The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Cakes - Baby Shower - It's a Girl - 1997

Another person where I worked, but I never even met her.  She worked in another dept, possibly a different building.  Someone was throwing a baby shower for her and I was asked to make the cake.  She knew the baby was a girl, so that gave me a color scheme.  I also went shopping and got a set of cute little baby-themed cookie cutters - a duck, a rocking horse, a teddy bear, and something else that I apparently didn't use in this cake.  But I know there were 4 cutters.

Under all that pink and white, it's a spice cake with cream cheese frosting.  The little white lacy thing it's on is fondant, and the cake itself is covered with fondant.  The little cutouts are fondant as well, and my horrendous ribbony things are piped with royal icing and cause me to cringe whenever I look at them.

The baby blocks on top of the cake that spell out "BABY GIRL" are the only cool thing (my opinion) from this cake, because they are made entirely of royal icing panels that I piped onto parchment, allowed to dry, and then glued together into 4 blocks with more royal icing.  I think they came out pretty well.

And that's about all I have to say about that one.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

Since I've joined Tuesdays With Dorie - and this is only my fourth week as an official participant - I've gained approximately 700 pounds and the eternal devotion of my sugar-addicted children.  I just hope the other members have worked out some sort of group discount rate with a reputable weight loss program.  Maybe...Tuesdays With Dorie...and Thursdays With Jenny...or something along those lines.  Just curious.

Anyway, all of my own self-control issues aside, this is a really interesting cake.  The crunch of the polenta and the fig seeds...

the fragrance of the lemon zest...

and the seductive sweetness from the honey...

are all woven together in a moist, golden crumb. 

The cake is, at first glance, rather plain, and my initial urge was to figure out how to add to it.  How to pretty it up.  But then...even though I came up with a few lovely ideas...I couldn't do it.  Not the soft dollop of chantilly cream and a few thin and crunchy curls of lemon zest...not a scoop of lemon sorbet...not even a dusting of confectioners' sugar.  They would have looked nice...but really, this cake doesn't need them. 

And speaking of "this cake" - the Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake for this week's post was chosen by Caitlin of Engineer Baker and can be found in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours on pgs 200-201.

I made mine Sunday morning, ably assisted by my petite sous baker, Julia. 

The cake was easy to put together, and though the recipe calls for a 10  1/2 inch tart pan, I used my trusty 8" model plus a 6" springform pan and things worked out just fine. 

Let's make a cake, shall we?   

Ingredients:

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed

1 cup medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup ricotta

1/3 cup tepid water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup honey

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus 1 T, cut into bits and chilled

2 large eggs

Hang on...I'm missing something.  Oh yes...forgot to put the lemon zest in the picture.

That's better.

Getting Ready:  Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Butter a 10  1/2-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Check that the figs are, indeed, moist and plump.  If they are the least bit hard, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. 

If the figs are large (bigger than a bite), snip them in half.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder and salt together.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. 

With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey and lemon zest

and beat until light. 

Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. 

You'll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. 

Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top.  Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes.  Cool to warm, or cool completely.

And that's all she wrote.

Now, I will say that the butter didn't exactly leave light colored circles...but I also didn't cut the butter in uniformly tiny bits.  My bits were rather haphazard, both in size and placement atop the cake.  So maybe, if I wanted to do anything different, I would improve my butter bit technique. 

But I don't really think it's a huge deal.

I used the 6" cake (Julia's cake) as the tasting cake, because I wanted to use the larger one for my slice-of-the-cake photos. 

I had a small piece, and gave each of the kids a small piece.  Once they were in the dining room with theirs, and I was still chewing my small portion, I quickly sliced another thin wedge for myself and, yes, I gobbled it down shamelessly.

The kids seemed to enjoy the cake, too.

In order to stop myself from eating the rest of the small cake, I quickly sliced it up into wedges, arranged the slices on a pretty little plate, and race-walked them across the street to share with our friends.   Based on the response, I think they'll remain our friends for a while.

I left the final photos (with the bigger cake) for Monday, and it was nice to have a legitimate reason to cut a standard-sized slice of cake

and,

after photographing it from various angles

and with various props,

eat the whole thing myself.

 

I think I'm gonna have to bring some of that large cake across the street, too.

I could use the exercise. 

Fishing on Carbuncle Pond - A Photo Essay. Okay, not so much an essay as a long and rambling monologue.

On the morning after Opening Day of Trout Season 2008, Bill and I took the kids to Carbuncle Pond so they could fish for trout (Bill, Alex, and Julia) and I could walk a trail and take pictures.  There's not enough room in the canoe for the four of us, and we can't exactly leave a kid behind, so I stay on land.  But that's okay.  I've had my turn.  And will again, eventually.

We parked right near the ramp down to the water, and while Bill and I carried the canoe and related stuff down to the shore the kids climbed up and down the rocks and amazingly remained scrape-free.

It was a beautiful morning.  Some clouds, but that was okay.  Fishing's sometimes better when it's cloudy or overcast.  Rain was predicted, but not until later in the day.

Once Bill had the canoe ready to go, he herded the kids aboard

and away they went.

(See the little giraffe dangling off the side, sort of right below Julia's hair?  It's for casting practice in the back yard, instead of using actual sinkers or lures.  Alex's is a frog.)

I took pictures as they headed away from me, and then I set off on the little trail that runs around the perimeter of the pond.  The little hike was nice, actually, as it warmed me up a bit.  I reached a clearing - looked like a little camping area, maybe, and had a better view of Bill and the kids, so I sat down on this stone bench and just took pictures of the water and canoes and sky and all that.  I had the telephoto lens on, so I was also able to track the progress of my three intrepid fishermen (or fisherpeople). 

First catch was Alex's - one of many sunfish.  Bill helped a bit.

   

Here's a slightly closer view...

I think Bill said they ended up catching (and releasing) about 5-6 sunfish.  Alex also had a trout on, but it got off before they could reel it in.

While they fished, I wandered around the area a bit and snapped a few pictures.

 

 

Eventually, and predictably, Julia grew tired of hanging out in the canoe, so Bill headed over to the clearing so Julia could hang out with me while the boys continued fishing.

Note the look of brave patience on our little martyr's face.

Their ride toward me provided me with a few more pretty shots.  Practically silhouettes - the sun, when not hidden by gathering clouds, was so bright.

They dropped her off, and then headed back to the other side of the pond.

I took Julia for walks in the area, and we kept an eye on Bill and Alex.  When they seemed to be wrapping things up, we started following the trail back toward the truck.

 

 

And that was our morning.  Not a bad start to the day. 

And after a quick trip home to switch vehicles and get something to eat, we were off on our next adventure of the day - a trip to Southwick's Zoo.  But that's another story.

Red Thai Curry Paste

I've had a few requests for this recipe, an unfortunately I don't have photos of the whole process, but next time we make this I'll take pictures and add them to this post.

Last year Bill made a big batch of this when he picked peppers from our garden.  Then he froze it in an ice cube tray, popped the cubes out and stored them in a ziploc bag in the freezer.  Same thing with the Green Thai Curry Paste.  Both are tremendously flavorful, as is true of Thai cooking in general.  Lots of fresh, intense ingredients.

Anyway, both recipes are from Keo's Thai Cuisine, one of our favorite Thai cookbooks.  (There's also a link to it and a picture of the cover in my list of Books about Food and Cooking.)

Anyway, most recently Bill made some for a meal of spicy fish tacos on a recent Brew Day.  (He brews beer.  All-grain batches.  BIG batches.)  To serve with the fish, he warmed the paste in a wok with some extra ginger and garlic and added part of a can of coconut milk to give it a creamy texture.  It's EXCELLENT stuff, if you like your heat to have flavor.  That's the thing, in my opinion.  If it's just hot, well, it's boring.  But if it's hot and has tons of flavor, then I'll eat it by the bowlful.  Really.  It's that yummy.  Burns your mouth raw, but in a pleasant way, if you know what I mean.

So, for those of you who have asked about it, here's the basic recipe:

Red Curry Paste

15-20 red chili peppers, seeded
2 stalks fresh lemon grass, coarsely chopped
5 shallots, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic
1 T coarsely chopped kha (a type of ginger - you can use regular
ginger)3 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
1/4 cup Chinese parsley roots, chopped (cilantro roots, if you
can get them. Or use the stalks)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds
1/2-1 T fish sauce or 1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp shrimp paste (optional)
2 T oil

Combine all the ingredients in a food processor and process
until smooth. If a mortar and pestle is used, then add oil
after all other ingredients are ground. Refrigerate in a glass
container. Paste keeps well for several months.

And, a few notes from me...

*  We actually didn't have any more red chili peppers left from last summer, so Bill rehydrated about 10 dried red thai chiles in water, and he may have used some green fresh ones and also part of a red bell pepper just to add more color.  It was plenty potent.

*  You can freeze lemon grass, too, which is what we do - we'll buy a bunch of it and freeze it so we always have it available.  If you've never seen lemon grass, you can go here for a good illustration and description of the plant and its uses.  Also, in the upper right corner of the page, there's a picture of kaffir lime leaves.  We also buy these to freeze.  They keep forever (it seems) and impart a distinct citrus+something else flavor and aroma to Thai dishes.

*  Fish sauce is another staple of Thai cooking.  To learn how it's made, you can go here.  Basically, it's a liquid salt element, but the flavor is more than just salty.  And don't be put off by the rather powerful aroma.  Once it's in the food, sauce, paste, whatever, it melds with the other elements of the dish and becomes less...um...pungent.

*  Shrimp paste.  Yep, paste made from tiny, dried, fermented shrimp.  A little goes a very long way.  Again, it adds saltiness to whatever you're making, but like the fish sauce, it is not simply a salt substitute.  Once again, it adds depth of flavor to the mix.  And it's also fun to dare nephews to taste a teaspoonful of it blind and watch the expression on their face change.  At least that's what Bill likes to do.  He's a fun uncle.

Anyway, there you are. 

If you want to make fish tacos and have this as part of the experience, remember to combine it with some coconut milk to make it more of a sauce, rather than a paste.  We used cod, but use whatever kind of fish (shrimp is great, too) you want to.  We also included, as other possible additions to the tacos, the following:  guacamole (it's a nice soothing balance to the heat from the curry paste), cole slaw (goes nicely with the fish), rice (to absorb some of the liquid) and, for those that wanted it, some shredded cheese. 

There's nothing more fun than sitting around the table with a bunch of guys, watching their eyes water and noses run (okay, I try not to watch that part) as they bravely pile more red curry paste/sauce on their fish.  I really don't know why it didn't have the same effect on me.  But it didn't.  And I ate plenty.  Just lucky, I guess. 

But anyway, go make up a batch of this and try it out.  It's DELICIOUS. 

 

Wednesday With Alex

Yesterday (Wednesday) I was a chaperone on a field trip with Alex's kindergarten class (the morning K class) and also the afternoon K class.  Teachers and chaperones and kids combined, there were 63 of us on the bus that went to and from Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, CT. 

The..........kiddies on the bus make

Lots of noise, lots of noise, lots of noise

The kiddies on the bus make

Lots of noise

All 45 minutes each way.

Actually, mostly on the ride TO.

By the time we rode back, all the kids were worn out by sun and aquatic creature overload and lunch, so the ride was quieter.

I had two kids to keep an eye on.  My own, and one of his friends.  We all squished together on the bus seat and the two kids kept each other entertained for the ride there.  On the ride back, Alex dozed against my shoulder, and his buddy fell asleep leaning his head against the back of the seat in front of us. 

The kids had fun.  We saw the 3 beluga whales - two females and a male on loan from another zoo.  And the kids got to pet small rays (not the stinging variety) in a shallow pool.  Alex loved that - he got to pet 4 of them.  We also saw the sea lion show - 3 sea lions: two adult males, one was 21 and near a thousand pounds, and a "teenager" male - 16 years old.  The third was a rescued baby from California.  They'd tried to rehabilitate him after they'd found him malnourished and on a beach, but he showed up again, in worse shape, so they decided he belonged in an aquarium.  And that, in a little tiny nutshell, is how he ended up at Mystic.  He was adorable - about a year and a half old.

And we saw all sorts of fish and other sea creatures, including sharks, and the tentacles of an extremely shy octopus. 

All in all it was a fun trip for the kids.  We ate lunch in the blazing 85 degree sun (isn't it April?) and then rode the bus home.

Alex had a blast. 

Then last night, I took him to his T-ball practice.  Bill's taken him in the past, so this was my first foray into the world of organized athletics for young 'uns.  And it was fun.  All those little kids.  They practiced running the bases as fast as their assorted-lengthed little legs could carry them...they broke into two teams and played a practice game, so they all had opportunities to hit and run and field and throw to first.  They're still learning that it's not so important WHO gets the ball as long as SOMEONE throws it to the first baseman. 

Alex did well - and by that I mean he did just as well as the other kids.  He's average, but that's fine. 

At the end of practice, they took turns throwing balls at an overturned bucket on top of the T stand.  It represented the first baseman, and the idea was to hit the bucket, which represented his glove.  So they all had turns at that and then their coach's wife (our friends across the street) gave out little baseball magnets to all the kids.  She has also instituted four weekly awards - given to players who demonstrate various examples of good sportsmanship in the previous week's game.   She'd told me about the idea a while ago - I think it was based on some team she'd been on and the coach had done that...I don't remember exactly, but it was a way to reward and motivate the kids.  And at this age, it's a really nice bonus.

Alex was the 4th kid to get a ribbon (it says "Super Star") - his was for "Super Running" - because he ran the bases so hard in their first game. 

His face was priceless.  His eyes widened and his mouth mad an "O" of complete surprise.  He hadn't expected it at all, and was so very thrilled about it that I wanted to cry.  A bit.

On the ride home he told me "I'm starting to like T-ball a little bit more now." 

Excellent.

And that, for the most part, was my wonderful Wednesday with Alex.   

Cakes - Hole in One - 1997

Another golf-themed cake.  More of that fun little Wilton #233 multi-opening piping tip (to make the grass).  I used that tip at every opportunity for a while back then.

I used a sphere cake pan set to make the golf ball - I think I bought the pan set specifically for this cake, and ended up only needing one of the two pans.  The little dimples on the golf ball were made by poking a plastic drinking straw into the royal icing.

The golf ball was white cake, and the little patch of golf course was chocolate.

My original idea was much more dramatic - and less kind.  I wanted to have the golf ball somehow teetering on the edge of the hole without going in.  Ultimate golfing nightmare.  But I just couldn't rig it properly with my limited experience in cake architecture, and I also rationalized that it would be nicer to let the ball drop in on the golfer's birthday. 

I remember he was tickled with the cake, and I ended up making a couple of birthday cakes for his son over the next few years.  Funny how things work.  The son is in college now.  I think he was turning ten when I made the first cake for him.  I'll get to those cakes eventually.

I like this cake.  It's simple, but effective.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Yum.  I absolutely love this cake.  It's moist and chewy with raisins and coconut and shredded carrots, and the frosting is smooth and creamy...and cream-cheesey...with a nice zing from the lemon juice.   

When I saw that Amanda of slow like honey had chosen Bill's Big Carrot Cake for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, I was delighted.  I love carrot cake, and so does my husband who, coincidentally, is named Bill.  It was kismet.

I actually made the cake last week (rather than at the last minute on Monday as I'd done with my first two TWD challenges).  My husband brews beer, and several of his beer-brewing squad were coming over last Thursday to brew up about 20+ gallons.  Bill was making spicy fish tacos for lunch, and what better to follow the inferno of a Red Thai Curry Paste (which I have to post here some time - it's so good) than something sweet and moist and soothing.

I made mini cakes because I have 12 mini-springform pans that I haven't used in ages, and this seemed the perfect time to trot them out. 

And, since my mini cakes would be photographed, I decided (and I sort of blame Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake and her girly pink reversable cake plate for this) that I needed some cute interesting little inexpensive plates on which to display my mini cakes and other subsequent baked goods.  So I also went shopping at The Christmas Tree Shop and got as many cute and pretty and interesting little plates as I could carry in the shopping basket.  All I can say is it's a good thing I didn't grab a shopping cart when I walked into the store.  I'd still be washing the price tags off 'em.

Anyway, armed with springform pans and cute plates and a mission to feed a lot of people,  I got out some carrots and started shredding....

The recipe is below, with my own notes typed in italics and embraced by parentheses.

"Bill's Big Carrot Cake"

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 10 servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon salt

3 c grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)  (I used a microplane to grate them, and I didn't use all 9 carrots to reach 3 cups.  My kids ate the extras.)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans  (I had almost enough pecans, but no walnuts, so I used sliced almonds with the pecans.)

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

 

½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries (I had both dark AND golden, so I used half and half)

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

Getting ready:

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.  (I buttered and floured 12 mini springform pans, but I only ended up using 10 of them.  5 on one baking sheet, 5 on the other.)

To make the cake:

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth.

Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear.

Gently mix the chunky ingredients.

Divide the batter among the baking pans.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean.  The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans.

Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

*I made the cakes last Wednesday night, and then made the frosting and assembled the cakes Thursday morning.

For the Frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 pound or 3 and ¾ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

½ cup shredded coconut (optional)  (I didn't use this in the frosting)

Finely chopped toasted nuts and/or toasted shredded coconut (optional)  (I did use both of these suggestions - I used toasted slivered almonds and toasted shredded coconut.)

To Make the Frosting:

Working with the stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together

until smooth and creamy.

Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth.  Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

If you'd like coconut in the filling, scoop out about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this portion.

To Assemble the Cake:

Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.  If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer (or cover generously with plain frosting). 

Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer.  Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake top side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting (or more plain frosting).  Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top - and the sides, if you want--of the cake.  Finish the top with swirls of frosting.  If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle them on now, while the frosting is soft.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.

I used one of the 3-layer cakes for the guys on brew day.  They were so full from the fish tacos, that they didn't devour the entire thing, which was good news for us.  But what they ate - they LOVED.

And brought the other one over to our friends across the street.  Kathleen raved about it.  On more than one occasion.

My parents and my sister and her husband and two kids got most of the rest.  But not ALL of the rest.

 

I think if I make this cake again (which, you know, I am pretty sure I will...a lot) in the mini springform pans, I'll double the frosting recipe.  Even though the frosting/cake ration per bite was perfect, I still think I would like to see more of it on the cakes.  But that's more a cosmetic urge than a culinary one.

Now go check out what all the other TWD bakers have done with this recipe!

Opening Day Salmon Cakes

They're named "Opening Day Salmon Cakes" because they were made with the last of the salmon that Bill and Joe caught on Opening Day of Trout Season in RI. 

We had most of the 21" salmon left, and I carefully picked all the flesh off the bones (and picked the smaller bones out of the flesh) and broke it into smallish pieces.

All told, there were about two cups of fish to work with.

We also had leftover wild rice from the previous night, so I mixed that in with the fish.  There was about a cup and a half of the rice.

I also used a shallot, the juice of one lemon, and some Ritz crackers (about 8-10) that Julia helpfully smashed up for me with a meat tenderizer.  I worked all of that together and then melted about 5 T butter and mixed that in to help moisten the crackers and add a little more flavor.  Then I tasted it, added some ground black pepper, and finally, added in two eggs to help bind it all together.  I let the mixture sit for about five minutes to let the crackers finish absorbing the liquids, and then I rolled the mixture into balls roughly the size of small lemons (only round). 

**If you find that the mixture is too goopy and can't be rolled, add a little more cracker crumbs or bread crumbs.  If the mixture is too dry and crumbly, add some more liquid - lemon juice, melted butter, another egg, water - it's up to you.

I rolled the balls in flour and set them aside while I heated about a half inch of vegetable oil in a large pan.  When the oil was hot enough (flick some water into the oil - if the oil sizzles immediately, it's ready) I put some of the balls in the pan, leaving plenty of space around them, and pressed them down a bit to form patties (or cakes).  After a few minutes, once the undersides were nicely golden brown, I carefully turned the fish cakes over to finish cooking on the other side. 

Once they were cooked through, I transferred them to a plate with several layers of paper towel to drain, and kept the plate in the warming drawer of my oven until all the fish cakes had been cooked.

I have to say these were really tasty.  The smoky flavor from the grilled salmon and the bite of the minced shallot worked nicely together.  The kids ate them dunked in ketchup, or with a dollop of guacamole on top.  I also made a little spicy sauce for Bill and I, which consisted of some mayo, lime juice, sriracha, minced basil in olive oil (from my freezer, from last year's garden), salt, and pepper. 

 

The heat from the sriracha, sweetness from the basil, the smokiness of the fish, chewy texture of the rice, and the creamy, mild flavor of the guacamole... 

...it was divine.

And the Winner Is...

First off, I used random.org's Integer Generator to pick the winner - you just plug in a lowest number (1) and highest (9, in this case) and hit a button and it will pick a random number for you.

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

3

Timestamp: 2008-04-20 11:56:54 UTC

And the random number it picked, as you can see (if you squint) was 3.

So that means the winner of the cookbook is Anastasia, who was the third person to join in with a pizza story.

Congratulations, Anastasia!  Please email me at barefootkitchenwitch at yahoo dot com with your shipping address and I'll have DK Publishing send you your copy of "Grilling Pizzas and Piadinas."

Thanks for participating! 

P.S.  I'll be setting up the other giveaway within the next couple of days.

Cookbook Giveaway - Time's Up!

If you haven't entered the Cookbook giveaway in the previous post yet, well, I hate to tell you, but you've missed that boat.  It's midnight, and the contest is now closed.

If you'd still like to share a story, I'd love to hear it, but unfortunately you won't be in the running for a cookbook.

I'll be back in the morning (I mean, the morning that comes after I get some sleep) to announce the winner.

Thanks to all of you who participated!  This was fun!

Cookbook Giveaway Number One! - "Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas"

Okay, I couldn't even wait.

I have the two books on my little work table in the kitchen (where my laptop sits, and permission slips for the kids' field trips, and little scribbled notes to myself, and the cable that connects my camera to my laptop.  And sometimes my camera, if I'm shooting food pictures.  And a stack of other cookbooks.  And mail.  And drawings the kids did in school.  And a couple of pens.  The usual stuff.

Anyway.  In an effort to avoid doing the dishes in the sink, I started reading through this first book.  It's a beautiful day today - a good day to maybe, oh, GRILL something for dinner instead of cooking inside.  And also, we have asparagus coming up like they're on one of those speeded up films of a flower blooming on a nature program - from bud to full flower in a minute.  These asparagus grow an inch or more every day.  Bill already harvested one, sauteed it in butter and salt and pepper the other night, and graciously shared it with me.  It was delicious. 

So I thought, hey, maybe we can put some asparagus on our grilled pizzas!

And as I'm flipping through the different pizza recipes, lookie what I found:

 

The Asparago.  It's made with asparagus (of course), pesto, pine nuts, and brie. 

Some of my favorite things in food.  It must be a sign of some sort.

So then I went back to the beginning and read about how Chef Priebe and his wife, Karla, achieved their success with the relatively novel idea of grilling pizzas.  And I headed into the first chapter.

Grills & Gadgets.

The Grown-Up Toy section!  Be still my heart.

First off, he recommends a charcoal grill for grilling pizza "because nothing beats the flavor of cooking over a natural fire."  Amen to that.  Pictured in that chapter is a Weber grill - JUST LIKE THE ONE WE HAVE! 

I look through the next few pages...the indoor grills (we have a reversable one - ridges on one side, flat on the other...the tools (rolling pins, pastry brushes, knives, bench scraper or dough blade, mezzaluna (which I don't have but wish I did)...woo hoo - we're all set in those departments.

And next chapter - Pizza Dough.

Loaded with step-by-step photos and accompanying text, this chapter makes you want to dust your hands with flour and start kneading.  Or at least that's the effect it has on me.  Pizza Dough - like any basic bread dough - is not hard to make, it just requires a little patience and love and a few pantry items like flour and yeast and salt... And learn to knead by hand.  It's theraputic.  Meditative.  Hands-on.  Get in touch (pun INTENDED) with your food.  It's good for you.

Anyway.  Next chapter addresses Sauces and Toppings - - or as this chapter is subtitled - "The Building Blocks."  Things like "Herbed Grill Oil,"  "Chunky Tomato Basil Sauce,"  "Roasted Red Pepper Strips" and on and on.  Remember, when you're grilling a pizza, you're cooking it pretty fast, so you don't have time to cook uncooked ingredients once they top the pizza.  So to make things work better, and to develop and enhance the natural flavors of these simple ingredients, cook them first and then just warm them back up on the grill.  The chapter finishes up with a guide to constructing your own pizza.  You want a nice balance of flavors and textures, and you don't want to pile it high - this isn't the Glutton Special at your local pizza delivery joint.  "Go for a mosaic pattern rather than a big pile,"  Chef Priebe advises.  Food appeals first to the eyes - so you want to make your pizza to look good as well as taste good.

Next chapter is about how to grill your pizza - trust me, it can be tricky, and that grill is hot, so you may have some less-than-successful adventures at first.  But.  Chef Priebe, again with all the step-by-step photos and directions, practically takes you by the hand and helps you through your first grilled pizza experience.  I wish I'd had this book at my disposal the first time I grilled some pizzas.  I don't think I would have had to call so many of my early attempts "blackened...Cajun style."

From that point on, the book explodes with one mouth-watering recipe after another.  If we didn't have asparagus waving at us in the back yard, I think I'd still be sitting here, book in hand, drooling, and undecided. 

Oh - and those piadinas.  Nice little grilled, folded flatbread sandwiches.  They look really good, too.  Have to try them soon as well. 

Also included are recipes for salads, which go so nicely with a warm and toasty pizza. 

And the dessert chapter!   Just listen to these -  "The Apple Tart"  "Grilled Banana Split" "Grilled Pears Saint Andre" - and, in keeping with the TWD theme this week - "The S'more."  But the one that really caught my eye was this one - "Grasshopper Pie" - He writes "Before I was old enough to drink, I watched my dad mix up a green concoction in a blender and pour it into highball glasses.  I begged him for a taste, only because I loved its emerald color.  he said it was a Grasshopper.  It was cool and minty with a hint of white chocolate and cream.  Grasshoppers get their color from Creme de Menthe.  I've used it in this dessert pizza, combined with marshmallow and an Oreo crumb crust, for a minty chocolate flavor." 

Wow.  My childhood is calling.  My mother used to make a Grasshopper Pie...it wasn't an ice cream pie, either, which I've seen in more recent years.  No, it was creamy and minty and that stunning bright green color.  I loved it as a child.  Hmmm...there's another idea.

Okay, enough of the talk. 

Here's the deal:

1.  Starting NOW, in the COMMENTS, I want to hear about the very best pizza you ever ate.   And if there's a story behind it, so much the better, because I like food stories.  So tell me - what was on the pizza, and/or what was going on AROUND the pizza that makes it so memorable. 

2.  The contest will END tomorrow night at midnight, Eastern Standard Time.  If you want to share a story after that point, that's more than fine with me, but you won't be eligible for the contest.

3.  This will be a random drawing, because try as I might, I couldn't figure out how I would pick the "best" pizza story.  Every person's story is the best to them, right?  So - a-random we will go.

And that's IT.  Winner will receive, direct from the publisher, a brand new copy of Chef Criag Priebe's "Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas."  Trust me - it's a lovely book and if you like to grill (indoors OR out) and like pizza - you want this book.

Okay, people, tell me your Very Best Pizza stories!!!  GO!

Fisherman - The Next Generation

Bill took the kids fishing this morning.

I could have gone, but I stayed home to enjoy a couple hours of peace and quiet, and to start catching up on all the blog posts I've been meaning to write this week and haven't.

About 11:00 or so, Bill called to say they'd be leaving in about ten minutes or so, and could I start heating up the charcoal for the grill.

Alex caught a trout.

And apparently just as they were pulling in the lines, Alex's pole got a bite and so then there were two trout.

Bill cleaned them on site there, so all he had to do was rinse them off and slap them on the grill when he got home.

And so today we had fresh caught, fresh cooked trout for lunch, and some rice.

And,

of course,

Julia ate the eyes.  All four.

Bill told me the kids were kind of bored there until they got a fish on a line. 

They also lost one - it got right up near the shore and then got off.

Bill told Alex to tell me how hard the next fish fought while he was reeling it in.

And this is the picture I took of that epic struggle.

Fishing.

It's not a sport for the faint of heart or the weak of spirit.

"It was hard," he told me through gritted teeth, "but I never gave up!"

 

Opening Day of Trout Season - The Return

This is the face of a triumphant fisherman. 

The face of a man who has had good Opening Days and bad Opening Days, and who now has had an Amazing Opening Day and who has photos to prove it. 

He looks ready to tell you ALL about it, doesn't he?  Every tiny detail. 

And that's fair enough, because it really was an amazing catch.

They brought home 7 fish:  5 trout (4 rainbow and a brookie) and 2 landlocked salmon.  One salmon was 27 inches long and weighed 5.53 lbs.  The other was 21 inches long and weighed probably 3+ lbs, but we didn't weigh that one separately.

You can see a ton of pictures here - there are just too many to post here and it would have taken forever for me to decide which few to use. 

The guys brought the fish to our house, and after letting the kids hold them and taking the requisite Triumphant Fishermen Shots of them holding all the fish on stringers, like so:

(That's Bill up above.)  (And this is Joe, below.)

   

and hosing them (the fish, not the kids) down in the back yard and taking impressive pictures like this:

and showing the catch to our friends across the street...

it was finally time to bring the catch inside, weigh them, clean them, and cook them.

This is the 27 inch trout on the scale.  Joe caught him. 

And you can see Alex's arm - he was holding his camera, taking pictures of the event, too.

Like I mentioned earlier, this fish weighed 5.53 lbs. 

All together, they brought home somewhere between 14-15 lbs of fish. 

We didn't get an exact weight, as we didn't weigh each fish individually. 

We just kept adding the fish to the bowl, and after we put the last one in, the scale shut off - it doesn't go past 14 lbs.

Bill said they actually caught more, but they let the others go.

You can take home 10 fish per person, but unless you've got a lot of mouths to feed, it's kind of wasteful to do that.

We ate fish for 3 days.  Which is fine, because we all like fish, and we cooked it in different ways.  And Joe took some home, and we gave some to our friends across the street.  So there was WAY more than enough fish.  It would have been greedy and wasteful to keep more.

But anyway.

I'll spare you all the gory photos of Bill and Joe gutting the fish.  For some reason, I took many pictures of the process.  It's probably a reflex.

The kids watched a bit (including one of the boys from across the street), but it got old for them and they went off to do other things.

The larger of the two salmon was actually a female - and she had eggs.  We kept them and later on I sauteed them in a bit of butter and served them over rice.

Here they are, before I cooked them:   

I also took pictures of the fish after they'd been cleaned and placed in a big bowl.

I just like the textures and patterns and all that.

Bill cooked the fish two ways. 

First, while he was cleaning them, he filleted two of the trout and cut the fillets into smaller pieces.

Then he laid them out on a foil-lined baking sheet, brushed them with a bit of soy sauce, put them under the broiler, and cooked them for a few minutes.

(While Bill was cooking, Joe, who'd had less than 2 hours' sleep the night before, was trying to rest in the back yard, and my children were torturing him.)

Inside, Bill made some sushi rice...

And combined them into bite-sized portions on a pretty bamboo platter I bought recently for just this sort of meal.

And then topped them with a delicious, syrupy, teriyaki-ish Japanese barbecue sauce that I have to dig out the recipe for so I can share it with you because it is SO yummy.  It's like when you have the barbecued eel at a sushi bar.  That dark brown glaze.

And the other 5 fish (3 trout, 2 salmon) were rubbed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and cooked on the grill.

And I sauteed the salmon roe in a bit of butter.

And then - we ate.

 

And, of course, Julia ate the eyes.

And she didn't just eat them - she CALLED them before she was served.  "Can I have my fish eyes?"
or something like that. 

(Sorry, Beth!)

Warning:  Graphic photos of my daughter digging out fish eyes and eating them are on the next page, if you're really interested.

   

Cookbook Giveaways!!

I just saw the funniest thing, at least so far today.

I was sitting on the loveseat in my living room, checking email on my laptop.  Bill was in the kitchen making coffee, and the kids were downstairs watching Curious George.

And then a Fed Ex truck came slowly up the street (early - it was about 7:30 or so).  I saw the driver and his helper/trainee/co-driver looking at the houses, looking for the right address, and lo and behold, they stopped in front of our house.

The Wells-Fargo Wagon is a-comin!

Then BOTH guys got out, each with a package in hand, and - I swear on a stack of Julia Child cookbooks - they RACED up our driveway, left the packages on the steps, and RACED back to the truck.

The driver won.

What a great way to begin my day.  And good for them - they make their job fun.

Bill opened the door and got the packages - both addressed to ME!  "They feel like books or something" he said.

Oh, yeah!  That's right!

About a week ago I was contacted by Carroll Beauvais of Dorling Kindersley (a division of Penguin), aka DK Publishing, to see if I was interested in reviewing a couple of cookbooks and maybe hosting a giveaway.

Cool!  I've never done a giveaway before, and now I get to do two.

 

The two books are "Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas" by Chef Craig Priebe (For more info, you can go here), and "Spain and the World Table" which done in association with The Culinary Institute of America, with text by Martha Rose Shulman.   

I think I have one book on Spanish cooking - it's a book of Tapas that was my Mom's, and I got it when she and Dad were downsizing and moving to a smaller home.  So I'm really excited to check this book out. 

And grilled pizzas - ah, one of our traditional summertime outdoor dinners.  I'm really excited to go through this book too and learn a few new things about grilling pizzas.  Piadinas, in case you were wondering (which I was), are folded sandwiches, kind of like tortillas, only, according to the book, more tender.

I don't even know where to start.  Which book?  Which recipe?

And how will I set up this giveaway? 

A contest?  Random drawing?  Bribery (just kidding)?  So many possibilities!

I'll be back with more info later on.  Right now, I think I have some perusing to do.

Cakes - Assortment of Flowers - 1997

These were the first royal icing flowers I'd ever made.  Pansies and roses and violets and little white generic flowers.  And the leaves, too.  I wanted to make something pretty. 

This was for another coworker (gee, really?), and I didn't know her all that well, but she was an older woman who was very polished in appearance and flowers seemed like a good idea.

The guy I made the Alligator on a Golf Course cake for looked at this cake and told me it looked like a squashed hat.  People were quick to leap to my defense.  I just dismissed it because he was like that - he'd just say whatever popped into his head - there was no quarantine period between thought and word with him.  But he was harmless.  And, looking at it from a vantage point of eleven years later, I have to admit - he had a point.

Still, I'm proud of the flowers.  I remember making them, following instructions in a book or magazine on how to pipe royal icing flowers.  Piping each one on a flower nail and then carefully removing it from the nail and setting it on parchment paper to dry and harden.

The cake itself was lemon, and the layers were 10", 8" and 6".

Camera-Happy X 3

Okay, I've set up a couple of flickr badges over on the left so I can share my kids' photos.

The first sets (and, like their mother, these children are not hesitant picture-takers, so the sets are rather large) are from this past weekend - Saturday, when they first got their cameras, and Bill and Joe caught some awesome fish, and then Sunday when we took the kids fishing in the morning and to Southwick's Zoo in the afternoon.

I still haven't posted my own pictures from the zoo or the fishing trips - yeah, I'm a slacker.

But - I have to share this - the coolest creature we saw at the zoo on Sunday?  An albino peacock.  Tail feathers on full display.  Stunning.  Just stunning.  Just wandering around outside the zoo.  With an albino hen and a couple of guinnea hens. 

And so now we have three sets of shots of the same bird.

Here's one of Alex's:

And one of Julia's:

And one of mine:

Okay, make that two of mine.  It's my blog.

Amazing, isn't he?

Tuesdays With Dorie: Marshmallows

This week's challenge recipe was chosen by Judy of Judy's Gross Eats.  You can find it in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours on pages 404-405.

I actually took two of Dorie's "playing around" suggestions and combined them so I could have Raspberry Chocolate Marshmallows instead of original vanilla.

Here are the ingredients and Dorie's instructions.  My own notes are in italics.

Ingredients:

About 1 cup potato starch or cornstarch

3/4 cup cold water

1/4 cups plus 1 T sugar (I didn't see any mention of this add'l tablespoon in the written recipe.  I assumed it was supposed to go in with the egg whites, so that's what I used it for.)

2 T light corn syrup

2    1/4-oz packets of unflavored gelatin

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1 T vanilla

GETTING READY:

Line a rimmed baking sheet--choose one with a rim that is 1" high--with parchment paper and dust the paper generously with potato starch or cornstarch.  (I used a 10" square pan instead.)

Have a candy thermometer at hand.

Put 1/3 cup of the water, 1  1/4 cups of sugar and the corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. 

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Once the sugar is dissolved, continue to cook the syrup--without stirring--until it reaches 265 degrees F on the candy thermometer, about 10 minutes.

While the syrup is cooking, work on the gelatin and the egg whites.  In a microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining water (a scant 7 T) and let it sit for about 5 minutes, until it is spongy,

then heat the gelatin in a microwave oven for 20 to 30 seconds to liquefy it.  (Alternatively, you can dissolve the gelatin in a saucepan over low heat.)

Working in the clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in another large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium-high speed until firm but still glossy--don't overbeat them and have them go dull.  (I added the tablespoon of sugar once the egg whites were foamy and starting to thicken.)

As soon as the syrup reaches 265 degrees F, remove the pan from the heat and, with the mixer on medium speed, add the syrup, pouring it between the spinning beater(s) and the side of the bowl.

Add the gelatin and continue to beat for another 3 minutes,

so that the syrup and the gelatin are fully incorporated. 

Beat in the vanilla.  (And at this point I also added half the raspberry puree

and half the melted chocolate/cocoa powder mixture.  I poured them each into the bowl with the mixer on low,

and then finished up with a rubber spatula.)

Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the meringue mixture onto the baking sheet, laying it down close to a short end of the sheet. 

Then spread it into the corners and continue to spread it out, taking care to keep the height of the batter at 1 inch;

you won't fill the pan.  Lift the excess parchment paper up to meet the edge of the batter, then rest something against the paper so that it stays in place (I use custard cups).  (I filled the pan - it was smaller and square, and so perhaps my marshmallows were more like 3/4-7/8 of an inch tall, rather than the full inch.)

Dust the top of the marshmallows with potato starch or cornstarch and let the marshmallows set in a cool, dry place.  They'll need about 3 hours, but they can rest for 12 hours or more.

(Um...clearly I wasn't actually "dusting" in this instance.  More like "bombarding.")

Once they are cool and set, cut the marshmallows with a pair of scissors or a long thin knife.

Whatever you use, you'll have to rinse and dry it frequently.  Have a big bowl with the remaining potato starch or cornstarch at hand and cut the marshmallows as you'd like--cut into squares, rectangles or even strips (as they're cut in France).  As each piece is cut,

drop it into the bowl.

When you've got 4 or 5 marshmallows in the bowl, reach in with your fingers and turn the marshmallows to coat them with starch,

then, one by one, toss the marshmallows from one hand to the other to shake off the excess starch;

transfer them to a serving bowl. 

Cut and coat the rest of the batch.

For Raspberry Marshmallows:

Fruit purees are excellent for flavoring these candies.  For raspberry marshmallows, you'll need a generous 1/3 cup of puree;

reduce the vanilla extract to 1/4 tsp.  After the batter is mixed, gently fold in the puree with a rubber spatula.  You can use the same measurements and technique for other purees, such as strawberry, mango and passion fruit.

For Light Chocolate Marshmallows:

Melt 3 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate and stir in 2  1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder.

Reduce the vanilla extract to 1/4 tsp, and after the marshmallow batter is mixed, fold in the chocolate mixture with a large rubber spatula.

I used half of the raspberry puree and half of the chocolate in the marshmallows, and saved the rest.

~~~~~

I've made marshmallows before, but just the vanilla ones, and I gave them all away as parts of Christmas gifts, so I don't even remember tasting them.

These were wonderful - light, soft, flavorful (chocolate and raspberry is such a lovely combination)...my kids didn't want to wait the 3-hour minimum to sample them.  They kept asking "Can we have the marshmallows now?"  No.  No.  After dinner you can.  Not yet.  Okay - NOW.

Alex wanted me to make S'mores.  Well, I didn't have graham crackers, and we didn't have a fire going either.  We did, however, have some Girl Scout cookies left - the shortbread ones - so I set one on a plate, put a marshmallow on top, and a bit of a Hershey bar on top of that, and put it in the microwave for a couple seconds.  The marshmallow kind of melted, but Alex didn't care.  Neither did Julia when I made hers.

But I was thinking...when you make S'mores, you don't put them in the oven.  You cook them over fire.  So what could I use to approximate the effects of flames licking at the sugar?

Aha!

My little butane torch!

I drizzled some of the leftover raspberry puree on a plate, and then some of the chocolate mixture...placed a cookie in the middle and put a little dollop of more chocolate on that. 

And then I topped that with a marshmallow and gently bruleed it.  Actually, I did it twice.  The first one looked too burnt on top to make a nice picture, so I topped it with a cookie and took a picture from the side - and it looked like I'd made some strange, meatball-in-a-cookie sandwich. 

See what I mean?

So I did the whole thing again, and this time I took my time with the flame and made sure I didn't blacken any of it.

This one looked better.

And I got a little more artful with the top cookie, too.

I gave this one to my husband after I'd taken all my pictures, and then plugged my camera into my laptop so I could upload the pictures.  Alex came into the room and was especially drawn to the raspberry puree.  Bill shared the plate with Alex, and just as I'd finished uploading pictures and unplugging the camera, I turned around and here's what I saw:

That blur you see between the plate and his face is his right hand, swooping down to the plate to scoop the remaining chocolatey-raspberry glop and bring it up to his mouth.  Very little remained on the plate.

So I'd say the marshmallows were a big hit with my little family.

 

Another Dollar Richer

From Friday afternoon.

Some Pictures After the Rain on Saturday...

I finally posted some pictures I took while the boys were fishing on Saturday.  You can see them here and here.

I get obsessed with water droplets, I think.

Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 - The Catch

That's 5 trout (4 rainbow and 1 brook), and two atlantic salmon.  Joe caught the longest one - it was 27" long and weighed 5.53 lbs.  Bill caught the other salmon - it's 21" - and he had another one on, about the same size, but it dove under the boat and got off the hook.

I'll write more tomorrow - and show more pictures.  It's been a busy weekend!

Snap Happy

Yes.  They've each got a Nikon Coolpix.  Julia's got the Coolpix L11, Alex has the Coolpix L14.

They have each snapped about a hundred pictures this morning.  And yeah, I spent a bit of money on the cameras and memory cards.  And yeah, my kids are little.

But.

They can fill the memory cards and if the pictures aren't worth printing, I don't have to print them.  I don't have to pay to have a disposable camera processed and printed, only to find out all the pictures were of the rail on a fencepost right at Julia's eye level.

So the way I'm looking at it, these cameras will have paid for themselves by the end of the summer, what with trips to the zoo and just happy kids snapping endless shots of the cat.

So you know what?  We're ALL happy.

And the kids know the deal - if they break the cameras, then that's it. 

Later on today I'm going to make neck straps for both of them.  Those wrist things don't really impress me at all.

Know what else?  It's been fun to see what they take pictures of.  They've been all over the house this morning, shooting pictures of the lizard as he sheds his skin...the cat, each other, their stuffed animals...books...Alex took a picture of a pancake on a plate...and so on.  It's really interesting and fun...looking through the lens through the eyes of my children.

Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 - Report from the Field (or Pond)

Bill just called.

So far they've got two salmon (one is 21" and about 3 lbs, the other is 27" and about 6 lbs) and 5 trout on the stringers.  (The 27" salmon gets his own stringer.) 

They were on shore when they called, waiting out the thunderstorms that have been coming east from Connecticut.  It's pouring rain here, in Warwick, now.  They're closer to the CT border and Bill said it was starting to clear up, so they were going to stay a while longer.

But still - what a great morning so far!

Opening Day of Trout Season 2008 - The Leaving

The truck was loaded up yesterday - canoe secured on top, tackle box, boat motor, oar, life jackets, anchor (a heavy disk tied to some kind of strong rope), a trash bag in which to stow the catch when carrying it from canoe to truck, and, of course, the freshwater poles.

I went to bed right around the time the Yankees bumped the score up again...Timlin had thrown a few pitches and then they brought in Okajima, and Bill followed soon after.  I had to set the alarm for the Opening Day of Trout Season Ungodly Hour of Awakening.  Ten past four.  (So I could hit the alarm twice and not be OVERsleeping.  Or, more importantly, not allowing Bill to oversleep.  Yes, I am custodian of the alarm clock, and of the wake-up calls.  Or nudges.  Or shoves.  Or mumbles.

Naturally Julia, being unsympathetic to anyone's lack of sleep but her own, woke up twice during the night.  First time, she had woken up and couldn't find her elephant (THE most important stuffed animal) so I turned the night light in the bathroom so I could see without waking anyone else up, found the elephant, and then she wanted to sleep in my bed.  And I said no, THIS was her bed, her big-girl bed, and THIS is where she sleeps.  Of course that went over well, and she sank to the floor and wailed, and so - mindful of Bill's need for a decent night's sleep prior to Opening Day of Trout Season - I hissed "Wanna watch a cooking show?" and she lifted her tearful face from her little purple bedside rug and said - at top volume "I can watch a cooking show?"  I shushed her and picked her up and carried her downstairs and turned on the food channel (Alton Brown doing a show about vinegar) and she fell asleep almost instantly, but I watched the rest of his show anyway, dozed off, woke up during one of this week's "Chefography" profiles (Bobby Flay) and watched the rest of that before bringing her heavy, deeply asleep little body (and elephant) back up to her bed.  That started oh, maybe after 12:30 last night?  Wait, I can check, hang on......................okay, so that Alton Brown episode aired at 11:00 and at 2:00 last night/this morning.....okay, it had to have been the 11:00 one - that's right, and then an episode of Unwrapped or something came on - I slept through that - and then the Bobby Flay episode at midnight.  Good.  Apparently I could not continue with my story until I had that straightened out.  Anyway, after the Bobby Flay story, which I enjoyed - I am a big fan - I carried Julia back to bed and then put myself back to bed, too.  She was up again around three - I woke to the sound of her heels slamming against the floor as she marched from her room to mine.  She will be an  imposing boss somewhere some day.  Anyway, she just climbed up into our bed, shifted around a bit to get comfortable, dozed there briefly and then whispered "I wanna go back in MY bed now."  (YAY!!!!) So I tucked her back in and went back to my bed for the brief horizontal time remaining to me.

While I was awake, I listened to the rain pouring down heavily.  So glad I wasn't one of the followers of Trout.  Yes, you might think it's nutty of me to even get up to fix Bill breakfast and see him off on these yearly pilgrimages, but I've done it for so long that I fear it would jinx things for him if I stopped.  (The Fish Gods smile on tradition.)  So I continue. 

Actually, we were both pretty well rested this morning.  Bill got up ten minutes earlier than planned, even.

He mad the coffee.  I made the Opening Day of Trout Season Traditional Morning Breakfast for Bill Sandwich.  Simply - a toasted english muffin, an over-easy egg, a slice of ham, and a slice of cheese, salt and pepper. 

 

Yes, that english muffin IS toasted.  Bill doesn't like his english muffins toasted too much.

I also made one for Joe, his nephew, and this year's Opening Day of Trout Season fishing buddy.  It seems to alternate between Joe and Bill's friend John.

Anyway.  I took that picture of the egg sandwich in the dining room.  Bill was fixing the coffee, and he saw the flash go off and asked "Are you chronicling my morning?"  Who, me?

I took a couple other pictures - not of him; he doesn't like having his picture taken and his fake smile resembles a sneer, and who needs that at this hour of the day?

In the picture above we have...his lucky fishing hat.  Keys.  Meal worms for the classic "worm and a dauber" setup.  And that plastic container is to hook on his belt or pocket or waistband and in it he can put a few lures and hooks and whatever while he's fishing in a river - nice and convenient and no need to lug a tackle box.  Oh, and that little purple plastic heart thing is Julia's.  It was the weight for her Barbie fishing pole (a pole that is no more, because someone in my house has occasional frustration-management issues and somehow instead of having new line put on, the reel and pole were broken.  But that person also had to suffer the invisible pain of bits of fiberglass stuck in his hands, from when he broke the pole, so maybe he'll think twice before SNAPPING HIS DAUGHTER'S FISHING POLE IN TWO JUST BECAUSE THE CHEAP REEL IS PISSING HIM OFF.)  Anyway.  She has a new rod and reel - NOT of the Barbie variety - and is all set.

And finally...off he goes into the damp, dark, still morning.  Several layers on - jeans, a shirt, a sweatshirt, a coat, and over everything, his rain gear.  Boots.  Gloves.  It wasn't raining when he left - actually, it was pretty nice outside. 

I waved as he drove away.  Because that's part of the tradition.  And, like I said, the Fish Gods heartily approve of tradition.

And it wouldn't do to anger the Fish Gods. 

Sort of a Non Post

I have nothing to really write about just now.  I haven't cooked anything very interesting over the last few days - it's just been too busy somehow - I've pretty much fed everyone on leftovers and peanutbutter and jelly.  That'll change soon, but not til tomorrow.

Tomorrow brings many big things. 

First and foremost, it is OPENING DAY OF TROUT SEASON.

I've written about it before (probably every year I've blogged) and so tonight Bill will be busy getting his gear together and putting the canoe up on the truck so he's all ready to go DARK AND EARLY tomorrow morning.

Is he taking Alex?

Oh, no.  Not tomorrow, anyway.  OPENING DAY OF TROUT SEASON is actually a very serious day - not a day for patience with a small boy and his need for assistance and his boredom after an hour.  Or possible dislike for the predicted rain.  No.  No little boys on the High Holy Day of Trout Season.

But we're all going on Sunday morning.  Bill and the kids with their poles, and me with my camera.  (I haven't bought a trout license, but hey, someone's got to capture all the Kodak moments, right?  I'll fish another time.)

Tomorrow we will hopefully be having trout for lunch or dinner, and Bill's got an idea for how he'll prepare at least some of it, so I'll definitely be writing that up.  And I've got a couple things to make to go along with it or after it.  Plus I have to work on my next Tuesdays With Dorie challenge at some point as well.  Fun stuff all around.  And, weather permitting, we'll be taking a couple of zoo trips this coming week (school vacation week) and maybe instead of my own photos, I'll upload some that the kids do. 

I'm mostly just rambling on here because there are a bunch of dishes to do and I am working ever so hard to avoid doing them.

Pathetic, huh?

Okay, okay.  I'll do them now.  And then they'll be done.  And I'll be happy.  And filled with a feeling of accomplishment.  Okay.

Talk to you later.

Niche-less

I've been thinking about this for some time now.  I'm still not sure what I'm going to do.

I was thinking of splitting this blog in two - one for JUST food-related content, and the other for JUST family/kids/my own silly thoughts.

But.

It's not so easy to peel them apart.  My kids help with a lot of the cooking and baking (as you've no doubt noticed if you've been reading me for oh, more than a week)...my husband and I both love food, love cooking...it's hard for me to separate the two.  Because then...if my kids are decorating cookies...is that a food post or a family post?  If my husband and I go out to eat at a new restaurant and I want to talk about the food here...well, it was a "date night" so it's about family, but there was good food involved, so should that be on the food site?

I don't know what to do yet.

Why does it matter?

Oh, because I'm trying to fit into a few different niches.  I'm going for targeted advertising and sometimes there are stipulations - like your blog needs to be a certain percentage of food-themed posts in order to be considered a food blog (in some places)...or a certain percentage of family/parenting posts...or whatever.

The problem is, food is a big part of my family.  We grow it, we catch it, we cook it, we eat it.  (I do most of the dishes, but that's a different issue.)  The point is, we are not separate from the food.  We are intertwined.  Food and family.  Family and food.

I'm still thinking about what I'm going to do.

If anyone wants to put in their two cents...feel free. 

Right now I'm going to help my son create a book of sea creatures.

(See, now, you'd think that would be a family/parenting kind of a situation, however, the story of these sea creatures is that, in turn, each one gets eaten by another sea creature bigger than itself.  So...does that make it a food post?  And WE eat a lot of seafood, too.  Again, food post.)

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

I Have a Son

Yesterday I took the kids out to lunch and then shopping for new shoes for their fat little feet.  Okay, not fat.  Just, you know, always growing bigger, for some reason.  Why is that? 

Anyway, after finally finding sneakers that were acceptable and fit right, we headed to one more store before the promised trip to the carousel in the food court.  (The carousel was my bribe for good behavior.)

We went in to this last store, and I waited while the sales clerk finished ringing up another customer.  Then I spoke.  "Um, my son is playing T-ball...and he needs a cup."

Ah, yes.  The boy's first plastic penile protective device.  They don't have a space for that in his baby book for some reason - just the walking and talking and teeth. 

Anyway, we got the kind that's like little white boxer shorts with a pocket for the cup - no straps or anything to worry about.  And we went home.

Later on, I was with him when he changed into his clothes for T-ball practice.  I told him to put on this new pair of "baseball underwear."  I'd already put the cup in the little pocket in front.  He looked at me with a slightly skeptical look on his face, then pulled on the shorts. 

He was both amused by and fascinated with the new bulge.  He knocked on it with his knuckles and looked up at me with that sweet almost-six-years-old face and said with a newfound look of manly pride:  "It looks like I have a really big, hard pee-pee!"

And so it begins.

Cakes - Alex's First Birthday - Sea Creatures - 2003

I'm jumping out of order a bit with the cakes.  I'd been going through the ones I did about ten years ago, but I came across this picture of the cake I made for Alex's first birthday, and I thought I'd post it. 

I remember working on this cake.  I remember being in this kitchen, coloring fondant for the various fish and crustaceans...my niece, Lisa, was here and she helped make all the little gray rocks you see along the front base of the cake.  I remember piping the bubbles that spell out the salutation in royal icing...and the curling wave over on the top right, also with royal icing.  I remember painting blue food coloring and water onto the fondant for the surface of the cake.  I remember this one really well.  The cake inside was chocolate.

I'm still rather proud of the lobster and crab...although, yeah, I know they're only that red once they've been cooked.  But hey, it was for a year-old child.  Bright colors were more appropriate for that, I think.  Right?

Tuesdays With Dorie: The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

This week's challenge was chosen by Mary of Starting From Scratch  - "The Most Extraordinary French Cream Tart" from Baking, From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pgs. 331-332. 

(I made mine with the "Sweet Tart Dough" on pg. 444.)

The first of my Tuesdays with Dorie!

I actually doubled the recipes.  Our nephew and his girlfriend just closed on their first home, and I thought this tart would be part of a nice housewarming gift.  And, of course, I would then need a second tart to keep for the family.

I've made lemon curd many times, and this lemon cream is similar in some ways, but oh so very different in mouth feel.  It's soft and smooth and light and lush.

**(I'm just writing out the directions for a single tart, though all my pictures will have twice as much of everything.)

Oh, and as is often the case, my daughter, Julia, helped out.  Dorie's instructions are in normal type, my own notes will be in italics.

Here's what you will need:

1 cup sugar

grated zest of 3 lemons

4 large eggs

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)

2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons (10  1/2 oz) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature

1 9-inch tart shell made with Sweet Tart Dough (page 444), Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts (page 444), or Spiced Tart Dough (page 447), fully baked and cooled

Getting Ready:  Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender (first choice) or food processorat hand.  Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmer water.  Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers

until the suar is moist, grainy and very aromatic.

Whisk in the eggs,

followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch.  Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F.  As you whisk--you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling--you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy,

then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks.  Heads up at this point--the tracks mean the cream is almost ready.  Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience--depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.  (Sorry, no pictures here - hard to hold a camera with a thermometer in one hand and a whisk in the other.)

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest.  Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.  (Since I'd doubled the recipe, and neither my blender nor my food processor had the capacity, I used my stand mixer from here on out.)

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. 

Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. 

Once the butter is in, keep the machine going--to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes.  If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.  (The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days or, tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator.)

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell.  Serve the tart, or refrigerate until needed.

And for the Tart Shell:

Ingredients:

1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 large egg yolk

And the directions:

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. 

Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in--you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas.  Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition.  When the egg is in, process in long pulses--about 10 seconds each--until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds.  Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change--heads up.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

To Press the Dough into the Pan:  Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom.  Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked.  Don't be too heavy-handed--press the crest in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture.  Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, perferably longer, before baking.

To Partially or Fully Bake the Crust:  Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. 

(Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.)  Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes.  Carefully remove the foil.  If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon.  For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).

To Fully Bake the Crust:  Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown.  (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I oftenkeep the crust in the oven just a little longer.  If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust's progress--it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.)  Transfer the tart pan to a rack an dcool the crust to room temperature before filling.

(I had issues with the crust - totally my own fault.  I should have rolled the dough out rather than just pressing it onto the pans.  My shells came out a bit lumpy in spots, thin in others, and therefore overcooked where they were thin.  You can see that particular problem in the shot below.)

I kept that one for us and gave the better shell to my nephew and his girlfriend. 

Anyway, I filled the tart shells a little bit before the 4 hour minimum chilling time was up, partly because of time constraints at home, but also because my son whacked his toe on the leg of the dining room table and he was on the verge of tears.  I said "I know what would make that feel better!  Lemon tart!"  And he nodded in agreement.  So I filled the shells at that point.

And my son forgot all about his pain...

And my daughter enjoyed the fruits (intended pun) of her labor.

And here's the tart we brought to Joe and Emily.

Couple other notes -

Exactly halfway through the first 25 minutes of baking the tart crusts, my kitchen was filled with the most wonderful buttery cookie smell.  And once the tart shells were out, my son came drifting into the kitchen, led by his nose, and wanted to eat the shells right then and there.

I had some of the cream left over - probably because my tart pan is an 8" and the rectangular pan is about the same in volume.  But that's okay. 

There's hardly any of our tart left now.  My husband had some, I'd had some with the kids, and we all agree it's one of the most delicious lemony creations we've ever tasted. 

And really pretty easy to make, too.  (Apart from my own self-created problems with the crusts.)  I'll definitely make this again.

Thanks Dorie!

Tuesdays With Dorie

I'm not much of a joiner.  It takes a long time for me to feel comfortable with new (to me) people, especially in a group.  I have this, oh, humongous batch of insecurities and it takes a lot for me to get past them.  I know - it's ridiculous.  But nevertheless....

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to me to realize that last week I went and joined two baking blog groups. 

The first is a group called Tuesdays With Dorie.  As of this writing, there are 124 members - and I'm sure that number will have grown by this time tomorrow.  Members are baking their way through Dorie Greenspan's book Baking - From My Home to Yours.

Each Tuesday everyone posts the results from the recipe chosen the week before. 

I'll be posting my results tomorrow, along with pictures (of course) and the recipe. 

This should be fun.

(Oh, and the other group?  I'll write more about that when the time comes.)

Potato Rye Bread with Onion and Caraway

 

I've added a new category - I might also include links to it under the recipe categories. 

The category is "Learning from Mistakes" and I'm including it because in baking and cooking - just like in every other facet of life, we make mistakes, and the best thing to do with a mistake is to learn something from it.

I made this rye bread last month - right after the whole  Corned Beef Project had been completed.  (If you want to read about the entire project, go over on the right and scroll down until you find that heading.  It was about a week and a half long project that I plan to repeat again next year.)  Anyway - I figured I'd make a loaf of rye so I could make a Reuben sandwich for my husband with some of the leftover corned beef.  We had sauerkraut in the freezer, I had cheese, we clearly  had the corned beef, and I could whip up a Thousand Island Dressing easily enough.  All that was needed was the rye.  And I figured rather than just go buy a loaf somewhere, I should (not could, but should) make it myself.

I found a recipe in one of my bread books, I prepped all my ingredients, I took pictures all along the way as I made the bread...it smelled amazing baking in the oven.

And it came out flat.  Flat like an onion and rye loaf of focaccia.  Not exactly the way it should have come out.

And so I was rather irritated with myself because I know I can successfully make a loaf of bread.  So what did I do wrong?

Once I sliced into it, I saw the problem - there was very little lift inside.  It would have been easy to say "well, that's because it was so heavy.  The onion mixture weighed it down."  Except that I couldn't blame the onions.  Really, it was probably because I didn't knead it long enough.

Scratch that.  No "probably" about it.  I rushed one of the most important parts of the bread making process.  And that's why my bread baked off the way it did.

So, lesson learned.  Don't rush the kneading.  Duh.  I know better.  But sometimes we all need reminders, don't we?  At least I do.

And that's the lesson in this post.  But on the good side, the bread tasted fabulous, and I made an awesome, albiet skinny, Reuben for my husband, which he couldn't finish, so I had some, and yeah, it tasted really good. 

Here's the recipe, and pictures, and you can see, at the end, how the bread came out, because I didn't let the gluten develop enough, which meant there wasn't enough structure to support the bread as the yeast did its work to make the dough rise.  Sort of a house of twigs, rather than bricks.

Enough analysis.  Let's bake.

The book I used is Secrets of a Jewish Baker by George Greenstein.  One of the cool features of this book is Chapter Ten - "Twelve Menus:  A Morning of Baking."  Each menu includes about 4-5 different bread recipes, sometimes all yeasted, sometimes a mix of yeasted and quick.  Each menu or program takes somewhere between 2-5 hours to complete, depending on the kinds of breads made.  The programs are all lessons in time management as well - ordinarily when we make bread, we make a loaf or two of A bread.  Or a batch of muffins or a quick bread.  But in the same time frame we might use for that one recipe, instead, if we prep well and pay attention to what we're doing, we can produce multiple loaves.  Pretty impressive, no?

Anyway.  I didn't do a whole morning of baking menu.  I just used the recipe for "Potato Rye Bread with Onion and Caraway."  Why this one?  For one thing, it didn't involve making a sour starter, which I would have had to do the day before.  I wanted the bread for that evening.  This bread is something you make in one day.  Also - I had potatoes and onions because I'd bought more than enough for the Corned Beef and Vegetable dinner.  And I had Caraway seeds because of the Irish Whiskey Soda Bread I'd made for that same meal.  So I was all set.

Here's what you need:

1 medium to small yellow onion, minced

2 T caraway seeds, or more to taste

Pinch salt

Vegetable oil or olive oil, for sauteing

1 cup warm water, preferably potato water

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 medium to small potato, mashed (about 1/2 cup mashed potato)

1 T sugar

1 T shortening

3 T milk powder (omit for nondairy bread) (I didn't use any because I didn't have any.)

2 cups rye flour

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1  1/2 tsp salt

Flour, for dusting work top

Vegetable oil, for coating bowl

Rye flour or cornmeal, for dusting baking sheet.  (I used cornmeal) 

And here's what you do:

Scrub the potato.  Cook, quartered, in 2  1/2 cups boiling water until soft (about 10 minutes).  Let cool, then peel and mash.  (Save the water - you'll use it in the recipe!)

In a small skillet over medium-low heat, saute the onion, caraway seeds, and the pinch of salt in the oil just long enough to soften the onion. 

Set aside.

DOUGH

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water.  Add the mashed potato, sugar, shortening, milk powder (if used), flours, and the 1  1/2 tsp salt. 

Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

(I used my stand mixer and the dough hook.  Unfortunately, I didn't let it run long enough.  Also, I didn't look through the other directions for this recipe - Mr. Greenstein also gives separate measurements and directions for use with a stand mixer.  Another lesson learned.)

Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead.  If the dough is moist and sticky, add more all-purpose flour 1/4 cup at a time.  Knead until elastic (5 to 8 minutes).  The dough will be softer than usual because of the rye flour, and it will tend to feel sticky.

(When using the dough hook and stand mixer, once the flour is incorporated, use the first setting and beat until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.  Add more all-purpose flour if needed.  Should be about 5-8 minutes.  Turn out onto floured work surface, knead a bit...

 

 

and shape into a ball.)

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl and turn to coat. 

Cover and allow to rise until doubled in volume (45-60 minutes). 

Punch down, shape into 1 or 2 rounds, and allow rest, covered, for 15 minutes.Knead in the reserved onion mixture.

SHAPING

Shape into 1 or 2 round loaves.  Place on a rye flour or cornmeal-dusted baking sheet.

Proof until doubled in size. 

Dust the tops with additional all-purpose flour and cut decorative slashes.

BAKING

Bake with steam in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-45 minutes.  (For the steam, I just squirted water into the oven with a spray bottle.  There are better methods, but I didn't use them this time.)  If 1 large loaf is made, allow for additional oven time.  The bread is done when tapping the bottom with your fingertips produces a hollow thump.  Let cool on a wire rack.

It looks kind of nice from above...

And here you can see that it rose to a majestic inch and a half in height.  Actually, it sort of slumped down to that, because it was taller after the second rise.

But we've already gone over all of that.

And despite the obvious flaws, it still made some yummy sandwiches.

It Sure Seemed Like a Good Idea

We spent a couple of hours at my sister's house today.  My kids like playing with their older cousins, or at least playing nearby while the two cousins play Guitar Hero.

 

I just wanted a few minutes of peace and quiet.  And to drink a whole cup of coffee without having to reheat it.  I brought down the last of my Bittersweet Chocolate and Poached Pear Tart as payment for both.

My sister said Alex and Julia could get some markers and color the big empty cardboard box in the living room.  Both kids thought that was a great plan, so Mere showed them where the markers were and soon they were busily creative.

At one point Julia came into the kitchen wearing Calvin's hat.  She looked cute. 

And while Alex played with my sister's practice nun-chucks, Julia held aloft my sister's bamboo practice bo.  I imagine in her mind she had just defeated a few classmates.  Or her brother.

Eventually they both went back to coloring the box, and with the exception of the Guitar Hero noise, the living room was fairly quiet and Meredith and I actually got to hang out and chat a bit. 

At one point Mere left to go upstairs, and as she passed the living room, she did a double-take and said "Um...Jayne...come see what your kids are doing."

That's never a good thing.

She wouldn't have said that if they were, oh, dusting the bookshelves or sweeping the floor.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the living room.

Both kids were in the box.

They were laughing hysterically.

And here's what I saw.

Can you see it?  Did you look at their faces?

They weren't just coloring the cardboard.

In fact, when my sister had walked by, the kids were facing each other, markers in hand, each gently drawing on the other's face.

 

I should have switched to color for these shots, but I was too busy telling them to STOP IT!  MARKERS ARE FOR COLORING ON PAPER!  OR CARDBOARD!  NOT EACH OTHER!

These lines on his face were blue...and there were also blue marks on Julia's face.  And red and blue on their ankles and bare feet.  And Julia's hands.

They really didn't care what I thought at all.

But just to placate me - or shut me up - they resumed drawing on their cardboard canvases.

At least while they thought I was watching.

Thanks, Mere.  Thanks a lot.  Hope you enjoyed the ganache.

Herb Crust Pizza - One Crust, Many Toppings

I made a bunch of pizzas last night.  Just for fun, I added some dried herbs to the dough. 

Here's what I used for the dough:

5 tsp dried yeast, dissolved in

4 cups warm water in the bowl of my 6-quart stand mixer.

After the yeast softened and started to bubble, I added

10 cups all-purpose flour

5 tsp salt

1 heaping tsp each dried oregano, dried thyme, and dried basil

Mix at second-slowest speed for about 5 minutes.

(If the dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add more flower, about a quarter cup at a time, til the dough comes away from the sides.)

Turn dough onto a lightly flowered surface and knead the dough into a ball.  Flatten slightly, and cut into 8 pieces.  Pour some olive oil into a large bowl.  Shape 8 pieces of dough into balls and place in bowl of oil, turning each ball to coat with the oil.  Pour a little more olive oil over them - you want them to be lightly covered with the oil.  Let sit for half an hour or so in the oil.

While the dough rests in the oil, preheat the oven and prepare the toppings.

Preheat the oven to between 450-500 degrees F. 

Toppings are entirely up to you. 

Here's what I did with mine.

Well, first of all, before I'd even made the dough, I started making a sauce, because I didn't have any canned in the pantry.  I used two small containers of roasted tomatoes from last summer and a 28 oz can of plum tomatoes and their juice.  I also used about half a cup of chianti (what was left in the bottle) and about a tablespoon of fresh oregano I'd frozen in olive oil last summer.  I'd also put in about 8 smashed cloves of garlic.  And some salt and pepper.  And I let that cook down for a while - til I'd made the dough.  Then I put the sauce mixture through a food mill and then back on the stove for a little while longer.  I skimmed some excess olive oil off the top and tasted it - just needed a bit more salt.

Alex and Julia each made their own pizza.

Alex's - as always - some sauce, just a little cheese and an even distribution of pepperoni.

For Julia, I'd sauteed some mushrooms and some minced shallots...

When she made her pizza, she spread out a generous layer of sauce...all of her alotment of cheese plus the cheese Alex didn't use, and poured her bowl of mushrooms right on the center of the pizza.  She topped the mushrooms with a bit of Alex's leftover sauce, and then ate the restspooned the rest of it into her mouth.

 

After the kids had made their pizzas, they left, and I got to play.

I'd bought a pound of fresh mozzarella, and I tore that apart while I was cooking the sauce...

I minced half a shallot and sauteed that with a big handful of baby arugula leaves...

...and then I stirred in about a quarter cup of pureed basil and olive oil (from last summer) that had been in the freezer.  And then I stirred in the last of a container of ricotta cheese - maybe 3/4 of a cup or so.  And then I was happy.

Next pizza - half of the arugula/basil/ricotta mixture topped with torn mozzarella.

 

And then...sauce, a whole lot of shredded (pre-packaged) mozzarella, and the rest of the mushrooms.

And then...sauce, a lot of shredded (pre-packaged) mozzarella, and plenty of pepperoni.

And then the other half of the arugula/basil/ricotta mixture, a little parmesan, and a generous sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

Last two...

First - simple one - just sauce and both the shredded (pre-packaged) AND the fresh mozzarellas.

And finally - my favorite of the bunch - pre-packaged mozzarella, then the last of the fresh mozzarella, a tablespoon of minced shallots, and a little can of smoked oysters.

   

Of course, 8 pizzas was far more than we needed for dinner last night, and that's the whole point of making that many.  Lunch the next day.  And a late night snack the day after that.  And lunches for everyone when Monday rolls back around.

So go - make some pizza.  Be creative.  Have fun!

Treasure

Yesterday, completely on a whim, I decided to bring the kids to the beach.  Alex is in the middle of a 4-week study of the oceans and sea creatures of all kinds, so I figured this would be especially cool for him.  It was a gorgeous day, too.  And the best part was, I didn't tell the kids where we were going.  Just bundled them up, gave them rubber gardening gloves to wear in case it was cold (and because we'd be collecting sandy, wet treasures along the shoreline) and off we went. 

We went to Oakland Beach, in Warwick, because it was close by.  We drove past the little house that Bill and I rented for a few years way back when, and we got chowder and clamcakes and lemonade at Iggy's.

We filled my deep coat pocket with all sorts of shells and rocks and crab claws, and I took a bunch of pictures.  The kids chased seagulls...we climbed on rocks...we saw 4 dead jellyfish...and we were out in the fresh air for a couple of hours. 

The kids see our collection of shells as their bounty, but I look through the pictures and see our time spent together as the real treasure.  I've included a few shots in this post, but if you want to see the rest of them, you can go here.

 

(and I didn't put that little starburst highlight on the shell - it just came out that way.)

and lastly - a bit of dabbling with artistic effects...we saw a pair of swans on the way home...here's one shot:

and here's what happened after I played with it a bit:

Fun stuff, huh?

Anyway, like I said, if you want to see all of them, you can go to my Oakland Beach set on flickr.

Good thing we went yesterday...it's pouring rain today.

Broccoli Rabe - Sauteed in Olive Oil with Pancetta and Garlic

Well, the post title pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this little recipe.

I figured I'd post this today to celebrate the fact that we have broccoli rabe coming up in the garden as of yesterday.  Yay!

I love the slight bitterness of broccoli rabe.  Food can't, and shouldn't, always be sweet or salty.  The bitterness creates a nice balance of flavors on the plate.  I like to serve it alongside strong-flavored dishes like beef or lamb...or salmon...or coq au vin.  Okay, I like it with anything. 

And here's all I do.

First, get a bunch or two of broccoli rabe from the grocery store, or harvest all you can from your garden (if you're growing it.  if you have a garden.)  Rinse it well, cut off about 2 inches from the stem end (if they're the big bunches from the store) and then chop the rest of the rabe into about 3" lengths, more or less.  Set that aside.

Dice up some pancetta

(or bacon, if you can't get pancetta...I've also used prosciutto.  You could use ham, too, probably.  Something porky and salty, basically.) and put it a hot pan,

stirring occasionally, until it renders its fat and gets darker and crispy.  Remove the pancetta and add a bit of olive oil and some peeled, crushed (but no sliced or minced) garlic

to the pan, stir it around, and leave the heat on low to medium low.  You want the fat and oil to absorb some of the garlic flavor.  (I also like to use roasted garlic sometimes for a sweeter garlic flavor.)

After the garlic has started to turn golden, add in your broccoli rabe (you can remove the garlic first, if you wish),

turn the heat up to medium, and put a lid on the pan to trap the heat and wilt the rabe.  You may need to move the rabe around a bit so the bottom layer doesn't stick to the pan.

I take the lid off the pan once the wilting starts, and I try not to cook the rabe too far past that point, so the green color doesn't start to go gray. 

I also like to squeeze some lemon juice over it.

To serve, I just pass around a block of parmesan and a grater so people can add cheese to it if they'd like.  You can also add the garlic and pancetta back in if you'd like. 

Pretty easy, right? 

Much Needed

I had one of those mornings today.

One of those "what the hell am I doing???" mornings.

One of those mornings where I am grabbed around the neck by the fear that I've made the wrong decisions...the wrong choices...that I've wasted time...that I'm going nowhere...that I'm well on my way to becoming a failure as a person.

Not as a mother. 

But as me.  Whoever that's supposed to be.

I'm working on it. 

But anyway, I gave myself a few short reminders.  Things to think about. 

Like...

"Look neither to the right nor to the left."

I have no idea if that's a real quote from somewhere.

But basically, it's my way of reminding myself not to check on anyone else's progress and just to focus on my own.  Not to compare myself - and find myself lacking in the process.  But just to keep going forward.

And another one...

"Just do something."

That one used to be the slogan I borrowed from Nike - "Just do it." 

But IT can be daunting, because it's ALL of IT.

And that's a big bite.

And so rather than paralyzing myself with the order to JUST DO IT, I am trying to keep myself going by just doing SOMETHING toward that IT.  Each day.

Even when I'm overflowing with doubt and self criticism.  And, you know, fear. 

And so I resolved to do something today.

I was in the kitchen - my office, sort of - checking email and other blogs.

And - entirely by surprise - I came across this post on Red Pony Farm.

Entirely by surprise.

I stared at the screen and felt my heart and spirit lift a bit. 

I SO needed that today.  So very much.

Thank you, Edna Leigh Libby, for writing that kind post.

It helped me today.   

First Day of T-Ball Practice

Alex had his first T-Ball practice this afternoon.  Bill helped him get his gear together, and the two of them headed to the field while I stayed home with Julia and made dinner.  It's cold and windy today, and we just didn't think Julia would be all that thrilled to sit on the bleachers for 45 minutes.

Anyway, I took a few pictures of Alex before he and Bill took off....

And then I thought it would be fun to try to get him to do the Papelbon stare.

I told him to look mean, and glare up at me just below the brim of his cap.

This was the look he gave me.

I told him to keep the mean eyes, but to lose the snarl.

We ended up laughing at each other as we made mean faces, and I had to look away so he could get his face under control.

You can see the little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.  He fought it pretty well.

Then it was time to go...

      

(Sure, NOW he's serious.)

And off they went.

They got back around an hour later, and Alex had had a great time.  They learned to run the bases, practiced catching ground balls, and teamed up in twos to play catch. 

They have team pictures in a couple of weeks, and his first game is the weekend after that. 

It kind of blows my mind that I have a son old enough to participate in organized sports. 

But at the same time - it's so cool.

P.S.  There was another shot I took of Alex that I decided to play around with a bit.  You can see it below.

Twirling Dervish

Julia wore her Easter ensemble to daycare today.

It's nice and twirly.

She likes to pretend she's a ballerina...

And just look at her foot - and the way her head is facing.  There's some flexibility right there.

If her clothes were more flowing, she'd have a Stevie Nicks kind of thing going on...

 

And she's not even dizzy.

Gone With the Wind

(This post is for my sister.  She will know why.)

It rained yesterday morning, and drizzled on and off into the afternoon.  Not a great day to play outside after school/daycare.  But Julia wanted to go outside anyway.  She doesn't let silly things like rain or cold get in the way of playing.

Besides, the Easter Bunny brought each of my children their VERY OWN umbrella, and what better time to go outside and play than on a rainy day when Julia could bring her VERY OWN "Ariel" (the Little Mermaid) umbrella out there with her.

So out she went, pink boots, red coat, and Ariel umbrella.  I watched her on and off as she ran around the back yard, or skipped, or ambled...sometimes with the umbrella, sometimes not.  Sometimes it looked like she was talking, or singing.  All in all, a good bit of play time.

But though it wasn't raining much any more, it was windy, and that made it feel colder than the 50+ degrees the thermometer promised.  Soon enough I heard a faint tapping on the storm door and saw the top of Julia's head and her umbrella through the window on the kitchen door.

I opened the inner door, and then carefully held the storm door so she could sidle past it on the top step and come in.

But then a great gust of wind swooped down, grabbed the Arial umbrella and pulled.  Hard.  Julia, still holding to the molded figure of Ariel on the handle, was yanked around with the umbrella and pulled off the top step.  She let go, fortunately, or she'd probably have ended up a few streets away, but she sprawled head and hands first down the (cement) steps and onto the (asphalt) driveway.

It was the funniest thing I've seen in a while - and I've never seen a wind-grabbed umbrella pull a human being anywhere except in "Mary Poppins."

But I swallowed the laughter before it bubbled out because Julia was wailing.  Physically she was fine - no scrapes on her hands or (thank God) on her face.  I think mainly she was just very surprised and scared by the whole experience.

I brought her in the house, hugged her a while, wiped the tears, and listened to her - in a sort of 3-going-on-4-year-old version of Mary Tyler Moore wailing "Oh Rob!" in her Laura Petrie years - recount what had happened.

"aaaaand...the wwwwind just...BLEW me...downthestairs and I FALLED DOWN!"

Cakes - New Home - 1997

Another birthday cake for a coworker.  She and her husband had either just purchased or just moved into a new home, and this took place right around her birthday.  So the cake theme was pretty easy to decide on.

According to my  notes, the cake is alternating layers of chocolate and lemon, with alternating lemon and chocolate frosting between layers.  The decorating is all done with royal icing, and off to the side of the little index card I'm looking at it says "forgot chimney!" - oops.

Whenever I made these cakes for people at work, I would come into work earlier than usual the next day so I could place the cake on the person's desk, try to fix anything that suffered on the drive in (I brought a piping bag of royal icing with me), and take a couple of pictures of the cake.  I'm so glad I took these pictures, and glad that I wrote up a few notes about each cake.

I admit it, I loved the positive feedback.  Loved the fact that people from other departments would show up just to see the cake.  I had fun (for the most part) creating the cakes - first in my head and then in my kitchen.  I also was extremely critical of each one, aware of every flaw, every thing I would do differently the next time.  I was far more picky than I needed to be.  But my most critical moments were around midnight when I finally tossed the last piping bag of royal icing in the sink and headed to bed. 

I tended to like the cakes better in the morning.  And under the fluorescent office lights.

Bittersweet Chocolate and Ginger-Lemon Poached Pear Tart

Years ago Bill and I used to frequent a tiny restaurant featuring the cuisine of Northern Italy.  The name of the place was Nonna Cherubina.

The husband and wife - Luigi and Stephania - who owned and ran the place (and lived above it) were warm and kind and welcoming.  We always felt like family there. 

There were a few years - after we'd moved to a different neighborhood and had two babies - when we didn't go out to eat there at all.  And then, a few years ago, we discovered that Nonna Cherubina had closed.  I heard that Luigi and Stephania had moved to Spain.  And that was the end of a little period in our lives.

The food was fabulous, every time.  So were the desserts.  One evening one of the desserts offered was a pear and chocolate tart.  I tried it, and it was delicious.  I never forgot it - the uncommon combination of flavors, and the simplicity and beauty of it.

Well, a while ago when I was making my poached pears for this post, I started thinking about that pear and chocolate tart.  I didn't remember it perfectly, but I thought I could at least make something kind of similar.

So here's what I came up with.

First, I poached the pears.

I didn't poach them whole, like I'd done for that other dessert.  And I didn't use red wine this time, either.  I wanted them white, to better contrast with the dark chocolate.

For the poaching liquid, I used 3 cups of water, 2 cups of sweet wine (2 different kinds that Bill's nephew brought back from Germany recently),

 

1/2 cup of sugar, the peeled zest of a lemon, and about a 1 inch knob of fresh ginger, sliced,

and two teaspoons of vanilla. 

I put all of that in a pot and brought it to a boil.

While the poaching liquid was heating up, I peeled two firm pears...

And then sliced them in half...

trimmed the ends off slightly, and continued to slice each half lengthwise, into 1/8-1/4 inch thick slices.  (I cut around the little seed area where necessary.)

And when the poaching liquid had reached a boil, I added the pear slices and let the liquid come back to the boil.

Once the liquid reached a boil, I shut the heat off and just let everything sit there for an hour and a half or so.  I didn't want to cook the pears too much - they were thin slices and I didn't want them to turn mushy.

I removed the pears from the liquid and put them in a smaller bowl on the counter to finish cooling down, and then I removed any remaining pieces of ginger and lemon peel, covered the pears with plastic wrap, and put them in the fridge.

Next up - the crust.

I wanted nuts in the tart crust - I figured they would add some crunch, and nuts go great with both chocolate and pears, so why not?

I used 3/4 cup of ground almonds, 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of salt, 1  1/2 tsp brown sugar, 1 stick of unsalted butter (chilled and cut into little cubes), 1/4 cup of vegetable shortening (also chilled, also cut into little cubes), and somewhere around 6-8 T of ice water to make the dough. 

First I combined the almonds, flour, salt, and sugar in the food processor and pulsed to combine.

Then I added the chilled cubes of butter and pulsed 5-6 times.

And then the shortening and another 5-6 pulses.

To that I gradually added the ice water - a tablespoon or two and then a pulse...tablespoon and a pulse...until the dough just came together.

I wrapped the dough in plastic and put that in the fridge to chill.

After half an hour or more (I don't remember exactly), I took the dough out of the fridge and divided it in half.  I rolled the first half out so it was large enough to line my 8" round tart pan...

I folded it into quarters...

Placed the dough so that the point of the fold was in the center of the tart pan...

Unfolded the dough and pressed it gently into the corners of the pan...

And then trimmed off the excess.

I did the same thing, more or less, with the other half of dough and my rectangular tart pan.

And then, since I was going to prebake these tart shells, I docked the dough with a fork. 

Docking means piercing the dough with many small holes so that steam can escape while it's cooking and you won't end up with a great big pastry bubble in your pan.

I baked the shells at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.

And last, but certainly not least - the chocolate part.

I made a bittersweet ganache - actually, I made a LOT of a bittersweet ganache.  I still have half of it in the fridge.  It calls to me in the night...

Anyway, here's what I used:

1 quart of heavy cream/whipping cream (same thing)

24 oz good bittersweet chocolate

4 T unsalted butter

4 T sugar

I put the cream, sugar and butter in a pot and started heating it on medium.

 

While that was heating up, I broke my chocolate into pieces an put them in a large stainless steel bowl.

Once the sugar had dissolved, the butter melted, and the cream mixture started to boil, I poured all of that into my bowl of chocolate.

Then I stirred it and stirred it...

and the chocolate melted and melted...

(yum)

And once the chocolate was all melted, and the mixture was nice and dark, I poured it all through a strainer (just to get any tiny bits of unmelted chocolate out) and then poured the ganache into my two tart shells.

I let these sit out on the counter until the ganache had completely cooled and was starting to firm up a little bit. 

I dried off the pear slices on some paper towels and then arranged them on top of the tarts. 

 

I could have used more pears, I suppose, and really overlapped them tightly so they'd look like a flower or something, but the ginger-lemon flavor of the pears was pretty strong, and I didn't want to upset the balance between that and the chocolate.  And also, I only had 2 pears anyway.  heh heh.

I put both tarts in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours before slicing them and serving.

Julia and Alex had some after dinner last night.

They both liked it.  In fact, Alex just asked for a piece a moment ago - for a snack.

The spicy tartness of the pears, the smooth and rich chocolate ganache, and the crispy, nutty tart shell.

It's not exactly the way I remember the other tart,

 

but I'm still pretty pleased with it.