go.
These were amazingly easy to make because it's felt. The one is just appliqued to the top of the other without too much fuss. I made the bottom of the pillow out of just broadcloth so it wouldn't hang on to dirt so much.

Instead of tracing the whole thing out like the Purl Bee instructions say to do, I just folded my square yard piece of felt into quarters and cut out the stencil once through all the pieces. I'm lazy, what can I say?
Then you just hand stitch the flower piece to the background. It's awesome. Also on the Purl Bee site it says to use 100% wool felt, but that's just cause they're trying to sell you stuff. It looks fantastic still with regular old felt. You just get one yard of the two yards wide stuff in each color. Awesome!
These pillows cost about $12 each. And yes I totally forgot to get pictures of the finished product. Maybe my new sister-in-law (!) will send me one... :D

Ghost Handprints

2010-10-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

These were really fun to make. You should have seen the look on my two year old's face when I told her we were going to paint our hands. I should have gotten a picture.

We just got some canvas' and painted them black, then put white handprints on them and dusted them with glitter. Then put two little eyes on each one in black paint. I got the idea here.

This is my two year old's. She thinks it looks like a spider. I'm inclined to agree with her.

This one was my little five month old's. It actually looks like a ghost I think. I love it. So cute.
My only issue with this craft was the cost. Everyone is always saying how decorating your home using these little canvases is so cheap. These little tiny canvases were about $5 a pop. On sale! Cheap? Not really to my standard. I couldn't afford to get four in a big enough size for my husband to do one too.
This project cost about $15 total. I already had the paint and glitter. :)

Repurposed T-shirt

2010-09-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Size 2T. When did my daughter stop growing? Seriously, she has been in this size sooo long. Like 9 months. Haha. Well it seems long to me, since every other size she has worn so far has lasted 6 months tops. Anyways, she is finally staying in clothes long enough to actually put some wear on them.
I forgot to take a before picture, but this little brown t-shirt had issues with unraveling at the bottom. You know, that one pesky thread that you break off, just to have the whole thing stretch out and unravel slowly but surely.
So I chopped off the bottom and used makeit-loveit's tutorial here to make a dress for my little girl.
Instead of using a skirt for the bottom I used some fabric I found in the remnant bin at Walmart. Isn't it a beautiful color? I just love the way it works with the brown and the pink. The fabric cost me about $1.50. Not bad for a whole new dress!
You could really do this with any size. Make one for yourself. Or I thought it would be really cute to attach a fluffy skirt to a onesie, without cutting off the bottom. What a fun easy thing to wear for church! I put onesies under all my 4 month old's dresses anyways.

I highly recommend you try this one out. So easy and fun!

Decorated Sugar Cookies

2010-09-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

This was a great challenge. Mainly because I had everything I needed to make these lovely cookies in my kitchen already. I'm pretty sure that this is the first challenge I can say that about.
This sugar cookie recipe is designed so that cookies will hold their shape while they are cooking. This way you can use those cute elaborate cookie cutters without the cookies turning into oddly shaped blobs during the cooking process. Awesome. I will definitely be using it again when we make our Halloween and Christmas cookies.
I have never made royal frosting before. I heard from someone years ago that they didn't like it as much as buttercream and I've adopted that opinion as my own for some crazy reason. I really liked this frosting. It was fun to work with and tasted just great.
Mine are very simple. I just made some hearts and suns to send 'love and sunshine' to my mother for her birthday. She lives several states away. She said that the cookies held up really well in the mail, just one of them broke. All I did was put them in a tin and then put the tin in a bubble wrap envelope. I didn't have very high hopes for them, but it worked out great.

Basic Sugar Cookies:

½ cup + 6 Tbsp Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
3 cups + 3 Tbsp All Purpose / Plain Flour
1 cup Caster Sugar / Superfine Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Directions
• Cream together the butter, sugar and any flavourings you’re using. Beat until just becoming
creamy in texture.
• Tip: Don’t over mix otherwise you’ll incorporate too much air and the cookies will spread during
baking, losing their shape.
• Beat in the egg until well combined, make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour and mix on low until a non sticky dough forms.
• Tip: I don’t have a stand mixer so I find it easier to switch to dough hooks at this stage to avoid
flour flying everywhere.
• Knead into a ball and divide into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Roll out each portion between parchment paper to a thickness of about 5mm/1/5 inch (0.2 inch)
• Refrigerate for a minimum of 30mins.
• Tip: Recipes commonly just wrap the whole ball of dough in clingwrap and then refrigerate it for an
hour or overnight, but by rolling the dough between parchment, this shortens the chilling time and
then it’s also been rolled out while still soft making it easier and quicker.
• Once chilled, peel off parchment and place dough on a lightly floured surface.
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or a sharp knife.
• Arrange shapes on parchment lined baking sheets and refrigerate for another 30mins to an hour.
• Tip: It’s very important you chill them again otherwise they’ll spread while baking.
• Re-roll scraps and follow the above process until all scraps are used up.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C Fan Assisted) / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
• Bake until golden around the edges, about 8-15mins depending on the size of the cookies.
• Tip: Bake same sized cookies together otherwise mixing smaller with larger cookies could result in
some cookies being baked before others are done.
• Tip: Rotate baking sheets half way through baking if your oven bakes unevenly.
• Leave to cool on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled, decorate as desired.

Royal Icing:
3 cups Powdered Sugar, unsifted
2 Large Egg Whites
2 tsp Lemon Juice (ahhh! I had no lemon juice so I used white vinegar, it worked great and didn't mess with the flavor at all)
1 tsp Almond Extract, optional

Directions
• Beat egg whites with lemon juice until combined.
• Tip: It’s important that the bowls/spoons/spatulas and beaters you use are thoroughly cleaned and
grease free.
• Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps and add it to the egg whites.
• Tip: I’ve listed 2 amounts of icing sugar, the lesser amount is good for a flooding consistency, and the larger amount is for outlining, but you can add even more for a much thicker consistency good for writing. If you add too much icing sugar or would like to make a thinner consistency, add very small amounts of water, a few drops at a time, until you reach the consistency you need.
• Beat on low until combined and smooth.
• Use immediately or keep in an airtight container.
• Tip: Royal Icing starts to harden as soon as it’s in contact with air so make sure to cover containers with plastic wrap while not in use.

Total Cost: $0: Hurray! I had everything already!

Pancakes

2010-09-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this recipe for a long time. A while ago we had a friend come to stay with us for the weekend and we took advantage of her as an excuse to make pancakes on a Saturday morning. She was great and pretended to be all excited about it too. So we made them and devoured them and afterwards she told us she doesn't normally like pancakes. But she loved these!! Bwhahaha. She's even made them at home since then. Hurray!
This is another family recipe. I think it's one of my grandmother's that my mom has modified a little bit, but the evolution of any given family recipe is a little hard to track... :)
My favorite thing about these is that you probably already have everything you need to make them AND they are just as easy as a mix (well at least I think so) but they taste fifty million times better.

Huffman Pancakes
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
4 TB sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
3 TB melted margarine
1 1/4 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together, then cook them up, like a pancake. duh. :)
We really like peanut butter and maple syrup at our house, at least when we're not trying to watch our calories...

The Awesomest Theme Parties You'll Ever Hear Of. Ever.

2010-09-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hurray my first guest post!! The challenge next week for csi is 'parties' and my sister-in-law is AMAZING at coming up with great, creative ideas. I keep telling her she should become a party planner. Anyways, she agreed to do this guest post for me. Enjoy!

To have any successful theme party, you need to focus on three main things: invitations, atmosphere (which consists of decorations, music, and themed food), and wicked awesome costumes. If you can find a way to creatively include your theme in each of these areas, your home can transform into the perfect party destination.

Also, make sure to invite the kind of guests who are not afraid to get involved and be a little strange.As comfortable as it is to be a wallflower, parties are a lot more fun with energetic and enthusiastic people to get things rolling. Lastly, encourage guests to experiment with the theme. For example, at the pirate party below, one of my guests decided to come dressed as a nerd. We were all quite confused until he cleverly explained he was a digital piracy pirate. :)

And now, after all the boring how-to's, I present:

The Awesomest Theme Parties You'll Ever Hear Of. Ever.

6/28/10
So, apparently this is my semester for planning/hosting/attending parties. (I guess it's all fair since I kinda skipped over the crazy-hyper-immature-freshman phase. ...Then again, perhaps that just makes me a crazy-hyper-immature-junior.) When I told them about my latest bash, David and Josalyn suggested I forget the world of art and try event planning instead. Here's why:

My roommate Christy's birthday is on Monday, and she asked for my help in coming up with a cool idea for a sweet birthday party. My winning suggestion? Secret Agent style! We even installed a very advanced laser security system to give the room a nice Secret-Agenty feel.

Dear Agent 'X'

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assist Agent Oksana Storm (AKA- Christy May) in hosting an ultimate celebration. You will need to obtain proper provisions prior to begining the mission. These provisions include:

-Proper Secret Agent attire representative of your faction. (I.e. "Good guys" vs." bad guys") including, but not limited to, dress, grooming, accent, etc.

-In order to preserve your cover, participation in various party games may be necessary. Competition will be fierce. Be prepared.

-The Agency has agreed to provide sustenance for your task.

This message will self destruct as soon as you R.S.V.P.

Good Luck!!!

A 21st birthday is a pretty big deal for anyone. However, since I don't drink, I had to get more creative than the typical "Hooray! Let's get smashed!" parties that seem to be so much in vogue these days. My solution? Pirate party. That way, we can have all the rum we want! (And by rum, I mean root beer, but it's more fun without the consequences). Here's a look at what you missed out on.

"Ahoy mateys! You be invited t' attend a very special pirate-style party in celebration o' me 21st birthday. There will be food, games, "rum", and a pretty fair amount o' fun. Feel free t' attend dressed like a pirate!"

My roommates made me a treasure map cake- complete with pirate clown!

Because it was my birthday, I had to be the captain.

Fall Dress Makeover

2010-09-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the summer, we got a bunch of hand-me-downs for my daughter from some friends of ours who have five girls. It was awesome. We got two trash bags full of stuff and I didn't have to go shopping for any summer stuff, which saved us a lot of money.
Anyways, summer is coming quickly to its end, in fact here in Iowa, it feels just like fall. Wow. Already. I guess it gets colder earlier up here in the frozen north.
Anyways, in that big bag of stuff we got was this dress:

It's a little plain, but a good length for my tall toddler. She wore it to church quite a bit over the spring and summer. But it's fall now and I always felt like it needed a little something, so I decided to punch it up a bit.

A ruffle and a bow or two later....

Awesomeness!! I love it! This my favorite project so far... plus it cost me nothing. Just scraps leftover from the girls' bedding. My daughter loves it. She just twirled and twirled. She said 'I a princess!' I guess you slap a ruffle on something and it turns you into a princess. Hahaha.

Apple Butter

2010-09-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Hurray! This is something I've been wanting to learn more about, so I was really excited. We recently went to a local orchard, which was SO much fun. So I made apple butter.

4 lbs apples
1 c. liquid (cider is best, but I didn't want to spend money on it so I used water)
1/2 c. brown sugar
cinnamon to taste

1) Peel and core the apples
2)Put the apples and the liquid in a large stock pot and simmer until the apples are soft
3) mash the apples with a potato masher. If you have one you can also stick an immersion blender in it, which will give it a smoother consistency. I don't have one, so the potato masher is for me.
4) Add the sugar and cinnamon and simmer until its thick, about 3 hours

Preserving:
You can actually store apple butter and some jams in the freezer in plastic containers or zippy bags (plastic food storage bags) You just stick it in the fridge the day before you want to use it and viola! Hurray! I didn't really know that. I thought you always had to do big fancy canning stuff.

You can also can it. Here's the basic idea about canning. You have to process everything in boiling water to kill off any germs that may exist. So you take everything you're going to use, boil it, then stick boiling hot stuff in it, then put the sterilized lids on it, then you boil it again.
So you have a jar and the two pieces of the lid.
Boil them.
Then pour in the hot apple butter. Use a funnel :)
Stick the flat peice of the lid in boiling water again, to soften up the orange seal-y part. You only have to do it for a minute. Then use a magnet-y thing or tongs, to put it on top of your can, screw on the ring.
Process the cans in boiling water. Make sure there is an inch of water above the top of the jar. And don't just put it on the bottom of the pot because it will explode and die. You can just crumple up a bunch of foil to put on the bottom, then put the cans on that.
Boil for 15 minutes (at 0-1000 ft. altitude)
Hurray you canned something! Congratulations!

Total cost: $4 for the apples. I used all the cans that I've kept from stuff that people gave to us over the years. Ha.ha.

Caramelized Lemon-Lime Tart

2010-09-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

By Wolfgang Puck

I love him. He's so fun to watch and listen to. I just love his accent and how excited he gets about food. This tart tastes like lemon meringue pie without the meringue. Which some people will think gets rid of the best part, but I think it's nice to be able to appreciate the lemon for itself every once in a while. It's a 'huh, the second recipe in a month that made me wish I had butane for my kitchen torch' recipe. And I still haven't ordered it yet.

Anyways, when I put this in the broiler to get the sugar on top to caramelize, it burnt the crust. Although, I don't have a tart pan, so I had to make this in a springform. Maybe it would have been okay in the broiler with a tart pan. Oh great, now I need a tart pan and some butane.

Pate Sucre
1 1/4 c. cake flour
4 TB sugar
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, chilled
1 large egg yolk
2 TB heavy cream

Process the flour, sugar and butter in the food processor until fine. Whisk together egg yolk and cream in another bowl. Add to the flour mixture and process again until it forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour before rolling.

Filling
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
1 cup + 2 TB sugar
1 1/3 c. of a combination of lemon and lime juices
zest of lemons and limes
6 oz. butter

First, roll the pate sucre to fit a tart pan and weight it. I put foil over it then put some dried beans on top of that. Just don't forget the foil. Cook for 20-25 minutes until golden.
In a double boiler, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolks, 1 c. sugar, lemon and lime juices and zests. Cook, stirring constantly until very thick. About 20 minutes.
Take off the heat and add the butter a little at a time. Pour into the baked crust and let cool completely before refrigerating for at least 3 hours.
30 minutes before serving, sprinkle the remaining 2 TB of sugar over the top and either brown under the broiler, or with a torch.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes more. Enjoy!!

Hawkeye T-shirt

2010-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

This week's craft challenge was 'back to school.' My kids are too young to go to school, so the traditional stuff seemed fun, but not really practical for our family and I hate doing stuff that isn't actually practical in some way.
My husband recently started his MBA at the University of Iowa and we realized that this school is just dripping with school spirit. We headed downtown for some ice cream on a game day and were mortified that we weren't wearing any Hawkeye propaganda. However, university apparel is expensive.

I had been seeing a lot of t-shirts using the freezer paper technique on blogs lately, so I decided to give it a try. My daughter had a yellow t-shirt with a couple of stains on the front that was getting pretty past it, so I used that and stuck a Hawkeye on the front.
Viola, instant school spirit.
I knew it was successful when my husband came home, looked at it and found an old t-shirt in his drawer so I can make him one too. Hurray!
I took some pictures of the process and then decided just to send you here, where I found the instructions that I used.

Total project cost: $3 for freezer paper.

Pastitsio

2010-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hurray for Greek food!! This one was a hit at my house. My husband said it wasn't quite as good at the Moussaka, but he still really really liked it. My friend Shante who was staying with us said she was surprised by how good the addition of the cinnamon to the savory dish was. Excellent. I liked this one because I pretty much have everything I need to make this in my house at any given time. The original recipe serves 12, so I halved it for the three adults and two toddlers, but we didn't have any leftovers.

Thin Cream Sauce
2 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 c. hot milk
1 egg yolk

melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour to make a rue. Stir in milk until smooth. In another bowl, beat the egg yolk, then add some of the hot milk mixture to temper the egg. Then add the egg mixture to the milk mixture. Stir and remove from heat immediately. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside

Thick Cream Sauce
2 c. milk
2 eggs
1/4 c. flour

In a saucepan, heat milk to simmer and set aside. In another bowl beat eggs and flour together. Gradually beat in the hot milk. Return mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly until it thickens. Do not boil. Set aside.

Filling
1onion chopped
1 lb ground beef
2 chopped tomatoes
1/2 c. tomato sauce
dried oregano
ground cinnamon
1 TB minced garlic
3/4 lb. penne pasta
1/4 c. breadcrumbs
8 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Brown onions and ground beef. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and the spices. Cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed: 20-30 minutes
Preheat oven to 350
Cook pasta and drain.

To Assemble

Sprinkle breadcrumbs in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Place half the pasta in the bottom of the pan, then half the thin cream sauce. Add the meat mixture. Sprinkle with half the Parmesan. Add the rest of the pasta, then the other half of the thin cream sauce. Pour the thick cream sauce over the top. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
Bake for 1 hour, then let stand for 15 minutes before cutting into it.

Total cost: $5. All I had to buy was the ground beef and the Parmesan, the rest I had in my cupboards already.

Baked Alaska

2010-08-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

The youth I work with at church once found out that I do these little cooking challenges every month and their first question was 'Have you made Baked Alaska?'
For some reason Baked Alaska is considered one of the most difficult things to make. I have to tell you that I thought this was a relatively simple challenge. My only issue with it was that browning the meringue under the broiler is lame. You need a torch.
The brown butter pound cake is incredible. It is my new favorite kind of cake. I love it. If my husband can figure out how to make it I want it for my birthday cake. (I refuse to make my own cake.) As you can see below, I made a second batch of this cake and ate it with whipped cream and strawberries. Yum.
The only other thing about this is that you have to serve it right away, otherwise it gets all melty. It makes it a little hard to plan, but I think it's worth it. This was delicious.

Vanilla Ice Cream
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

Brown Butter Pound Cake
19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Meringue (For the Baked Alaska)
8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt
1 cup (220g) sugar
Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembly
1. Line four 4” (10cm) diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid.

2. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out four 4” (10cm) diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.
3. Make the meringue (see above.)
4. Unwrap the ice cream “cups” and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.

6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

Shark Towel

2010-08-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been planning on making one of these for a long time. My friend Shante first pointed them out to me on the Pottery Barn website when my first daughter was born. They are so cute, but so expensive.

I showed all the options to my two year old to let her pick one. She has recently developed opinions on everything. I thought she would like the butterfly or the duck, but no. She wanted a shark. But not a blue shark like Pottery Barn has, a pink shark. She was incredibly excited about it, which made it all the more fun.

I order some pink terry cloth online, which was a mistake. The lower price I could get was offset by the shipping cost, plus you have to order whole yard increments, so I got two yards when I only needed a yard and a half.

Anyways, I just had my little girl lie down on the fabric and I cut out a good-sized towel for her. Then I cut a rectangle that was about the same length as her head plus a couple inches. You fold the rectangle in half to get a square, then sew one side of it up. Then you fold the leftover long side of the rectangle to the top of the towel.
So easy!
I used felt to make the shark's features and just sewed them on by hand. Viola! A shark towel. Now my two year old loves bathtime! We're trying to teach her to sing the 'Jaws' theme song while she wears it.

Total cost: close to $20

Triptych Art for Girl's Room

2010-08-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

This week's theme on the CSI project is Pottery Barn inspired. I love Pottery Barn. It's just so clean and cute. I spent a bit of time looking at all the girls rooms they have online. Everything is just so awesome. I have a hard time committing to a particular theme or style for my girls room. I made the bedding though and so I kind of have to stick to that. :)

Anyways, I was looking for stuff that I could make that would work with my decor and I saw this.
I thought 'hey! I can make that and I could easily make it match the stuff I already have in the room.' The Pottery Barn version is made out of wood and are hand painted.
This is a double-sided mobile. The idea is that each piece will spin independently of the others and create different combinations of clothes, shoes and hairstyles.
I decided to make mine out of scrapbook paper, fabric and yarn. I used fishing line to tie the pieces to each other and to hang it from the ceiling. I made one that had a blonde girl on both sides and one with a brunette on both sides to match my daughters features.

First I drew a girl on a piece of flesh colored 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock. I cut her out and used her as a pattern to trace three others. Then I cut each one into three pieces and glued them to a brown construction paper background.
Next is the fun part, using different papers and fabrics I 'dressed' each piece back and front in a different cute little outfit.
I drew a very, very simple face on each one and finished it off with a different hairstyle for each side using yarn, which I attached with a hot glue gun.

I used a needle to thread fishing line through the paper. Just make sure that you tie a loop for each place the line attaches to paper. If you string two pieces of paper together then tie one knot, like a necklace, they won't spin independently of each other.

This was a really fun project. My kids are a little young to help, but I bet any kids a little older would love to decorate clothes for this doll that would then hang in their bedroom.
And the best part is: this cost nothing. Literally. $0. I had all the stuff in my craft drawers. Awesome.

Gothic Halloween Wreath

2010-08-17T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is a Martha project. The very first one I ever did. In fact, Martha's Halloween decorations are what attracted me to Martha Stewart Living in the first place. I was mentoring a young lady and we were going to carve pumpkins. But we wanted to do something a little more creative than your typical pumpkin. We saw Martha's magazine and bought it. I was hooked from then on. I made this wreath like a week later.
I pulled it out to take a picture of it for the spray paint challenge and alas, the Styrofoam wreath was busted into four pieces. I lay them out on the ground to take a picture, but as you can imagine it will look much better on the door. I'm going to try to hot glue it back together, but if you have any other suggestions for dealing with Styrofoam, let me know.

I had no idea what to do when I made this. I am horrible at following directions, which is why I had never made a craft before this one in my life. I got a bunch of fake flowers, hot glued them to the Styrofoam form and spray painted the whole think black. The next year I added the orange bow, which makes it look more Halloween-like and less like I'm just a psycho.

If I was going to do this project over again, I would have painted everything before I put it together. In this picture with the flash you can see all the yellow and blue poking through where a whole can of spray paint just couldn't get into all the little gaps. I would also get all red flowers because the red still looks cool if you can see a little of it, unlike the blue and yellow. :)
This is a great project for beginning project-ers!

Pierogi

2010-08-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm, these are good. And a great way to use up leftovers. We like that.
I have to admit that I bought a gadget for this recipe. Pierogi forms. They cost $3.50 for 3 of them. Here's the deal though, they make it so much easier. Plus I can use them for all kind of other things. Like these lovely little desert calzones I make. But that's another post.

Pierogi are little dumplings. Almost every culture has something similar. Pierogi is what they call it in Poland, but it's the same thing as ravioli or Asian dumplings. It's a filled dough that's boiled.
I did three types: a traditional potato, a dessert with berries and a 'leftovers' filling that had ground turkey, spinach and onion in it. I think that last one was our favorite because it was the most flavorful.
I also have to admit that I did not use the recipe provided by the challenge. It called for heavy cream. Expensive and too many calories. So I found a recipe from a book at the library that I've since returned. It is similar to the one I've posted but not exactly. I liked the dough I made except that it was incredibly hard to roll as thin as I wanted it to be.
One more thing. Let these cool after you boil them, then reheat them in a pan with some butter. Oh my gosh are they ever good. You'll gorge yourself on them and won't be able to stop.

Pierogi Dough (from Allrecipes)

8 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
warm water

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, carton sour cream, and salt. Stir in flour and warm water. Add water until dough feels like velvet. Turn out onto a lightly floured board, and knead until smooth. Roll out to a 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out 3 1/2 inch circles with either the top of a glass or a biscuit cutter. Cover with waxed paper to prevent drying out if not filling immediately.
Place 1 or 2 tablespoons filling on one side of a circle of dough. Fold over, and seal by pressing the edges with a fork. Repeat until ingredients are used.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Immerse pierogi. Cook until the dumplings float to the surface.

Potato Filling:
3 big potatoes, cooked & mashed (1 1/2 cup instant or leftover mashed potatoes is fine too)
1 cup (225 g) cottage cheese, drained
1 onion, diced & sauteed in butter until clear
3 slices of streaky bacon, diced and fried till crispy (you can add more bacon if you like or omit that part completely if you’re vegetarian)
1 egg yolk (from medium egg)
1 tablespoon (15 g) butter, melted
1/4 (1.25 ml) teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper to taste

Ground Turkey Filling:
ground turkey
spinach (fresh or frozen)
onion
garlic

Total Meal Cost: The thing about these is, you can fill them with whatever you want. They are fantastic for using up leftovers. Therefore, I am only saying this meal costs $1. For the sour cream. Everything else for the dough I have in my pantry and the filling can be stuff you were going to throw out anyways. What a steal. These are great to have up your sleeve.

Introducing.... crafts!

2010-08-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I like challenges. Not like 'a challenge' although that too, but challenges. Organized events with participants all doing something together. Like the daring bakers and cooks. I also participate in a reading challenge each season on goodreads called the Seasonal Reading Challenge. I just like the organization of it all and having deadlines. When you are a SAHM having deadlines not created by yourself can really help you out.
Anyways, I started sewing about two years ago and have really enjoyed it. I've made some friends with some really crafty people that have inspired me. I was randomly link hopping from blog to blog the other day, passing time while feeding my baby, when I came upon this. I was really attracted to the low-keyness of it all. They have a theme every week and you do what you can. You don't get immediately booted if you miss one or if you feel too intimidated by the theme that week.
I asked my husband if he thought it would be too outside the scope of my blog to add crafts and he said no, especially if it keeps me sane while he is in grad school :) So since I feel that my husband is always right (I'm the only one who feels that way I'm pretty sure), I decided to go for this. I'll still post the cost of all my projects in keeping with the budgetness of my blog. I always thought crafts had to cost lots of money but I've had some good teachers that have shown me that's not the case.
So for my first trick........

QUILTS! and a patchwork pillowcase! and fitted crib sheets!
I recently had my second daughter (of two kids) and I wanted to make them quilts to match. I spent forever looking for the perfect fabric and finally settled on this.
After making the quilts and the sheets I had lots of fabric leftover. So I made a crib bumper for the baby and a pillowcase for my toddler.
I get the most questions about the fitted crib sheets, but I didn't take pictures. I'll do a detailed tutorial for those later.
For a standard sized pillowcase I needed a piece of fabric 23 by 64 inches. All I had was scraps from the quilt and crib sheet I had made, so I did it in strips.
I sewed scraps together until they made pieces that were about 5 inches tall, then I sew those together into strips that were 64 inches long. Then I sewed those together to get a piece that is 23 by 64.
I hemmed each end about 3 inches, because pillowcases tend to have that wide hem
Then I folded the right sides together and sewed up the two edges.
Viola, a patchwork pillowcase. I didn't put any lining in it or anything put it works great and looks fantastic.

For the crib bumper:
There's all kinds of things about strangulation and hazards and things when it comes to crib bumpers. We didn't have one with our older daughter because of that, then we wished she did because she would get her feet tangled in the slats or be pitching a fit in there and slam her head against the edge or something.
Here's my solution: super low loft fusible batting.

The thing about bumpers is that the measurements have to be relatively accurate for the tie to work properly. I made four separate pieces: two 27 inch and two 52 inch, with two ties on each end of each piece (that's 16 ties) So I cut out squares that are 6 1/2 by 5 inches and sewed them together into four 27 inch strips and four 52 inch strips. I sandwiched strips of low loft fusible batting in between them and ironed it together.

Really, with this small of a project, you could probably leave it at that. But I went ahead and sewed in all the seams between the patches to secure the sandwich.

After that I sewed some binding around all the edges and then sewed my ties in. I used more fabric scraps for the ties, but you can just use ribbon. It would be a lot easier.

So that's the bumper. I did it in one afternoon, it takes maybe 3-4 hours.

The grand total for the two fitted crib sheets, two quilts, the bumper and the pillowcase was about $65. I felt like I was spending a lot (we used our tax return :) but when you compare it to a full set that you would buy at Babys R Us or something, its a pretty good deal.

Pflaumenkuchen anyone?

2010-08-02T16:03:00.000-07:00

Plums are in season!! :D They remind me of my childhood. We had two different kinds of plums growing in our backyard when I was a kid. My mom makes the most amazing plum jam every year. I always beg her to send me some.
Unfortunately they recently moved out of that house and buying enough plums to make jam is an expensive prospect. So I turned to my husband's connection to plums - Germany. He lived there for two years serving a mission for our church and during the summer he had this dessert all the time

Pflaumenkuchen, or plum cake. I have been enjoying writing original recipes lately, so after doing a little research, I wrote my own for this one. I was soooo excited when my husband said that it tastes like what he ate in Germany all the time.

A lot of times the cake is a yeast cake, but I wanted to take this to dinner at a friend's house and didn't have time for yeast. So this is a baking powder mixture (kind of, as I was out of baking powder) which the other traditional cake element.

This is a great desert to showcase some delicious plums, plus there's not very much sugar in it, so it feels light and fresh like a summer dessert should.

Pflaumenkuchen

for the cake:
2 cups flour
2 TB sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick butter
about 1/3 cup milk

This is a lot like a pie crust. Whisk together flour, sugar, cream of tartar and baking soda.
Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, then add milk.
Continue to cut with a rubber spatula until the milk is absorbed. Then use your hands to form the dough into a ball.
Spread into the bottom and sides of a spring form pan with your hands.

for the plums:
cut about 2 lbs of plums into slices.
Arrange the plums on top of the uncooked cake starting in the middle and working outward.

bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the edges are golden. Let it cool before you cut into it. May be served with ice cream or whipped cream, but it's not necessary. The plums are fantastic on their own.

total cost: everything is from the pantry but the plums: $2.08

Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

2010-07-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.-

Ice Cream Cake!!! Did you know ice cream makers are totally overrated? I thought making ice cream without an ice cream maker would be terrible, but I just poured the unfrozen mixture into a metal cake pan and stuck it in the freezer overnight. I didn't even stir constantly. This is dangerous knowledge.

This recipe is not for dieters. It is amazingly deliciously fattening. A special occasion only kind of thing. That said, I made two of these. First I made the one below. I did it just like the recipe called for but instead of vanilla in the vanilla ice cream I put in some mint from the garden. I food processed it with the sugar. It turned out great. I didn't like the filling in the cake though. It was too rich. You could feel it coating the roof of your mouth. Not awesome.

So I decided to make another one. I used raspberry jam for the filling with vanilla and berry ice cream. For the berry ice cream I followed the directions for the chocolate but pureed some berries to go in instead of the cocoa powder. It was excellent. The only mistake I made was to let the vanilla ice cream get too soft before I put it in the cake. That's why it kind of ran through and refroze the whole thing to look white. You can see a picture at the end of the post. I would have done it over again but we had already had two ice cream cakes in a week, so I decided we needed a break.

I will definitely make this again. Both the chocolate and vanilla ice cream recipes in this post are amazing.

The Swiss Cake Rolls
Ingredients- 6 medium sized eggs ($0.89)
1 C sugar +extra for rolling (pantry)
6 TB all purpose (plain) flour + 5 TB unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted together (pantry)
2 TB boiling water (freebie)
a little oil for brushing the pans

For the filling-
2C whipping cream ($3.50)
1 tsp vanilla extract (pantry)
5 TB caster sugar I used regular granulated sugar and it works just fine (pantry)

Method-
Cake:

Preheat the oven at 400 deg F approximately. Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.
In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.
Add the flour mixture, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water.
Divide the mixture among the two baking pans and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans.
Place a pan in the centre of the pre heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch. Mine took quite a bit less then that, close to five minutes. Just keep an eye on it.
Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it.
Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges.
Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.
Repeat the same for the next cake as well.

Filling:

Grind together the vanilla and sugar in a food processor.
In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.
Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes.
Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of ½ an inch should be fine).
Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

The Vanilla Ice Cream-
Ingredients-
2 and ½ C whipping cream ($3.50)
1 vanilla bean, minced or 1 tsp vanilla extract ($1.99)
½ C granulated sugar (pantry)

Method-
Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor. In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla –sugar mixture and whisk lightly till everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.
Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

The Hot Fudge Sauce
Ingredients-
1 C caster sugar (pantry)
3 TB unsweetened cocoa powder (pantry)
2 TB cornstarch (pantry)
1 and ½ C water (freebie)
1 TB butter ($1.99)
1 tsp vanilla extract (pantry)

Method-

In a small saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa powder, cornflour and water.
Place the pan over heat, and stir constantly, till it begins to thicken and is smooth (for about 2 minutes).
Remove from heat and mix in the butter and vanilla. Keep aside to cool . You can also do this in the microwave. Just combine all your ingredients except the butter and vanilla. Microwave it for two minutes, then stir in the butter and vanilla. Viola.

The Chocolate Ice Cream-
Ingredients-
2C whipping cream (rest of cream from the cake)
1 C caster sugar (pantry)
3 TB unsweetened cocoa powder (pantry)

Method-

Grind together the sugar and the cocoa powder in a food processor .
In a saucepan, add all the ingredients and whisk lightly.
Place the pan over heat and keep stirring till it begins to bubble around the edges.
Remove from heat and cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container till firm around the edges. If you are using an ice cream maker, churn the ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instruction, after the mixture has cooled completely.
Remove from the freezer, beat till smooth and return to the freezer. Do this 3-4 times and then set completely.

Assembly-

1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).

2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

4. Soften the vanilla ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour)

5. Add the fudge sauce over the vanilla ice cream, cover and freeze till firm . ( at least an hour)

6. Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .

7. Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

8. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

Total Cost: $11.87 assuming you keep a stocked pantry like I do.

Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake

2010-07-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have been buying blueberries this summer from Sam's Club. It's been a good season for them I think. I got a big package of them because I was going to help some teenagers at church make pies but didn't have as many show up as I thought would so I had leftovers. I love leftovers. Here's what I did with the blueberries. I wanted to make something for the kids I work with at church and I had these adorable mini bundt pans I've never used before so...

Mini Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake (adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries and zest
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, whisk 2 1/2 cups flour with baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of sour cream.
In a bowl, toss blueberries with remaining teaspoon flour; gently fold into batter. Put batter in eight mini bundt pans
Bake cake on bottom rack of oven until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 45 minutes. Invert onto a rack; cool completely, top side up.

Total Cost: everything was in my pantry. We buy a lot of our baking supplies at Sam's Club at the beginning of the year with our tax return. :) the blueberries were about $5.

Top Five Burgers

2010-07-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

After a lot of deliberation and argument, my husband and I have come up with this list of our top five favorite burgers from the the last three weeks. If you're going to try any of the burgers I've made it should be one of these.

#5 Pacific Northwest Burger: It was delicious of it's own right but the unexpectedness of it put it in the top five.

#4 Chicken Cobb Burger: simple and yet familiarly delicious. The blue cheese and chicken really went well together and the lovely layer of mashed avocado made it awesome.

#3 Black Bean Burger: This was our favorite vegetarian. Of course we love tacos...

#2 Thai Burger: peanut butter on a burger?? sooo good. Especially when its homemade peanut butter made from dry roasted peanuts. The lime, the cucumber, the herbs. Everything about this burger is delicious.

and the drum roll please......

#1 Kansas BBQ Burger: This is the least healthy burger we made. Hmmm, go figure. Homemade onion rings, cornmeal biscuits, baked beans. This burger was a wonderful mess. Reminds me of an old fast food slogan 'if it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face.'

Any ideas for my next challenge?

Burger Twenty!: Pacific Northwest Burger

2010-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

The last burger... for now. I've had a lot of fun being really creative with these burgers and I still have a lot of ideas. So I'll probably make more but not right now. I'm having pasta for dinner tonight. Without any meat. ha.
Anyways, it's been amazingly hot here. Sweltering. blast the humidity. So I've been dreaming of Oregon. Or Scotland. But Oregon's closer so I decided to make a burger that incorporates a lot of the things produced there. I was really gambling with this one. You're going to be suspicious. I was suspicious, but it's incredible. You have to try it. It doesn't seem like the flavors should all jive together but they do. If you're really just too wary then swap out the salmon for a portobello mushroom cap.

meat: salmon ($3.00)
cheese: none
toppings: roasted potato (pantry), dried cranberries (pantry), sauteed mushrooms ($2.00), lettuce ($2.00) and onion ($0.89)
condiment: homemade pecan-cashew butter (pantry)
bun: whole wheat toast ($1.69)

I roasted the potatoes as in the Tuna Nicoise Burger
I put the salmon in the food processor for a few pulses is all and added only salt and pepper to it. Then I formed it into patties and cooked it in a little olive oil
The nut butter was just whatever partial packages of nuts I had left over from other recipes. See how to make homemade nut butters here. I am seriously addicted.

When you eat this you have to imagine being near a rocky beach on an overcast day when it's about 65 degrees and windy and gorgeous. Ahhhh. Ok, back to the Kansas heat now...

total meal cost: $9.58

Burger Nineteen: Split Pea Burger

2010-07-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is another Alton recipe. I wanted to try making a veggie burger and saw this episode of Good Eats, so I chose this recipe. The result was shockingly good. Seriously. Maybe it was because I was getting so done with burgers, but my husband said he loved it too. It has a similar consistency to the black bean burger. I definitely recommend this one. I did modify the recipe a little bit to make it slightly more budget friendly.

meat: split pea patty (see below)
cheese: muenster ($1.99)
toppings: pickle ($1.97), tomato ($0.50), lettuce($2.00), red onion ($0.89)
condiment: mayonnaise and spicy brown mustard (pantry)
bun: wheat hamburger bun ($1.89)

Split Pea Burger (adapted from Alton Brown's recipe)
1/2 cup chopped onion (other half of above)
1/2 cup shredded carrots ($0.88)
2 tsp minced garlic (pantry)
1/2 cup sliced mushroom ($1.29)
2 cups homemade chicken, beef or vegetable broth (pantry)
1 cup water
1 cup dried split peas (pantry)
1/2 cup dry rice (pantry)
1 Tb cumin (pantry)
3/4 cup breadcrumbs + more for dredging (pantry)

cook the onion and carrot in some olive oil until soft. add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are soft. Add the stock, water, split peas, rice and cumin. You can add the stock directly from your freezer if you want. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low and simmer for about an hour. Turn off the heat.
Put about 3/4 of the resulting mixture into the food processor and puree. Then add it back to the pot along with the 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs. Mix and then refrigerate until ready to cook. Form patties and dredge in more breadcrumbs. Then cook until heated through, adding cheese on top after flipping.

total meal cost: $11.37 Once again a lot of this I have double counted in my recipes. And I'm a snob about pickles.

Burger Eighteen: BLT Burger

2010-07-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. I'm afraid I've gotten a little lazy. That and we took a trip Saturday instead of going grocery shopping. Don't get me wrong, this a perfectly good burger. And I did make the buns. It's just not as exciting as some of my recent inventions. Tonight is going to be an interesting one though, so stay tuned!

meat: beef ($2.29)
cheese: provolone ($2.50)
toppings: bacon ($2.69), tomato (garden), lettuce ($2.00)
condiments: mayo and a nice spicy Dijon mustard (pantry)
bun: homemade white hamburger bun (pantry) using this recipe

I don't even have any special instructions for this one.
I put mayo on the bottom and mustard on the top. I used a ton of grill seasoning in the meat, which was really good.

Am I getting sick of burgers yet? Yeah, a little bit. Is my husband? No, not so much. Although we are trying to lose some weight before we move in a month or so here, and this is not helping. Only two more burgers to go! :)

total meal cost: $9.48 although, and I know I have these addendum a lot, The only thing that was bought specifically for this burger was the meat. Everything else is leftover from another recipe. We try to have a night at the end of the grocery shopping week when we make a recipe from what's left in the fridge. I only end up planning five meals a week to buy specifics for, then we usually have one night like this and one night of leftovers.

Burger Seventeen: Thai Burger with Homemade Peanut Butter

2010-07-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love Thai food. Well, I love what I perceive is Thai food, which is an Americanized version. I love how something so healthy can be so flavorful. From what I can gather, one of the signature flavor combinations of Thai food is mint, cilantro and basil.
This burger was awesome. Surprisingly awesome. My husband was skeptical at first but he loved this one. In the top three so far he says. I liked it a lot too, but I figured I would. :)

meat: pork ($3.29) with mint (garden) and cilantro ($0.98), lime ($0.50)
cheese: none
toppings: cucumber ($0.50), red onion ($0.89), basil (garden)
condiment: homemade peanut butter (pantry peanuts)
bun: whole wheat hamburger bun ($1.89)

I mixed the pork up with some chopped cilantro and mint and added some lime zest and fish sauce. I just added fish sauce because I already had it in the fridge. If you have it I would definitely add it, it adds a lot to the 'thai-ness' of the dish. If not, oh well. Don't go spend money on it. Unless you want to support your local independent Asian specialty market, which is what I did. I added lime juice after I flipped the meat the first time.

For the homemade peanut butter, put about a half cup of dry roasted peanuts in the food processor and turn it on. It'll take a few minutes, and maybe some earplugs, but it'll turn into lovely peanut butter. Sooo yummy.

total meal cost: $8.05

Burger Sixteen: Caprese Burger

2010-07-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

My brother is living has been living in Italy on a mission for our church for the last two years. Before he left he was really in to all things Italian and we became caprese salad fiends, ooh and we went to this really fun little Italian restaurant in Provo, Utah. Too bad I've forgotten the name of it. Provo is great for international food.
Anyways, my brother comes home soon and I am really excited! This is a burger in honor of him.

meat: ground beef $2.29 balsamic vinegar: pantry
cheese: mozzarella $1.79
toppings: tomato: garden, basil: garden
condiments: mayonnaise $1.49
bun: whole wheat hamburger bun $1.89

I mixed the meat up with some salt and pepper and balsamic vinegar before I cooked it. The only problem was that the extra moisture from the balsamic made the meat fall apart really easily. It was fine once the cheese melted over the top of it though.

The vinegar was really fun in the meat and you could definitely taste it but I want more balsamic on mine. I think next time I'll mix some balsamic into the mayonnaise also.

I think the fresh basil right out of the garden made the burger. It was really good. This one was really simple but it's one of my favorites so far.

total meal cost: $7.46 would have been less if I hadn't ran out of mayo. :)

Burger Fifteen: Buffalo Chicken Burger

2010-07-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

I was reluctant to make this one. I don't like Buffalo Chicken. I don't know what it is. Maybe the celery. bleck. Anyways, this burger turned out to be a lot better than I thought. My husband put extra hot sauce on top of his, which worked great. So don't stress too much about the amount, better to go under than over.

meat: chicken: ground chicken is expensive. I found some fresh chicken and had the butcher grind it for me, which he was happy to do as long as I bought three pounds or more because that's the minimum the machine could take. $2.15
cheese: blue cheese $1.99
toppings: lettuce $2.00, tomato from the garden, chopped celery $1.00
condiment: cucumber ranch dressing- pantry
bun: whole wheat hamburger bun $1.89

This one is pretty straightforward. I just mixed a bunch of hot sauce in with the chicken before we grilled it. Then I put the blue cheese on top after I flipped it the first time so it would melt. That's it!

total meal cost: $9.03

Homemade Nut Butter makes a Rice Noodle Salad

2010-07-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Making nut butters is super easy. You just put nuts in a food processor and let it run until the nuts turn into a butter consistency. Economically, this makes a lot of nut butters accessible to those people who, like me, are on a budget. The recipe I made was used with cashew butter, which I would never be able to afford normally.

A word to the budget-wise nuts are cheaper in the baking section of the grocery store rather than the snack section. Check it out.

This recipe is for my mom. I have wonderful memories of my mom cooking. We discovered the food network when I was in high school and enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen. Since then my parent's house has acquired two very picky kids (my youngest brother was born when I was 17) and a father-in-law with his list of dietary restrictions. My mom doesn't enjoy cooking anymore.

When I was making this recipe I thought it might be something that could work for everyone that she cooks for. Plus we'll see if she actually reads my blog this way. ha.ha.

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew (or Peanut) Dressing
Yield: 4 servings haha. more like six.

Cashew Butter:
1 cup cashews* $2.19
Cashew Dressing:
½ inch slice of fresh ginger, chopped (I'm allergic so I skipped it)
8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped $1.19 - I buy minced garlic in a jar
½ cup cashew butter
¼ cup soy sauce pantry
3 Tablespoons sugar pantry
3 Tablespoons vinegar I used rice vinegar - pantry
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil this is something I keep in my pantry but the initial investments will probably be about $4. It's amazing though. I just can't have any Asian food without it anymore
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon water

Noodle Salad:
1/2 pound linguine or thin rice noodles $1.20
1 tablespoon olive oil pantry
1/2 pound small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined $2.18
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips $1.50
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced $0.50
1/4 cup sliced green onions $0.77
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil I grow this in my kitchen, but you could used dried too. Fresh basil at my grocery store is $3.00 for just a few sprigs of it, so I never buy it.
1 tablespoon chopped cashews (optional garnish) leftover from above
Lime wedges (optional) $0.25

Directions:

Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. (*Or start with ½ cup (120 ml) prepared cashew butter.)
Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups (360 ml) dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes or until opaque throughout. Alternately, cook shrimp in boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes or until done.
Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl. Add about ½ cup (120 ml) cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Scatter shrimp on top. Squeeze fresh lime juice over salad or serve with lime wedges. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.

total meal cost: $13.78 (about $10 if you have sesame oil already)

Burger Fourteen: Turk Jerk Burger

2010-07-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe from my dear friend and favorite college roommate, Megan. We had a good time together in college. We cooked crazy things and did crazy dances and worked at a pizza place together. She is one of those friends that no matter how long it has been since we've talked, we're still totally comfortable and we pick up right where we left off. She used to just be a short drive away and we got together for weekends relatively often, but now she has moved to Boise and we'll be moving to Iowa shortly so we won't see each other for a while *sigh. I guess we'll always have our food blogs.

meat: turkey ($1.19) with jalepeno ($0.35) and green onions ($0.77)
cheese: none
toppings: mango salsa (red onion $0.89, mango $0.98, cilantro $0.98, lime $0.50)
condiments: none
bun: white hamburger bun

I will link you to Megan's blog to get the whole recipe for this one.

This is probably the healthiest burger I've made so far. It's right up there with the Portobello burger.

I did change a couple things. I forgot to get a red bell pepper at the store, so my salsa didn't have that in there, sadly. I did swap the orange juice for lime in the salsa too. Why not use lime? Lime is awesome. Plus you only have to buy one piece of citrus that way. :)

I didn't feel like spending money on 'Caribbean seasoning' so I looked up what would be in there and added that out of my pantry. I added cinnamon, cumin and onion powder.

total meal cost: $5.66 I actually had people over for this one, so I cooked up a package of frozen fries that I had in my freezer, that couldn't have been more than $2 and cut up some leftover jicama that needed to be eaten. I fed five adults and two kids for less than ten bucks. And we had leftover mango salsa. :)

Burger Thirteen: Philly Cheesesteak-Inspired Burger

2010-07-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Fail. Well, not exactly fail, but not right. Let me begin this by saying that I've never actually eaten a Philly Cheesesteak. I know, it's ridiculous. I have always thought that I wanted to eat one in Philadelphia and not just try a random one at some random sub shop somewhere although after this mishap maybe I'll just go eat one where my husband gets his occassionally.

Don't get me wrong, this burger was good, just apparently not anything like a cheesesteak. At least according to my far from expert husband. He insisted that his favorite parts of the one he gets are the horseradish sauce and the provolone cheese. Maybe I'll make a second one later. Anyways, here's what I came up with.

meat: beef ($2.29)
cheese: processed American (for optimal meltyness) ($1.00)
toppings: sauteed mushrooms ($1.29), onions ($0.79) and bell pepper ($1.50)
condiments: mayo and ketchup (pantry)
bun: *another mistake. I was going to make some nice fluffy white rolls for this one, but totally forgot, so pictured is the typical whole wheat hamburger bun that we have for everything.($1.89)

This one is so simple I don't have any procedures for you. I sauteed the vegetables all together with a little oil on medium high heat.

total meal cost: $8.67 and I would like to point out that this is the third time I've used that $1.89 for buns this week, so it should really be divided by three, but it drives me crazy when magazines do that. If you want to make this recipe you would have to go out and buy all this stuff. So just to keep in mind. Planning your meals ahead of time for the week can really stretch your dollars.

Burger Twelve: Kansas BBQ Burger

2010-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ummm, this is the best burger I've ever had. And I worked at In N Out for five years. This is the only one we've had so far that I would pay money for at a restaurant. Although there are some others that my husband said he liked that much. Anyways, this burger is amazing albeit a little work intensive. It also features my very first original recipe!! I remember thinking I would never be able to write a recipe. I have learned a lot.

meat: beef ($2.29)
cheese: none
toppings: baked beans ($1.58), onion rings ($0.89)
condiment: BBQ sauce (pantry)
bun: cornbread biscuits *my original recipe* ($1.00)

For the onion rings: thickly slice one onion, then separate the slices so you have rings. Mix some instant pancake batter with some water, use much less water than the package instructions say. The batter should be very thick. We just kept adding water and mix until we got the consistency we wanted. I forgot to measure. Sorry about that. Heat a half-inch of oil in a large pan or pot. Dip the onion rings into the batter and fry, flipping once, until golden. (These are awesome!! We almost didn't have enough left over to put on the burgers by the time we were done frying them.)

For the cornbread biscuits:
1 corn muffin mix
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 stick butter
1 cup buttermilk

mix the mix and the flour together in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry cutter until it is incorporated, just like making pie crust. Add the buttermilk and work with a rubber spatula until you have a dough. Alternatively you could do this in a food processor if you have a big one.
Roll to about one-half inch thick. The dough doesn't puff up much in the oven. Cut into 4inch rounds. Bake at 350 for 25-ish minutes until they are just getting golden around the edge.

Use one biscuit as a top and another for the bottom of your burger. Although you could just eat these by themselves with honey butter and be one happy camper. :)

Total cost of meal: $5.76 if you already have BBQ sauce and pancake mix. If you need to buy those things then you're probably looking at $10. We also had pickles on the side, but those were leftover from yesterday's burger. :)

Burger Eleven: Cuban Burger

2010-07-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

I decided that since the premise of this blog is that the food is relatively inexpensive, I will start posting the cost of the meals I make. Although there are only two adults in our house, generally the meals I make are for four and my husband takes the leftovers to work for lunch. I shop mostly at Aldi and HyVee although I will occasionally make the trip to Walmart. I also buy things in bulk from Sams Club every few months.

With that taken care of, feast your eyes on this beauty!

The Cuban Burger. I love Cuban sandwiches, so I thought it would make a great burger.

meat: ground pork ($2.98/lb)
cheese: muenster ($1.99)
toppings: pickles ($1.97), deli ham ($2.50)
condiment: butter (pantry) and deli mustard (pantry)
bun: whole wheat hamburger bun ($1.89)

I really enjoyed the simplicity of this one. Traditionally a Cuban has Swiss cheese on it, but I don't really like Swiss cheese so I got the muenster instead, which was delicious.

Pickles are something I'm snobby about. I can't deal with store-brand pickles, so I got the expensive kind. (Maybe they'll pay me a bunch of money to mention which brand...)

My husband insists that with the exception of peanut butter and jelly, all sandwiches, including burgers would benefit from some lettuce. So about halfway through his burger he added some lettuce to the mix. He says that the mild flavor of lettuce balances out everything else and it adds a crunchy, fresh texture that he loves. I swear he wasn't so picky when I married him.

This is one of my favorites so far though, and it doesn't take a whole lot of ingredients. Definitely one to try if you're following along!

total meal cost: $11.33 with some of everything left over except the meat.
So that includes at least three ham sandwiches for future lunches... not bad!

Burger Ten: Chicken Cobb Burger

2010-07-07T10:16:00.000-07:00

So continuing with the salad theme...

meat: chicken

cheese: blue cheese

toppings: avocado, tomato, bacon, hard-boiled egg

condiments: mayo and mustard

bun: whole wheat hamburger bun

We really liked this one. It was amazingly good. I was thinking about what Kim said with the fat layer preventing sogginess and realized that avocado is a fat! So instead of slicing it like I have been doing, I mushed it up and spread it on the bottom bun. It worked great. I didn't have any problem with the slippery tomato and avocado causing avalanches either. Awesome.

The only other thing about this was that the ground chicken was really sticky. It worked ok, but the burgers weren't exactly round and it got all over my hands. Which totally freaked my husband out. He has some weird thing about raw meat. It was kind of entertaining. Anyways, just be forewarned about that. Especially if you are squeamish like him.

I put the blue cheese on the burgers while they were still cooking so it would melt. Burnt blue cheese is amazing!! I loved the stuff that got stuck to the pan and browned. Seriously.

Burger Nine: Tuna Nicoise Burger

2010-07-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite salads and I am always looking for new ways to use canned tuna because it is so cheap. I made this one up totally on my own and I guess there's a reason I've never seen a burger made out of canned tuna before. Not that it was bad, it tasted really good. But it didn't taste like a burger, just like a hot tuna sandwich. My husband said it's his least favorite burger so far, but as a meal he would like it again sometime. So much for my creativity...

meat: canned tuna

cheese: none

toppings: roasted potato slices, tomato, lettuce, hard-boiled egg, kalamata olives, red onion (wow, that's a lot)

condiment: spicy brown mustard

bun: whole wheat hamburger bun from bakery section of grocery store

For the tuna patties: I got three patties out of two cans of tuna, about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and one egg. I added some thyme to the meat mixture. They came out really nice structurally.

For the potatoes: I just slice up some red potatoes and put them in the oven at 350 for probably 20 min. I kind of forgot about them in there, so you probably don't need to keep them in that long. :)

Flag Cake version 2.0

2010-07-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't make a burger yesterday and I won't make one today because we went/are going to various Independence Day festivities. I wish I brought my camera to the party last night though because there were burgers there. Just not ones I made. I however, opted for the brats being somewhat on burger overload. ;)
I did make something festive to bring though that I thought I'd share with you. It's a tradition in my family to make flag cake every year for the 4th of July, see my post from last year so when I saw this recipe in Martha Stewart Living, I had to try it. I feel like I am getting ok at this food photography thing, but these pictures really don't do this piece justice.

Flag Cheesecake (adapted from Martha Stewart)
For the crust:
3 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour

beat the butter until fluffy, then add the brown sugar, then the flour. Press it into a jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper and let chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then cook it at 300 for about 30 minutes. Let cool.

For the filling:
32 oz (2 lbs) cream cheese
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs

beat the cream cheese until fluffy then gradually add the sugar, then vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time. Fill the crust and bake at 350 for 25 minutes.
To assemble:
cut into 48 squares (6 down, 8 across) decorate squares with fruit to look like the American flag. I used blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Alternatively leave the white stripes without fruit and powder sugar them if you want it to look really, really white. Do three squares down and four across for the blue in the top left.

*As an afterthought. With my brothers and other family and friends leaving and coming home from missions for our church often, this would be a really fun thing to do for a farewell or homecoming party. You could get different fruits or candies to make any the flag from the country that they are leaving or going to. Maybe I'll try it when my brother comes home from Italy. They are green, red and white. I wonder what a good thing would be to use for green...

Burger Eight: Black Bean Burgers

2010-07-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

I got this idea from browsing through a cookbook although I didn't use the recipe that they had. I feel like putting egg in these patties is unnecessary. I wanted more vegetarian patties though and this one sounded awesome.

burger: black bean patty
cheese: monterey jack
toppings: avocado, tomato, cilantro, red onion
condiments: tomatillo-lime salsa
bun: white hamburger bun

To make the black bean patties use the food processor to puree one can of black beans. Add it to another can of black beans, some bread crumbs, chopped red onion, cilantro, salt, pepper and cumin. Form into patties. Don't make the patties too thick or they'll squish when you bite into them and won't heat all the way through. They're already cooked so you just need to cook them on the grill until they are heated through

To make tomatillo-lime salsa boil some tomatillos until they are soft. Then stick them in the food processor. Add lime juice and zest. (This stuff is AMAZING)
At this meal my husband uttered my favorite words to hear on vegetarian night: "There's no meat at all in this?! Really?" I love it when these meals are hearty enough for my 6'3" husband.

Burger Seven: No Frills Salmon Burger

2010-07-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

A lot of salmon burgers have Asian-inspired flavors. Ginger, wasabi, sesame. But I wanted to make one that I could make just out of my pantry without having to buy ingredients I don't normally keep on hand. Plus I'm allergic to ginger. In any case this is what I came up with.

meat: salmon
cheese: none
toppings: lettuce, tomato
condiments: lemon mayo
bun: white hamburger bun

To make salmon patties I put some raw salmon in the food processor and pulsed it a couple times. Then I mixed the salmon with breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. I would say about 1/3 cup of bread crumbs for 1 lb of salmon. Then I formed it into patties and it worked beautifully.

The lemon mayo is lemon juice and zest mixed with some mayonnaise. I really liked that part.

Oddly enough this is the first meat patty that my two-year old ate more then her token bite of. She loved it.

Burger Six: Alton's Mini Man Burger

2010-07-01T06:30:00.001-07:00

I love Alton Brown, well I love his show anyways. I like finding out about the science of food and why it behaves the way it does. That way I feel a lot more confident when it comes to messing around with recipes and such. Plus, all of the recipes I have ever made of his have turned out awesome.
So when Kim suggested doing Alton's sliders I found the recipe right away. I have to admit I was a little skeptical. There is nothing on these burgers. Literally. The preparation was also quite a bit more work then I have been putting into these. But Alton has never steered me wrong before, so I faithfully followed his instructions.
Worth it? Well, the meat was the best tasting we've had so far. Alton says that the juice from the burger and the mayo meld together to form an awesome sauce-type thing. Problem is I am nursing a baby so I have to have everything well-done. So much for juices. David also insists that a little lettuce and tomato wouldn't hurt on this thing. The spice blend is excellent though.

meat: ground beef
cheese: none
toppings: none
condiments: mayo only
bun: some random homemade roll made from your basic milk bread dough

Alton's Recipe:

1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound ground chuck
8 (3-inch) buns or rolls, split in half
2 to 3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Directions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Preheat a griddle to 350 degrees F.
Combine the onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Line a jellyroll or sheet pan with parchment paper, and place the ground chuck in the middle of the pan. Cover the meat with a large sheet of plastic wrap. Roll meat with a rolling pin until it covers the surface of the pan; it should be very thin. I ended up using my hands on this one. I just washed them afterwards. Remove the plastic wrap, and sprinkle the meat with the seasoning mixture. Fold the meat in half, from side to side, using the parchment paper. Use a pizza wheel to cut the meat into 8 even squares. Mine ended up being more like rectangles, but they shrunk down when I cooked them to fit the buns pretty perfectly.

Wrap the buns in foil and place in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place the burgers on the griddle and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Remove the buns from the oven. Spread a small amount of mayonnaise on each bun and top with the burger and any other condiments, as desired. Serve immediately.

Burger Five: Hawaiian Burger

2010-06-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

I was at the grocery store buying things to make burgers and was about to check out when I saw King's Hawaiian Rolls on sale for 89cents a package. How can you pass that up? This bread reminds me of my mom. It was one of her special treat foods. I bought them and was inspired to use them for buns in a Hawaiian Burger. They are tiny rolls so I made sliders. That's eight patties out of a pound of meat.

meat: ground pork
cheese: none
toppings: pineapple, jicama, lettuce
condiments: terriyaki sauce
bun: King's Hawaiian Rolls

I really liked these although they got kind of soggy after a few minutes. Seems to be a common theme in burgerdom. I'll have to figure something out.

The ground pork was incredibly moist and fatty. I added a little smoked paprika, salt, pepper and some flaked sweetened coconut. It was a really fun touch to add coconut into the meat. Next time I will get some non-sweetened stuff and I will add more I think.
I used canned pineapple which was a mistake. It's summer, pineapple is in season. I was just being lazy. It would have helped out a lot with the sogginess factor if I had used fresh.
The terriyaki sauce I made is just equal parts soy sauce and sugar with a little garlic.

Burger Four: Portobello Burger

2010-06-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

This recipe is adapted from a Rachael Ray recipe from her book with 365 recipes in it. One for eat day of the year. I got that book as a wedding gift and have used it at least once a week since then and we still haven't tried everything in it. We've done this one before but I made some adjustments for this burger. We love it. My husband insists that the mushroom tastes like meat.

meat: portobello mushroom caps
cheese: ricotta
toppings: carmelized onion, sun-dried tomato, spinach
condiments: pesto
bun: homemade whole wheat hamburger bun (see yesterday's post for recipe)

Douse the mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and olive oil then roast them at 450 for 15-ish minutes depending on how thick they are. I then used a round cookie cutter to make rounds the size of the buns.

This is a great, really healthy burger. The only disclaimer is that it makes a huge mess. Make sure you're eating over a plate and you have a napkin and a fork to eat what deliciousness falls out of the burger.

Burger Three: The Club Sandwich Burger aka The Willie Burger

2010-06-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

One night very, very late (or early) when I was in college my friends and I went to Dennys. For some reason one of the guys with us, Willie, was incredibly hungry. We all ordered disgustingly greasy breakfast foods but Willie wouldn't hear of that. He wanted a club sandwich. (see backlit image above indicating angelic qualities) He got so hungry while we were waiting that he began singing: "club saaandwhiich." Now we were all good Mormon kids, so Willie was not under the influence of anything but sleep deprivation and hunger.
Whenever I think of club sandwiches I think of my old friend, so this one's for you Willie. But only if you'll sing the song for it.

meat: ground turkey
cheese: sharp cheddar
toppings: bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado
condiments: mustard and mayo
bun: homemade whole wheat hamburger buns (recipe follows)

I liked this one even more than the Greek. I did make a slight construction error by layering the avocado directly onto the tomato. When I picked up the burger it split-leveled itself into a pile on my plate. So yeah, put the bacon in between those two layers.

Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns
1 1/2 cups of milk (room temp)
1/2 cup hot water
2 TB melted butter
1 TB sugar
1 TB salt
2 1/2 tsp yeast
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour

1) combine the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt and whisk until everything disolves together. It should be warm to the touch (about 110 degrees) If it's not stick it in the microwave for a few seconds
2) In a stand mixer put the flours and the yeast and mix together. Slowly add the wet ingredients using the hook attachment and let it knead for 5-ish minutes.
3) Let rise until double (1 hour on the counter or 1/2 hour in the oven set on 'warm')
4) form into little balls. I did mine the size of golf balls and they turned out a little small for me. smoosh them so they're a little flat with your hand. That way they'll rise out instead of up.
5) let rise until double again (about 15 minutes on the counter)
6) bake at 400 for 20 minutes.
7) Never buy lamezor, cheapo hamburger buns again. You can even freeze these as little balls and bake them off whenever you need them. Just let them thaw in the fridge and them proof them in a warm oven until they have risen to the size you want.

Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

2010-06-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I love making Mascarpone cheese. Something about it makes me feel self-reliant and accomplished. Maybe I'll get my two-year-old to help me churn some butter next. The recipe for the cheese can be found here We made it a few months ago for our tiramisu.

This was incredibly delicious, but I love meringue in any form. People who don't like meringue tended to not enjoy this one so much. I had a little bit of trouble drying them out completely because it is sooo humid. Next time I'll turn the oven down a couple degrees and leave them in a little longer. Or I'll just make them during the winter :) Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
¼ cup confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.
Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.) If you ever want something added gradually measure it out for your toddler and then let her pour it in with a measuring spoon. It works great!
Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)
Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon. (Class made rounds, hearts, diamonds and an attempt at a clover was made!)
Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

1 ½ cups heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces 72% chocolate, chopped I used 60% and it was awesome.
1 2/3 cups mascarpone
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (or orange juice)

Directions:

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.
Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)
Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Directions:

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.
Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.
Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Fail Alert: I didn't make the mascarpone cream to go on top. I tried to make the creme anglaise and I cooked the eggs, just like they always warn you about, and they turned into an incredibly sweet scrambled egg, just like you're always warned about. I've never had that happen before. I guess I was getting over cocky and not paying attention and overcooked it. In any case. I didn't have enough cream to make another creme anglaise so I had to skip the mascarpone cream. I'm sure it would have been delicious though.

Assembly:
Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

Burger Two: The Greek Burger

2010-06-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

The Stats:
meat: beef
cheese: feta
toppings: tomato, lettuce, red onion, kalamata olives
condiments: tzatziki
bun: whole wheat

For this burger I mixed some salt, pepper, oregano and the feta into the meat before I cooked it. It worked out really well and toned down the feta quite a bit so it's not quite as strong. I love feta so I added extra to my burger when I assembled it.
I layered the toppings like so and I was kind of worried the olives would be unruly and fall out, but they were fine.
The only problem was the tzatziki. It was really moist because I didn't drain everything as per my recipe suggests. I highly recommend draining it overnight otherwise it will the make the bun soggy after a couple minutes. Although my husband ate his so fast that he didn't have this problem. ;)
I really liked this one, but I love Greek everything. Except lamb. If you like lamb you could try this as a lamb burger or a mix between the beef and lamb.

Tzatziki
1/2 cucumber
1/2 c. plain yogurt
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 TB olive oil
salt and pepper

put yogurt in a cheesecloth-lined sieve over a bowl. Drain several hours or overnight.
Grate peeled and seeded cucumber, set aside to drain. Add garlic, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Pulse until combine. Add yogurt. Pulse until sauce-like. May drain again if your cucumber was super moist.

Burger Number One: The Minimalist Burger

2010-06-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

I decided to start out the challenge with your traditional fast food type burger so we could decided just what components are necessary in order to call something a 'burger'
This is a beef patty with uber-processed and wonderfully melty American cheese. The buns cost 89 cents for 8 but they worked fine once toasted under the broiler in the oven
Toppings: lettuce, tomato, onion
Condiments: mayonnaise and mustard.

These were incredibly delicious. There's something to be said for not messing with a good thing. There is nothing mixed into the meat but salt and pepper. The only problem was that it was out-shined by the AMAZING corn on the cob! I totally remember why I live in Kansas now.Oh, and we don't normally ever get chips but I thought that they would be appropriate for this meal. Should probably have done a salad though... ;)

So what's in a burger?
1) meat or meat-substitute: all the meats I use will be ground and formed into a patty although you could argue that's not necessary.
2) cheese: although not in all burgers it definitely makes them more delicious
3) toppings: usually vegetables but not always
4) condiments: it's got to have something otherwise everything sticks in your mouth and is hard to chew and swallow.
5) bun: once again this is arguable but all my burgers for the challenge will have a bun

My husband is so excited about this. I had no idea it was so easy to make him happy. Plus I've spent less money on groceries so far.

The Burger Challenge

2010-06-22T12:19:00.000-07:00

My husband loves to challenge my creativity in the kitchen. I love seasonal activities. I was asking him what activities meant 'summer' to him the other day and he said 'Burgers. I bet you can't make 20 different burgers for dinner 20 nights in a row.'
'Ha!' I thought 'You should know me better than that!' "You asked for it!" I said.
So I will be documenting all twenty burgers on my lovely little blog. If you want to play along or give me some ideas, I might start needing them on day 15 or so.
20 nights of burgers starts Friday June 25th!

Tri-Color Veggie Pate and French Baguette

2010-06-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.
Oohh this bread. It is amazing. and so gorgeous. It was also a bit cheaper than the recipe I normally use because it doesn't take any fat and requires less yeast. Who knew the key to making awesome bread this whole time was a starter? Well I guess someone else did.
The 'pate' (aka bean dip) was ok. I wasn't paying attention and used too much lemon juice, so it didn't set right but it worked. My husband said it tasted similar to hummus, so there's the unrefined palette perspective. It also made a TON of the stuff. I had to throw half of it away, which was sad. This is like a 'if you're having a party' type recipe.

Tricolor Vegetable Pâté

Yields one 25 by 12,5 cm (10 by 5 inch) terrine or loaf pan

Line your pan with plastic wrap, overlapping sides.

White Bean Layer
2 x 15-ounce / 900 ml cans cannellini (white kidney beans), rinsed, drained thoroughly
1 tbsp / 15 ml fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp / 15 ml olive oil
1 tbsp / 15 ml minced fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
2 garlic cloves, pressed

Mash beans in large bowl. Add lemon juice, olive oil, oregano and garlic and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread bean mixture evenly on bottom of prepared pan.

Red Pepper Layer
7-ounce / 210 ml jar roasted red bell peppers, drained, chopped
3/4 cup / 180 ml crumbled feta cheese (about 4 ounces)

Combine peppers and feta in processor and blend until smooth. Spread pepper mixture evenly over bean layer in prepared dish.

Pesto Layer
2 garlic cloves
1 cup / 240 ml fresh basil leaves
1 cup / 240 ml fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/4 cup / 60 ml toasted pine nuts
3 tbsp / 45 ml olive oil
1/2 cup / 120 ml low-fat ricotta cheese

Mince garlic in processor. Add basil, parsley and pine nuts and mince. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube and process until smooth. I used store bought pesto instead. It worked fine and was cheaper for me than buying all those fresh herbs and pine nuts. Mix in ricotta. Spread pesto evenly over red pepper layer.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To unmold, invert pâté onto serving platter. Peel off plastic wrap from pâté.

French Baguette
yield: Three 16" baguettes

Starter
1/2 cup / 120 ml cool water
1/16 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 cup / 240 ml flour

Dough
1 tsp / 5 ml active dry yeast
1 cup to 1 1/4 cups / 240 ml to 300 ml lukewarm water*
all of the starter
3 1/2 cups / 840 ml flour
1 1/2 tsp / 7 ml salt

*Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.

Make the starter by mixing the yeast with the water, then mixing in the flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rest at room temperature for about 14 hours; overnight works well. The starter should have risen and become bubbly.

Mix active dry yeast with the water and then combine with the starter, flour, and salt. Mix and knead everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—till you've made a soft, somewhat smooth dough; it should be cohesive, but the surface may still be a bit rough. Knead for about 5 minutes on speed 2 of a stand mixer. This turned the most beautiful white color, I just love it.

Place the dough in a lightly greased medium-size bowl, cover the bowl, and let the dough rise for 3 hours, gently deflating it and turning it over after 1 hour, and then again after 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased work surface. Divide it into three equal pieces. Shape each piece into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let them rest for 15 minutes.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten it slightly, and fold and seal again. With the seam-side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the dough into a 15" log. Place the logs seam-side down onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined sheet pan or pans.

Cover them with a cover or lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the loaves to rise till they've become very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450ºF (240ºC).

Using a very sharp knife held at about a 45° angle, make three 8" vertical slashes in each baguette. Spritz the baguettes heavily with warm water; this will help them develop a crackly-crisp crust.

Bake the baguettes until they're a very deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack. Or, for the very crispiest baguettes, turn off the oven, crack it open about 2", and allow the baguettes to cool in the oven.

PIECE MONTÉE (Croquembouche)

2010-05-27T18:45:00.000-07:00

It was my daughter's second birthday this week so I decided to kill two birds with one desert and make this as her birthday cake. She likes finger food better than stuff you have to use a utensil to eat anyways.
We'll just say that this thing tastes as good as it looks. I don't think I can even elaborate on that.
For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla
Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt
Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt). I skipped that step ;)

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.
Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze. I used a condiment squirter bottle to fill these after getting frustrated with pastry bags. I got the idea from Martha Stewart. It works fantastically.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)
Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.
Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.
Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place

Stacked Enchiladas and Homemade Tortillas

2010-05-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

This is an amazing recipe! I absolutely love it. My only issue is that the stacked vs. rolled enchilada is a lot harder to serve. I think I'd just do the traditional rolling method with this recipe next time.

I loved making tortillas. I couldn't believe how easy they were. I have often thought about making them before but never really looked into it that closely. Corn tortillas only have two ingredients in them, one of which is water. They were a blast to make.
Corn Tortillas (from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen)
Makes about 15
1 3/4 cups masa harina
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot water
Pour hot water over masa harina, cover and let sit 30 minutes. Add (additional) cool water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into 15 balls and cover with plastic wrap.
Heat a large (two burner) ungreased griddle or two large skillets, one on medium-low and one on medium-high.
Put a ball of dough between two sheets of plastic. If you don’t have a tortilla press, press to a 5-6” circle using a heavy frying pan or bread board or other heavy, flat object. We rigged something up with two cutting boards, pressing the dough in between. I was trying to do it myself but I couldn't get them flat enough so I had to bring in my husband and his muscles. I think I might invest in a tortilla press. Put the tortilla into the cooler pan or cooler end of the griddle. The tortilla will probably stick, but within 15 seconds, if the temperature is correct, it will release. Flip it at that point onto the hotter skillet/griddle section. In 30-45 seconds, it should be dotted with brown underneath. Flip it over, still on the hot surface and brown another 30 seconds or so. A good tortilla will balloon up at this point. Remove from heat and let them rest while cooking the remaining tortillas. Use quickly.

Ingredients
1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers) could probably be substituted but be conscious of heat and size!)
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium)212 grams - peel, remove stems
4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces/920 grams)
1 clove Garlic, minced
2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
Hot sauce, your favorite, optional
2 Boneless chicken breasts (you can also use bone-in chicken breasts or thighs)
3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)
6 ounces grated Monterey Jack, 170 grams (other cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses) can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional
Directions:
Roasting Fresh Chiles
1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.
2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.
3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.
4. Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.
5. DO NOT RINSE!
Green Chile Sauce
1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.
2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor. I put the roasted chiles in with the tomatillos instead of just dicing them and putting them in.
3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas
1. Heat a gas grill to medium high or build a medium-hot charcoal Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts.
3. Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred. I forgot to defrost my chicken in time for this recipe so instead of grilling it and getting all that fantastic flavor, I just boiled it and then shredded it. It was still fantastic. Just in case you're short on time like I was. I would definitely have rather grilled it though.
4. In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.
5. Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).
6. Drain on paper towels.
7. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
8. In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
9. Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
10. Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
11. Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
12. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
13. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
14. To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Traditional British Pudding

2010-04-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

I was really excited about this challenge. My Dad emigrated here from England with his family when he was a kid and I loved cooking with my Nana before she passed away. I love how real British food is. They don't mess around. If there should be fat in it then you better believe that it's in there.When I got married my Nana gave me a rolling pin that had been passed down to her from her great grandmother. She said it was used to whack many a husband and that she expected me to carry on the tradition. :) I don't really used it to whack my husband very often, but I use it for scones and I thought that it would be appropriate to use it for this pudding too.
I made a berry pudding and I cheated quite a bit because I'm nine months pregnant and I wanted to keep things simple.

Ingredients

12 ounces Self-raising flour
6 ounces Shredded suet or suet substitute (i.e., Vegetable Suet, Crisco, Lard) I didn't feel like searching all over for suet so I just used crisco. It worked fine.
(a pinch) Salt and sugar
a little less than a cup of liquid (half water, half milk)

1. Mix the flour and suet together.
2. Season the flour and suet mixture with and just a bit of salt and/or spices.
3. Add the water, a tablespoonful at a time, as you mix the ingredients together. Make up the pastry to firm an elastic dough that leaves the bowl clean. The liquid amounts are only an estimate and most recipes just say water to mix.
4. Don’t over handle the pastry or it will be too hard.
5. Reserve a quarter for the lid and roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl. I used a terra cotta pot because I don't own any stonewear. I also lined it with parchment paper, which made getting it out really easy.

6. At this point add your filling.. I got a bunch of fresh berries and tossed them in sugar and put them in. Amazing!!

7. Roll the final piece of pastry out into a circle big enough to cover the top of the basin, dampen the edges and put in position on the pudding, pinching the edges together to seal.

8. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil – pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking. Secure with string, and place it in a steamer over boiling water. Argh, I had no foil, so I had to used more parchment which didn't work as well.

9. Steam for up to 5 hours, you may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often. There is a lot of leeway in this steaming time and different recipes give different steaming times. Delia Smith says 5 hours for Steak and kidney where as Mrs Beeton says 2.5 for a similar dish! One way to tell that it is cooked is when the pastry changes colour and goes from white to a sort of light golden brown. It is also hard to over steam a pudding so you can leave it bubbling away until you are ready. I did mine for about four hours. You really can just let it go forever.

Enjoy!!

Honey Pie

2010-04-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

My cookbook says that this pie is traditional for Easter on the island of Sifnos. I wanted to make something Greek for Easter because it is such a big holiday there and this one sounded good and looked pretty easy. I am just now getting around to posting it. Ooops. :) This pie shell was very unusual compared to what I normally make but it was fantastic.
It definitely tastes like a honey pie. It's made with ricotta cheese so it has kind of a cheesecake like texture. We really liked it.

Pie Shell
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
5 1/2 TB butter room temperature
1 egg plus 1 egg yolkMix flour, sugar and butter together. Add egg, egg yolk and a little water and blend well. Put it in your pie plate and press it until it becomes a pie crust. (How easy is that?)

Filling
1 lb ricotta cheese
3 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1 TB lemon zest
3 TB flour
1/3 cup sugar
Combine all ingredients and blend well in a stand mixer. Pour into the prepared, uncooked pie crust. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and bake at 350 for one hour. Serve at room temperature.