...where I have root and the fare is liberally seasoned with pith and vinegar.
| The Digital Hausfrau ...where I have root and the fare is liberally seasoned with pith and vinegar. |
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Tonight was the annual Girl Scout Mother Daughter Potluck Dinner. One of the activities involved telling our daughters funny stories about our mothers. Fortunately, I had to reach back no further in my memory then just this morning. I was able to tell Emily about how my mom, in her grand tradition of completely sucking at all things carpool related, picked Lisa up at the West Palm Beach airport last night, despite the fact that Lisa had flown into Fort Lauderdale.
As mentioned numerous times in these pages, I am irrationally competitive about these potluck affairs. Cpmbine that with my innate distrust of most food made by other people and my efforts to spend this week shedding the weight that I put on over vacation, and, well, I needed to bring a salad, and a good one at that. I'm happy to report that the entire thing was eaten.
Here's the recipe. It makes a lot of dressing, and that part can easily be cut in half. You'll need less than half of the recipe as written for the amount of salad I made.
1 pound mixed field greens
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
some combination (or all) of:
2 cups alfalfa sprouts
1 cup grated carrot
2 cups julienned hothouse cucumber
4 sliced scallions, both white and green parts
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup chow mein noodles
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds or peanuts, optional
dressing (blend to combine):
1 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
I am a big food porn addict. I like to watch cooking shows. I check cookbooks out from the library. And I get cooking magazines. Oh, do I get cooking magazines. Bon Appetit. Fine Cooking. Cooking Light. And I'm about to add a new one...Eating Well.
But, as part of my new healthy eating plan, I've decided to make a radical departure from past protocol and actually cook things from the magazines, or at least from the healthier ones. So now, when I make my weekly menu plan, I'm going to pick a new recipe to try. Maybe something with a new grain, or hidden vegetables. Whatever. Just something different. I've invited Emily to leaf through them, too, and to make requests. Did I tell you that, somehow, she has opened up to trying new foods, and even new vegetables?!? Recent additions have included quinoa, shrimp, salmon (or at least a salmon burger), salad, mango, and pears. Her request for next week's menu was Asian Salt & Pepper Shrimp from Eating Well. Cool, huh?
Anyway, I made the recipe below for dinner tonight. It's from this month's Cooking Light. It was so good. And I don't even really like roasted red peppers! Although now I wonder if I really do, if it's just those slimy wet things in a jar that I hate. We pretty much did everything but lick the bowl. I served it with sautéed shrimp on top -- I just heated a bit of olive oil in a nonstick pan and tossed in a pound of shrimp with garlic, lemon zest, parsley, salt, and pepper. Also, don't believe them about the 8 ounces of pasta. There's at least enough sauce for a pound. I used whole wheat fusilli, and that was good; I wouldn't like it with long pasta. It would be good with spinach chopped in or, if you weren't eating with Andrew and Emily, with lots of hot pepper flakes.
3 large red bell peppers (about 1 1/2 pounds)
5 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
4 cups hot cooked bow tie pasta (8 ounces uncooked)
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese
Preheat broiler.
Cut bell peppers in half lengthwise; discard seeds and membranes. Place pepper halves, skin sides up, on a foil-lined baking sheet; flatten with hand. Broil 8 minutes or until blackened. Place peppers in a zip-top plastic bag; seal. Let stand 20 minutes. Peel; place peppers in a blender.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Add garlic mixture, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, broth, and next 5 ingredients (through red pepper) to blender with peppers; process until smooth. Combine bell pepper mixture and basil with pasta. Sprinkle with cheese.
Last night, I went to a sushi cooking class. I've been eating so much of it, and we've been liking it so much, that I wanted to learn the secrets of making sushi rice and turning out delicious maki at home.
The instructor began with a lesson on making the rice. This turned into an exhortation to everyone in the room to get a rice cooker, for god's sake, except to me because, obviously, I already have one.
So, then, the rolling. Put the mat in front of you, put the nori on the mat, smush the rice on the nori like you'd smush shortbread into a pan, put the goodies inside and then...
Use the mat to roll. Give one good roll, a squeeze to make sure everything stays in and then, holding the mat with one hand and pulling while using the other hand to crimp and keep things stuffed inside so nothering falls out, kind of zip the mat to roll it up*.
I don't know if I described that well, but let me tell you this: watching him, I had, as they say, a great big fucking aha moment: Rolling is rolling! I can do this!. At this point, as I sat smiling, watching the chef and oh so pleased with my understanding, he said, "Let's just say that there may be, um, something in your past that will help with this, and that I'll know it when I see your rolls."
Well, friends, let's just say that I made the prettiest rolls in the room.
*imagine rolling a joint with a dollar bill and a pencil, and you've got it.
Here's another of my new sneak-spinach-into-your-family dishes. This one's a little chunky for Emily, but she makes do.
1 onion, medium dice
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 small can tomato paste
3/4 cup canned low-sodium low-fat chicken broth
12 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails off
1-2 cups baby spinach, roughly chopped
hot pepper flakes to taste
Heat olive oil in saute pan, add onoins and cook until softened. Add garlic, oregano, and basil and cook one minute more. Add tomatoes and chicken broth and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to boil, and cook the pasta of your choice (we like whole wheat penne). When the pasta is almost done, add the shrmip and spinach to the sauce and cook for about 3 minutes, until the shrimp turns pink and the spinach wilts. Toss with pasta and, if you're me, plenty of dried hot pepper flakes and more black pepper.
All you have to count is the pasta (3 points per cup if it's whole wheat! Spend the extra point on some cheese!) and the shrimp, which I think is about a point for every 2 ounces. A bargain!
I've been beaning to tell you all about my super-fast, super-easy new recipe for burrito filling. It's so so so good. We eat it, with tortillas (ours are whole wheat), cheese (cabot 50% cheddar), rice (brown) and sour cream (fat free) almost once a week these days and, seriously, I can get dinner on the table fast than the rice can cook. It's also good just on rice, or in quesadillas, or whatever. Of course, the kids won't eat it yet, but they'll come around. At least Emily is willing to let me chop spinach into her cheese quesadillas these days. If you try it, let me know what you think.
1 onion, chopped into medium dice
1 pepper (green, yellow or red), also in medium dice
1 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
salt & pepper
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes & chiles (ro-tel is definitely best)
12 ounces boneless skinless chicken breast, shredded
1-2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
1. fry the onion and pepper until softened.
2. add seasonings, fry one more minute
3. add canned good and stir until smooth
4. add chicken and corn, simmer 10 minutes
5. add spinach and cilantro, cook until wilted.
approx. 5 WW points per 1 cup of filling...I use 1/4 cup of rice and about 1/2 cup of filling with 1 3 point tortilla and 2 T fat-free sour cream (I don't bother with the cheese in mine) for 7 points per burrito.
eat and enjoy!
...kareng!
And it wasn't even close. Karen went an impressive 18 out of 24, missing only Best Picture (very few got that one!), original song, sound mixing, and the three short film categories. Her parents' tuition money was well spent.
Karen, take your pick and let me know.
Hey, kids -- only two days until the Oscars! Don't forget to submit your entry!
Lisa, Adam, Karen, David, Alan...this means YOU!
Cookies are at stake here, people!
orange and milk chocolate chippers, cuccidati, peppermint sticks,
pistachio logs, peanut butter temptations, rugalach, snickerdoodles
lemon squares, pineapple moons, white chocolate and cashew squares,
macaroon brownies, raspberry swirl brownies
banana bites, magic blondies, wild maine blueberry bars,
white chocolate and macadamia drops, apricot/almond tartlets
caramel rocks, vermont maple sandwiches, peanut brittle diamonds,
sugar and spice drops, rainbow sugar cookies
This is what I can do.
The guests left Friday at 2:00, but it's taken me until now to finish decompressing and get here to post. This hostessing business is exhausting work!
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Want to see how it all turned out? I knew that you would! Dr. Freud, what does it mean that I have pictures of the food but not the people?
Next year, you're all invited!
Ok...the Thanksgiving menu is finalized. I have 7 adults and 4 kids for dinner, and 4 more adults and 5 more kids coming for dessert.
Here we go:
And then, for dessert, hopefully after dinner has had time to settle, all served with vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream...
Fear not...much of this is in the freezer already, and a military-style plan is in place to take care of the rest. What's everyone else making???
Mar asked about holiday baking in advance. It's really not that hard. First, I make a basic list of what I want to bake. Usually, it's about 20 different cookies, of as many different shapes (round, bar, tassies, crescents, etc.) and flavors (molasses, chocolate, mint, lemon, coconut, cinnamon, etc.) as I can muster.
I do not do rolled and cut cookies. I can't take it. Too much process.
Then I start baking and freezing, but there's an order to it. The first to get done are the simplest, as they last longest in the freezer. Molasses crinkles, snickerdoodles, simple bars. Anything that's really just butter, sugar, and flavor. Next up are more complicated shapes, but still simple doughs. Macadamia crescents, rugalach, things like that. The last to get done are usually the hardest, and anything that gets frosted, as the frostings usually don't do too well with the freezing and defrosting.
Drop cookies get packed in large ziploc bags and dumped in the freezer unceremoniously. If there are a lot in the batch, I try to line them up and make rows, kind of like cylinders. That way, I can stack the bags more easily. More delicate bits and bar cookies get packaged in large rectangular plastic containers with waxed paper between the layers.
Everything, everything, gets labeled with masking tape and Sharpie, both of which have permanent homes in my top kitchen drawer.
Finally, when the time comes, I take out whatever stack of plates I've bought that year, a large roll of mylar, some curling ribbon (although I may go to cloth ribbon this year), and my hand-scrawled calendar/list. I bring up the bags and boxes and assemble a few days' worth of platters at a time.
It's best to be at the end of the list. I'm much more parsimonious in the beginng.
And that's it.
Just start in October, and it's easy! I think I'll do some molasses spice cookies and some rugalach this week.
Now, if only I could figure out how to keep my fingers away from the bowl and out of my mouth.
Here's an excellent gift, if you're me:
My in-laws stopped in last night for dinner on their way home from Maine, bearing a full quart of wild blueberries! Before bed, I put them in the freezer in single layers and, this morning, put the icy little pellets into plastic containers. (In an odd coincidence, I'd just bought a new pack of small round containers yesterday afternoon.) I ended up with 6 1-cup packages.
Mmmmmmm....blueberry muffins and pancakes for months!
Bakers are born, not made. We are exacting people who delight in submitting ourselves to rules and formulas if it means achieving repeatable perfection.
-- Rose Levy Beranbaum
One more tip I remember from the Famous Chef, but this was a good one.
He says that, if a recipe calls for instant coffee, or instant espresso (not the same thing at all...take a look at the grocery store shelf!), instead of dissolving it in water, dissolve it in brewed coffee. The flavor will be much more noticeable and intense.
Good to know, that.
Inspired by a recipe in the Famous Chef's class, I have ordered eight of these pots de creme. Won't little individual puddings with a couple of cookies on a plate make a sweet little dessert? I think I'm going to make some (the pots de creme, not the cookies!) for seder.
Ok, you know what? Sometimes I read Dooce. Consequently, in an effort to render my rants marginally google-proof, I'll be cleaning up this site in the next day or two to remove the name of my employer, henceforth to be known as The Culinary Establishment, and the name of the chef in question, henceforth to be known as The Famous Chef.
This morning's whole "assist the Famous Chef" experience was decidedly mixed. Ultimately, I just didn't feel like he was all that nice. He was gracious, for the most part, and a very amusing teller of tales (those will come later), but he's tough and acidic in the way that I imagine very successful chefs or professors are. Which is all well and good in a professional program, where people pay money to take abuse and have their self-esteems shredded, but it didn't work so well for me. I didn't chop fast enough, the crystallized ginger I chopped stuck together in the measuring cup ("I can't tell if this is ginger or a recycled diesel tire!"), I didn't ask the right questions, and when I was unable to successfully cut a single loaf cake into 48 pieces without it crumbling in my hands, I was pretty much a failure. No fun.
Today's big lesson: never mention Regan Daley in front of the Famous Chef. He thinks she's a hack who was unqualified to write a book (actually, I think that "stay at home mother with a computer" was how he put it), that all of the information in the front half of her book is utter bullshit, and and that the recipes are unimpressive. He did point out that she was pissed that he and other famous bakers (Flo Braker, Marion Cunningham, and Maida Heatter) wouldn't support her book with nice quotes, and takes a swipe at them in the introduction, calling them her "silent mentors," which was pretty funny.
He also told a great story about Sylvia Miles ordering coffee at Joe Allen. She told the good looking Black waiter that she liked her coffee the way she liked her men, to which he replied, "I'm sorry, Miss Miles, but we don't serve gay coffee." Isn't that hysterical?
About fucking around too much with dough: There is an old Neopolitan proverb: Add four, add water, add flour, add water, add flour, add water. Then pray to St. Anthony.
About Maida Heatter's Queen Mother's Cake, which I totally screwed up when I made it: Maida Heatter told a long, involved tale about trying to confirm that it was, in fact, the Queen Mother's favorite cake, which ended with her getting a letter that starts "The Queen Mother has commanded me to reply to your inquiry..." In the end, the Queen Mother was a fan of chocolate cake, but had nothing at all to do with that one.
For Passover, he likes the Torta Divina from his Chocolate book.
He's glad Adam likes the ANZAC biscuits, but seemed surprised that it was his recipe I was talking about. (As if I'd be talking to him about someone else's!
He pretty much hated the Pope, and isn't sorry to see him dying (now dead, but dying this morning).
Last but not least, I didn't think he looked all that well, truth be told.
The recipes were for a chocolate banana tart (great), white chocolate and coffee pots de creme (I loved them best), chocolate raspberry truffles (didn't do it for me), marble cake wrapped in marzipan (too fucking hard to cut in 48 pieces!), and delicate little chocolate ginger mini bundt bakes with glaze (delicious!). Recipes to follow as I make them.
As for the assisting...no more for me. The learning curve wasn't sufficiently enhanced to deal with the lost time and the aggravation. Bah fucking humbug.
Here's what's in the oven right now, recipe courtesy of my friend Sue. I could eat this stuff with a backhoe.
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 c. mixed grain flakes (I buy them ready to use in a bag)
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/4 c. sunflower seeds
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. flaked coconut (I like sweetened, surprise)
1/2 c. real maple syrup (you only get grade B around here)
1/4 c. neutral oil
1 c. dried cranberries (not craisins; they're disgusting)
mix the dry ingredients. pour the syrup into a pyrex measuring cup and add the oil slowly, whisking to emulsify. stir into the grains, etc.
spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 300 degree for 45 minutes to an hour, until nice and golden brown, stirring every 15 minutes.
cool slightly and add cranberries.
this is a nice, forgiving recipe. prefer pecans? ok. hate coconut? leave it out. add more oats. use honey instead of syrup. add cinnamon or orange peel. whatever.
enjoy.
...me!
It was a three-way tie, and not one of you got the tie-breaker right! Looks like I have a bunch of baking to do this week.
Lisa, Cori, and Jayne, please email me with cookie choices (have mercy on me -- think "bars"!) and addresses. If you don't have preferences, give me flavor choices and I can pick for you, no problem. You can send everything to cookies at digitalhausfrau dot com. I leave for Florida on the 10th, so figure I'm looking to ship before then.
Congratulations to everyone, especially to Cori, our defending champion, who has barely been to the movies since her baby was born but is on a two-year winning streak anyway!
Next year, we're going back to the full list and making you do more guessing.
I went to the liquor store today. Nothing unusual about that, really.
See, the thing is that I like wine. I like it a lot. I like everything about it...going to the store, wandering the aisles, peering at the labels, making my choices, bringing home my bottles, putting them on the rack, deciding which one to drink on any given night, bringing it to the kitchen, cutting off the foil, removing the cork...
SCREECH! (imagine sound of squealing breaks here, please)
Removing the cork, Terry? Did you say "removing the cork"? Ahahahahaha! Enjoy it while you can, baby!
It was a totally demoralizing trip to my new favorite wine-selling establishment today. I put no fewer than three potential purchases back on the shelf for the unforgivable offense of being cork-less.
But how were they sealed, Terry, if they didn't have corks?
Ah, my friends...if you just search back far enough in your brains, if you contact the cells that you didn't fry during those unseemly dorm parties, the answer is right there, next to the knowledge of how to use the carburetor on the bong...think Lancer's...think Reunité...that's right...you've got it...the return of the dreaded screw-top.
It's been coming for a while now. Articles all over have been hearlding the screw-top as the answer to everything from the world-wide shortage of cork trees and the constant risk of spoiled wine to global warming and the crisis in Darfur.
And they're probably right. It's true that the screw-top will ease the consumption of cork trees and that screw-tops don't let in oxygen, thus nearly eliminating the risk of "corked" wine.
However...they are just no fucking fun. They are so aesthetically displeasing as to be offensive. They take the joy out of preparing my glass of wine, reducing the process to something no more ritualized or sophisticated than popping open a can of Genny Cream Ale. (If you didn't grow up in Buffalo, substitute "Pabst Blue Ribbon" or "Schlitz" or whatever was your Regional Crap Beer and the irony will become clear.)
So, as long as there is wine with a cork in my price range, as long as there is gas in my Cork Pop, as long as my aged hands aren't too gnarled to do what they need to do, it's cork for me, thanks.
And when it has to be a screw-top? I'm switching to the hard stuff: Diet Mountain Dew.
God, what is better than split pea soup on a blizzard day?
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola
1 box white button or cremini mushrooms, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 slices turkey ham, each 1/4" thick and cut into small dice
1 pound split peas, green, yellow, or mixed
4-5 cans low sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon thyme
1-2 Tablespoons kosher salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
3 Tablespoons fresh dill, snipped
water as necessary
OK...here they are...I'm including the recipe for the icing, but with a caveat. It was very stiff. It burst right out of a baggie, and it put a hole in the seam of my piping bag. But, aside from that, these are goooooooooooood. (click for larger image)
11 oz white chocolate, divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup pecans, chopped
1/3 cup moist dried cherries, chopped*
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
*The cherries are a breeze to chop if you spray your chef's knife with some nonstick cooking spray before you start.
Here's something interesting, prefessional-development-wise:
For the first time, I am working on developing and testing a recipe of my own. Emily really likes these White Chocolate Brownies in one of Judy Rosenberg's books but, frankly, I find them kind of greasy. I made them today, upping the chocolate and flour, and adding some salt and baking powder, but they were too cakey. I'm going to try again tomorrow or the next day and tweak it some more.
I also added chopped dried cranberries and pecans and some orange extract. Next time, I think dried cherries and pecans, and no extract. And maybe a white chocolate drizzle on top.
The point is that, when it's done, it will be an entirely original recipe...my first.
I'll be sure to post it here.
I'm just home from my first cooking class and, well, if I say so myself, it was flippin' great! (Lisa says I say "fuck" too much here, so I threw in a "flippin'." Did it work for you? Me, neither. Fuck her. Back to our regularly scheduled Dirty Mouth blogging.)
I taught a Family Italian Dinner for 4-8 year olds and their parents. We made Buttermilk Caesar Salad, Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups, Cheesy Garlic Bread, and Italian Spoon Cookies with Anise Glaze. Mostly I was pleased not just that the food came out well, which, of course, it did, but that all those years of planning at-home dinner parties came to fruition in the planning of this class. You see, in my opinion, the hardest thing about pulling off a nice meal is not in the cooking of any one dish; it's in the planning required to get everything on the table at the same time, fully cooked without being either burnt or underdone.
We made the cookies first, then the lasagna filling while they baked. We rolled the lasagna as they cooled and then went on to the salad dressing. We made icing and frosted and decorated the cookies, then made the garlic bread and dressed the salad while it was in the oven. The lasagna cooled as the table was set, and voila! Dinner was served.
I couldn't be more pleased with my first trip out of the chute. But we'll see how cocky I am next time, when the parents aren't invited!
The angle of the photo is funny, but this is what you get when you march yourself to Marshall's, buy yourself a nice heavy bundt pan, and take the 90 seconds required to butter and flour the stupid thing.
Fie on you, O makers of bullshit silicone pans!
Who the fucking fuck let me walk out of the house looking like this, and on picture day, no less?!?
The funny thing is that I remember the shirt clearly, and I know that it belonged to my mother. I must have begged for permission to wear it. It was made of shiny acetate knit, and would have melted if it came into contact with nail polish remover. As I recall, however, its eventual demise was caused not by acetone, but by a warm iron. It melted. I also remember the glasses. I don't know why they're not in the picture, but the glasses had a little gold T and W that stuck on in the corner. Apparently, they needed monogramming.
I do like the point at the top of my hair, and I'm certain that it contributed to my social success and generally happy childhood.
Also, please note the appearance of my very first makeup...a lovely natural-looking shiny pink lipgloss, likely Maybelline Kissing Slicks.
Ok...enough self-deprecation. I was a child! It was not my fault! And besides, since that photo was taken, I have had LASIK, bought 1,459 black t-shirts with a variety of necklines and sleeve lengths, and discovered the joys of boutique cosmetics.
I bought one of those silicone bundt pans this weekend and took it for a spin. The review, as posted on echo:
feh. bullshit. the emperor's new pan.I don't capitalize much when I type on echo, but always do capitalize "I." Paging Dr. Freud. Dr. Freud, white courtesy telephone, please.maybe in some other shape, but as far as bundt goes, it sucks. the thing is, because of the curve, a bundt pan actually rests on a very very tiny point in the oven. with me so far? it sits on the peak of the arc of the curve.
this pan, because it's soft, gets flattened out by the weight of the batter, and makes a flat-on-top, oddly-coned-up-the-middle, didn't-release-like-fucking-magic bullshit cake.
I have another in the oven now (two deaths, two shiva houses, two cakes). I sprayed with pam and will cool completely in the pan before trying to release.
I will report again but, essentially, color me unimpressed.
I'm going to buy a nice heavy not-grocery store pan this week.
The second cake was better, but not by much. Those pans suck. The recipes I used, Nick Malgieri's Torta di Polenta and Cream Cheese Pound Cake from Perfect Cakes do not.
nyah, nyah, nyah. oh, how I did laugh.
Oh, the shame. It turns out that I am nothing but a big celebrity chef jock sniffer.
I walked into the Culinary Establishment today to check on registration for my class next week. It's going fine. And then, on the April schedule, what do my lowly eyes behold but the name of my very own baking guru. I swoon. I get ready to shell out the bucks to take the class (demo only, but what can you do?). And then, inspiration hits.
Hey, Gary, when the Famous Chef is teaching, can I be the helper?
Sure.
I'm going to chop the man's walnuts and wash his dishes. For free. That's how much I love him.
Karen made pigs in a blanket and crabcakes. They were yummy (the crabcakes -- I don't eat hot dogs) and well received. My contributions, on the other hand, varied wildly, from perfect and delicious to utter failure.
First, the appetizers: this part was the debacle. I didn't feel like carting mini muffin trays across the street. I figured they'll be fine on the trays, just like the things that everyone buys at BJ's, right? if crappy BJ's can do it, then surely I can, right? Wrong-o. The mushroom puffs flattened and ended up like puff pastry circles with filling plopped on them. Yummy, but ugly. The polenta was worse. First off, I think those need to be thawed, and shouldn't go right from freezer to oven. Either way, they need the pans to hold them up. They turned into a big runny blob of messy goo. And, even better, Karen's pan warped in the hot oven, and it all ran to one end, making a runny corner of messy goo. Don't make that recipe just yet, kids. Give me a little time to work on it.
Next up: the kids' dinner. I had a great plan. I have a recipe I wanted to see the kids do because I'm teaching it at the Culinary Establishment this month, so Lasagna Roll-Ups for everyone! Food and a time-killing project all in one dish! The kids had a great time making them but, once they came out of the oven, everyone but Emily pretty much refused to eat them. They were delicious, but, in a shocking turn of events, while Emily had seconds, the boys more or less refused to go near them.
Then we prepared the individual chocolate cakes for baking later. Something was weird about them. I think it had to do with using a hand mixer. Those things suck ass. It put too much air into the mix and then the batter was all thick and weird. Tasted fine, but not quite right. We'll get back to these.
Finally: the lobsters! This part, at least, I got totally right. They were big and delicious and sublime. And, oh how the Perrier-Jouet tasted washing them down. Surely, this is God's perfect pairing. And Andrew's right: I do like that he gobbles up all of his good parts in 3 minutes and then has to sit there watching me enjoy my dinner for the next half hour. You see, when I eat a lobster, I leave no bit untouched. I will suck every bit out of the crawly legs. I will pull its innards apart and poke between its ribs. I will dig the meat out of the thing's head without hesitation. And I save the legs, claws, and tail for later. Much later. Poor Mr. Great Neck, suffering as he watches me go on and on and on, fork ever-ready to stab him in the hand, Betty Blue-style, if he wanders too close.
And then, to end it all, we baked the cakes. The texture was wrong, and I think that I should have turned them halfway because Karen's oven has a hot spot -- the level of doneness of the seven cakes ranged from nearly cooked through to so soupy it fell apart when I unmolded it. But fear not, the imprefections were forgiven and they were eaten, at least by the adults.
Because, really, you could pour creme anglaise over pretty much anything and we'd eat it, wouldn't we?
One more, if you still need something to bring tomorrow night. I'm telling you, this woman at the pasta store gets like A DOLLAR A PIECE for these things! Impress your friends and relatives!
We're having these, the mushroom puffs below, lobsters, salad, individual molten chocolate cakes with creme anglaise, and whatever Karen adds to the mix.
2 cups water
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup fine ground cornmeal
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 T butter
1/4 cup fresh pesto*
more salt and pepper
Combine the water, milk and salt, and bring to a boil. GENTLY add the cornmeal. My friend Sue says that to prevent lumps, she adds liquid to the cornmeal and makes a slurry, then dumps the whole thing back into the pot. I just stir while I add and, if it gets lumpy, I take the immersion blender to it. Anyway. Boil gently (it should look like lava, pre-eruption) for 20 to 30 minutes until very very thick. Remove from heat and add cheese, butter, and pesto. Salt and pepper to taste. Cool to room tempterature.
Meanwhile, grease 2 dozen mini muffin tins and fit a big pastry bag with a large star tip.
When the polenta is cool, pipe into the tins and freeze until hard. Cover and freeze until ready to use.
Bake in preheated 400° oven for about 20 minutes, until slightly golden.
*Please, for the love of God, don't buy the factory-made crap in a jar. If you can't buy or make fresh pesto, just use a couple of tablespoons of finely chopped herbs and a little more butter or oil.
Inspired by the hors d'oevres from the pasta shop for which I paid an exhorbitatnt $1 each on Christmas, I invented some New Year's Eve hors d'oeuvres this morning. The best part was introducing Emily to the joys of puff pastry. She is now in the kitchen cutting zillions of little dots out of the leftovers.
makes 36
5 T unsalted butter
20 oz button mushrroms, minced
2 T garlic, chopped fine
2 T fresh parsley, chopped fine
3 oz soft goat cheese
1/2 cup oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, minced
3/4 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
In a large sauté pan, melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook until the mushrooms have expressed their water and it has evaporated. Add garlic and parsley and sauté one minute. Add goat cheese and melt. Transfer to a large work bowl. Add sun-dried tomatoes, bread crumbs, and more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir to combine. Let cool.
Roll the puff pastry to about 1/8" on a floured surface. using a round cutter or a drinking glass, cut approximately 2 1/2 inch circles and place them into mini muffin tins. Put a small scoop of the filling into each crust and flatten. Place 4-6 pine nuts on top and press in gently.
Freeze until ready to use, then bake at 400° for 18-22 minutes, until puffed and golden.
If you have extra dough (and you will!), cut shapes, brush the tops with cream or milk, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, bake at 400°, and feed them to your grateful family. Nothing is better than puff pastry.
There was some pretty decent stuff in this year's holiday swag, including $30 in Border's gift cards that was just burning a hole in my pocket.
Normally, I avoid that place like the plague, especially our local Borders, which often looks as if some brobdingnagian employee had scooped up all the books, tossed them all in the air, and let them land in whatever higgledy-piggeldy manner they chose themselves. That, plus they don't discount. And I have to actually go there. I am a dedicated Amazon consumer. Amazonian, you could say. I practically have my own invisible airplane.
But $30 free is $30 free. And that new King Arthur Flour Cookie book (the one that costs $18 at Amazon and $30 at Borders!) was calling my name.
I haven't baked anything out of it yet, but boy, am I looking forward to it! Think of the deliciousness of Regan Daley crossed with the specificity of Christopher Kimball. Clear illustrations in the technical sections, rendered in little dots like Cook's Illustrated, and only a few photographs. Recipes that they deem "essential" are put on pages bordered in color so that, without opening the book, you can find them! Brilliant!
I'm so ready to bake again. Get your Oscar pencils sharpened, kids.
The 2004 Cookie Platter, as promised. Click for a larger image.
pistachio fingers, supernatural brownies, raspberry rugalach with
white chocolate chips, andes mint diamonds, molasses crinkles
anise spoon cookies, orange scented white chocolate chip tollhouse cookies
with dried cranberries and pecans, oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies (below),
peanut butter surprises, mint snowtops, maple walnut slices
Not everyone is a cookie-baking psycho like I am, I know. Not everyone is even a non-cookie-baking psycho like I am, I know. But we do all have folks to reward at the holidays, and those Starbucks cards can add up. Because I love you, today, I give you this:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
5 bananas or so, mashed but chunky*
1 T vanilla (only real, please, for the love of god)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole milk
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup sweetened coconut
*if you use a stand mixer, which you should, skip the mashing and just chuck 'em in there in pieces. the machine will do the work.
preheat the oven to 350°. combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a bowl or on a piece of wax paper.
cream the butter and the sugar. add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. add the bananas. add the flour mixture and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. add the yummy bits and mix well.
divide the mixture among greased foil mini loaf pans or 4 regular-sized ones. bake for about 45 minutes for the little ones, longer for the big, rotating front to back halfway through.
wrap and offer with thanks.
First class at the Culinary Establishment this morning...a fabulous success, I am happy to report! The kids were decorating gingerbread houses from kits.
However messy you think it was, it was messier. Imagine little kids and pastry bags, and you'll get the idea. It didn't matter how many times I said "Don't squeeze in the middle of the bag," they did, and the icing squooshed out the top of the bag. Round candies rolled; things got dropped and dripped; and the word "moderation" meant about as much as "bedtime."
A fine time was had by all.
Did I mention that Emily turned seven yesterday? Seven! I am turning 40 and my daughter is closer to puberty than to diapers.
How did this happen?
At Emily's request, we're having the super-delicious Bittersweet Chocolate Pound Cake for dessert tonight. I cannot recommend that cake highly enough, and it's easy enough for anyone to make it.
Speaking of turning 40, my friend Karen will be doing just that on the 27th. I got her a present, but I can't tell you what it is, because she reads this site. It's so excellent, though. If you want to know, and your name is not Karen G., email me at karenspresent at digitalhausfrau dot com and I'll tell you.
bwahaha.
Lisa always says that she hates going to pot lucks and the like, because she always gives better than she gets.
I thought of this earlier today, when I was on the phone with my friend K, who mentioned that she has a cookie swap to go to next week. What are you bringing? She told me all about her annual contribution of sugar cookies, made from Pillsbury dough and sprinkled with red and/or green sugar crystals, purchased when the Twin Towers still loomed over the Manhattan skyline. After convincing her at least to frost the motherfuckers with a mixture of confectioner's sugar, mlik, and anise extract (anus extract? confectioner's sugar? what's that?), I said You and I are so different, K! I am hyper competitive about these things. I'd be bringing something hand-shaped, filled, sandwiched, and glazed. And I'd do some funky desktop publishing to the recipe copies.
Her answer? That's why I love these things! I get to bring home stuff like that!
Lisa was right all along.
Big big big news. Big big biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig news.
Ok, remember how I was all hot and bothered because the Culinary Establishment is opening here? And that they do a culinary program and I was all excited to take classes?
Well, then I got really hot and bothered because I said to myself Oh, hell. I don't have to just take classes...I can bloody well teach the classes! So I stopped by and found out who to talk to. And I called him. And he had me send a resume and a letter to another guy. And one thing led to another and voila!
I am the newest instructor in the the Culinary Establishment's children's culinary program!
I'll be teaching classes for children and families, starting with gingerbread house decorating and a cookie excange in two weeks.
Register and come on by!
A recent post over at Betsy's blog reminds me that I have not yet talked about Cranberry Bread this year.
Here's what you need to know...I have been making cranberry bread at Thanksgiving every year since 1971 1977, when I was six years old. I can't imagine November without it. Year after year, I share the recipe with happy friends, and the many loaves I make with my family. My dad has put in a standing order for extras, since he usually eats one straight out of the box, well before Thursday's festivities. This year, I had the great joy of sharing the book and the recipes with 14 kids at one of my library classes.
The original recipe, which, unlike Betsy, I prefer unmodified except for the occasional addition of some chopped walnuts, comes from the back of a book called Cranberry Thanksgiving, written and illustrated by Wende and Harry Devlin. You should go buy it and read it with your kids, and then get baking.
This year, dear readers, i am grateful for all of you, among so many other things, and I give you this little gift.
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ cup butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. grated orange peel*
3/4 cup orange juice
1 cup golden raisins
1½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add egg, orange peel, and orange juice all at once; stir just until mixture is evenly moist. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spoon into a greased 9" x 5" x3" loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. Slice and serve.
*incredibly, I like dried orange peel from a jar better than fresh in this recipe.
I'm off to watch the parade Thursday. Cross your fingers that I don't get flattened by the Cat in the Hat run amok. As Andrew put it this morning, he doesn't have time for me to get killed.
Oh, my. Oh, my oh my oh my.
There's a new mall opening by me. My friend Laura drove through last week and reported good things...stores for us, stores for the kids, and "a kitchen store."
So I took the kids and had a peek myself this morning. There's not only an Ann Taylor Loft, but an Ann Taylor, too! There's a makeup store called Beauty and Main. Seems not quite Sephora, and there's no Smashbox, but it carries Nars and Trish McEvoy and Paula Dorf, and it will do just fine. The big anchors aren't open yet, and I don't know what they'll be, but I'm optimistic.
Oh, and that "kitchen store" that Laura couldn't remember the name of? Dites comme moi, bébés: The. Culinary. Establishment.
Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can barely speak...
Oy. I'm off to a late start, but the holiday baking is beginning today. I'm trying not to make myself completely insane this year, so I've made some rules -- no rolled cookies, no crazy shaped cookies, and no filled cookies. I just can't get all that done. So, here's the target list:
1 lb butter
1 1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup mini chips
1 cup chopped nuts
cream butter and sugar. add salt, egg yolks, and vanilla. beat in flour. stir in chips and nuts.
shape into logs and chill. or shape into a big square, about 1" high.
slice into 1/2" disks and bake at 350° for about 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden at the edges. cool on racks.
I'll keep you all up to date as the project comes along.
Today, it's all the same.
I was baking a honey cake to take to Karen's house tomorrow night, and I opened the door to my came-with-the-house-piece-of-crap oven to check on it. Something went whoompf and then the "I'm heating up" light went on and never went off. And things started smelling gassy. And the oven got cooler and cooler. Fortunately, the cake was almost done and leaving it in the warm oven was enough to finish it off.
I called my mother, who yelled at me, so I called the gas company to come and have a look at my gassy-smelling kitchen. The short version is that the burner had gotten a hole in it and there was a problem with the igniter. Probably $250 worth of repair.
Not worth it.
The man put a special DON'T TOUCH THIS red tag on the oven (I can still use the stove top) and took off the knobs. I have had my eye on a sexy little number for a while now, so off to Sears I go this weekend. The electrician working on the basement has instructions to put in the new 220 volt stove line before anything else.
What can I say? It broke! Not my fault!
Okay, so I'm in the produce department today, and I'm going to get a bag of onions because we're having sausage grinders later this week, and they're better with sautéed onions and peppers on them, and I think to myself, well, it's just about the end of the vidalias...soon enough it's boring old onions for us again.
And then (this is the part where I crack myself up in the Big Y) I think:
Enjoy the buffet. I'll be here all week.
Funny, just as I was about to put up this entry, Karen called to tell me that she had eaten a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) sandwich for lunch. Sounds good, no? Except for the part about how George Carlin or Ted Nugent or someone is right that turkey bacon is a depressingly inadequate substitute for the real thing. More than ten red-meat-free years later, the smell of frying bacon still makes me drool. But maybe that has more to do with the weird kosher foods of my youth than anything.
Anyway, Karen's timing was serendipitous, because I was just about to post this picture:
A theoretical prize to the person who can tell me what this is a picture of.
Two caveats and a hint: 1) I already know that they are tomatoes. 2) JAR, you are DQ'd. 3) Looking at them makes me feel like The Goddess herself.
Off to dinner tonight at Carol and John's. I, of course, volunteered to bring dessert, mostly because I wanted to try a recipe for Strawberry Cake that I had pulled out of a waiting room magazine earlier this week.
It's an interesting recipe in a couple of ways...first, the strawberry flavor comes from jam (good thing I picked and canned this year, huh?) whipped right into the batter. Second, although you make two layers, it has you finish only one with whipped cream and berries, and toss the other into the freezer for later use. I'm trying to decide whether to do that, or to put it all together and show up with Cakezilla.
As an aside having nothing to do with cake, I have two mosquito bites, one on the inside of each leg, directly across from each other, emanating waves of itchy rage. It's as if I somehow inadvertently crushed a bug between my mighty thighs, and now its ghost is seeking its violent revenge.
I'm off to dig for the hydrocortisone cream.
Friday night is another meal al fresco. Since Karen is at work all day, I've volunteered to take care of much of the food prep. She's in charge of the tomato salad. Here's what I'm leaning toward. Comments are welcome.
My friend Lisa posted this on echo today. It sounds SO GOOD. I am saving it for some night this summer when Andrew's away and some not-crazy-like-my-husband cauliflower-eating friend or relative comes for a visit.
1/3 C currants
1/3 C chopped sun-dried tomatoes, not packed in oil
1/4 t crumbled saffron
3/4 cup boiling water
3 T olive oil
2 C chopped onions
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1/4 t red pepper flakes
8 cups bite-sized cauliflower florets
1/2 t salt
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts (Put more. Never enough.)
1 T fresh lemon juice
12 oz orecchiette, penne or other chunky pasta (I use far less)
1 C grated parm cheese
Place the currants, sun-dried tomatoes and saffron in a small heat-proof
bowl, cover with the oiling water and set aside. Bring a large covered pot
of salted water to a boil for the pasta.
Meanwhile, warm the oil in a Dutch oven or similar large pot. Add the
onions, garlic, and red pepper flakes and saute on medium-low heat for 10
minutes until the onions are softened and lightly browned.
Add the cauliflower and salt and saute for a couple of minutes. Stir in
the currants, sun-dried tomatoes, saffron,and their soaking liquid. Cover
and continue to cook on low heat, stirring occasionally unitl the
cauliflower is just tender. Remove from the heat. Add the pine nuts,
lemon juice and parsley and cover to keep warm.
When the pasta water boils, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain
it and mix with the sauteed cauliflower to distribute ingredients evenly.
Serve at once, topped with the grated cheese.
Good eatin' around here tonight! I invented this a few months back, and Andrew has been asking for it since. I figured I'd surprise him.
1 onion and 1 green pepper, sliced, diced, whatever
3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped
1 T olive oil
1 can diced tomatoes
1 T tomato paste
2 T fresh oregano, chopped and divided
1/2 t dried hot pepper flakes, optional
1/8 t saffron
1 lb raw shrimp, thawed and peeled
2 T unsalted butter
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 400° and spray a small casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Combine the tomatoes, tomato paste, saffron, 1 T oregano, and the hot pepper flakes if desired in a small saucepan and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes to thicken slightly. Set aside.
Saute the onion and green pepper with salt and pepper in the olive oil until tender but not mushy. add garlic and cook one more minute. Put the vegetables in the bottom of the casserole.
Layer the shrimp on top of the vegetables and cover with the sauce.
Melt the butter in a small saute pan and add the bread crumbs and oregano. Toast lightly and set aside to cool. Add feta cheese (more salt and pepper are optional here) and mix well.
Bake for about 15 minutes, until the shrimp are cooked through.
I like it with rice but, if you feel ambitious, a combination of orzo, currants, pine nuts, lemon zest, and olive oil is good, too.
Oh, and a decent bottle of wine. Don't forget that!
Big barbecue here this weekend...at last count, we had 9 adults and 11 kids confirmed, with the possibility of up to 6 more adults and 3 more kids. I'm not counting too much on them, but I am hoping that posting the menu will motivate Shlomit to blow off Zoe's softball practice and get up here.
I'm trying to keep things kind of simple, menu-wise, but I do fear that, for a change, I've bought too much food. Anyway.
I made something delicious tonight. But I don't have a name for it, so feel free to pipe up with a thought...
Mix all items except the avocado in a bowl. Add the avocado and toss gently and minimally.
This was really good along side chicken, and would work with salmon or shrimp or a bag of chips. But what to call it? It's not salsa, not salad, not relish...
I am going to an night time event in two weeks, and I need to bring dessert. Here are the parameters:
What else?
Here's what I want to know: If I'm supposed to keep tomatoes on the windowsill, and I'm supposed to refrigerate produce after opening, what am I supposed to do with half a leftover tomato?
I've decided to switch my party affiliation to "dinner." We had an excellent time here last night...
It was us plus two other couples who knew each other only peripherally. Six kids between us, ranging from Jonah to a second grader.
We fed the kids in the kitchen, the requisite chicken nuggets and fries. One of the other families brought a fruit salad for them, which we all agreed was just as good as a vegetable, with the added bonus of being complaint-free. They then watched a movie and played and, incredibly, no one got hurt or cried or had an issue or needed a parent for almost the next two hours.
One of the other women brought a green salad for the adults, and a really yummy vinaigrette to go with it. I made a couple of chicken pot pies which, if I say so myself, came out perfectly. I filled them with shredded chicken and a ton of diced onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, and peas in a white sauce and topped them with good old puff pastry. I glazed with cream, but I'm going back to egg next time. It's shinier.
The best part of the pie production was that I ended up having to make the sauce in two batches because I didn't make enough, and the first one was too bland, and the second was too spicy but, when I threw it all lin a bowl and mixed it up, it came out just right!
Sides were mashed yukon golds (lots of butter!) and steamed asparagus with lemon and more butter.
After dinner, we fed everyone dessert...sundaes of vanilla ice cream on top of homemade brownies, with hot fudge and whipped cream. Both chocolate recipes are here. The kids had to stay at the kitchen table, as we have not even finished paying for the new family room furniture, and the adults, who can be better trusted, at least in theory, took the family room. We often do that during a dinner party...move dessert into the family room. I think that it offers a nice break and a really relaxed end to the evening.
Anyway, a great time was had by all. The two couples were a good choice to bring together -- similar backgrounds, experiences, sensibilities, etc. Conversation flowed nicely as people got to know each other, but I do have to remember to lay off the President bashing in public, even if he is an idiot who deserves it. You just never know, I guess, if you've accidentally invited a Republican to dinner.
The best compliment of the evening came from one of the other husbands who said, while clearing his plate, "This is my second time here, and my second terrific meal. I'm coming back!"
In the produce department today, a woman near me noticed two things. 1) Cauliflower was on sale and 2) I had some in my cart. She then proceeded to ask me how I prepare it. I told her that I like it steamed, but that my late grandma would boil it to death, mash it with butter, and pour some salt and pepper on it. Damed fine either way. Also good in curries.
This woman then asked me (me!) if I knew how many carbs were in cauliflower. I managed not to guffaw as I politely explained that I have no idea as I simply can not wrap my head around a diet that said bacon is better for you than cauliflower.
We parted ways after that.
Anyone else remember "In the News" on CBS on Saturday mornings? I looked for a cool link, but couldn't find one, and I couldn't spend any more time wanking online.
In my news, I didn't take pictures to post, but I baked yesterday. My father in law is home from the hospital recovering and, well, everyone likes a treat. He's the one who likes raspberry in his cookies. I made some easy but impressive bar cookies -- toll house base, mix in 1/2 bag raspberry chips and 1/2 bag white chips, then melt the rest of the raspberry over the top when they come out of the oven and drizzle with white. They look stunning, and took no effort whatsoever.
The other batch I made (I have a meeting here next week, so I made a couple of kinds and I'll send half to him and keep half for me, more or less) also took no effort, and were shockingly good. On Julie's recommendation, I made Regan Daley's Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Toffee Bits and Dried Cherries. Here's all you need to know, paraphrased from Julie: If you make these, eat one out of the oven and put them in the freezer immediately. No good can come of having them around the kitchen calling your name. Let me tell you -- they were not bad once they'd cooled but, hot out of the oven, they tasted the way that a mud wrap feels. Believe me, if you win the Oscar Pool, these are what you want. And if you haven't dived into the Oscar Pool, what's holding you up? Just guess if you don't know the answers...there are cookies at stake here, people!
Here's what's really In The News this morning: further proof that too much religious fervor is bad for you.
Walking up and down and around the aisles of the grocery store this morning, I kept crossing paths with a family that was traveling on a West-East trajectory, as opposed to my East-West. There was a mom, who looked, well, sour, a dad, who could barely keep his eyes from rolling back into his head, and two sullen and doughy teen-aged boys in parkas, who added things like hand-held apple pies to the cart. Clearly, mom had gotten it into her head to take the whole family to the store on the way to or from church or such, and they hated her for it. I think that they actually hate her for much more than that, but that was what they were hating her for at the moment. The best part was how much she was hating them for hating her. Four wretched souls walking through the aisles, shopping for a boxed antidote for resentment and hostility. Happiness Helper.
As I made a note to tell you all about them, I recalled the odd thing that I saw at the grocery store last week, but never remembered to mention:
I was standing at the deli counter, waiting to place my order (plain turkey, Buffalo turkey, Swiss, and American...nothing gross for me, thank you very much). The woman before me was just finishing up, and confirmed my unshakable belief that, if times in my life get really bad, and I have to get a crappy hourly wage job, I should avoid the deli counter. She asked for a one inch thick piece of head cheese, and the poor person behind the counter (at least the Stuttering Deli Guy -- "H-h-h-h-head cheese? Are you fucking k-k-k-k-k-kidding me?" -- has retired) had to give it to her.
What in the name of God's Own Abbatoir do you imagine anyone could want with a slab of head cheese?
Listen to this, from Nigella Lawson, in this past week's Times:
What I had not realized — and bakers keep this a secret for obvious reasons — is how easy baking is. Many people say that they resent cooking because you spend hours on a meal just to have it demolished in 10 minutes. Well, baking is the reverse. A cake takes scarcely five minutes to mix, you do nothing to it while it bakes and then you have a glorious creation in your kitchen, bestowing welcome all weekend.I think she's totally nailed it.
An excellent experience tonight -- my first-ever in-home mini-cooking lesson. Forgive me, those of you who've read this on echo already...it was that much fun.
Anyway, a while back, my friend Denise was going on about a restaurant dinner that she'd once eaten, which had culminated in the ubiquitous motlen chocolate cake. That was funny, as they had been on my mind ever since Julie made them last week. No big deal, I told Denise. They're easy to make.
One thing led to another, and she and her family came over tonight for dinner (baked ziti, easy to make ahead) and cooking lesson/dessert. We made a raspberry coulis, creme anglaise (lots to teach about custard-making technique!), and the cakes.
Everything came out great, and we had lots of fun doing it. I can't wait to do this again, somehow.
Who wants to learn how to cook something while I'm still working cheap?
Last night, to celebrate Valentine's Day, Andrew and I ordered in a heat-and-eat meal from the local pasta store. There were three kinds of hors d'oeuvres, a green salad with candied walnuts and gorgonzola, lobster ravioli with lemon cream sauce, lemon sorbet in frozen lemons with raspberry sauce, biscotti, and coffee, all for $50 Not a bad deal.
But the point here is that I want to share one of the hors d'oeuvres recipes (I was able to figure it out) with you. I think it will be a useful addition to our repertoires.
1 package sasuage links
1 sheet puff pastry
Pigs in a blanket for the fancy-pants crowd.
Book club was here last night. Fortunately, they didn't all hate the book. They didn't love it, but I'll take what I can get.
I thought I'd give you a peek at the Valentine's Day-themed spread I presented. Everything was very well received and I was pleased with how it all came out. All was served with a lovely bottle of Moet et Chandon, in front of the fireplace.
The table was just the way I had hoped it would be: elegant and casual at the same time. Delicious and pretty, but not fussy. The cupcakes reminded one woman of her time living in the South, many years ago, and evoked what seemed to be some very pleasant memories for her. Others seemed to enjoy the bakery style of the icing, which, needless to say, had not come from a can and been slathered on with a table knife. It's amazing how far a piping bag will carry you in terms of impressing guests.
Please note that, for once, I did not overdo it, and there were not a ton of leftovers. This is, in and of itself, fairly miraculous.
brie and cranberry chutney on french bread and
buttermilk drop cookies with lemon icing
red velvet cupcakes with buttercream icing
click here for a closeup view
It's an ice storm around here today. Everybody's school was cancelled, state-wide, before 6 AM.
Emily's friend Monica is over, and we made some cookies for Valentine's Day. For tonight, really, because some families are coming over dinner (nuggets, fries, and video for the kids; fondue, salad, shrimp, and no key exchanges for the grown ups, thank you very much.)
Here's a look at mine:
The best part of their tray is how they try so diligently to copy with their spacky little first grade fingers what I've done with mine:
Finally, finally, finally, I managed last night to do that sear-roasted salmon thing without fucking it up. Rejoice for me, as it only took about six years to get it right.
Here's what I did that made it work:
First, I turned the oven on to preheat at its highest temperature well in advance of needing it, about a half hour ahead.
Second, I heated the pan (my big all-Clad sauté pan) on a high flame for about 5 minutes before I ever put the oil in it.
Third, I used very little oil, maybe a teaspoon and a half. And I used canola oil (note to self: put grapeseed on next week's list), because olive oil won't work for this at all.
So, when I put the fillets in the pan, they sizzled (well, "sizzled" is kind of a euphemism for ""fried really hot and set off the smoke detector," but I needed the reminder to turn on the exhaust fan, so whatever). I knew this was going to work about two minutes in, when I jiggled the pan and the fish moved.
I seared them for about 4 minutes, and then threw them in the oven.
I finished the whole thing with lemon juice, fresh dill, and a tiny dab of butter. Restaurant quality. Next week, more salmon and then, when I've really got it down, sea bass. It's too expensive for Practice Fish.
Here's the one question, though: Andrew doesn't like the skin, and I don't either, really. If I do this with skinless fillets, will the other side sear in the oven? Or will it just burn?
The Hausfrau humbly requests your advice.
I 've got my eye on a new bread machine. Actually, if I get it, I'll end up getting it at Bed, Bath and Beyond, where I can get 20% off. Do you all know this about the BBB 20% coupons that come in the mail three days a week? They don't ever really expire and, while you can't use them on Henckels, you sure can use them on Wusthof. Ask my new cleaver.
Anyway, about the bread machine...should I get it? I had one years and years ago, but ended up getting rid of it, ostensibly for lack of use. But I think that the real reason was that I found the vertical shape of the loaf, with the hole in the bottom from the paddle, unnatural and displeasing. This new one makes a nice beautiful horizontal loaf!
I have this fantasy in which I just pop stuff in the machine before I go to bed and have nice warm bread in themorning, and I can stop buying so much sandwich bread. But will I do it? And can I exercise (excercise! ha! there's a thought!) any self-control around all that fresh bread?
What to do?
Do you all have bread machines any more? Do you use them? Is it worth it? Or should just get the All Clad Petite Roti?
Not as cute as a baby bonobo, granted, but I think they came put looking pretty nice. When I took them to the neighborhood cocktail party on Saturday night, they were well received -- only about four left on the plate at the end of the evening, and I shoved two in my mouth in the car on the way home.
I think there are two kinds of cocktail party people in this world -- the ones who suffer through them, and the ones who adore them. I, of course, am in the latter category. I was happy as could be, flitting from room to room, glass in hand, making chitchat.
I talked about books with Ellie, a member of my book club.
I talked about IVF with the mother of twins.
I talked about making pie crust by hand and the shock of moving to a teeny town like this from Manhattan with Ginny and Rich, who are new to town. It was cool how Ginny just introduced Rich as "my partner," letting me know that they're not married, but he ain't her boyfriend, either.
I talked about wine with Dan, who had brough a couple of bottles of his own to pour, which were clearly superior to the ones in the kitchen. He was impressed that I understood the implications of Prohibition on states' liquor laws. He's a tad condescending, that one. But not so much so that I couldn't be his wine whore all night, coming back for more conversationa nd a refill.
I told the story of Emily nearly walking in on us having sex Friday night (knock, knock, knock..."Mommy?? Are you ok? I heard lots of moaning and groaning!" "Mommy had a tummy ache. GO BACK TO BED. NOW!") over a smoke in the garage, and confessed my inability to successfully smoke a cigar. Unlike Bill Clinton, I can't seem not to inhale.
I had a marvelous time swooning over Anneliese's cream horns, which I was shocked to discover were handmade. They were so magnificent on the plate that I avoided them. I thought they were the kind of store-bought pastries that you get around here -- the kind that looks beautiful, tastes awful. But no! They were magnificent, and stuffed with some combination of mascarpone, cream, rum, cinnamon, and sugar. You can't imagine.
Finally, I saw Bob making his way through the crowd with my fuschia coat on his arm (you can't miss that coat, which is what makes it so perfect for checking in restaurants), and that was my cue. I made it out to the car, got home, apid the sitter, left the house a mess, and miraculously got up in the morning and made it to Sunday School.
The only after effect was a small flare up of my genetic mutation. This is true. For some reason, and I still don't know what the reason is, a few times a year, my uvula swells to about three times its normal size. Some antihistamines and hot liquid do the trick, but I walked around all morning sounding like I was gagging.
It was worth it.
Saturday night is the annual neighborhood wine and cheese party. The homeowners association brovides the booze, and some cheese, and then it's bring and appetizer or dessert.
I found a recipe I like...Baby Chilapitas. The recipe in the link isn't the exact one I'm using, but it's close. Basically, you bake a crust of cornmeal, goat cheese, flour, and butter in mini tart shells and fill it with a combination of chicken, avocado, sour cream, cilantro, scallions, and chipotles. Sounds good, no? And pretty.
But I didn't have the mini tart shells of my dreams. And you know how crazy I am about these things. Housewives bake things like this in mini muffin pans...but that is not up to snuff for compulsives like me. So I went to Bed Bath and Beyond, and I got the closest they had, which is sort of like a tiny brioche pan. and a tiny brioche pan, people, is not a tiny little tart pan.
These are tiny little tart pans. But even I am not deranged enough to call Bridge and have them overnighted.
I don't think.
I needed to make some cookies to round out the Chanukah gift of my father-in-law, who is a fan of raspberry and chocolate. In a moment of desperation, I came up with these. Feel free to lift for your own use:
2 sticks butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour
1 bag Hershey's Raspberry Chips
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam
It was great...it just happened that I had the jam left in the cupboard from some linzer tarts that Julie and I had meant to make, but didn't, and the almonds in the back of the freezer from god-knows-when. I was out of walnuts, which was good, because these were better.
He's going to think I'm some kind of alchemist, and I was really just killing time. I love when that happens.
outer circle, starting at the top: iced lemon shortbread squares, cuccidati (fig-filled pockets, scattered throughout), cranberry walnut tassies, espresso bites, spiced cranberry drops with white chips, banana chocolate chip bars, lemon poppy drops, cinnamon diamonds, gingersnaps, cornmeal-dried cherry hearts
inner circle, starting at the top: peanut butter delights, peppermint candy canes, lemon-fennel pretzels, andes mint chocolate drops
This year's holiday baking is done. Maybe. I keep telling myself that I have enough to do wrapping presents and boxing up packages, but I may just add a little more to the platters. Coconut, for example, is woefully underrepresented, and there aren't any rugelach, despite the fact that I have cream cheese in the fridge for that very purpose.
What I need now is a couple of snow days in the next week or two.
That, and another dozen eggs.
The first of the holiday desserts is done. Well, actually, that's not true. The cinnamon ice cream has been in the freezer for a few days now. But the first baked dessert is done. Who wants a slice?
Next up, when Emily gets home: Deep-Dish Apple-Cranberry Crumb Pie.
As I mentioned previously, I've decided mostly on cheeses for hors d'oevres and football food tomorrow. Of course, in my house, that means "cheeses, some pate, shrimp and cocktail sauce, and a bag or two of chips with appropriate dips," but whatever.
Anyway, I've invited another family to come for the pre-game festivities tomorrow, and I think I need to add one more cheese. I'm going with brie. The question is: does anyone have a not-too-sweet baked brie recipe that they like? I have a goat cheese with dried cranberries on top, so I don't want it to be too sugary.
I was leaning toward this one, with curry rubbed into the rind, a thin coat of mango chutney, and some cashews. Anyone else?
The beauty of this, by the way, is that I realized that, if I get the small wheel, I can bake it in the taster oven, thereby leaving the turkey roasting facility unmolested. Voila!
Let's talk Thanksgiving menu. Of course, me being me, I had mine planned a week or two ago. Here's the plan:
Hors d'Oeuvres, to be served during football
Well, for once, I decided not to overdo this. It's going to be pate, cheeses, crudités, cranberry bread (we'll get back to that), and, I suppose, to humor Andrew, a bag of chips and some dip. I want variety, but not too much substance.
The Main Event
I think I'm going with a salad for the first course this year. It's not quite as filing as soup. So, a composed salad of baby romaine, sliced red pear, goat cheese, and candied nuts in a dijon shallot vinaigrette, served with the beloved Onion-Walnut Muffins.
Then on to dinner...
Turkey, of course. I ordered two from the farm today. two, because our friend Peter is determined to deep fry one of them, but I'm not confident enough to do without the roasted bird. Plus, you can't cook the stuffing in a deep-fried bird. Although I am embarassed to admit it, I am a big fan of Martha Stewart's roasting method. It makes the most gorgeous Norman Rockwell bird ever. If you try it, I swear you'll never go back.
I'm going to try to repeat last year's accidental stuffing, a combination of, I think, white bread, cornbread, onions, celery, mushrooms, cranberries, pecans, and some other stuff. Fresh sage, I'm sure.
For the other sides, I'm going with mashed yukon gold potatoes, a butternut squash and leek gratin that was recently in Fine Cooking, and, because we need something green, creamed spinach. Peter is talking about something called Noodles Romanoff, which sounds like a fancy way of saying "goyishe kugel," and I am still thinking about whether or not I want to do without sweet potatoes.
Dessert, back in the family room
Again, I'm keeping it simple-ish. An apple pie with crumb topping, because I know that's the part my mother-in-law likes best, and the chocolate pumpkin tart that was in last month's issue of Martha Stewart Living.
Oh, how I love Thanksgiving.
Around here, to "make fudge" is a euphemism for a situation in which, when working with children, you really don't know what the hell you're going to do to fill the time, but it's ok, because they are a fairly ignorant and easily pleased audience. Like this: "Ok, so this week in Sunday school, we're going to do this, this, and this, and that will take us until 11:30, and from 11:30 to 12:00, I don't know, we'll make fudge."
But, next month at my library class, we really are going to make fudge! I found this recipe for no-cook fudge on the Good Old Internet:
3 ounces cream cheese
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
Dash of salt
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tablespoon cream
1 cup miniature marshmallows
Place cream cheese in a bowl and cream it until soft and smooth. Slowly blend in sugar. Add salt and melted chocolate. Mix well. Add vanilla extract and cream; mix until well blended. Fold in marshmallows. Place in refrigerator until firm (about 15 minutes).
Cut into squares.
Looks fairly revolting, no? But I figure that the sugar content alone should be sufficient to please my little darlings.
We're going to read Harold and Chester in Hot Fudge to pass the time while it chills. I figure the whole concept is sufficiently holiday-season without crossing that line into Obviously Christmas to work for everyone, Jewish Teacher and Almost Exclusively Christian Townsfolk alike.
Speaking of my little darlings, I have this terrific little girl in my library audience. L. is very obviously learning impaired and developmentally delayed in some way or another, but she is well-behaved and enthusiastic and sweet as can be. She took my apple class in the Fall, and then she ran into me at temple at the high holidays. I'm sure she doesn't know my name, but she knows she knows me. She saw me yesterday at the library when she was part of the class that Emily took, and she kept waving at me surreptitiously through the classroom window. After class, she gave me a really squeezy hug, and I felt rather good about the whole thing. I hope she comes to the fudge group.
I have a friend who is in Arizona indefinitely, caring for her mother, who may or may not ever get out of the hospital, and another who had a baby about a week and a half ago. Plus, tomorrow is Jonah's birthday and we have company coming. So, here's the plan:
I'm making baked ziti with two pounds of pasta, 3 containers of sauce from the freezer, one package of turkey sausage, one large container of ricotta, two baggs of mozzarella, and some broccoli. One whole pan will stay here, and one half pan will go to the home of each of the friends with a container of salad, a pack of Pillsbury breadsticks (on sale and I had a coupon!), and a dozen chocolate chip cookies from the freezer.
Here, to go with the ziti, we're having garlic bread (Karen's bringing it), salad from a bag, and a chocolate cake (all the better to blog you with, my dear!).
I am so pleased with how much mileage I'm going to get out of a relatively small amount of extra effort.
Holy cow. I went to the Penzeys web site a minute ago, to replace my trusty 16 ounce bottle of double strength vanilla. Baking as much as I do, I go through one of these every year or so. It's an extravagance, but the final result really makes it worth the $45 or so that I usually pay for it.
Except it wasn't $45. It now costs $66! Apparently, economic changes and a massive cyclone in Madagascar have led to an unprecendented increase in the price of vanilla worldwide.
Obviously, I am not about to start using imitation vanilla. I don't care what the people in the lab at Cook's Illustrated (I would have linked, but they get $3.95 a month to access the database. As if.) have to say about it. And I'm not about to start buying the stuff at the supermarket. So what's a girl to do?
I took the 4-ounce bottle. Hopefully, that will be enough to tide me over until the price drops in the spring. Maybe. And I figure I might actually have to start measuring, if you can imagine.
Horrifying.
Julie has thrown down the gauntlet and started the discussion of the holiday baking. Never one to let a challenge, even a totally imagined one, go unmet, I offer these lists:
already in the freezer:
still to come, all or some of the following, based on mood, free time, and the price of butter:
I'm planning a trip to Big Lots in the coming weeks for a couple of dozen plates to put them on, as I give them to the teachers, garbage men, etc. Between family, friends, and holiday thank you gifts, I've got a list of about two dozen names.
Really, this could end up anywhere. Watch for photos and more lists in the weeks to come...
*These all seem just so-so. Fine to the average palate...not perfect to mine. We'll see if they make the final cut. This is as much about trying new recipes as anything, I figure.
top to bottom: Honey Pecan Bars, Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Drops with Pecans, and Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Tarts
Well, the Big Yom Kippur Dinner Party is history. All went well, except for the moment that I used the word "tits," referring to my own, not realizing that someone's 13-year old son was in the room.
Anyone for dessert?
This week, Sunday and Monday are Yom Kippur.
Weeks and weeks ago, we made plans with our friends David and Mary to come over on Monday and break the fast. No big deal. 4 adults, 5 kids.
Then Karen mentioned that they had no plans because Bob's family doesn't really do that. Ok. 6 adults, 7 kids.
Then I went out with Janna, whose family we haven't seen in ages. 8 adults, 9 kids.
Then I felt guilty because I know that Ann and Kevin have no family in the area and not too many Jewish friends handy. 10 adults, 12 kids.
Then it seemed kind of out of control, so we hired a couple of youngish sitters to work cheap and keep the kids amused. 10 adults, 14 kids.
The good news is that it's Yom Kippur, and the food is easy-peasy...
Of course, the mimosas will be flowing. They'll have to be.
Here's the Pear Cake with Honey Lemon Frosting that I made for Rosh Hashanah dessert.
Taste-wise, it was just ok...too damp and not sufficiently redolent of pear. But, damn, it looked good.
Rosh Hashanah dinner is being served here tomorrow night. Here's what we're having:
Some of you know, and some of you may not, that I have a fairly narrow definition of what consitutes food, especially food of the formerly-living-flesh variety.
Chicken breasts, ground turkey, salmon fillet, and very large lobsters, yes. Squab, ortolan, organ meats, and calamari, no.
I've volunteered to teach cooking to 1st and 2nd graders at our local library this fall. October is going to be Apples, with caramel apples and all the trimmings and fruit dip to take home...November will bring us Healthy Lunchbox Snacks (we'll do Ants on a Log, but other suggestions are welcome!)...and December will find us decorating holiday cookies.
Fun, no?
I've been absent around here lately, I know. It's the summer, you know? Visitors stacked up like airplanes on LaGuardia's one open runway, trips to the Pischy Pool, visits to the library, and, of course, baking.
Anyone want a slice of peach/blueberry pie?
The vegetables are diced; the shrimp are grilled; the tart is baked; the basket is packed. I'm all ready to go.
Only take a look at the forecast.
I am thinking about serving this Mango Cheesecake, courtesy of Nigella Lawson, at an upcoming event.
The problem is that I have nothing on my calendar to serve as an opportunity at which to test the recipe, and I have no business making an entire cheesecake just for me!
Andrew will be home next week, and Julie will be here, too, and I think that's going to have to be occasion enough! So, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and a giant mango cheesecake it is!
Next Friday, Alan will be visiting (hooray!) and we're going to the Talcott Mountain Music Festival with my friends Bob and Karen.
I've volunteered to take care of dinner...here's the menu:
* Olive Oil and Thyme goat cheese from Rawson Brook Farm in Monterey, MA
* D'Artagnan Pork-Free Mousse Truffee (for a non-mammal eater like, me, finding this stuff is like striking gold!)
* White Bean Dip with Crudités
* Assorted Olives
* Focaccia or some other yummy bread TBD
* Pesto Grilled Shrimp
* Corn, Tomato, and Basil Salad
* Pine Nut Tart
* Sauvignon Blanc or Fumé Blanc TBD
The sitter is lined up; Alan is bringing back my beloved table in a bag, after a three year loan; and I've sewed a tablecloth and napkins, if you can believe it! I'm ready with citronella candles, melamine table ware, and beach chairs. I'll get an unbreakable vase this week.
I am so looking forward to this. If only the weather cooperates.
Found yesterday in my cauliflower:
I will have you all know, however, that, rather than dumping it down the disposal, I put it in a pot and threw it outside. If it survived the fall off the deck, it's happily eating dead peonies right now.
We're going to dinner tonight at Trumbull Kitchen. It's no Tabla (really, what is?), but it's pretty good.
The best part is the White Cosmopolitan, a delightful combination of Grey Goose Citron, white cranberry juice, and lime juice. It just might become my house cocktail this summer...2003's French Martini.
I continue to contemplate teaching cooking classes. My current challege is to develop a proposal of two or three one-hour no-cook demo only classes. There is a new gourmet cookware shop nearby, and the owner seems receptive.
The proposal should emphasize my ability to design demonstrations that will make people want to buy his products.
I was thinking: smoothies and milkshakes, fondue (chocolate and cheese), no-cook hors d'oeuvres to feature gourmet ingredients and fancy platters and serveware, and dips and spreads (crudites to sell the knives and spatulas and an apple dip to push all the apple gizmos in the fall).
Feedback is welcome.
Speaking of fondue, I am dying for a fondue pot. Should I get a mini one, good only for an appetizer or hors d'oeuvre course, or get the big one that can melt enough cheese for four people to eat dinner?
I've been working on class descriptions for the proposals that I need to turn in if I want to teach in the Continuing Education Department in the Fall. This is the only one I've completed so far...what do you all think? Does it seem like a reasonable amount of stuff to get done in three hours?
Apples — Beyond the Pie
Pie is great, but what else is there to do with all of those apples?? Join us as we make Individual Apple Crisps, Lightning Quick Apple Cake, and Caramel Apple Dip.
6:00 - 6:15 Greeting and Introduction
6:15 – 6:35 Prep apples for both baked dishes
6:35 – 6:40 Clean from apples
6:40 – 7:15 Make crisp topping, assemble crisps, bake for 40 mins.
7:15 – 7:20 Clean from crisps
7:20 – 7:40 Make cake batter, assemble cakes, bake for 30 mins.
7:40 – 7:55 clean
7:55 Take crisps from oven to cool
8:00 – 8:15 make Caramel Apple Dip, slice apples, set aside
8:10 Take cakes from oven to cool
8:15 – 8:20 clean from dip
8:20 – 8:30 whip cream
8:30 Eat!
Lately, all I really feel like doing is baking.
Here's the cake I made today, for Wednesday's book club meeting:
The original recipe is for White Chocolate Bundt Cake but, when I made it before, I didn't like how the white chips were in the middle of the cake, so I used semi-sweet chips in the middle and melted white and milk chocolates on the top, and I'll call it Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake. Voila.
The big news is that the damned thing actually released from the Dreaded Star-Shaped Bundt Pan. The recipe calls for greasing and sugaring the pan, and I think that helped. Also, I cooled it upside down (right-side up? so that the pan was up and the cake was down), and I think the steam going up into the cake helped it release.
The cake was a big, big hit! I think that it would be easy to do with other fruits, like blueberries, or cranberries, but the sugar in the filling would have to be adjusted.
The texture of the crumble topping was a bit finer than I like, and I might change that for next time. And add nuts.
The cake itself was dense. So dense that people asked if there was corn meal in it, which, for blueberries, would be good.
I think, actually, that I'm going to rework this into a blueberry/lemon/cornmeal pound cake, which could be a prizewinner.
More to follow, of course.
As I mentioned, the grocery store had a lot of Buy 1, Get 2 deals this week, including pound packages of strawberries. I needed one pound, so I was stuck with 3, and had to figure out what to do with them all.
Here's what I ended up with, courtesy of good old Emeril...
EMERIL'S STRAWBERRY COFFEECAKE
1 Teaspoon plus 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water
3 large eggs
4 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons cane syrup*
2 tablespoons milk
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 10 by 2- inch round cake pan with 1 teaspoon of the butter.
2. In a medium-size nonreactive saucepan, combine the strawberries, 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, and the lemon juice. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook at a boil for 3 minutes. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in the water. Add to the strawberry mixture and cook, stirring, until it thickens, about for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream 1/4 pound of the butter with the remaining 1 cup granulated sugar with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Into a medium mixing bowl, sift 3 1/2 cups of the flour, the baking powder, baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon, and the salt. Add the flour mixture, buttermilk, and vanilla to the butter mixture and beat with an electric mixer until everything is incorporated.
4. In another medium-size mixing bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup butter, the remaining 1/2 cup flour, the brown sugar, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Using your hands, combine the mixture until it resembles fine crumbs.
5. Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan. Spread the strawberry mixture over the batter. Drop heaping spoonfuls of the remaining batter over the mixture, about 1-inch apart. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the surface. Put the cake pan on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown about 40-50 minutes**. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
6. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar, cane syrup, and milk until smooth. Drizzle the frosting over the top of the coffee cake. Cut into slices and serve.
*I used corn syrup, and it's fine.
**I actually had to bake for more like 70-75 minutes (!!).
So, yesterday, just like every other non-July-or-August Sunday, I went grocery shopping. And like every other Sunday, the sales at the Big Y were totally out of control. Buy 1, Get 2. Incredible.
The thing is, because of these sales and my own compulsions, my basement looks like I am some kind of survivalist. I have enough pasta and Diet Coke to survive a nuclear winter. There is also an abundance of things like graham crackers, Nilla wafers, and hot chocolate, but the good news there is that the National Association of Letter Carriers is conducting a major food drive this Saturday. Just put the food out by your mail box and they'll pick it up.
Anyway, I am issuing a challenge to myself and anyone who cares to join me...
As we plan our next weekly menus, we are allowed to purchase only produce, dairy, and fresh bread (and, for me, not even bread!). Other than that, everything (everything!) has to come from the pantry or the freezer.
I'll report on my success or failure later in the week.
Spurred on by two coupons in my Sunday circulars, I was moved today to try a new product...Yoplait Nouriche.
I should have known from the name alone that it would suck, like the semi-nutritional quasi-yogurt for the nouveau riche bullshit that it is, but I was somehow influenced by tv ads featuring unharried women with blow outs and clean cars drinking this stuff as they sashayed from one activity to another. I figured, well, I like yogurt, and I go from one activity to another, so maybe this is the stuff for me.
Wrong.
First of all, whatever this stuff is, it's not yogurt. It's sort of like bad yogurt diluted with skim milk, corn starch, and loose jello. Andrew and I sampled the "peach" variety, which, let me tell you, tastes about as peachy as, say, peach-scented shampoo might. Andrew said it tasted and felt like a cross between fruity Valvoline and liquid Go-Gurt, which makes sense, because it all comes out of the same evil factory, apparently.
And my hair is still messy and my car is still dirty and I am still harried.
Now, what to do with the "Tropical" flavor still in the fridge?
I'm trying something new for dinner. This recipe is my own, so measurements, if you want to call them that, are vague.
GRILLED CITRUS SHRIMP
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined
juice of 1/2 lime from bottom of produce drawer
juice of 1 lemon, ditto
big blob of dijon mustard
medium blob of good honey
generous pour of orange infused olive oil from Williams Sonoma that I never could figure out what to do with
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
small handful of chopped cilantro
marinade until later, grill until cooked.
I'm serving it with orzo mixed with parsley-lemon pesto and peas. Yum!
I've been in a batting slump of sorts. First there was the Strawberry Tart Debacle. Now, the Passover Dessert Nightmare.
It all started with that Queen Mother's Cake. I followed the recipe exactly, but it burned. I mean, burned. It was so bad that I threw it out. Not even a photo to share.
Then, last night, came Nick Malgieri's Flourless Chocolate Cake. I knew that I had overbeaten the egg whites, that they were, as they say, stiff and dry, but what was I to do? I proceeded and while the result may have tasted fine, I guess, it was hideous and unappealing. and could not be served to guests. Note especially the edges, which stuck to the pan and consequently look like Slick was nibbling at them.
So I spent time last night searching the internet for a new recipe, one that used only 6 eggs, not 7 or 8, as 6 was what I had left. I found a suitable candidate and set to it again this morning. About two-thirds of the way through, I realized that the corn syrup in the glaze isn't quite pesadich, but I figured that after trayf chicken in cream sauce, it didn't matter all that much. It came out rather nicely, I think.
A report on the seder (6 adults, 8 kids...oy!) will follow tomorrow.
Once in a while, a recipe crosses your path that you just know you're going to love. I am making the YUMMIEST thing for dinner tonight, from this month's Fine Cooking magazine.
CHILI-RUBBED CHICKEN WITH AVOCADO MANGO SALSA
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 3/4 lb total)
1/4 c tomato paste
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 t garlic powder
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1 mango, cunt into 1/2" dice
1 avocado, cut into 1/2" dice
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 1/4" dice
3 T chopped chilantro
2 limes
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the chicken into 1/2" strips. Combine tomato paste, chili powder, garlic powder, and 1 T olive oil in a bowl, and chicken, stir to coat, marinate 10 min.
Combine mango, avocado, red pepper, cilantro, and juice of one lime in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut the remaining lime into wedges
Heat the remaining 2 T olive oil in a 10" saute pan over medium high heat. Season the chicken strips with salt and pepper. Saute, stirring oten, until the chicken is firm and opaque, 3-4 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for one minute.
Set the chicken on a platter, top with the salsa, and decorate with the lime wedges.
TERRY'S NOTES & MODIFICATIONS
1. I don't love red pepper, so I used yellow, but it's too close in color to the mango, so I'll use red or orange next time.
2. I'm going to grill the chicken, not saute.
3. I'm using mild chili powder for Andrew and the kids, but I'm going to dump a mess of ground chipotle on mine (I keep it in a shaker with the salt and pepper), and I'll bet that's going to make it even better. You could probably just put some canned chipotles in adobo right in with the tomato past and oil, too.
4. I tried the salsa before I put it in the fridge. The fact that any is left is a testament to my superior will power.
What you can't tell by looking is that the pastry cream didn't quite set up -- it's more like creme anglaise than like vanilla pudding. And also that there's a layer of chocolate on the crust, under the cream.
But still, is this gorgeous, or what?
Last night was the annual Mother Daughter Dinner for the school troops. As the theme was "Girl Scouts Salute Their Flag and and Country," and as I was expected to wear red, white, and blue, I had a fairly crappy attitude about going. As it turned out, I managed to dig a patriotically-colored scarf out of the back of a drawer, use it to accessorize my usual all-black attire, and have a fine time.
My girls started the evening by exchanging pieces of junk friendship bracelets with the other Daisy troop, as part of our work toward "being a sister toward every Girl Scout." After the obligatory flag salute and singing of "Johnny Appleseed," they happily ate dinner and pigged out at the dessert table. Emily was so thrilled to be allowed to choose three desserts on her own and, if you can imagine, "a nice lady" gave her an extra cookie. She left me during dessert to sit with her new "Daisy Sister." She is so social at these things!
The highlight of the evening for Emily was definitely joining with the other troop to sing This Land Is Your Land in front of the assemblage.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that, when it comes to potluck dinners, I am insanely competitive. It's extremely important to me that mine be the item that is finished, not the one that gets passed by and goes home untouched. I am pleased to report that the salad I brought last night was very well-received. Other mothers asked for the recipe and the bowl -- about 24" in diameter! -- was all but licked clean. There wasn't so much as a leaf of lettuce left in there. Phew!
The funny thing about the recipe is that it came from a woman with whom I later had quite a falling out, but her husband got a job offer in Pennsylvania and she moved last month. Buh-bye, Deb.
I offer the recipe here for your files.
POTLUCK SALAD
1 lb field greens
3/4 c. cashews
3/4 c. dried cranberries
1 granny smith apple, unpeeled, cut into matchsticks
(the dressing makes more than you need)
1 c. canola oil
3/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 T. poppy seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yellow mustard
put it all in a jar and shake to combine.
Maybe, just maybe, I have achieved that "lifestyle change" that the diet gurus are always talking about.
I grocery shop once a week, as most of you know, on the weekend, and I make a menu and a grocery list
a couple of days ahead of time.
Here's the produce list for this weekend:
mashing potatoes
thyme (for fish)
cilantro?
basil
lime
onions
romaine
avocado
salad
grape tomatoes
pine nuts
peppers
green beans
asparagus
broccoli
pears
2 mango
bananas
pineapple
strawberries
grapes
green apples
Here's the list for everything else:
honey chicken
small mozzarella balls
grinder rolls
sausage?
salmon or sea bass or swordfish
Other
Diet Dr. Pepper
mayonnaise
cider vinegar
Rid-X
Diapers
pesto
croutons
pink pretzels
tea
I think that the menu planning, the list, and a goal to make the produce list be as big as everything else combined are the secrets, at least for me. If there's healthy stuff to eat in the hosue, we never say, "Oh, fuck it. Let's just go to Chili's." Anyway, not like I'm a size 6 yet, but I'm sure a whole lot more confortable in my clothes than I used to be.
Remember the Barbie Cake I linked to for Julie's birthday?
This Dark Chocolate and Orange Tart with Toasted Almonds was what I really wanted to use. Julie and this tart may well be the best match of diner and dessert in the history of food.
The Never-Ending Annual Quest For Passover Dessert That Doesn't Suck continues. I've decided that, this year, we're going to try Maida Heatter's Queen Mother's Cake. I read about it in one of Joan Nathan's books (in fact, much of dinner is coming out of that book this year) and found the recipe online.
MAIDA HEATTER'S QUEEN MOTHER'S CAKE
1 1/2 cups almonds, skinned
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup sugar, divided
6 ounces unsalted butter
6 large eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Toast the almonds in a single layer in a shallow pan in a 350-degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, shaking the pan a few times, until the almonds are lightly colored and give off a delicious smell of toasted almond when you open the door. Set aside to cool.
Adjust the rack one-third up in the oven, and preheat to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch-by-3-inch springform pan, and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Butter the paper. Dust the pan all over with fine, dry bread crumbs. Gently shake out excess.
Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over warm water on moderate heat. Cover until partially melted, then uncover and stir until just melted and smooth. Remove the top of double boiler, and set aside until chocolate is tepid. Place the almonds and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Process until the nuts are fine and powdery. Stop the machine once or twice, scrape down the side, and continue to process. Process for at least a full minute. Set aside the ground nuts.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar, and beat to mix. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary until smooth. On low speed, add the chocolate and beat until mixed. Then add the processed almonds and beat, scraping the bowl, until incorporated.
In a clean mixer bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the salt and lemon juice, starting on low speed and increasing it gradually. When the whites barely hold a soft shape, reduce the speed a bit, and gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. On high speed, continue to beat until the whites hold a straight point when the beaters are slowly raised. Do not overbeat.
Stir a large spoonful of whites into the chocolate mixer to soften it a bit. Then, in three additions, fold in the remaining whites. Do not fold thoroughly until the last addition, and do not handle more than necessary.
Turn the mixture into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan briskly in order to level the batter.
Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees, and then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for an additional 50 minutes (total baking time is 1 hour and 10 minutes.) Do not overbake; the cake should remain soft and moist in the center. (The top might crack a bit; it's OK.)
Wet and wring out a folded tea towel, and place it on a smooth surface or rack. Remove the cake pan from the oven and place it on the wet towel. Let stand until tepid, 50 to 60 minutes.
Release and remove the sides of the pan. (Do not cut around the sides with a knife; it will make the rim of the cake messy.) Now, let the cake stand until it is completely cool, or longer if you wish.
This cake will sink a little in the middle; the sides will be a little higher. Use a long, thin, sharp knife and level the top. (Editor's note: I never needed to do this.) Brush away loose crumbs.
Place a rack or a small board over the cake and carefully invert. Remove the bottom of the pan and the paper lining. Cool. The cake is now upside down. This is the way it will be iced.
QUEEN MOTHER'S CAKE ICING
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
The cake is turned upside down for icing on the cake plate. To keep the icing off the plate, place 4 strips of parchment paper, 3 by 12 inches, around the edges of a cake plate. With a large, wide spatula, carefully transfer the cake to the plate; check to be sure that the cake is touching the paper all around.
To make the icing, scald the cream in a 5- to 6-cup saucepan over medium heat until it begins to form small bubbles around the edges or a thin skin on top. Add the espresso or coffee powder and whisk to dissolve. Add the chocolate and stir occasionally over heat for 1 minute. Then, remove the pan from heat, and whisk or stir until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth.
Let icing stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or a little longer, until icing barely begins to thicken.
Then stir to mix, and pour it slowly over the top of the cake, pouring it onto the middle. Use a long, narrow metal spatula to smooth the top and spread the icing so that a little of it runs down the sides (not too much -- the icing on the sides should be a much thinner layer than on the top). With a small, narrow metal spatula, smooth the sides.
If it sounds awful, now is the time to say so.
I've got some free time this afternoon while Jonah sleeps and Emily relaxes (thank you, inventor of television!). I've decided to catch up on all of my cooking stuff...
* Muffins to use up the Fruit Formerly Known As Bananas;
* Double batch of crisp topping to keep in the freezer now that it's Fruit Season;
* Chopped Israeli Salad to use up the produce that I bought last week;
* Pate Brisee for next Saturday night's Strawberry Tart; and
* Jello for my sweetie, who seems to like it when single-serving plastic containers of the stuff appear in the fridge as if put there by fairies
Hopefully, they'll be up to something good on the E! True Hollywood Story. What ever happened to Behind the Music, anyway?
What I have eaten so far today:
2 cranberry oat muffins
1 luna bar
3 crackers
2 slices of bread with honey
Still to come:
turkey burger on roll
corn
wine
There is nothing about mussels that I like...not the smell, not the taste (yes, i've tried them!), and certainly not the look. Don't misunderstand, I am not a self-hating woman, and I love my body, but compare these three images...
Black Iris by Georgia O'Keeffe
Mussels Meuniere
Primordial Goddess plate by Judy Chicago
...and tell me I'm not right. I dare you.
I made some chocolate chip cookies recently, using, as usual, Nestle's brand chips and the recipe on the back of the bag. Also as usual, I ate more of them than I meant to. I thought to myself, "These things are like potato chips!"
And then I had my epiphany...they are like potato chips!
Compare, if you will, the chocolate chip recipes from the test kitchens at Nestle, Hershey's, and Ghirardelli. Notice the big difference?
The mystery is solved! Now we know why Nestle's chips are the market's best-seller. It's not that the chocolate is better! (I don't know about you, but I know that I'd rather eat a Hershey bar than a Nestle bar any day.) It's not tradition, or even Ruth Wakefield's original recipe...
It's an extra half teaspoon of salt in the batter.
And that, as they say, is that.
I think it was pretty successful. The food was really good. I love love love serving the first course in the dining room, especially when my guests don't know each other very well. It really gives people a chance to talk and move around a little bit.
Of course, there was too much food. I made the biggest lasagna in the world. I dished up huge portions and some of the men and seconds and, even so, I have two full dinners in the freezer.
During the day, I found out that John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter, wine columnists for the Wall Street Journal, had proclaimed last night their fourth annual Open That Bottle Night so, after champagne and bordeaux, I broke out my bottle of Inniskillin Okanagan Ice Wine, which was well received by all.
The smartest play of the night was made by Andrew, who had hired two of his former students, now sixth graders, to be "camp counselors" or the 8 kids in attendance. Before we knew it, the girls had the kids organized and making a restaurant of their own, and we barely saw them all evening. This made for a terrific night for the parents.
Clean up was more or less a snap but, boy am I tired today.
We're having a dinner party on Saturday night...poor Julie has been hearing about it forever...8 adults, 8 kids, and 2 sixth-grade babysitters. The menu has been planned for ages. Table setting is tonight, maybe, grocery shopping in the morning, and cooking begins tomorrow.
FIRST COURSE
antipasto, to be served in the living room, with champagne:
roasted cauliflower
roasted mushrooms
bruschetta topping with crostini (bought)
some kind of cheese
prosciutto
asparagus vinaigrette
cannellini with shrimp, garlic, lemon and rosemary
ENTREE
into the living room we go, accompanied by a couple of bottles of cabernet...
mixed green with pine nuts, raisins, croutons, and sherry vinaigrette
lasagna
DESSERT
back to the living room? who knows? but I do have some terrific ice wine to go with the plater of cookies...
lemon squares
brownies
shortbread circles with chips and nuts
peanut butter cookies
The kids are getting pizza, delivered. Have I forgotten anything???
Look for the debriefing on Sunday!
I'm sitting here eating a bowl of "porridge," made of McCann's Irish Oatmeal, because Alan said I should.
Truthfully, $6.59 later, I think I like plain old oatmeal better. But I'm like that.
One time, my mother-in-law (the other one...it's a complicated family tree) brought me these fancy candies from la Maison du Chocolat, and I would have preferred a Snickers bar.
CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES CASSEROLE
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup
1 (11 ounce) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 (16 ounce) package frozen French fries
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Combine the ground beef and onion in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally until beef is no longer pink, and the onion is translucent. Drain off excess grease, and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.
3. Return to the heat, and stir in the golden mushroom and cheese soups until well blended. Heat through, and remove from stove. Transfer the mixture to a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover the ground beef mixture with a layer of frozen French fries.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven. When the fries are golden brown, remove the casserole from the oven, and sprinkle cheese over the top. Return to the oven, and bake just until cheese has melted.
Did you know that there is yet another food pyramid? It's a new new one. Check it out.
Reminds me of a joke:
What are a supermodel's four food groups?
Champagne, Marlboros, heroin, and Tic Tacs.
I have taken to eating salad for lunch most days. My ass was getting bigger, and my appetite wasn't getting any smaller. At last, I found something that I could eat A LOT of without a problem. But I despise bottled salad dressing. Here is my new favorite:
SHERRY SHALLOT DRESSING
3 T chopped shallot
3 T sherry vinegar
6 T extra virgin olive oil
2 t dijon mustard
1 t honey (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
I buy the greens in a bag, and I only dress the greens. I like this one with hard boiled egg, toasted pine nuts, golden raisins, and fresh made croutons.
Gnaw to your heart's content.