Not by Chamomile Alone

Bulk cooking: tortillas as food vehicles

2010-05-09T20:46:00.000-05:00

I'm still around, but things have gotten busy here.

In the meantime, I've still got to eat. And here's a top from The Simple Dollar that's keeping me from buying Eggos:

Bulk breakfast burritos

In my case, the burritos are being filled with bars made from a bag of shredded frozen hashbrowns, eight eggs and a cup of cottage cheese. Add plenty of pepper and bake the mixture in a casserole until cooked through. Allow to cool and slice into bars which then go into burritos (in our case, we're lucky and there's a whole-wheat variety that's relatively healthy and made fresh at the local grocery store). Wrap in plastic or freeze individually and then store in a freezer-appropriate container (we use gallon-size freezer bags with a zip-top, and they can be reused easily.)

You can add: beans, bacon, salsa, cheese... but the cottage cheese does a good job keeping it cheesy.

Thanks, Simple Dollar!

The New Decornographers

2010-04-22T22:30:00.001-05:00

After reading this post on Jezebel about The New Decornographers, I think it's important to remember the following:

1) Keeping up a blog is HARD. Especially when life hits. Sometimes, there are going to be lulls in posts- but it doesn't mean that the person's gone, just that something besides The Internets happened that day. Today, Mr. O and I went on a long walk in the last of the cool rainy weather, so I didn't post anything substantial towards my project. However, I did see entire families of deer along the way, and that was way better than writing a post about rearranging your spices. Sorry, blogosphere.

2) I need to keep in mind for myself, in the upcoming weeks, that the strategies for keeping kitchens streamlined is PRECISELY to create less work in the long run. I am a lazy, lazy person and will attempt to give shortcuts and the long version, if it doesn't take too long to type up. My photos are the results of 50-100 pictures out of camera and a crapton of overediting. And my cleaning techniques? 90% of the time I go the lazy route. More time for sleeping, yes?

3) Jezebel rocks. Seriously, go read it sometime. It's a nice reality check.

~lunettes

Kitchen Organization, Librarian-Style: The Fridge/Freezer Part 2, Efficiency, Space Utilization and Storage Techniques

2010-04-19T20:57:00.004-05:00

Your Fridge/Freezer: Efficiency, Space Utilization and Storage

For many people, the problem with their fridge is that they're concerned about using the space efficiently and making sure that the amount of food inside keeps the fridge running with utmost energy efficiency.

For those of us who don't have a choice in our appliances (e.g. renting), keeping an energy efficient fridge is the only way to make sure that we're making the most out of the electricity we use.

Freezer: Stock it up, don't restrict air flow

While it's important to keep a freezer stocked, according to The Straight Dope it's important to allow some air to circulate in both the fridge and freezer. If your freezer is empty, consider filling it with some plastic water bottles or other similar containers. These double as great packs on the road or to keep your food cool if the power goes out. Don't play Tetris in the freezer, though - remember to keep some ventilation in the front and back so that the fans can work properly.

Fridge: Not just for milk and eggs

My fridge doubles as a storage container for the flour, sugar, rice and cornmeal that I use for cooking. After one too many apartments had a bad ant problem, I now keep all the tempting treats in the fridge where not only are they kept safe from vermin, the whole grain items (like brown rice, whole wheat flour and cornmeal) stay fresher longer. It also keeps the fridge full so that it takes less energy to cool down the air inside. (Ain't physics grand?)

I like storing my pantry staples in snapware as it's easy to clean and almost easier to open. Another advantage to storing items in these products is that they're easy to stack and store in your fridge. They can go near the back as you might not use them as often as fresh produce.

Where should I put it?

Over the course of a week, see what items you end up pulling out of your fridge the most often. Have you found that the mustard gets top billing? Pickles? Grapes? Store these items near the front of the fridge so you can reach them easily and conserve energy. I hear great things about Rubbermaid produce containers and their ability to keep foods fresher longer. As for me, I use a moist paper towel in the bottom of my storage containers - it wicks away moisture for the most part and I haven't had any issues with mold.

How should I freeze it?

To ensure that the temperature of your fridge and freezer remain at safe levels, always remember to let foods cool to room temperature before refrigerating so they don't increase the temperature in the refrigerator to an unsafe level. Once the food is cooled from the fridge, it can then be transferred to the freezer. I find that individually freezing and/or wrapping foods (on a small cookie sheet) and then storing them in zip-top plastic bags makes for easy access and mass transportation. This works for homemade gnnochi, twice baked potatoes, burritos, cake - almost anything!

If your above-fridge freezer doesn't have shelves, I would highly recommend repurposing a cabinet organizer for your freezer storage needs. It helps to distribute the weight so that you can remove items throughout your freezer without having everything fall in on itself. I use the area below the shelf for zip top bag storage and the top area for storing beans, soups and casseroles in square containers that easily stack in small spaces. Items like ice packs, nuts and ice pop containers go in the door shelving.

In the next and final post about the fridge, we'll be talking about man's best friend: no, not dogs... leftovers! It's like a bonus dinner. See you then!

Kitchen Organization, Librarian-Style: The Fridge/Freezer Part 1, Cleaning

2010-04-18T21:44:00.004-05:00

Your fridge: It's the place that keeps your food from spoiling, prolongs the life of perishables... it's a workhorse in your kitchen.

Danielle from The Frugal Lawyer has asked about the best way to ensure that food is kept safe while cleaning and how to utilize food so that it doesn't spoil before consumption. Hopefully this post will help answer some questions and will help some of you out there figure out better ways to store food cleanly in your fridge!

In this series of posts we will deal with the following issues with the refrigerator:

Cleaning
Efficiency
Space Utilization
Storage
Leftovers

Today we're going to focus on cleaning. Keeping a clean fridge not only makes it more fun to look in your fridge, but it also helps your family to stay healthy and reduces the risk of cross-contamination.

For Danielle, she writes that her biggest issues are making sure her food doesn't spoil when she cleans the fridge. When she does get around to cleaning, she has problems making sure that the food that she leaves on the counter doesn't melt/go bad while cleaning.

Danielle, I would recommend the following for your situation:

A timer
All-Purpose Cleaner
10-12 rags
Spray bottle (optional)
Scrub brush
Timer
Cooler (borrow one from friends/family if you don't have one on hand)
Lunchbox ice packs (if they're already in your freezer)

First, fill a sink halfway with water. Pour 1-2 capfuls of all-purpose cleaner in (I like Mrs. Meyers All-Purpose Cleaner but Clorox Greenworks works as well) and mix to combine. Or, if you're lazy like me, pour it in while the water's filling the sink. If you have a spray bottle, put 1-2 caps of the cleaner in and fill with water as well.

Next, pick either the fridge or freezer. Open the fridge and figure out what needs to be refrigerated for more than 30 minutes. Milk should be kept cold, mustard and pickles - probably not. Place the items that need to be refrigerated in the cooler and top with the ice packs. Take the rest of the fridge's contents and place them on your counters or a nearby table.

Place half of the rags in the cleaning solution and start taking a good look at the empty fridge.

NOW, before you do anything else - set your timer for 20 minutes.

First, while your rags are still clean, give the handle of the fridge a good swipe. Open the fridge and give it a good look to identify problem areas.

Do your crisper drawers need cleaning? Use a vacuum or dustbuster (or turn them upside down in a trash can) to remove crumbs and dirt. Pull the drawers out (if possible) and give them a good swish around the cleaning solution and wash any gunk out of them. Dry them and set them on the counter or floor.

Next, go from top to bottom. If you need to, wash the walls of the fridge. Do the shelves need cleaning? If something is stuck on, spray the area with your spray bottle and let it sit while you work on other areas. By the time you're done with the rest, it should wipe off with ease. Use baking soda if it's really stubborn.

Don't forget to wipe off the condiment and butter shelves.

When the timer goes off, STOP. You want to do your best to clean in this time slot because it means that you won't get overwhelmed with the task. If it looks pretty good (e.g. there are no stains on the shelves and it smells clean), wipe off the shelves if they're still wet.

Shortcut: If you're like me and very, very lazy when it comes to deep-down cleaning, take the drawers out and vacuum the inside of the fridge. Then, spray everything liberally with all-purpose cleaner. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes and wipe.

Now... before you put everything back in, take a good look at the empty fridge. Are the shelves in the fridge working for your storage needs? Most fridge shelves are adjustable, so play around with moving them to see if it helps you to store items more efficiently. Consider putting a box or bowl of baking soda in the back of the fridge to reduce odors.

This empty fridge is now a clean haven in which to store foods that will encourage health and happiness in your home. Are the foods that you're putting back into the fridge expired? Are they being used regularly? Are they properly stored? If the answer to any of these questions is NO, I strongly urge you to reconsider placing them back in the fridge.

If you find yourself with a ton of condiments that you rarely use, consider using them in a marinade for meats or veggies (theme them by region - South Asian, East Asian, Mexican, etc.). I find that some condiments work really well in slow cooker recipes as well and things like Italian dressing can be used for pasta salads.

Are you storing your food properly? With the exception of some methods for aging meat, everything should be covered adequately. Many people now use glass dishes with plastic or glass lids as they can go in oven, freezer, fridge and microwave with no concern for plastic leaching (take the plastic lids off before heating, though!). I use basic square Ziploc storage containers that stack well - but I do wait for foods to cool before storing them and I never microwave (I transfer to a plate/bowl). If you have so many storage containers that they can't fit in the fridge, pare down.

One method that I've seen by Angela over at My Year Without Spending is an "Eat Me" shelf - if you have leftovers or food about to expire, make room on a shelf and label it so that the family knows those items need to be eaten first. Leftovers can go there right after dinner, and you can keep a rotating fruit bowl there as well to encourage healthy eating. After dinner each night, look through the fridge for items to be added to the shelf, and make a game out of constructing lunches to take to work/school from them.

Finally, start placing the items in your cooler back in the fridge. Evaluate each one to make sure it deserves a space in your fridge (Is it expired?/is it healthy?/do we use it?) and go from there.

Later, rinse, and repeat with your freezer - and don't forget to clean your ice maker (if you have one). Keep with the 20 minute timer - you can do plenty of damage in that time and get a darned clean freezer. If you need to defrost your freezer, just add extra ice to the cooler and you should be fine as long as you're not opening the cooler every few minutes. Remember, the goal is not perfection - it's sustainability.

Thanks for reading!

Kitchen Organization, Librarian-Style: Your Oven

2010-04-17T14:23:00.001-05:00

Your Oven: It's one of the larges appliances in your house, but how much do you really know about its functions?

I have a cheap gas oven in my apartment, and it has been a lesson in learning how to work with it to ensure that I get the results I want every time. Many of the lessons below are for non-digital gas ovens as they are veritable fire-pits, with hot and cold areas that can be difficult to gauge.

Step One: Get to Know your Oven

Especially if you're not a regular cook, do you know how your oven works? The first apartment I had with a gas oven was really scary - I had grown up on electric and didn't know how to turn the oven on without blowing myself (and the apartment complex) to bits.

Gas ovens run on gas and flames. Mr. O had an apartment that had a continuous gas flame in the oven and it would stay on at all times, causing the oven to be warm to the touch even in the winter months. My apartments have had gas ovens that light up when you turn them on - so there might be a slight gas smell when you turn it on but the oven should warm up quickly after you turn the knob on.

My gas oven also has a broiler underneath the oven. The area is too small to hold a half-sheet cookie sheet, so if your oven is like mine make sure that you have oven- and broiler-proof pottery or a metal sheet that can fit in the area comfortably and that you have a plan for picking up hot plates from the ground. Some ovens have broilers built into the top of the oven and so you can easily switch from baking to getting that gooey, bubbly brown top on many of your casseroles and other baked goods.

Step Two: Calibrating your Oven

Does your oven run too hot or too cold? There are a couple of solutions for this problem.
1) Make sure you know how hot your oven really is. I highly recommend purchasing an oven thermometer that measures how hot your oven is. You can hang it off one of the sides of the oven rack and keep an eye on it to make sure that your oven has preheated as expected and that it's at the temperature you really want.

2) More importantly, know that you can change the temperature of your oven.

On the back of your oven knob, there might be a set of screws to change the temperature of your oven. If it runs too hot or too cold, try adjusting the screws and seeing how that affects the temperature.

Step Three: Prepping your Oven

A clean oven produces happier results. When was the last time you cleaned your oven? There's no need to use a harsh oven cleaner or the self-cleaning feature that comes on many electrics. Use a diluted all-purpose cleaner or baking soda and vinegar in a spray bottle to clean the window and sides of the oven. If there are baked-on stains underneath the grates, make a thick paste of baking soda and water and rub it into the area. Leave it overnight and it will be easy to remove in the morning.

Do you have proper tools for using your oven? Make sure that the hot pads, oven mitts and trivets you use are meeting your needs. If you always use the same oven mitts, consider donating or giving away the ones you don't use.

Step Four: Testing your Oven

Now, the big test: How does your oven behave once it has been cleaned and calibrated? I cook a lot of bread and before I calibrated my oven it ran 75 degrees hotter than it should have. Now, I'm having to train myself to put the correct temperature on the oven dial so that I can get perfect bread every time! I'm still learning and a few times my bread has come out underdone, but don't give up! Just keep checking your thermometer and don't let your food cool down before it's cooked completely.

One of my favorite tools is a digital thermometer for meats and breads. This device can test food at the end of a cooking cycle or for meats can be used during the entire process of cooking. Don't forget to place the end of the thermometer in the thickest part of the food so that it ensures the rest is done! Just use a recipe book or search engine to discover at what temperature your food is done and set the thermometer 2-3 degrees cooler so that you can remove the food at its prime temperature. For meats, you can often take the meat out of the oven and let it rest for 10-15 minutes and the meat will continue to increase in temperature as the residual heat cooks the last bit.

Most importantly, using a thermometer will help you learn when meats and breads are done. While it may seem difficult at first, cooking by sight is something that comes with experience and a thermometer will help you to learn not only how long it takes for a recipe to work in your oven but also what a successful finished product looks like consistently.

Conclusion

With these steps, baking with your oven will guarantee you an end product that looks and tastes great every time. Remember to:

'Know' your oven
Calibrate your oven
Clean your oven
Test your oven

And every time you'll have great results. Happy cooking!

Kitchen Organization, Librarian-Style: An introduction

2010-04-17T11:35:00.002-05:00

Lately, I've been reading a lot on organization theory and the concept of 'flow' in everyday activities. In order to accomplish any series of tasks, it's better for an individual to have a master plan so that they can accomplish their goals efficiently. The more streamlined the plan, the better the end product will be because concentration is focused on the task (in this case, a meal) rather than the execution.

Along these lines, I will be posting a series of articles over kitchen organization and streamlining storage and counter space. Whether you have a small cove or a large space in which to cook your meals, I hope that this series will help you improve the process you use to cook and bake. After all, the less time you have to spend in the kitchen, the more time you have to enjoy your food!

2010-04-17T11:34:00.002-05:00

Mushroom blend purchased at Whole Foods for Valentine's Day risotto.

Valomilks make the world go 'round

2010-01-17T20:05:00.004-06:00

About halfway from Austin to my parents' house lies a small landmark of a building known as the Dutchman's Hidden Valley. Reminiscent of road trips across languishing highways, the dilapidated signs that mark the 15--10--5--and 1--mile to the store serve as reminders of the anticipation that a quality old-fashioned rest stop must can conjure up in an age when electronics didn't dominate the road trip. (Personally, my favorite activity as a young road-tripper was marking a legal pad with each kind and how many 18-wheelers we saw in a day. When your Texan family drives to Canada for summer vacation, you've got to do something to keep from having a permanent blur of grassy fields in your vision.)

Entering the Dutchman's Hidden Valley is kind of like searching through your grandmother's back room: There's some antiques, some frilly rose water - but more importantly there's a hell of a lot of candy. After roaming through the antiques section (which I swear hasn't changed since before I was born) you stumble upon the workers who are making a batch of homemade candy which they sell--most often, the salt-water taffy which has caused yours truly to lose more than a few baby teeth. The stuff is sticky and addictive, with a soft touch that I haven't found in other salt water taffies. In front, the business sells their handmade candies, fudge and chocolates as well as old-fashioned candies that are brought in from other institutions.

Catching up on reading a few books before my last trip up north, I stumbled upon Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. The author, a professor with a voracious sweet tooth, roams across America in search of the historical and sometimes extinct types of small-batch candy that used to dominate the American landscape. Today, many classic candy bars are manufactured by Hershey's, Nestle, or Mars - but the really interesting bars are the ones that have stood the test of time. One of my favorite childhood treats, and one that I can always find at the Hidden Valley, is Valomilk marshmallow chocolate cups. Steve Almond, the author of Candyfreak, dedicates a chapter to the ridiculous process of shipping easy-melting chocolate marshmallow cups in hot summer months to the southern institutions that enjoy stocking them. The Sifers Candy company makes only Valomilks and from easy-to-read ingredients, which is always a plus.

But, of course, the best part is the candy itself. What's there to say about a runny marshmallow cup? It's messy, sticky, and a very unique sugary experience.

This is what it looks like after you take a bite - the chocolate cracks open and starts oozing. It's not the same as marshmallow fluff - instead, it's much stickier and runnier, so the creme gums up the inside of your mouth just long enough until the solids from the chocolate help un-stick the mess from your tongue. And then you want more, which is how the good candy bars keep selling. Speaking of which... go try Valomilks for yourself!

Battle Orange and the Life of a Croquembouche

2010-01-03T10:42:00.003-06:00

Last night, I attended an Iron Chef (tm) gathering where the secret ingredient was oranges. I started searching tastespotting's nifty feature for searching tags and came across zested's chocolate orange croquembouche and I knew we had a winner. I really wanted one of these for my wedding cake, but I was afraid we'd all die of food poisoning in the 100-degree heat with all the custard insides.

Was it ridiculous to construct? Yes. Messy? I'm still cleaning sugar off my back porch. Fun? Oh, heck yes.

zested's directions are great and easy to follow. They chose to adhere the croquembouche together with chocolate, while I went with caramel... and then we had a hell of a time making it come apart. A quick search reveals that traditionally couples must break their croquembouche with a champagne bottle, which definitely would have come in handy last night. Instead we used a fork, a knife and some arm power to dismantle the thing.

I would highly recommend trying to make cream puffs at least once - it's barely harder than making cookies and so much fun!

As for spun sugar, this quick tutorial helped me make quick use of the leftover caramel post-construction.

Any ideas on removing hardened sugar from a cement porch?

love,
lunettes

A lesson in cold-brewed coffee

2009-12-27T21:35:00.003-06:00

Thanks to the magic of the internet, I've discovered a new method of brewing coffee that works for my budget, my space and my price point.

The answer? Cold-brewed coffee.

In the great tradition of sun-tea, cold-brewed coffee is brewed in the refrigerator for much longer than coffee would normally take to brew (12-24 hours, 24 being ideal).

What you'll need is the following:

A mason jar with lid
Coffee, ground
Water
Room in the fridge
Strainer big enough to hold coffee grounds

I use a 1/2 gallon mason jar and 1/2 pound of coffee that I get from the local Sun Harvest where the coffee section is never crowded. I grind the coffee in-store the morning I am making the batch and use the most coarse setting I can find.

Add the coffee to the mason jar.

Fill up the jar to the top the morning you go shopping (for me, very early on Sundays when all the weekend meat is on clearance - bonus!)

IMPORTANT: Do NOT shut the lid tight - this coffee will explode all over the inside of the fridge if it isn't allowed to breathe. Ask me how I know. (twice.)

Rest in the fridge until the next morning.

The next day, strain into new container, or just strain back into old container after washing it out, and serve, diluted if desired.

I like mine in a 1:3 ratio of coffee to milk with a little sugar or chocolate syrup. It's also good for a strong shot in a small coffee cup for a pick-me-up.

This coffee is smooth, not acidic at all and most of all strong. The liquid lasts about two weeks though it starts to get a bit sour near the end of week 2. It's a great way to make coffee for guests or for yourself if you're a cuppa-day person like me and a coffee maker takes up valuable real estate.

Chana Masala

2009-10-22T12:06:00.003-05:00

Apna Bazaar may be one of my new favorite places. Located in a shopping center with Asia Market, which by far has the best, most flavorful Chinese restaurant in Austin, this little grocery store packs a lot of punch. The owner gladly helped me with the 50-foot wall of spices to find what I needed to make my first today into Indian food, chana masala. I found everything but forgot the cardamom pods - twice! I'll have to remember next time. The owner's wife also make samosas nightly for sale in the store and runs spice introduction classes from time to time.

Inspired by Orangette's posted recipe, chana masala is a spicy chickpea dish with tomatoes and onions. The chickpeas in this recipe were canned, but fresh would probably yield even better results. After tasting it fresh out of the pan without yogurt last night, my lips were burning for a good five minutes (okay, so I doubled the cayenne...) but the yogurt made the flavors much milder and the interesting mix of spices shone though. I made it last night and had it reheated today (as was recommended) and it was really good!

This dish came together quickly, and I was impressed with how much of a flavor punch was delivered for little effort. If my mother made Indian food when we were growing up, this would be a staple in her kitchen. It's like a big warm hug.

Food Librarian Strikes Again: Bundt Inspiration

2009-10-22T12:01:00.003-05:00

Thank you, Food Librarian for inspiring me to use one of my precious cans of pumpkin to make the pumpkin spiced apple bundt on Day 3 of the I Like Big Bundts challenge. With a name like that, how can you resist?

The bundt took about an hour and thirty minutes to cook for me - even with a thermometer in the oven.

From one pseudo-librarian to another real one, have fun the rest of the month!

One cake to rule them all... wait, wrong movie.

2009-09-20T09:49:00.006-05:00

This last weekend was a good friend's birthday. For a surprise, his lovely wife wanted to make him a cake that he had suggested during his party last year. Every year she tries to top his cake from the year before, and this one was certainly a doozy.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with the Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Cake.

This beauty took a 9x13" homemade carrot cake, five hours, a tub of black food coloring, a skilled marzipan sculptor (not me!), black food air brush paint and pearl dust.

The end result was a relatively gruesome-looking carrot cake with pewter cream cheese frosting. The birthday boy was very pleased!

Check out the detail on those hands.

Next year's cake will have to involve pyrotechnics or something equally crazy to top this one.

The winner!

2009-08-27T10:49:00.003-05:00

I thought the best entity to decide the winner of the Method contest would be one of the most calm, loving, and ultimately driven beings I know:

Okay, maybe she's not so calm.

And as for the method of selecting the winner?

Step 1: Number cards.

Step 2: Place treats on cards.

Step 3: Insert cat.

The winner is.... #2! TZel, Congratulations!

GIVEAWAY: Method products - for a clean and happy kitchen

2009-08-19T08:35:00.006-05:00

Last week, method sent me a lovely package. I'm a huge fan of method cleaning products for a number of reasons:

-the products smell good
-the products work (very important)
-they don't irritate sensitive skin
-contains mostly natural ingredients.

I went through the apartment and scrounged around to see what I had on stock of method. Here's what I found:

Window spray (also great for cleaning glasses!)
omop - reusable floor pads
soy candles, which last much longer than regular (unfortunately most of them are at Big Lots since they are being clearanced).
All-purpose cleaner (a must in my kitchen!)
Hand soap & hand soap refill--it's that good.

Those are my must-halves. I really enjoy the line of products and was more than excited to receive a package of four of these:

with samples of their wood spray, hand wash, dishwashing soap and all purpose cleaner, in a neat little box with a coupon to boot! Love!

It's only natural to give away one of these boxes to one of my readers, so if you'd like to win please respond by next Wednesday (August 26) by posting in the comments your favorite thing to bake!

Bread in Minutes

2009-08-08T12:53:00.001-05:00

One of our wedding presents was a book from our Amazon registry, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Considering that Austin has had a record number of days - both consecutively and total - above 100 degrees, making bread isn't one of those things that I planned on doing immediately. However, that and an extra KitchenAid Mixing Bowl and the prospect of fresh bread every day with minimal effort means the kitchen has been hot and the bread very fresh the past few weeks.

While our new kitchen is bigger, it's still an apartment kitchen. This means the oven runs very hot, the appliances break with some regularity (this week: the garbage disposal), and I don't really have room to store things like a baking stone
or a full pizza peell

So I improvise: Since Mr. O and I are just a couple, I make smaller loaves and raise them on this bread board.. And instead of a baking stone, I use another one of our wonderful presents: a giant Le Creuset cast iron skillet. It crisps the bottom of the bread very well and serves the same basic purpose of aerating the loaf. Just remember to preheat it like a baking stone and you're golden (no pun intended.)

However, for this post I made the sandwich bread (which is done in loaf form). It took about three hours to rise because it's humid as all get-out and also I added some whole wheat flour to the basic dough recipe. It's all over the internet right now, but I would definitely recommend high-tailing it to your local library or bookstore and snagging a copy.

I learned with the help of this book that slashing a loaf doesn't require a razor (reference: my horrid Daring Bakers trial) but instead it is possible to sub a wet serrated knife. It's like buttah.

Finally, the book recommends storing the cut-side of most of the breads on the cutting surface for primo storage. Has anyone tried this? It looks a bit silly with a loaf.

Review: House Pizzeria

2009-08-07T16:24:00.003-05:00

I'm starting this post with an admission: This review is going to be biased. very biased.

Mr. O and I celebrated a very special day here. We are lucky enough to have friends that are more than cool with us having our wedding (!) shower at one of the best and newest pizza/pubs in Austin, House Pizzeria.

cupcakes: peanut butter, chocolate and vanilla (not provided by House Pizzeria)

On to the food:

Meatballs! (mmm.)

Rosemary, goat cheese and potato pizza (my favorite!)

Eggplant tapenade (awesome)

Seriously, this place kicks ass. And I'm not just saying that because I love everyone there. The pizza is excellent and the beer is plentiful.

I probably shouldn't have used "kicks ass" and "wedding shower" in the same post, but it's that good.

Go visit if you haven't!

Heat

2009-07-17T07:29:00.001-05:00

It's too hot to cook.

whole wheat focaccia

2009-05-18T21:56:00.002-05:00

Yet another recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. This focaccia bread uses an egg, which is a little different than most of the focaccia recipes I saw on the internet before just going to Mr. Doughboy.

I added about two cups of whole wheat flour and a little white. What I've noticed about whole wheat is it takes a hell of a lot longer to rise, but it's good in the end. Just give yourself a good amount of time (um, 2-3 hours/rise) to achieve palatable results. Earlier this month I tried to make dinner rolls, and allotted the same amount of time for them as I had white rolls. We had dinner pucks.

Tasty stuff!

Strawberry cake

2009-05-18T21:47:00.003-05:00

Well, dear reader, I am back - albeit temporarily. Life has decided to get pretty crazy.

On the upside, I'm now a certified librarian! Now if only I could find a job. Ha. ...not kidding there. Anyone need a baker for hire?

At any rate, I got to host a lovely party for some friends earlier this week and happened upon a veritable truck of strawberries at Costco. Out of that came a salad with strawberries, almonds and basalmic vinegar and this lovely strawberry cake.

I can't say enough good things about the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. It's got some awesome recipes for baking that never fail. Thanks, mom!

At any rate, I used the yellow cake recipe from this book and made a simple cream cheese icing:
1 block cream cheese, cold
1 stick butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups strawberries
powdered sugar to taste

Beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the strawberries and then add powdered sugar until it reaches a good consistency. I should have added more but was reluctant to kill the taste of the cream cheese. The cake melted in the warm weather of the evening, but it was awesome.

Forgive the questionable pictures - it was late at night and the host may have had a few drinks by the time the party was jumping enough to cut the cake.

Hot recipe of the week: Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Lemon and Milk

2009-03-30T19:54:00.004-05:00

I'm coming out from the corridors of the library archives to say hello. I'm sorry I've been gone. One month out from finishing my final reports has left lunettes a very tired, boring cook. I can't write about pasta and meatballs every week for a month, and lentil soup never ever looks pretty when I make it.

On the other hand, something piqued my interest this week. Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn had a recipe linked for Jamie Oliver's Chicken with Lemon and Milk. I decided to pick up a chicken yesterday and give it a try.

I had to substitute limes for lemons and some dried herbs for fresh, but it was a really nice chicken. It's kind of hard to futz this up.

I had some trouble turning the chicken as it had a tendency to stick to the pan while browning, so be warned some of the skin will go during the process. Thankfully my enameled cast iron cleans up really pretty with a good soak.

I made sure to leave the pot lid on for an hour and then basted and uncovered the chicken for the last thirty minutes. The result was a moist, tender chicken with a great sauce.

I couldn't really taste the cinnamon in the dish. I did take Apartment Therapy's recommendations and used the pan drippings for potatoes.... butter and chicken fat can never go wrong. It was good.

All in all, I'd make the dish again. The curdled milk isn't as gross as it seems - the 'cheese' gets a really nice, butty flavor and the sauce goes very well with the chicken, which is moist as all get-out to begin with.

Crab legs

2009-03-30T19:52:00.000-05:00

So I decided to pick up a few crab legs last night while shopping at my local H.E.B.

This further proved that I really shouldn't try to cook fish at home - the smell just does me in every time. I had to air out my place until late in the night from the strong smell. If you're in central Texas, you probably shouldn't be buying fish from a grocery store anyway.

It was kind of neatly carnal to attack them with my hammer, though. 'Neat' being a one-time experience that is not likely to be repeated.

Still cleaning shell shards off the floor,

lunettes

Review: Grapples

2009-03-30T19:49:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I bit.

Grapples? They're kind of grayish-red when you get them. This picture makes them look really nice and juicy, but they're more purplish in real life.

They have an aftertaste that is highly reminiscent of grapes, but it's really hard to taste it while you're eating them. I imagine that grape burps would be interesting. My apartment smelled strongly of grape flavor while they were in the fruit basket.

Cost: $4.99/4, in a special case. Free Frisbee with purchase of three packs!

Meditation on mushrooms

2009-02-04T18:14:00.004-06:00

it's like mushroom nirvana.

So my produce box is turning out to be a really fun thing. It's not easy - Mr. O doesn't really like greens but he's tolerating them. In addition, one of the banes of organic, local produce is using that or figuring out how to preserve it before it goes bad.

This week, I got some amazing portabella mushrooms. The sun was setting and I just had to take some pictures while the getting was good and the contractors were not directly on my balcony.

I can't suggest helping your local CSA or organic delivery service (seriously, how cool is Austin?) enough, especially now. While it may be a luxury, I look at it in the long run as much less food on grocery trips and helping out my local farmers who are doing some amazing work now that the winter months are quickly subsiding in central Texas.

I want to play those gills. I wonder what they would sound like?

Quick post.

2009-02-04T18:04:00.002-06:00

De Cecco pasta with fresh tomato sauce with turkey meatballs.

MMMMM.

Plate: Chestnut series by Corelle.

Hoska Bread

2009-02-04T18:00:00.003-06:00

...which is like Challah, but with raisins and almonds.

So I'm helping out with a local shindig that asked to bring something representing my heritage. What better than food? I brought hoska bread, a bread that my mother makes at Christmas time.

Hoska braided egg bread, care of About.com

Is this type of bread always dry, or am I overbaking?

Who knows,
lunettes

p.s. more to come!

Bisquing the night away

2009-01-16T16:25:00.004-06:00

The first order of business once I got back from break was what to do with the pumpkin I bought in December. Pumpkins last a long time, but they take a long time to prepare for cooking purposes.

Eventually, yesterday and today, I got around to making a bisque.

Roasted Pumpkin Bisque with Bacon

Food:
1 3-4 lb pumpkin
1/3 cup half-and-half
1 1/2 tsp Better than Boullion Chicken Base
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 strips bacon
water (depends)

Tools:
2 quart pot
frying pan or baconator of your choice
immersion blender
Spoons for scooping pumpkin pulp
Baking sheet (2)
foil
oven and stovetop

Halve pumpkin and remove seeds. Preheat oven to 350. Scoop out pulp and seeds from pumpkin. Place halves on a foil-lined baking sheet, sprinkle with salt and place in oven for 1 1/2 hours or until fork tender. Remove seeds from pulp and roast with some salt and cinnamon on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes while the pumpkin cooks.

Allow pumpkin to cool, then scoop out flesh. Process flesh with a little water and your handy-dandy immersion blender. Add to pot with enough water to form a thick soup (e.g. thinner than mashed potatoes, thicker than broth). Add 1 1/2 tsp chicken base and stir generously.

Cook bacon while pumpkin reheats. (I think you can figure this out.) Crumble when cooked.

A few minutes before serving, add 1/3 cup half and half and allow to heat gently. Spoon into bowls and top with bacon.

Mmm! Sweet and savory. Serve with buttery rolls.

Hello? Anyone still out there?

2009-01-16T16:19:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much, folks. Now that I'm back from holiday, my apartment homeowner's association got chided by the city for breaking code on many fronts. What does this mean for you? My balcony currently has no railing on which to post pictures. That makes it difficult to photograph, and as you well know photographing after dark or inside never produces pictures that are as good out of camera. This means a lot of pooh-poohing images that are pretty but have terrible lighting.

My lovely family got me a brand spanking new camera for Christmas, and I am very excited about using it in the new year. Thank you! Now to sit down and figure out how to work my first DSLR.

In the meantime...

I've signed up for a local produce box and am very excited about the possibilities. I should get a new box this upcoming Wednesday, so we'll see what comes along!

Last produce box, I got some collard greens but it was too late at night to photograph once they were done Look at the color!

If I can sneak outside once in a while past the contractors to photograph, I'll do my best. In the meantime, please keep watching!

The bane of my existance, candied orange peels

2008-12-17T16:27:00.003-06:00

I have a newfound respect for people who regularly candy orange peels.

I love candied orange peels almost more than I love Mr. O. Seriously.

However, after hours and hours of labor to make homemade candied orange peels, I might just be buying them from the market from now on.

I added corn syrup because many recipes complain of stirring orange peels and crystallization process - this eliminates that problem and allows for stirring.

Even with all the labor.... they are so good.

Candied orange peels

makes a lot
6 oranges
5 cups sugar, plus extra for rolling
one cup water
1/2 cup corn syrup

Cut the oranges in half and juice them.

Remove the pulp from the oranges, leaving the rind and pith. Slice orange rinds into 1/4" thick slices. I would recommend a santoku because the skin tends to fight back and usually gets scored instead of cut.

Boil orange peels three times in boiling water for 30 minutes each time. (This removes the bitterness, from what they say.)

Drain peels one final time. In pot, combine 5c sugar, 1/2 c corn syrup and 1c water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. When mixture starts boiling, add orange peels. Allow to cook until pith is transluscent (most recipes say 30 minutes - for me and my big oranges, it was more like an hour and a half).

Remove peels from sugar syrup. Roll in sugar and allow to air dry on parchment for 4-5 hours.

Peppermint bark

2008-12-17T16:20:00.003-06:00

I was lazy and so this peppermint bark didn't come out as pretty as it could have, but it was tasty anyway.

It really, really helps this recipe if you have room in your fridge for the baking sheet or, conversely, a really cold balcony where you can set the baking sheets for 30 minutes.

Peppermint bark

12 oz semi-sweet chocolate
12 oz milk chocolate
peppermint candies

rolling pin
silpat
oven

Unwrap peppermint candies and place in a plastic bag that can be zipped. Find a hard surface and beat the everloving hell out of the peppermint candies with the rolling pin so that they make nice small shards of pepperminty goodness. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Arrange semisweet chocolate on the silpat in the center of the mat. Carefully place in oven and watch it melt (but don't let it burn).

Mixture is ready when a spatula easily spreads the melted chips.

Take the pan out of the oven and spread the chocolate to the edges of the mat as evenly as possible. Set in fridge (or outside) to cool.

Meanwhile, place white chocolate in a double boiler and melt the chips. When the semisweet chocolate is cooled, spread white chocolate mixture over the top of the semisweet chocolate. Get those peppermint shards ready and sprinkle away, carefully pressing into the mixture. Cool again.

Break into pieces and serve. Makes a lot.

Honeycomb Toffee

2008-12-17T16:11:00.002-06:00

My school didn't do this experiment when we were growing up. Blame it on the under-compensated, overworked teachers who were afraid to let children near flames and hot sugar.

However, it sure is fun now. I can't recommend highly enough sifting your baking soda and stirring QUICKLY before sloshing the mixture onto a Silpat (or parchment paper might work, I suppose).

Also, be ready to clean your pan for the fifteen minutes that it takes this candy to harden. I think that they should use this stuff to adhere concrete blocks together!

Honeycomb candy always comes out tasting a little burnt instead of caramel-like. Any one else have this problem?

Honeycomb candy
Makes enough for four gift baskets

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tb corn syrup
1 tb baking soda

Combine first three ingredients in pan until mixture turns lightly golden yellow. Quickly stir in baking soda and marvel as the mixture frothes. It might be a good time to make sure your pan fits 3x the mixture comfortably before you do this step. Pour mixture quickly onto a prepared baking sheet with silpat or other non-sticky underside. Toffee will cool in about fifteen minutes. Break apart and enjoy!

I'm back!

2008-12-17T16:08:00.004-06:00

Sorry for that giant, gaping hole of a break, ya'll. School caught up with me. On the other hand, now that school is done, I have some free time with which to photograph and more importantly, to make holiday baskets for friends and loved ones.

I think this may be Mr. O's favorite time of the year because of the amount of sugar that enters and exits my kitchen.

Now, on to candy recipes... some old, some new, some good, some definitely test runs.

Light(er) desserts: Peach Crisp

2008-09-23T14:52:00.002-05:00

As much as I would love to make pie-crust or otherwise butter-based fruit cobbler every day, I find that if I make desserts that are made out of better ingredients I can

a) eat more of them and
b) not feel so bad about making them very often.

Enter Peach or Apple or Blueberry or (insert fruit here) Crisp.

Fruit Crisp

2-3 lbs fruit, cut into bite-size pieces
1 c oatmeal
1/4 to 1/3 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 stick butter

Place fruit in a 8x8" pan. Mix oatmeal, brown sugar and cinnamon together. Either melt butter or, if you're lazy like me, slice butter thin and throw it on top. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until fruit is soft (my peaches were rock-hard.)

....and top with Cool-Whip.

Yes, I said it. I'm sorry. At least one person reading this blog has just turned their head away from this post in complete disgust. Cool Whip was an integral part of my childhood and even while watching a very disturbing movie about corn I can't help but notice the Cool Whip was delish.

Lots of love (and lots of dessert, even for breakfast),
lunettes

Vanilla Fig Jam

2008-09-23T14:39:00.005-05:00

Vanilla Fig Jam

Mr. O and I headed to Costco the other day to stock up on things like bulk meat, 12 pounds of baking soda (um?) and of course, dried cherries. I made the mistake of heading into the produce section; first because it was freezing, and second because I found a two-pound carton of fresh figs for $6.98 where other figs were $8 for a pound at the local grocery store. I jumped on the opportunity to try fresh figs (as my previous encounters had been ten years ago in the 'Newton' form. Figs and goat cheese are good, but figs go soft quickly. Enter fig jam! I had no pectin so I had to improvise and go old-school.

Vanilla Fig Jam

a scant less than 2 lbs figs, almost too ripe
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c water
2 vanilla beans, seeds removed and scraped into pan
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Cut figs into 1 cm-size pieces. Add to rest of ingredients and simmer/keep on low heat for two hours or until jam-like consistency. Try not to eat the entire spoon when you put it in your mouth. Freeze in small containers and use throughout winter.

50th post - Potato Mash

2008-09-03T17:20:00.003-05:00

Happy 50th post! That's a lot of food.

Today, I present to you one of my favorite foods in the world: mashed potatoes.

This particular variant features caramelized onions, sour cream and lots of love. My secret? The Black and Decker ~~drill~~ hand mixer.

Now, off to start a new semester.

Mint Julep cupcakes (with white chocolate frosting and no less than two kinds of alcohol)

2008-09-03T17:09:00.006-05:00

A few months back, a graduate school cohort of mine had to move away. (She was going to work for the Library of Congress - boo hoo on having to move, right?)

Thankfully, most librarians seem to also be foodies. Or at least, they really love to cook.

I got a lot of alcohol that I wouldn't normally drink (along with some ingredients like pomegranate molasses that I still haven't figured out what to make of.)

Another good friend of mine moved away to California a short while ago and, since she seriously shares my passion for cooking, I ended up with a fridge full of condiments which have gone to good use.

But then, I started thinking. I have all this alcohol from the last person. What am I going to do when someone else moves? I'm like a veritable shelter for unwanted condiments whose owners were moving away. Sniff! But at this rate, I will be up to my eyeballs in awesome stuff before I can make anything out of it.

The large bottle of creme de menthe patiently sat in the back of my (1 foot square) liquor cabinet. It stared. "Drink me. You'll love it." But I had a strong feeling that creme de menthe has to be taken in doses.

Mint julep cupcakes to the rescue!

I added a lot of alcohol to these twelve cupcakes. And then, since the alcohol was taken out by baking, I doused them in some Jack Daniels I've been steeping with vanilla beans.

And I added some green food coloring, because the creme de menthe left them a wussy pastel green.

Well, they sure were potent.

As you all may have noticed, I take my pictures outside. My balcony afforded a particularly pleasant and green day, so I thought the cupcakes could use a more natural green than the food coloring inundated in their beings.

Cupcake recipe here, from Cooking and Booking. Frosting recipe here. Also add about 1/2 to 1 tb Jack Daniels after cooled and before frosting.

Apartment Therapy Contest!

2008-08-15T14:29:00.003-05:00

Hello all -

I have entered into the kitchn's Best Lick 2008 Ice Cream Contest! Please go vote for my entry here.

I'll bake you something good if you vote, promise.

Coconut Lavender Mambo!

2008-08-02T12:26:00.004-05:00

I love potlucks.

I also love bringing food to potlucks.

These are my favorite potluck food because they're different, but as long as people love coconut they end up loving them. Actually, my absolute favorite might be funeral potatoes but I can't bring myself to blog about those.

Something's really wrong with me, and I think these cupcakes smell like bacon until you frost them. They get this really nice crunchy top on the cupcake and it makes me happy like some people are made happy by crushing leaves under their feet.

Most of all, I love potlucks because I get to use one of my favorite things in the world - my Cupcake Courier - Lemongrass that was received as a wonderful birthday gift by a fellow cupcake enthusiast and good friend.

Recipe for coconut lavender cupcakes from Never Bashful with Butter, to whom I am totally and utterly indebted because this recipe is in the lifetime recipe book.

Road Trip: Fredericksburg Bakery, Fredericksburg, TX (otherwise entitled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Lose my Packing)

2008-08-02T12:15:00.004-05:00

Sorry I've been absent this summer, folks. First I got a job, and then I experienced a lot of discomfort and eventually got my wisdom teeth out last week. Unless you really want lunettes' smashing recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie or possibly Packaged Pudding, you've been out of luck.

One of the neat things about my job this summer is I have the opportunity to road trip across Texas. This means that I get to eat at a lot of neat places, and I happened to bring my camera along on the last one (but not the macro lens, damnit!)

An early-morning pit stop led us to the Fredericksburg Bakery on Main Street in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Now, this is where the wisdom teeth come in. After eating nothing but smoothies for a few days, I still managed to have some complications where I needed packing placed in my teeth. I lost the packing while devouring the first solid food I'd really had in about five days.

It was so worth it.

The Fredericksburg Bakery contains a huge display case full of all sorts of German-themed and otherwise sugary baked goods. I got the cream cheese cinnamon roll, which had raisins and pecans (again, stupid choice) packed in. It was incredible, maybe even life-altering--but that may be the Vicodin talking.

Also available is an assortment of fudge and Blue-Bell Ice Cream.

Cash or check only, but even my face-sized cinnamon roll was only $3.

Fredericksburg is really a foodie masochist's paradise. You could easily gain ten pounds over one weekend, and it's on my 'to do' list of Texas stops along with a trip here.

Flavor Two: Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes - The Box Mix Experiment

2008-08-02T12:13:00.001-05:00

You see how the frosting's kind of flipping you off?

That's how this cupcake tastes.

Blech.

Boxcakes, part 1

2008-07-09T22:13:00.004-05:00

My sister lovingly spends her time trying to get me to post her pictures on my blog. She's a dear.

She sent a boxed cupcake mix she got from World Market from Cobblestone Kitchen. The three-pack of cupcakes promises 12 cupcakes each of lemon poppyseed, strawberry and chocolate caramel, each with frosting! It's almost too good to be true.

In interest of my ever-growing love of poppyseeds and my desire to find them somewhere locally, I decided to make the lemon poppyseed for work today. My coworkers loved them, but I had some problems.

1) 3/4 cup of what basically amounts to powdered sugar is not enough to frost twelve cupcakes.
2) There was not enough lemon. On a business trip a few days ago, I had the MOST LEMONY muffins ever and they ruined me for the week.
3) When the frosting did come together after I added an additional cup of sugar to the 4 tbsp shortening, the resulting picture did not look like this:

It instead looked slightly like spackle.

They were still pretty tasty, though. Just not homemade. Coworkers described the frosting as 'crunchy' and very sweet. I've yet to figure out why these need frosting in the first place, but the strawberry and chocolate should do better in that arena.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Mr. O and I were at the grocer the other day and he found these darling wrappers! How could I resist?

I need to get out more, huh?

Sticky situations

2008-06-29T17:10:00.005-05:00

I am so, so bad.

I started this blog in response to graduate school. My hobby list that first month included things like 'reading eight hundred pages on library collecting policies' and 'staring at my computer in hopes it would generate a 10,000 word paper'. I didn't have any social life, and this blog was a way for me to keep up with people I know and to show them that I'm still alive.

Well, summer happened. With summer comes a full-time job. That means I have time to see old friends, watch movies and other various and sundry things that one can do when the work week is only forty hours long.

And I neglected you, dear reader. I am sorry.

Here's my attempt at coming back. For a certain social occasion tonight, I threw in some thick, dark blackstrap molasses from McCutcheon's and prayed that my oft-neglected powdered ginger still had some kick, adding a bit more than the recipe called for.

These are spicy-good. When they come out of the oven, they are very soft but they harden up quickly once on the drying rack.

Mmm, spice.

"Blue Eyes" Blue Ribbon Gingersnaps
Marjorie Johnson's recipe, from Picky Palate

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup sugar (for dipping)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cream shortening, brown sugar, molasses and egg in large bowl. In a separate bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, blending until mixed. Dough can be chilled for easy handling.

3. Shape the dough into balls the size of whole walnuts. Roll balls in sugar, place on baking sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes at 375 degrees. Cool on sheet one minute before transferring to rack.

Makes 3-4 dozen.

Thanks, Picky Palate!

Triple chocolate pudding

2008-05-22T17:19:00.005-05:00

There isn't too much of a good thing, right?

My first recipe book is almost always Google. However, with the recent influx in grocery prices and as a Victim of a Natural Disaster (tm), I was trying to make do with what I had in the fridge instead of going out and buying more. Let's just say I have come upon a chocolate inheritance of sorts. About four bags' worth of eating chocolate.

The first time I made this recipe, I used 2% milk, half a bag of Hershey's Kisses (Mr. O hates dark chocolate - the nerve!) and maybe a scant less than 1/4 cup cornstarch (for all the baking I do, I'm still not exact sometimes). It turned out like a very strong chocolate milk. I don't think I waited long enough. Actually, I waited a really long time for it to set but it just didn't. I swear, I stirred and stirred to no avail.

The second time I made it, I used a heaping 1/4 cup of cornstarch, 2% milk, 1/8 cup cocoa, 1/2 package Dove Dark chocolate pieces and 1/2 package Hershey's Kisses. No sugar needed in this recipe - the processed chocolate takes care of that.

The result was thick, luxurious and quite possibly deadly. Those humidity drops are the result of cold pudding meets humid Southern air. Also happens on iced tea glasses (which is why double-barreled glasses are a gift from God).

Silky Chocolate Pudding
Adapted from smitten kitchen who adapted hers from John Scharffenberger, via Wednesday Chef
(I know, this is getting a bit ridiculous)

Serves 6

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
5 oz Hershey's kisses, unwrapped
5 oz Dove dark chocolate, unwrapped
1/8 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the cornstarch, cocoa, sugar and salt in the top of a double boiler. (note: I love substituting this bowl over a medium saucepan. Thanks, mom!) Slowly whisk in the milk, scraping the bottom and sides with a heatproof spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients. Place over gently simmering water and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary should lumps begin to form. After 15 to 20 minutes, when the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of the spoon, add the chocolate. Continue stirring for about 2 to 4 minutes, or until the pudding is smooth and thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

2. Place into a serving bowl or into a large measuring cup with a spout and pour into individual serving dishes. Lick the ladle. Lick the bowl. Note it's 9:00 in the morning. Feel moderately sick, but slightly giddy from the sugar high.

3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.

A Snag in Plans

2008-05-18T16:43:00.002-05:00

Hello, dear reader.

I have hit a bit of a snag.

I was caught in the middle of a small natural disaster which left me without electricity for three days.

All my food was pretty much ruined, save for the kindness of a few friends who housed the contents of my fridge for the last four days. My freezer was a huge disaster by the end.

I'm going to spend the next few weeks getting my stock in order again, but until then it's definitely going to be slim pickings on this blog.

And, in case you're wondering, renters' insurance does not cover food loss.

Lemon Meringue Puffs

2008-05-14T22:42:00.003-05:00

Those Meyer lemons, they've been sitting in my fridge for weeks.

I've been starting at them with trepidation. "Tell me!", I bellowed at their delicate pores. "Give me a sign!"

Well, I got invited to a dinner party and just happened to half the other half of that puff pastry dough from what - oh, goodness, over two months ago. This is where I realize that my freezer hides many dark secrets, for me to find upon moving out of my digs.

Lest the Meyer lemons go dead on me, I mixed them with a couple of regular lemons to make norecipe's Meyer Lemon Curd. I could eat it with a spoon for breakfast. It was my first time making lemon curd and oh my goodness, it was good! I thought it wasn't going to come together but then it finally did. (Sticking the candy thermometer in the pan was enough to bring it up to 170 and quell my fears that it would never thicken). If only eating a stick of butter wasn't so bad for you, I'm certain this would replace my cereal in the morning.

p.s. Lemon curd starts to melt when it is hot and humid where you are photographing. It does not make a difference in the final taste, however.

Lemon Meringue Puff Pastry Bites

Serves 6

1 sheet puff pastry dough
1 recipe Meyer lemon curd
2 egg whites
Cream of tartar
2 tb sugar

Muffin pan
Mixer
Rolling pin
Blowtorch

Let puff pastry dough thaw. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out to about 10" x 18". Cut into twelve pieces and shape into muffin tins (lightly greased). Bake at 400 for twelve minutes or until golden brown.

Once the puffs come out of the oven, make a hole in the center of the puffs by using the back of a spoon to create a cave for your lemon curd. Let the puffs cool completely.

Meanwhile, make meringues: egg whites at room temperature, add about 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and have a go at it with the mixer. When peaks form, add sugar slowly.

When the puffs have cooled, add lemon curd to center. Pipe meringue on top and blowtorch it until well-done.

Refrigerate until serving.

Attack of the Mutant Frosting

2008-05-06T17:26:00.004-05:00

Ah, the end of the semester!

This sort of glorious accomplishment calls for something special, like Ina Garten's carrot cake cupcakes. Instead of, you know, eating my carrots this week, I decided to turn them into something sweet to celebrate the end of another busy semester.

I subbed about 75 percent of the oil for unsweetened applesauce to no ill effects. In addition, I always add more cinnamon that she calls for - you can't tell there's a ton in the end due to all the strong flavors imparted by the baked carrot.

Now, when it came to the frosting, holy smokes. After I beat my first mixer to death early in this blog, I acquired a small powerhouse of a hand mixer. When they say it's a Black and Decker, you should expect it to behave like a Black and Decker might. It beats the everloving snot out of everything (at 250 watts plus a power boost for those finicky candies, it should!) and definitely can cut through some not-quite-room-temperature cream cheese.

In fact, the frosting beat its way up the beaters like some kind of possessed sugar tornado. I had to add some liquid to coax the bulbous mess off the top of the beaters and back into the bowl. Alas, I ran out of powdered sugar and my frosting came out less than stiff in the end, but the consumers of the cupcakes didn't mind much.

Recipe, from Ina Garten and the Food Network website, here.

Presto, Pasta

2008-04-23T17:45:00.003-05:00

After a long week of writing papers, sometimes settling down to a bowl of pasta just feels so right.

I had an entire day set aside for roasting garlic with my new toy earlier this year, so I've been enjoying the fruits of my labors (and the lack of garlic smell permeating every pore of my kitchen) ever since. The Roasted Garlic Express actually works really well for those of us who live alone and don't turn on the oven very often (both for heat and economical reasons). The resulting roasted garlic was frozen into cubes and comes in way handy for instances like this.

Pasta with prosciutto, roasted garlic and (long-awaited) asparagus. Top with cheese and enjoy! Y'all can figure out how to do that, right? :)

Review: That Popcorn Place

2008-04-23T17:29:00.004-05:00

Mr. O's roommate stumbled upon a gift certificate which he deemed 'a chore' instead of 'fun opportunity', so I had the chance to check out a place I've been meaning to try for a while (but, you know, it requires walking and stuff).

That Popcorn Place, specifically the location on 1914 Guadalupe in Austin, hosts a veritable barrage of popcorn flavors.

Popcorn laying in the greenery at the University of Texas campus... yes, people were staring. All in the name of food bloggery!

That Popcorn Place is a family-run business that's trying to make it on the cutthroat food industry strip known as the 'Drag' to locals. When I was there, they had a ton of orders, so it looks like they're doing all right!

I had a lot of trouble determining what flavors to try, but I tested them out on my class and the favorite by far was the following:

Yes, I know. Dill Pickle? It's their best-seller. Salt and vinegar and dill (all natural flavorings) come together to make a very memorable popcorn flavor.

Other flavors I got included Funfetti (fruit flavors and vanilla, the vanilla being pretty addictive as well), Kettle Corn (unmemorable after all the other awesomely strong flavors!), and toffee (a very sweet candied popcorn reminiscent of sweet, sweet toffee flavor).

My favorite, on the other hand, was their new sopapilla. Look at the cinnamon!

A sickeningly addictive blend of honey and cinnamon flavors, the bag is almost gone. And my stomach hurts, but in a good way. I give this one about seven stars out of five.

$1.50 for a generous 'snack' bag, delivery available. Also comes in chocolate-covered flavors, though on the day I went it was a bit too hot to fathom them lasting more than a few minutes in the sun.

Macaroons go Meyer

2008-04-20T18:09:00.003-05:00

I like seeing if I can use up all parts of an ingredient at once when I am cooking. If I leave something in the fridge these days, it will probably ruin before I get a chance to make something out of it.

I had an inkling to use up that lovely Meyer lemon from the last post, and searched the ever-awesome Tastespotting for 'Meyer lemon'. The macaroon recipe I found looked really good! I had part of a vanilla bean left after making my other recipe, and so used it as well. I love the specks of bean in the final product! They came out gorgeous and crunchy and sweet but stuck to the silpat something awful.

I got this recipe from alpineberry. Also, I am debuting my new cake plate which was available at Kohls dot com but is no longer available... seeing as it arrived in about thirty pieces the first time, I understand why it was discontinued. It was supposed to be here for Easter... but it's here now, so all is good.

Meyer Lemon Coconut Macaroons
adapted from alpineberry who adapted hers from Gourmet Magazine

2 large egg whites
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated Meyer lemon zest
2 tb fresh Meyer lemon juice
1/2 vanilla bean
pinch of salt
1 3/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone sheet.

Stir egg whites, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla beans (scraped from inside pod) and salt to combine.

Add the coconut to egg mixture and mix well.

Scoop out 15 mounded tablespoons onto baking sheet, spacing them about 1.5 inches apart.

Bake at 325F for 16-18 minutes until the tops are light golden brown in spots.

Allow to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes.

Signs of Summer

2008-04-20T17:50:00.003-05:00

I went to the grocery store this week and was delighted to see some very important signs of summer. As always in April, the graduate student goes into hiding in order to complete projects and generally gawk at added expenses (three reams of paper? Two spools of cd-rws?) throughout the semester. As the end of the month approaches, however, the mammal comes out of hibernation to witness the arrival of sunshine and natural vitamin D intake. The grocery stores here bear such gifts as strawberries, citrus fruits, and the first inklings of a long watermelon season begin.

The advent of personal-sized everything leads to a personal-sized watermelon craze. They cost the same as a regular watermelon, but are (substantially) smaller than the fifteen to twenty pound mammoths that can land around these parts.

In addition, I managed to procure some Meyer lemons that the grocer was keeping in the back. There was one on the shelf (one?!) but they had an entire carton ripe for the picking in the storage area. I tried one and was pleasantly surprised at their sweetness, but honestly I was expecting something much more sweet in the end. They are sweet enough that they can be eaten as-is with no pucker, but still have that lemon punch.

I'm looking forwards to many months of watermelons. I'm only sad that they're not as readily available in the city as they are in the country--on the back end of a pickup, on the side of the road among the wildflowers.

Sundae (Sunday) Pleasure

2008-04-13T18:56:00.003-05:00

I have a theory that certain graduate school seminars are kind of like drinking games: the more you mention certain subjects, the better your score is (and the more confused you are in the end). Certain words might include "provenance", "ubiquitous", or the most popular, "I heard that on NPR". NPR is like cocaine for acedemia: anybody who's anybody does it.

I found myself succumbing to NPR's sweet siren song on weekends, when A Prairie Home Companion comes on before Mr. O heads over for our Saturday night date. On the way home on the bus, the afternoon news helps me stay on top of current news so I'm not left out in discussion. Or, sometimes while I'm cleaning on Sunday afternoons, I listen to Selected Shorts. A certain "short" struck a chord with me last weekend and left me stunned and shocked. A reading of Alice McDermott's "Enough" by Kathleen Chalfont hit a deep nerve. Catch it while you can, because I'm not sure how long the podcast will be up.

Enough is about a women with a voracious and detailed appetite for pleasure. Her early love of ice cream transcends to various experiences in life, only to return late when she can no longer experience those things which made her happy in-between. It got me to thinking about how we often deprive ourselves of things in life in order to make our lives "better".

But how much better can a restrained life be? I mean, moderation is key in everything. However, when is the line between moderation and restriction drawn? When does it go from indulging in an occasional dessert to not having dessert at all? From needing to lose a little weight to a complete disregard for what's healthy? How does this make life better? When a person makes a decision to stop doing something 'in order to make my life better', they sacrifice something that they once loved.

When I was in my early teenage years, I was short, chunky and lined with more correctional metal than you can shake a stick at. I have distinct memories of harsh lighting in department stores and an inability to find any jeans that fit. For about twenty minutes in high school, I was thin (because I had grown) and then I went back to a state of chunk. I was uncomfortable in my new body and never knew how to feel. I don't think that many women ever are comfortable in their bodies.

Recently, I lost a fair amount of weight due to illness. My friends tell me that I look really good! and thinner! and all sorts of pleasant things, but all I see is bicycling uphill from now on against a disease that wants to make me tired, sad and generally really crappy. Even though I look like I've made an effort to lose weight, I cannot take the compliments because it is not through my own doing nor is it a sign of health. After many months, my thin hair is growing back in droves, and I see it emerging much like the small buds in my herb garden are embracing the Spring sunlight - new and kind of crinkly, unsure as to where to go just yet.

I want to live to be as old as the protagonist in Enough, and I hope that when I am her age I will be able to eat ice cream with as much pleasure as she does: down to the last fudge ripple.

Tonight, in hope for the future and in acceptance of the present, I made a sundae for myself with homemade ice cream and fresh whipped cream on top. It's a distinct pleasure in a world that is sometimes not so pleasurable at present.

Chicken a la Corn Flakes

2008-04-10T20:36:00.002-05:00

I was stumbling through this month's new issue of Bon Appetit when I saw that Orangette is getting her own column. How exciting!

In the same issue, I noticed that Cat Cora, of Food Network fame, has sold her soul to McCormick and started hocking recipes laden with McCormick (brand) spices and of all things, corn flakes. It's almost "fried!"

Now, "fried" and I don't work together any more. If I tell my body I'm going to eat "fried" anything, I usually get sick for the next week. Sometimes I try to sneak it in in small doses, but these days it seems like things are heading for the worse. Any alternatives for "fried" things are better than no fried at all.

Instead of the usual egg-wash undercoating, I decided to bump up my fat intake for the day (which seems unaffiliated with the "fried" problems my body has decided to leap upon with vigor) and cover the chicken in ranch dressing first. I mean, hell, if we're cooking with Corn Flakes, why not add some other fine processed products as well?

Doused with sesame seeds, the final product wasn't half bad. The corn flakes add a nice crunch (though nothing like fried, thankyouverymuch) and the overall taste was more flavorful than bland. Not fried, but not bad.

Cat Cora herself recommends you add McCormick Brand sage, cayenne, mustard, sesame seeds and paprika to the final fixings. And maybe some Ouzo to finish.

Soup du jour

2008-04-10T20:27:00.005-05:00

Okay, I admit it. The blog post I did over waffles with creamed mushrooms? I mainly ate the waffles. So I had a lot of creamed mushrooms left over.

Thankfully, the recipe from that turns into an excellent soup when added to milk and some chicken base.

I really just used this as a vehicle for croutons and gruyere. I subsided on gruyere when I spent time in Lyon. They had some interesting dishes, the gastronomic capital of France. Fish quenelles, fish in puff pastry, come to mind--though they were one of the tastier things I sampled while I was there. I developed a strong distaste for beaujolais nouveau and a near fear of sausage at the same time, but oh, the cheeses. Fried chevre on salads, huge chunks of gruyere on midday sandwiches, brie (2 euro for a half pound!) with bread on the run. Raw milk wins my heart over.

Oh, I was talking about soup?

Use the creamed mushrooms recipe and add 2-4 cups milk along with some chicken bullion. Add salt to taste, top with croutons and cheese if you like. Quick and easy!

Also, don't eat the decorative thyme on accident like I did.

Fluffy Clouds of Mallow

2008-04-03T16:46:00.008-05:00

As I was scouring Tastespotting last night in a vain attempt to put off doing actual work, slashfood reminded me that I had been planning to make marshmallows for some time.

Brownie Points has my favorite recipe, mostly because her PDF has half-recipe recommendations written right in. Last night was a half-recipe night.

When you make marshmallows, my one recommendation is to liberally coat every surface that will even think about touching mallow in powdered sugar. As you are cutting mallows, throw them in with even more powdered sugar. This will ensure that you do not end up with mallow hands, unless that's what you're into.

Today as I was chopping mallow blocks in squares, I thought it would be fun to make some covered in chocolate. I successfully nuked a white chocolate bunny turned purple from the Easter holidays and began to microwave some dark chocolate. I became so enamored with the resulting purple blocks that I kind of forgot about the microwaved dark chocolate, and now it smells like burning in lunette's residence. No dark chocolate mallows are to be had.

You know what smells like burning in a good way? My lovely sister obtained for me the following gift upon the Christmas holidays:

Yeah, baby.

I love fire. I'm definitely a closet pyromaniac. Homemade toasted mallows are even better than the ones out of a bag. Just keep a strong supply of lighter fluid nearby and you're set with one of these suckers. (I'm not hardcore enough to get an AB-inspired blowtorch from the local hardware store).

What's toasted mallow without chocolate and graham crackers? Well, seeing as I had temporarily killed off my chocolate supply and am not about to traverse the mid-day grocery crowds for the sake of graham crackers, I rummaged around and found some Quaker Multigrain Honey Graham Minis. After torching the bites, they were topped with chocolate syrup. Almost as good as s'mores. No. Who the hell am I kidding? They weren't anything as good. They were okay, though.

Recipe here.

2008-04-02T19:31:00.003-05:00

"Next to fried foods, the South has suffered from oratory."

-Walter Hines Page

Waffle Love

2008-03-30T14:46:00.004-05:00

I mentioned earlier that The Delicious Life had been so kind as to send me a raffled copy of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook. Sarah gave me the task of finding a recipe in the book that I liked and making it for the blog. Here's to one of many, I'm hoping!

The recipe that caught my eye first off was Creamed Mushrooms on Cornmeal Waffles. Waffles? Mushrooms? What's not to like? It was a match made in heaven. The waffles were like all the best parts of a cornmeal muffin, with more of the crusty outside than ever. Yum!

Creamed Mushrooms on Cornmeal Waffles
from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook

Serves four

For the creamed mushrooms:

2 tb unsalted butter
1.5 tb all-purpose flour
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tb extra-virgin olive oil
6 ounces shittake mushrooms, trimmed and roughly chopped (2c)
6 ounces portabello mushrooms, trimmed and roughly chopped (2c)
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme or tarragon
2 tb Madeira or dry sherry (optional)
1 tsp salt
1 c heavy cream

For the waffles:

1 c stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 1/4 cups whole or low-fat buttermilk (preferably whole)
4 tb unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs

Start by preparing the mushrooms. In a 12-inch skillet or saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat until frothy, about one minute. Add the flour, whisking to break down any lumps, and when the flour is well-incorporated, add the onion. Cook the onion until soft and not yet browning, about five minutes. Add the olive oil, mushrooms, thyme, Madeira, and salt and cook until the mushrooms have darkened and released some of their liquid, about three minutes. Add the cream and stir to distribute it throughout the pan. Once the cream begins to simmer gently, cook until it takes on some of the mushrooms' color -- a rich beige hue -- about three minutes. Remove from the heat.

While the mushrooms are cooking, preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Place a rack in the middle.

Sift the dry waffle ingredients together into a bowl. IN a separate bowl, whisk the wet waffle ingredients together. Add them to the dry ingredients and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Ladle the batter onto a hot buttered waffle iron and cook eight minutes, or until the outside is crisp and golden brown. As the waffle comes off the iron, place them in a single layer on the oven rack so they stay warm and crisp.

When creamed mushrooms are cooked and the waffles are ready, ladle the mushrooms over the waffles and serve immediately.

Moving munchies

2008-03-30T14:30:00.003-05:00

Two of my favorite people in the world moved yesterday.

Don't worry. They didn't move away, just a few doors down from where they were before.

However, this meant a moving gala! And when I say 'gala', I mean 'enlisting friends to move things approximately fifty steps'. And also 'moving a cat'. The cat moving is always the most fun.

This was the perfect occasion for me to make something and to keep part of it. I find that the things I make for this blog sometimes go to waste, but I try to make sure they don't. Most of the time, they find a good home. In this case, half a tray of my favorite brownies ever made it to their doorstep.

This was the first time making these brownies with my baby, and they came out fluffy and over the pan. I also added in some of the leftover white chocolate chips from the Malted Mousse Cake recipe down below, because I really don't like white chocolate much at all and figured others might enjoy it better in such a rich brownie.

So, what brownie did I make? This recipe comes out moist and sickeningly rich every time. It's made from cocoa, not chocolate, so the flavor is almost too rich--but not quite. I made mine in a 9x9 pan and they were still very thick, though I used to make them in a pie pan and cut them out in small slices.

AB's Cocoa Brownies recipe can't be beat. It's even good with add-ins: Bailey's, mint extract, pumpkin pie spice. I like mine plain the best.

Sometimes while I'm photographing, I like to pretend I'm floating in a sea of chocolate batter.

Cocoa Brownies with White Chocolate Chips
adapted from Alton Brown, Good Eats

4 large eggs
1 cup sugar, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, sifted
8 ounces melted butter
11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6-8 oz. Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Pam (for Baking) an 8- or 9-inch square pan.
In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a 8-inch square pan worked with non-stick spray and bake for 45 minutes. When it's done (knife test), remove to a rack to cool.

A caketastic disaster

2008-03-30T14:01:00.004-05:00

I don't procrastinate. I just don't.

However, I procrastinated on posting this Daring Bakers challenge because I wasn't happy with the end result of my cake.

I watched many an episode of Good Eats when I had access to cable. I watched as Alton recommended, among other things, a lazy susan and a cake stand in order to ensure a good-looking cake as a result of proper slicing and frosting.

I convinced myself, "It's not worth it to buy those things. I can totally do this on my tiny kitchenette table with no extra plates. I don't need a spatula for frosting!" I was kind of wrong.

I went out on a limb and tried some things that were new. I stretched myself too thin the day I made the cake. I had a guest over and the frosting and the melted chocolate and oh my gosh it was a huge mess, maybe too much for my tiny kitchen to handle.

It wasn't pretty at all, but it tasted good. That's worth something, right?

I swear there are four layers of cake in there. They didn't come out even. But I numbered them for your convenience.

So, my main changes were adding ganache and buttercream to the center layers. The ganache was still a little warm. That should have been the first sign.

So, dark chocolate and orange zest--specifically, blood orange zest and orange extract--were the additions to my version of the cake. It was very fun to watch the cakes come together (and oh, how wonderful they smelled!). The frosting scared me--it really did look like cottage cheese for a long while before it came together. The end result was a really tasty cake, though I will admit it was too rich for a single dweller's kitchen. I was scared not to refrigerate it for fear that it would go bad quickly, and I think that's what did it in at the end.

This was my first four-layer cake, and everyone's got to have some falls before they accomplish something profound, right?

Lots of people have the recipe up. Rosa's Yummy Yums is the first I found.

Thanks for the challenge!

Egg Abhorrence

2008-03-24T19:19:00.007-05:00

I hate eggs.

I really hate eggs.

On holidays, my mother still has to sneak boiled eggs into my grandmother's prized stuffing recipe before I notice. I still pick them out.

The texture is what gets me. The rubbery, gelatinous, sulphuric protein has been a bane of my existence. When I lived with a host family in France, the father one night made a giant plate of scrambled eggs for dinner. I went hungry. (okay, that's an extreme way of putting it. I just ate bread and cheese instead.) Mr. O's mother presented me with a scrambled egg casserole for breakfast within twelve hours of me meeting his family for the first time. Not about to say no, I ate the plate-sized portion handed to me and haven't let him forget since.

But it just wouldn't be Easter without deviled eggs. My sister is the best deviled eggs constructor. I pale in comparison to hers, but mine are still pretty good.

Mr. O kept me company while I colored the eggs.

And then he kept me company the next day while I peeled and deviled them. This part makes me gag a little.

With enough mustard, I'll even eat the yellow part.

Oh, and my family recipe for most things holiday relies heavily on this stuff:

Sorry, can't share the recipe for this one. Perhaps Deviled Eggs: 50 Recipes from Simple to Sassy will help you on your journey to find the perfect devily goodness.

Yeasty Easter Rolls

2008-03-24T19:09:00.005-05:00

My Kitchen Cafe kindly supplied the post and recipe which inspired my Easter Sunday rolls.

I like my rolls a bit undercooked. They remind me of those wonderful, yeasty cafeteria rolls. I remember crowding around the lunch line when the rolls were available, and tearing them apart. They left an amazing smell in the lunchroom whenever they came out of the oven.

The dough came together very quickly and was easy to work with. I shaped them into balls that bounced back with energy.

And oh, did they rise! I found the recipe through Tastespotting and Phemomenon had mentioned they rise in a frantic manner. The perfect rising weather left these babies looking like huge, pillowy clouds sent straight from bread heaven.

Mine didn't come out as golden as others, because of the light undercooking and the fact that I don't generally egg wash my rolls. Hey, it's an egg and I'm a student. I could totally eat that egg later instead of making my rolls look pretty.

Recipe here.

A little less malt and a lot more action

2008-03-24T18:56:00.005-05:00

In all the years I spent in her kitchen, Mom never told me how hard cooking a holiday meal was. I always watched bemusedly as she ran around haphazardly, trying to make sure the rolls were done at the same time as the potatoes.

It all comes back to bite you, huh?

This past Sunday, let's just say I ended up with what my dear sister so kindly referenced as a 'floor ham'.

Anyway, let's focus on the more positive aspects of the meal. I made a rather complicated recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, a Malted Mousse Cake. It involved gelatin and whipping cream and malt. It came out lighter than a cheesecake, and keeps well in the fridge. I was highly disappointed at the lack of malt taste in the final product. I'd recommend doubling, if not tripling it in the final product.

In addition, for those of you who approach the Easter candy aisle with as much trepidation as I, if you go for these, assuming they are festive eggs to put on top of your lovely cake, they are not:

They will look more like candied rabbit poop than robin's eggs. After Jim Bob and his fifteen children stormed the candies in front of me, I grabbed what I thought was the best option. Whoppers, why do you deceive me so? They did not land on the final cake. Instead, sprinkles helped make a colorful Springtime nod.

I subbed the crust ingredients because Texas grocery stores generally don't carry ameretti. Nor hazelnuts. I crushed up some Pecan sandies and pecans instead. Tasty!

Recipe here.

The Lee Bros. have arrived!

2008-03-22T21:59:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to extend a giant THANK YOU to The Delicious Life for the lovely copy of The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners. It is such amazing reading!

And behold, the amazing power of the cookbook cover:

Who the hell else could pull off a vine belt? Not me, I tell you.

And the Lee Bros. have the tenacity to put shucked oysters on their tidewater summer buffet! Maybe it's spring there, too, and they won't be stuck with salmonella.

But seriously, all their recipes come with a story or two. And they're funny, so I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book online or through your local inter-library loan program.

I will most certainly be posting some fixings from this book, and though I'm interested in the boiled peanuts I don't think I can make do with ten pounds of said peanuts in my tiny matchbox apartment. Perhaps one day, right.

Thanks again, Delicious!

The Great Elgin Sausage Debate

2008-03-17T18:27:00.005-05:00

Something that's kind of important to the local Texas cuisine is barbeque. When making the long trip between Austin and Houston, many travelers stop in Elgin, Texas for hot Elgin sausage. What is Elgin sausage? The website Dallas Food has a lowdown of the regular places. It's a peppery sausage made from mostly beef, including the tripe, made with natural casings.

There's a local sausage rivalry that might rival Pat's and Geno's were it not for the laid-back nature of most Texan road-trippers. Homesick Texan and I are on different sides of the debate. She prefers Southside, whereas I definitely side with Meyer's.

I am in the process of fully appreciating the fact that I can go to any local grocery store and pick up either of these sausages, fresh and pre-cooked.

Mr. O and I celebrated an important anniversary yesterday, and I picked up some Meyer's from the store. Unfortunately, the local grubs don't carry Meyer's BBQ sauce (no big deal for Mr. O. He much prefers Southside on this one, but his favorite sauce by far is Rudy's) but did carry Salt Lick sauce. He loves sweet sauces, whereas I prefer spicy and vinegary ones. Thankfully, we can both agree on Ruby's for regular 'que most of the time. (People really are this dedicated to their barbeque joints, I swear.)

Sliced on fresh rolls, Elgin sausage can't be beat. I am defying the rule which states 'meat must be served with white bread', but I figure since I'm upgrading the rule it's still mostly okay. The sausage has a nice bite to it, and is flavorful (as well as slightly hot).

p.s. I love Cooper's the best. Don't go there expecting Elgin sausage though; that's for Elgin.

blood lust

2008-03-17T18:22:00.004-05:00

I love moro (blood) oranges. They're somewhat in season here, and the local crop is very pretty.

I think it might just be the vibrant color. They're a little different from regular oranges in taste--maybe a bit more acidic yet sweeter at the same time. Plus, the stark color contrast between pith and fruit is gorgeous.

I also like cooking with moro oranges... but I can't show the goods quite yet. :-)

Pie Day

2008-03-14T16:01:00.004-05:00

I'm heading over to a Pi Day party tonight, and am bringing along a chocolate meringue (my first!)

I had to document the process of meringuing the pie as it was so gorgeous. The only changes I made to the recipe were to add more cornstarch (that baby was going to set if I had to beat it into submission) and to substitute dark chocolate for bittersweet, omitting some of the sugar as a result. The filling is creamy and thick--yum!

Recipe adapted from here.

Chocolate Meringue Pie

Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon sugar
7 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:
3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped plus 2 tb cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
Pinch salt
3 cups milk
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons butter

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Mix well. Add the shortening and mix until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water and let sit 1 minute. Either using a fork or your hands, carefully press the mixture together to form a soft ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll out the dough on the floured surface into a circle about 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 of an inch thick. Gently fold the circle of dough in half and then in half again so that you can lift it without tearing it, and unfold into a 9-inch by 2-inch deep-dish pie pan. Crimp the edges and place in the oven. Bake until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

In a saucepan, combine the chocolate, 1 cup sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix well. Stir in the milk. Place the pan over medium heat and bring the mixture to a gentle boil, stirring occasionally. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Beat the egg yolks. Add 1/2 cup of the hot mixture to the egg yolks and mix well. Add the mixture back to the saucepan and continue to cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter. Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell and cool completely. Cover with plastic and refrigerate until chilled. Beat the egg whites, on medium speed, until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue evenly over the pie. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven, on the top rack and bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove and cut into individual servings.

Butter Buns

2008-03-14T15:54:00.003-05:00

I wonder if other blogger work like I do. I end up taking pictures of things that I made in pieces, so if one part of the 'project' screws up, at least I have something good and tasty to show at the end. Cooking lesson of the night: If you're going to grill hamburgers on a George Foreman, don't try stuffing cheese in the middle. Stuffed burger + added weight = no more stuffing.

But at least the bread came out as expected! La Tartine Gourmande posted a brioche about a year ago that I have fallen for, mainly because the dough calls for not even a whole stick of butter (and two sticks may be too much for me to bear toute seule.

Gorgeous stuff! Head over to her place for the recipe.

Keep rollin' rollin' rollin'...

2008-03-07T14:26:00.004-06:00

This morning, I made cinnamon rolls for my colleagues. I have found that baking is a happier alternative to dealing with stress than, say, running naked on a busy street. Not that I've tried that. I did lose my hat in the middle of a rainstorm while running to catch the bus yesterday, and I thank the people who stopped on the local busy road for not running me (nor my hat) over.

Um.

Anyway.

As I mentioned before, I have an unhealthy obsession with cinnamon. As this week has been less than stellar, I've been baking to cope. However, a break is coming up soon and birthday today and all, so life is much better now that I can take a breath.

My new baby got put to good use in mixing the dough. I cringe at the thought that I would have been kneading it. I still haven't gotten over the first Daring Bakers experiment with French Bread. On the PBS website, there is a video with Julia and Danielle Forrestier. She beats that dough like it just ate her kitten. Throw, whomp. Throw, whomp. I can't whomp. My apartment complex might fall down.

The dough hook did a good job of kneading the dough, but I needed quite a bit of flour before the dough wasn't sticky. It rose within four hours (again, cold apartment) and kept overnight quite well! The end result was a cinnamon roll much like a pastry shop's. The bread was flaky and buttery, and although I didn't have cream cheese a simple butter, powdered sugar and milk frosting did just fine.

Recipe for Alton's Cinnamon Rolls on the Food Network website.

p.s. Alton, I miss you. Please come visit sometime. Unless the gym starts playing Food Network, we may be separated indefinitely. I can only take so much Ty Pennington in one weekend.

Tiny meringues make me warm all over

2008-03-07T14:07:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday to me!

Gosh, another year older. What they don't tell you is that after twenty-one, all the rest of the birthdays (at least, for a while) are met with baited breath. Will something break this year? How many more gray hairs will develop under the guise of wisdom?

I have no use of a cake this year. It's too big! I'm also leaving the digs for a while tomorrow, so the cake would have to be consumed all at once or not at all. I'm pretty sure my school friends are either
a) sleeping,
b) geeking out,
c) inebriated.

So that's a no-go for a birthday party. All's good, though. Mr. O surprised me at lunch and we had a nice (quick) time together. But what to do for a celebratory, sugary substitute for the usual cake?

After making all that creme patisserie last week, I had a plethora of egg whites and a plenitude of vanilla beans. And cinnamon. Darn it, I love cinnamon. It's a bit unhealthy, really. If not for cooking for others, I'm pretty sure all my recipes would have a dash of cinnamon in them (most already do).

I made cinnamon-vanilla meringues. Now, understand, my area of the world this week has experienced freak snowstorms and wind that would blow out a thousand birthday cakes. I decided to make the meringues yesterday, which meant that my egg whites (all four? five? of them) mixed for about twenty minutes and never got halfway above the pan. It also took about two hours for them to cook, and even then they were still very soft when touched. In a moment of impatience (I had to get to class, darnit!) I cranked the oven up to 300. Oops. They got a little brown and done, but they tasted fine just the same.

This morning, I made a parfait with some more creme patisserie and frozen cherries for breakfast, mixed with some of the crushed meringues. Yum!

recipe & directions from 101 Cookbooks, with vanilla bean & cinnamon added at the same time as the sugar.

A Sweet Tart

2008-03-01T20:12:00.007-06:00

This week was a 'freezer week'. I didn't have time to cook, so since I know these weeks will happen in advance (or months, as in the entire month of April), I eat out of my freezer. Thankfully, this weekend offered a reprise.

I just acquired a nice stash of organic Bourbon vanilla beans from this source. Even for a student, this is a price that can't be beat. To match that, the store had strawberries on sale. Score!

Martha's cookbook recommended a tart crust that came out terribly (I blame it on doing the crust in batches), but future attempts should be better. I panicked. Mr. O was coming over in a few minutes and there was no dessert? I jumped on a puff pastry sheet I had in the freezer and threw it on the hot oven top to defrost. Fifteen minutes later, I threw it haphazardly in the tart pan and off we went.

By the way, no one ever tells you how difficult it is to make a tart look pretty. As someone who is definitely artsy but prefers the terms 'freestyle' and 'rustic' as opposed to 'neat' and 'even' this was a frustrating event. The pastry cream sticks like glue to those strawberries! Once they're down, they're down.

Strawberry tart

1 to 1 1/2 pints strawberries, sliced
puff pastry dough, one sheet defrosted
Creme patisserie (recipe below)

Roll out pastry dough to fit pan, if desired. Poke holes in dough with fork so it won't rise while baking. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until sufficiently brown.

Spread creme patisserie and arrange sliced strawberries on top. Add fresh mint, chocolate ganache, or pearl sugar to top for added effect.

Creme patisserie

from The Martha Stewart Cookbook. There are many variations on Martha's site, but this makes one plain cup which I find suitable for the tart.

1 c milk
1/2 vanilla bean (I used whole, with inside scraped into pan)
1/4 c plus 1 tb sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tb flour
1 tb cornstarch
1 tsp unsalted butter

Combine the milk, vanilla bean, and 1/4 cup sugar in saucepan, heat until sugar dissolves. In another bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until thick. Sprinkle in flour and cornstarch and mix until combined. Add half of the hot milk to eggs and whisk thoroughly until heated. Bring mixture to pan and bring to a boil, whisking away. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool, rubbing the top with butter and then covering with plastic wrap to ensure that a film doesn't form. Cool completely.

Bake it like a Polaroid picture, sugar

2008-02-25T22:28:00.008-06:00

Julia, Julia, Julia.

Your recipe for French Bread managed to make even me look good!

As my first post for the Daring Bakers, I was scared to death when I learned the recipe. I would have to KNEAD? Twice? I would have to rely on humidity and warmth to make sure my bread rose? (My apartment is usually freezing).

Although it took an entire day to make the bread and I gained a new burn on my arm, the bread was delish. I might say that the frozen, reheated bread was even crispier on the outside and moist on the inside.

Boules were my choice, as those are my favorite at the local market. I had fun shaping the bread, and it was a lesson in patience to wit for the bread to rise and rise again. Watching the round ball shape into a neat, firm top and seeing the end result was a fun experiment.

My only complaint was that there were many extra things to buy (and as a grad student they weren't in my blog budget). I made a few exceptions that were adaptable--no quarry tiles or pizza stones for me (but Julia was all about ingenuity, right?). I took a cue from the no knead bread and used my cast iron as a preheated stone... it worked quite well. I didn't have a spritzer, (well, I did, but it has housed bleach). As a result, every once in a while I would open the door and flick water on the loaves with my hands. I tried slicing the top of the ready-to-bake bread with a knife as I didn't have a razor on hand, but it didn't work. Don't do that!

I added fresh herbs (rosemary & thyme) plus a little salt and pepper to one boule.

This is totally worth trying at least once, though I guarantee that I will be spending my time on no-knead from now on.

Leftovers Salad

2008-02-19T16:45:00.003-06:00

Oh, internet.

Why, why did you ever introduce me to Fage yogurt? I am ruined. Ruined!

Ruined.

At any rate, I had some leftovers that needed to be used up relatively soon. I had acquired half an avocado, half a polmelo (by the way, those things are tricky to get out of the skin!) and 1/4 a cucumber. Chopped into bite-size pieces and topped with a dollop of yogurt, this made a wonderful side salad.

Instead of buying textbooks, I will now be buying fage + honey.

La la la la lemon

2008-02-19T16:31:00.003-06:00

I really have a hard time cooking single meals for myself. By the time the pot of leftovers is halfway finished, I am usually sick of a dish. I've made a point lately to try and make individual meals, but it's hard! This one only ended up with one meal's worth of leftovers.

Quinoa is a grain that's slowly gaining popularity in the food world again. It cooks up perfectly in a rice cooker! I add lemon zest to mine and cook it with chicken broth. The quinoa puffs up easily to 3-4 times its original size (2:1 water:quinoa ratio) so make sure that you only make as much as you need! I'll be eating quinoa for a while.

Salmon and Lemony Quinoa

1/2 c quinoa
1 c water + boullion, or 1c chicken broth
Zest from one lemon

1 lb fresh salmon, skin still attached
1 tsp dry mustard
lemon leftover from zesting, quartered and juiced
1/2 tsp dill weed
1 tsp salt
a few turns of pepper

oil for cooking, vegetable or safflower (I used safflower)

Throw first three ingredients in rice cooker. Combine last six in bowl, let salmon marinate for 20 minutes while waiting for quinoa to cook.

Preheat a cast iron pan with 3 tsp oil. When oil is hot, set salmon skin-side down in pan. Run for cover, or add a splater screen. Four to five minutes later, turn salmon and let go 4-5 minutes longer (depends on salmon, I had two big pieces). If one side gets too brown, throw it back on the skin side: it can take more abuse. Let internal temperature come to 135 degrees.

Plate salmon on top of quinoa. Eat!

I also made a tartar sauce of leftover yogurt, dill relish and lime juice. It added a bright flavor to a somewhat heavier dish.

funny face

2008-02-14T21:23:00.008-06:00

On my trip to pseudo-gourmet grocery store the other night, I picked up a Cherimoya. I asked the produce stocker what it was and he returned with directions to let it soften, then 'eat it with a spoon like custard.'

Well, thanks to the omniscient Wikipedia, I now know that Mark Twain thought that the cherimoya rose above all other fruits and foods to sate his cravings.

I also learned that the cherimoya, when ripened, tastes 'like commercial bubblegum'.

I should have stopped there and then launched the cherimoya on any of my starving graduate student friends or perhaps fed it to one of the seventeen cats that lives next door. But, no. For you, my faithful readers, I tried the cherimoya.

I swear, I made a diligent effort. I got about five spoonfuls down and then the somewhat putrid smell of semi-sweet bubblegum combined with the texture of an overripe watermelon overwhelmed my senses and I fainted, but only temporarily. Sorry, Mr. Twain. I still like your novels.

By far the most delightful experience was the photography of this fine dish and the realization that I had sliced two expressive faces in to the two halves.

open wide!

aghast

burned alive

2008-02-14T21:11:00.004-06:00

I found some fresh brussels sprouts in the store the other day, and they called out and asked me to roast them at 400 degrees for thirty minutes and to douse them liberally in salt and olive oil. I obliged, humbled that the wee sprouts had sacrificed their own well-being for my culinary pleasures.

Sooooo good. The more brown caramelized goodness there is, the better.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Guest Spot - Moussaka

2008-02-12T17:15:00.000-06:00

At my friend J's dinner party the other night, she made moussaka.

It was stellar. I don't have the recipe, but it involved lamb and a bechamel sauce. She took some lovely pictures with her camera (and I was surprised with the quickness and quality of her pictures - not to mention her camera, drool).

Thanks for the pictures, J!

A Bigger Pucker

2008-02-11T16:46:00.000-06:00

Friday nights are my grocery night. The store's always empty, and that gives me more time to look around at all the aisles. The typical Sunday-afternoon grocery trip here involves ninja tactics and some tackle football skills, so I try to avoid it if all possible. That way, I don't end up at home with random ingredients (like fat-free sweetened condensed milk--that's just wrong).

I ended up at a local pseudo-gourmet grocery store this last Friday. One of the best parts is the produce section. Unlike the pseudo-gourmet's younger brother, this store houses fresh, firm produce and some exotic offerings.

One of the things that I stumbled upon was the mandarinquat. Not quite a mandarin orange, not quite a kumquat, this thin-skinned beauty had a bright orange color reminiscent of a mandarin. After unsuccessfully trying to peel one, I bit in--and wow! Don't expect these babies to be sweet. Mandarinquats are really a palm-sized version of kumquats, which are generally sour. People who like them enjoy the crunch of the skin and the sour flavor they add to dishes.

The Food Lover's Companion doesn't have an entry, but they sure are helpful for most things.

My Cheesy Valentine

2008-02-10T15:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not one who loves Valentine's Day. Even though I have more than enough love in my life now, Valentine's Day hearkens back to the days of adolescence when I rarely--if ever--had a Valentine to celebrate with. Thankfully, I had my friends and my family that exchanged gifts or else I might have just--in the most pubescent, dramatic sense--died right there on my particle-board school desk. I have many fond memories of exchanging Cokes with friends, but nary did I receive a cool, frosty beverage care of my ultimate, truest crush-of-the-moment.

As a result, Mr. O and I celebrate Valentine's Day in an odd manner. Two weeks before the holiday rears its ugly head, we go to dinner and exchange gifts. Much less muss and fuss, and we get to gloat over having it done early while other people scramble for roses and truffles.

I always try to make something for dessert, though, because what better excuse to indulge in something sweet than a holiday centered almost exclusively around giving candy to those you love? This year, we noshed on some New York Style cheesecake.

Now, to say my kitchen is small is being humble. I have no drawers wider than 6 inches, and no cabinets wider than nine inches. When it came to do the bain marie for this dish, I was SOL. Honestly, a roasting pan wouldn't fit in my cabinets even if I had one. The cake was carefully inserted into the oven in without the water and came out a little bit soft, but still delicious.

New York Style Cheesecake
From AllRecipes.com

15 graham crackers, crushed
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.
In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.

In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5 to 6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

A sweet trip to the hardware store

2008-02-06T23:01:00.000-06:00

One thing that is difficult about the transition between 'college' and 'real' life is the transference of furniture. Me, I prefer to buy my furniture when I know I'll end up somewhere relatively close. In the meantime, good ol'Craig is my savior. However, my lovely kitchenette has recently sprung a leak of sorts. Mr. O became very agitated over the last few months as his barstool became more and more rickety. He would wobble it back and forth, and then mention how it was wobbling. (The long of the short is, stop shaking your tush and it will stop wobbling. But I digress.)

A trip to the local hardware store fixed the problem right up. My new favorite hardware store not only fixes you up with hardware, they also have a full organic-themed garden area as well as a wedding registry. What more can a girl ask for? Chocolate, especially when there's a credit card minimum and just a little bite of something will do.

Yes, I can get a hex wrench and gourmet chocolate at the same place. Aren't you jealous?

Turns out the chocolates are supplied by a local company that provides many wonderful bonbons. I got a lavender and a ginger chocolate. Just look at how gorgeous they are!

Lavender... doesn't it remind you of your grandmother's brooch?

Ginger, with a seashell pattern

These aren't your normal Russel Stover's. My grandmother used to pinch the bottoms out of those. I don't think she would have done that to these.

The lavender was the best of the two. Recommended by the chocolatier, it had a really nice floral tone. The ginger was drowned out by the dark chocolate. It could have done with some more spice.

All in all, I don't think I could have asked for a tastier trip.

Rock the Books... cookbooks, that is

2008-02-06T22:39:00.000-06:00

Now, you all, I'm sorry for the break. I tried to make a recipe a few days ago and broke not one, not two, but three of my kitchen tools in the process, so I had to do some breathing exercises and invest in a new hand mixer before retuning to the stage. Also, never try to fold cream-cheese frosting with a cheap spatula. But I'm back!

One of the fun things about going to library school is that you're surrounded by future librarians. And this new group of hipper shushers aren't your crazy cat ladies of yesteryear. No tote bags. No ill-fitting sweaters. And definitely no shushing. Now, you might think that I would be included in this future library pool, but no, folks. I'm in a library school and I'm not becoming a librarian. Instead, I'm getting my MS in a degree that will assist me in taking over the museum world by storm. Just you wait...

But anyway, one of the other fun things about library school is the wonderful people you get to meet. And they love to do things that you love to do! It's like two hundred new friends are just waiting to be met. A friend this past week became even more awesome during a dinner party at her lovely residence. She invited me over and we gushed over her red KitchenAid Pro mixer and her collection of vintage Le Creuset flamewear. Gush. She's in the school of the Contessa, though, and I have a slight smidge of a preference towards the good ol'AB.

Lavender! Coconut! Cake!

On a whim, for dessert I decided to make a recipe for Lavender Coconut Cakefrom Never Bashful with Butter that has proven a huge hit at many get-togethers since I discovered it last year. For this party, I turned the cupcakes into one giant cake and had my first frosting experience.

Now, the American South, especially the area where I'm from, is not known for having brisk winters. In fact, I had my windows open while making this light, spring-themed cake because it was 78 degrees outside (and much hotter in). Thankfully it's cooled down a bit since then, but still. I don't want to be reminded of the hundred-degree summer to come soon. It's not even mid-February!

Click over here for the recipe, but just squish those little cakes together to make one big cake. Or do it the easy way and make it in 9" round pans, your choice.

No-Knead Bread.

2008-01-16T15:27:00.000-06:00

Not much to say about this recipe. It's pretty failproof. And it sure makes a heck of a presentation. Just make sure not to burn the living tar out of your hands* while
a) lifting off the lid or
b) extracting the pan the first or second time.

Recipe.

The crackling sound as it cools down makes you want to bite right in, but don't. It was just in a 450 degree oven.

Also goes well with some homemade soup. Pictured below is Mr. O's favorite.

*this usually happens anyway.

Eternity

2008-01-14T21:24:00.000-06:00

"Eternity is two people and a ham." -Dorothy Parker

When it comes to living alone, figuring out what to do with leftovers--like four pounds of shredded pork loin, hypothetically--takes ingenuity. And after a few pork sandwiches, I branched out to more exotic offerings.

My transition to "ethnic food" outside of the locally avaliable Tex-Mex was a slow process. I grew up in a town where the local Asian buffet served enchiladas and refried beans alongside beef and broccoli. Even today, I still can't stomach most food from different Indian cultures and pretty much draw the line at Thai food. Almost.

I firmly believe that Southerners should never ever try to imitate other cultures' foods in public. Stick to what you know. However, I am perpetually broke and more often than that a miser. Anything that can keep me from spending $7.42 a meal at the local Thai joint gets a check mark in my book. My favorite (and only) dish at the restaurant--chicken noodle soup with five-spice broth and mushrooms--just is too much for my pocketbook to handle on a weekly basis. The broth is what killed me. It was sweet and salty, hot and savory, and oh my goodness it's hard to resist on a sick day. The local cedar trees are out in full force, and tonight I was craving some of that spicy goodness.

My attempts at imitating this infamous dish have often gone awry. One unfortunate guest from times past would tell you that his host was convinced that five spice + chicken broth would equal a full-bodied soup. My dinner guest ingested the concoction with politeness, but it wasn't my best work. He shortly went outside afterwards for a smoke, possibly to remove all traces of the bland from his palate. I resolved to create something better.

With pounds of shredded pork looking on*, I stumbled upon a recipe posted at Epicurious that looked promising. According to the reviews, the broth was bland. I doubled the amounts of garlic and ginger and added additional five-spice powder.

Since my pork loin was already shredded (see previous post), I sauteed the garlic and ginger** with the five-spice and a little olive oil. It then stuck victoriously to the bottom of the pan. Fearing a burned-on disaster, I quickly tossed in some water to deglaze the pan and then added the broth. After the noodles were in a separate pot, I threw in the pork loin and baby bok choy (chopped about 1/8" thick). The bok choy was a nice green color but still tender when the noodles were done.

Best of all, the broth was a near duplicate of the restaurant's. Success!

Soba noodle soup with roast pork and bok choy
(adapted from Epicurious)

Serves 4

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 1/2 inches ginger root, chopped thin or minced in a microplane
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tb olive oil or vegetable oil
leftover shredded pork loin
8 cups chicken broth
1/2 pound dried soba noodles (two bundles, in my case)
3 baby bok choy

Set water to boil in a stock pot. Salt heavily.

Combine first seven ingredients in a large soup or stock pan. When ingredients become aromatic, add stock and allow to come to a simmer.

Add the soba noodles to the salted water. Add the bok choy and pork to the broth. When the soba noodles are done (about five minutes), drain and add to soup.

Serve with panache.

*okay, I realize that pork can't look at me, but it was wistful.

**I chose the ginger root because it looked like a lobster.

A loin in the hand.

2008-01-14T20:55:00.001-06:00

Okay, y'all. I'm just going to be honest here. A good portion of my undergraduate upper-class work was on the American south, and things like Funeral Casseroles and aspics and all sorts of dishes that have gone by the wayside. I like trying to resurrect these recipes, with mixed results.

This post isn't going to be pretty, but it's honest. Read at your own discretion.

I stumbled upon a lovely (and cheap!) pork loin at my local warehouse superstore. Part of it went into a dry-roast slow cooker recipe that died a miserable death when it came out of the sauna about nine hours later. Lesson learned: don't try to dry-roast a mostly lean cut of meat, even if the fat is on top.

So, I went back to what was comfortable. As most people know, traditional (at least, about 60 years' worth) of Southern foods and good old Midwest casseroles rely heavily on prepackaged goods. This recipe isn't any different.

I cringe to think I'm including this in such early posts, but I added co-cola and soup mix to the non-charred half of the remaining pork loin.

I'm pretty sure I just committed food-blog suicide, but who cares? I'll make up for it in the future.

The favorite of this dish was the onion rings that simmered in the sweet-salty broth for many hours. Colored a dark brown and barely holding together, they gave a much-needed flavor to the final product.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin

3-5 lb. pork loin

Brine

Salt (lots)
Orange Juice
Garlic
Fresh Herbs
Water

Combine in some fashion, douse pork for at least twelve hours, preferrably more (but don't go botulism yourself silly).

Cooking

Sear pork loin on both sides, cut up if necessary to fit in slow cooker (my loin was cut in four; two quarters went into this recipe).

In the slow cooker:
1 pkg French Onion soup mix
2 cans co-cola
1-2 onions

Chop onion in rings, place in bottom of cooker.

Add seared pork loin(s) and sprinkle soup mix on top.

Add co-cola to mix. Cry a little.

Cook on low for 8-9 hours. Remove loin from mixture and shred. Leftover sauce may cause indigestion, stomach cramps or apocolypse.

My friend, Mr. O., is learning to cook. He chopped potatoes and roasted them with fresh rosemary from the window garden. They added a nice salty/savory contrast to the sweet pork.

Bar hopping

2008-01-14T19:58:00.000-06:00

After an inspiration from Coconut& Lime, I decided to try my hand at cereal bars.

Do you know what I hate more than anything in the world?

I resist it, I put it off, and I avoid it at all costs.

Cleaning dishes, that is.

Thankfully Mr. O. is a gracious dish-cleaner. Unfortunately, he hates oats. So these are all mine.

I made some lovely breakfast cereal bars of my own. However, I put my magnificent silpat to the test and shaped them out on the silicone baking sheet instead of throwing them in a pan. They baked and remained relatively bar-shaped.

Do you know what the benefit of using a silpat in thic recipe is? I mean, besides the lack of scrubbing.

Look here:

Sweetened condensed milk + slow-cooking temperature = dulce de leche. Which means you get little heaven-sent droplets of caramely goodness in addition to all that fiber and such. I could just die happy right now.

See Coconut + Lime's blog for the recipe. Add your own happiness. My version: Texas pecans and dried cherries.

Return.

2008-01-03T23:28:00.002-06:00

As a new year begins, I return to the ghosts in my closet. Fortunately, this ghost comes in a more friendly manner than most: the form of frozen meals from a month past. Piled upon brown rice, this was a nice welcome back on a cold winter's night.

Taken from the ever lovely Paula Deen, this Savannah Gumbo recipe really isn't doused in butter. Made with smoked sausage (I prefer mine skinless) and large chunks of chicken, the recipe gets a douse of color care of yours truly who managed to forget the okra in this particular batch. The vibrant green of the softened okra is normally more of a tender, olive vegetable that adds a certain thickness to the gumbo. The liquid never gets past a nice chocolate-colored brown, unlike most seafood gumbos which end up much more sea-like in both flavor and appearance.