The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

TWD - Coconut Butter Thins

  

Hi.  I'm Julia.  I'm four and a half. 

This week Mommy said I could be in charge of talking about the cookies she made. 

They're called "Coconut Butter Thins," and Mommy said she got to pick out the recipe. 

I don't know what that means. 

She always gets to pick the recipes out at our house.

She made these cookies a few whiles ago but she couldn't talk about them until now because I think it was a secret or something.

I helped make these cookies.  I help a lot.  I'm a good helper.

First I have to wash my hands.  With soap. 

Then Mommy has to put my hair in a pony tail.  So I don't get butter in my hair.

I'm wearing an apron, just like Mommy does, so I don't get food on my clothes.  And I have to stand on a chair, 'cuz I'm not a really big girl yet.  But Mommy lets me crack the eggs.  Only there weren't any eggs in these cookies.  So I didn't get to.

But there was the skin from a lime.  I didn't shred it.  I can shred cheese on pasta.  But Mommy shredded the skin from the lime.

 

And there were other things, too.  There was flour, and sugar, and coconut, and corn... corn... cornstarch, Mommy said.  And salt.  And............coriander.  And lime.  Oh, yeah, I already said that.

 

Oh, and nuts.  I like nuts.  Do you like nuts?  Alex has a - Alex is my brother, he's six and a half.  Alex says "Do you like nuts?" and if you say yes, he laughs and laughs.  I don't know why.  He's silly.

Mommy says these are macademia nuts.  And there's also vanilla.  And butter.  I like butter. 

 

Now you mush up the lime things with the sugar.  It smells really good.  Kind of like lemonade candy.

 

Now you put the butter and the sugar and the lime stuff in a mixer bowl and mix it all up really fast. 

Mommy has to do this part. 

I have to keep my hands away from the mixer machine or I can't help.

If you touch the mixer thing when it's on, you could get VERY, VERY BAD BOO-BOOS!

And Mommy won't let you help.

 

Mommy let me have a taste.  It was yummy. 

Oh, and then we put in the flour and the corn...cornstuff...and the sugar and the salt and....that other stuff.  The teeny tiny brown stuff.  The coriander.

 

And then you put in those nuts and the coconut. 

 

And Mommy mixed it all together.

 

And she let me have one more taste.  JUST ONE.  It was yummy. 

Then she put it in a bag and rolled it out with a rolling pin!  In a BAG!  And then she put it in the fridgerator for a few whiles.

 

When Mommy took it out of the fridgerator, it was all flat and hard!  Look!  It didn't even bend!

 

Mommy cut off the plastic bag and I got to peel it off the dough while Mommy took a picture. 

 

Then she wanted to take a picture of it again.  I put my hand there when she wasn't looking.  Hee hee hee....

 

Then she told me to take my hand away and don't do that again, Julia.

 

Then she took a RULER and made lines on the dough!  With a knife.  Knifes are VERY sharp.  VERY SHARP.  Mommy wouldn't let me use the knife. 

 

But she did let me use a fork!  We put all the little squares on the cookie sheet and then I got to poke holes in them with a fork.  TWO times.  I had to poke the fork in each cookie TWO TIMES.

 

Mommy took a bunch more pictures after we poked all the holes in the cookies and then she put the pans in the oven and took MORE pictures AGAIN after she took the pans out.

    

 

 They look very yummy, don't they? 

But wait! 

   

We have to wait until the cookies cool before Mommy will let us have one.  

Alex kept asking if they were ready yet.  Mommy kept saying no. 

 

She kept taking pictures and saying "Not yet.  Not yet."  It was taking a long time.  

 

    

But finally she said we could have one.

That's Alex.  My brother.  He's being silly.

Me and Alex and Daddy all liked them. 

 And we got to have more cookies. 

Not just one. 

I think Mommy liked them, too.

She had a bunch.

And she took more pictures. 

She said lots of other people were going to make these cookies, too. 

I wanted to go over their houses and help, but Mommy said they already had helpers.

She said if you wanted to see all the cookies they made with their helpers, you could look on your computers here and find all the people on the list.

They're called Tuesdays with Dorie.

I think that's a funny name.  Tuesday's not a NAME!

Oh, yeah, and Mommy put the recipe down there, after the other cookie picture. 

You should make these.  You and your helper.  They're yummy.

 

"Coconut Butter Thins"

Dorie Greenspan

Baking:  From My Home to Yours, pg 145 

"There was a moment when I thought I shouldn't include these because they are so fragile--but they're too good not to share.  They are like shortbread cookies in their preparation and melt-in-your-mouth butteriness, but once they're slid into the oven, they become more wafery and lacy.  Because they also contain coconut and chopped macademia nuts, they've got a bit of bump and crunch."

1 _^1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch of ground coriander

2/3 cup sugar

Grated zest of 1 lime

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 _^1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup finely chopped macademia nuts (don't be afraid to use salted nuts)

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt and coriander.

If you want to get a little more flavor out of the lime zest, put the sugar and zest in the mixer bowl and, using your fingertips, work the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and the mixture fragrant.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and zest on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until smooth.  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear.  Add the coconut and nuts and pulse to incorporate them.  There will probably be some dry ingredients in the bottom of the bowl--don't work them in with the mixer, just reach into the bowl and knead them in.

Transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock bag.  Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9-x-10 _^1/2-inch rectangle that's 1/4 inch thick.  As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn't cause creases.  When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 2 days.

GETTING READY TO BAKE:  Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open.  Turn the dough out onto the board (discard the bag), and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut it into 32 squares, each roughly 1 _^1/2 inches on a side.  Transfer the squares to the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between them, and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies to the sheet.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and fromt to back at the midway point.  The shortbreads will be very pale--they shouldn't take on much color.  Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool to room temperature.

Makes 32 Cookies

Serving:  Save these for an after-dessert dessert, so they'll be the last taste you have with your last sip of coffee or tea.

Storing:  Wrapped well, these will keep for about 3 days at room temperature or for up to 2 months in the freezer.

~~~

Well, Mommy said I have to go to bed now.  I have school tomorrow.

See ya later, crocodile!

Wild (and Tame) Mushroom and Walnut Pate

 

Oh yes, it's yet another sampling from Peggy Fallon's book Great Party Dips. 

 

You know, the book I'm giving away to some lucky random entrant in the giveaway? 

That book.

So far I've also tried out the "Rockin' Moroccan Salsa" and a bright pink version of the "24-Carat Caviar Dip," both of which were very yummy.

This wild mushroom concoction was actually the first recipe that caught my eye, but because the recipe instructs that you chill it for at least 4 hours, it wasn't the first one I made.  I wanted faster results. 

Anyway.  The recipe calls for an assortment of wild mushrooms, but Ms. Fallon points out that if all you have available are crimini mushrooms, then just use them.  I bought some mixed wild mushrooms, some baby bella, and I still had a package of Hen of the Woods mushrooms in my fridge that our friend John had foraged some time ago so I made sure to include them as well.

 

In total, you need a pound of mushrooms.  I used a bit more because I wanted to use a few nice looking mushrooms as decoration, as you can see in the photo at the top of this post.

The rest of the ingredients include a half cup of walnuts...

  

4 tablespoons of unsalted butter (though if you wanted to, you could sub olive oil instead.  But for flavor purposes, I think butter works best with mushrooms.  Just my two cents.)

 

A quarter of a cup of chopped shallots...

 

Half a teaspoon of dried thyme leaves (or one and a half teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme)

 

Half a teaspoon of salt, (sorry, no picture.  I'm trying to break my slightly dotty habit of photographing EVERY single ingredient.  Part of the recovery process is to gradually eliminate one more ingredient with each successive recipe I post.  Eventually there won't even be words either.  Just post titles.  It's not easy.  I'm just taking it one day at a time.)

2 tablespoons of cognac or brandy...

 

A teaspoon of soy sauce...

 

And four ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature, cut into four pieces.

 

Okay, now once you've got everything assembled it's time to start cooking.

The directions tell you to toast the walnuts on a pan in a 325 degree oven, but I did mine in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove.  Whatever works for you.  You want them to be "lightly browned and fragrant."  Just don't let them burn - they don't taste quite so good if that happens.

Next up, the mushrooms.  Ms. Fallon's directions say to chop up the mushrooms first, before cooking.  I didn't - I kind of skipped over that part.  I'd say chop them, though.  They cook faster and release more of their liquid that way.  You don't want them watery.

Anyway, melt the butter - yes, all of it - in a large skillet over medium heat.  Then add in the mushrooms, shallots, thyme, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, "until the shallots have softened and the mushroom liquid has almost all evaporated, about 7 minutes."  If I had chopped my mushrooms, they'd have cooked more quickly. 

 

 At this point, add in the soy sauce and the cognac and cook a little longer.  Shut off the heat and let the mushrooms cool a bit.

Now, I just want to interrupt myself a bit and note that this mushroom prep is pretty similar to a duxelle, which is basically a mixture of finely chopped mushrooms and shallots and herbs and wine or sherry (sherry goes nicely with mushrooms), cooked slowly for a long time, until the moisture has cooked off and you have a very fragrant, thick, soft mass of sublime mushroomy deliciousness.  It's most famously used as part of the filling for Beef Wellington, but you can use it in anything you want - stuffings, in omelets, spread on toast, or just eaten with a spoon. 

Back to the dip.

When the mushrooms have cooled a bit, place them and the walnuts in a food processor and "pulse until finely chopped."  (OH!  WAIT!  Before you do this, remove a selection of nice looking mushroom slices - THIS must be why, subconsciously, I didn't chop the mushrooms before cooking.  I knew I'd need some of them whole - and set aside for later.) 

 

 

At this point you add in the cream cheese and process until the mixture is mostly smooth but still has some texture left from bits of walnut and mushroom. 

 

   

Scrape the whole thing into a bowl and chill for at least four hours, or you could, as Ms. Fallon suggests, line a loaf pan or other mold with plastic wrap, press the pate in, cover and refrigerate.  Later, you can unmold it onto a bed of lettuce or whatever strikes your fancy.  The recipe makes about two and a half cups of pate.

I was poking around in my pantry trying to decide what to use for the pate mold.  I have an assortment of loaf pans, cake pans, ring molds, etc...but what I finally decided to use were four little ice cream bowls I bought last spring or summer.  I think the bright colors appealed to me - a nice contrast to the mushroom color.  And the shape is nice, too.

I lined each bowl with plastic, and then - remember those nice mushroom slices I told you to set aside?  Here's why.  I arranged a couple of mushrooms at the bottom of each bowl before spooning in the mushroom mixture.  Brown/gray pate needs something to fancy it up, no matter how good it tastes. 

 

 

As you fill your mold(s)/loaf pan/etc, smooth the top and cover with plastic, and then place in the fridge for at least (per Ms. Fallon) four hours. 

When you're ready to unmold, simply pull back the plastic, place an inverted plate over the unwrapped side, and flip the whole thing over in one graceful motion.  Gently pull the mold or loaf pan off, remove the plastic, and - voila! - a pretty little mold of mushroom pate.

I brought the first one to dinner at Joe, and Emily's house (our nephew and his fiance) on Saturday.  Our kids had been there all day while Bill and I had our taxes done and then enjoyed some fabulous sushi at Sakura in Providence, and then we were invited back to Joe and Em's for dinner.  I brought a bowl of the pate and a baguette.  All the adults liked it, anyway.  Alex, as expected, refused to try it.  (Mushrooms (ick) + dip (ick) = NO WAY!)  Julia tried it but didn't really like it either.  She likes mushrooms, but maybe the slight flavor of the cognac and soy sauce spoiled it for her.  Who knows.

I gave another bowl to our friends across the street.  And we had the other two.

Now - a sort of update to all of this - the recipe is in the "cold dips and spreads" section of the book, but I was thinking last night that it would probably taste good warm, too.  So I nuked a bowl of it (plastic wrap removed first) for a minute or so on 70% power, stirred it up a bit to even out the temperature, and tried it.  And I have to say I like this better warm.  Bill did, too.  And I think if I ever make it - or something similar - again, I'll serve it warm. 

But don't go by what I say - make a batch and try it for yourself - try it cold, try it warm, and see which way you prefer.  Either way, it's very tasty!

Pita Bread

 

One of the suggested accompaniments to the "Rockin' Moroccan Salsa" I posted the other day was fresh pita bread.  I didn't have any in the house, and I didn't want to go back out to the store, and as I thought about what I could use instead, the outraged voice inside my head told me not to DARE substitute something else, but to just go on and MAKE my own pita bread already! 

So, of course, I did.

Mud Puppies

 

This was Friday afternoon.

The weather was about ten degrees warmer than we had expected - a gorgeous spring day.

We were all home - from work, school, whatever, and Bill and I were walking around the yard checking the gardens to see what was coming up and what wasn't...what might need new soil...what might need to be moved...that sort of thing. 

The kids decided to dig for treasure in the bare spot where we put their pool every summer.

"No, wait, you have to put an X there before you dig!"  (Of course, because if there's no X, there's no treasure.)

Well, they dug for a bit and - much to my surprise - found nothing in the way of pirate plunder, so they started bringing buckets of icy cold water from the sandbox (which had been left uncovered for, oh, the winter) and pouring it into the hole they'd dug.

And then, well, things got a bit messier.

They had a blast until it was time for them to come in the house.  We had them strip down to their underwear and then (perhaps not the best idea) Bill hosed them down.  So we went from two happy, laughing, muddy kids to two shivering, cold, sobbing children.  "IT STINGS!!!!"

I herded the kids into the house and directly into the shower.  They sat in the tub as the NICE AND WARM water pelted them and the mitrror and window steamed up.  I got MOST of the bits of dirt out of Julia's hair.  I think.

All the rest of the pictures are here.

Frighteningly Pink Caviar Dip

 

This is a variation on one of the dip recipes in Peggy Fallon's book Great Party Dips.  As you may or may not know, I'm hosting a giveaway featuring this very same book.  To enter, you can click here.

Anyway.  The recipe in the book is called "24-Carat Caviar Dip" and calls for the use of golden whitefish caviar.  The store I went to didn't have it - they only had red and black, so I went with the red.  The recipe also calls for a quarter cup of chives.  I picked the wild chives growing in our back yard and only got about an eighth of a cup, so I used diced shallot for the other eighth of a cup.

 

And, instead of the sour cream called for in the original recipe, I used plain greek-style yogurt.

Here are the quantities I used for my scary variation:

1  1/4 cups fat free Greek-style yogurt

2 oz cream cheese, room temperature

Dash of cayenne pepper

2 oz red lumpfish caviar

1/8 cup minced fresh chives

1/8 cup finely chopped shallot

And all you do is combine the yogurt and cream cheese and cayenne pepper until it has a smooth consistency (I used the food processor),

and then gently fold in the chives and shallots

and the caviar.

 

It looks so dramatic initially...

 

before you stir it.  But then the red mixes with the white...

 

and you end up with something Barbie might serve at her next cocktail party.

I'm guessing this might be why Ms. Fallon chose the golden caviar for her version.  It looks classier.

But don't let the girly color scare you away (if you are normally frightened by girly-pink foods) - the texture is thick from the Greek-style yogurt and cream cheese, and if you like salty little crunches of caviar, you'l be more than happy with the result.  Just close your eyes and you'll be fine.

Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge if you're not going to serve it right away.

Serve with whatever you'd like - I found yummy little rice crackers with flecks of nori that went really well with the caviar dip...til we ran out.

Peggy Fallon's "Rockin' Moroccan Salsa"

 

So colorful, isn't it?!  That's one of the lovely things about salsas - fresh ingredients and bright colors.

Hooray! Another Cookbook Giveaway!

TIME'S UP!  THE WINNER WILL BE POSTED SOON!

 

   Yet another gorgeous publication from Wiley, this slim hardcover by Peggy Fallon was published in December 2008.

I confess that it has spent the last couple of months languishing in the company of the other cookbooks I received during the 2008 holiday season.  I may have flipped through the pages when I received it, but that was all. 

In preparation for this giveaway, however, I took a closer look.  And a part of me doesn't actually want to give this one away now, but ah well, I've made the commitment and I must keep my word.

I wanted to pick out and make one of Fallon's dips BEFORE posting the contest, just so I could have the recipe and photos ready to go.  But I ran into a problem.  I couldn't pick just one to do.  First I picked this one, then I thought that one sounded good, too...and pretty soon I had a list of five or six I wanted to make.

I jotted down the ingredients I'd need (most of the ingredients were things I already had on hand, fortunately) and zipped out to the grocery store yesterday intending to crank out all of the recipes in one afternoon.

Ha!

Okay, that was a bit ambitious.  So instead, I made two of them yesterday, and I'll put together at least two more today and post them over the course of the weekend.  Just so you can see what you're in for if you enter and win this handy little book.

The recipe portion of the book is divided into four sections - "Cool Dips and Spreads," "Salsas and Such," "Warm Dips and Spreads," and "Dependable Dippers."  That last section includes suggestions for great alternatives to potato chips and corn chips to serve alongside your dips.   

Okay, enough blathering on.  Like I said, I'll be posting recipes from the book over the next several days, so you can see what you'd be in for if you had your very own copy of this charming volume.

The deadline for entries will be.....let's see, since I've got a bunch of recipes to post, let's make the deadline Wednesday, April 1st, at midnight, eastern standard time.  (And that's not a set up for an April Fool's Day joke - it's really and truly the deadline!)

To enter:

In the comments section of this post, tell me what sort of dip or salsa you find completely addictive.  It can be something you make yourself, it can be onion dip from a dry mix that your mom used to make when you were a kid.  Whatever it is - please share

I'll start - oh no...just one favorite?  Well, I make guacamole very often - at least once a week.  I don't have a recipe - it changes depending on what other ingredients I have.  No lime?  I use lemon.  No cilantro?  How about some basil?  My kids don't like the zing of onions or the heat of jalapenos, so if I'm making some for them I'll leave those out - in fact Alex's favorite guacamole consists of mashed avocado.  And that's it.  When it's just Bill and me, I'll go all out with tomato, cilantro, shallots or onions, tiny bits of any kind of hot pepper we have on hand, a good squeeze of lime, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Yum.

So let's hear it - what's your dip addiction?

Savory Sweet Potato Bread

 

I had a few of these. 

It was this past Saturday, and I was spending pretty much the whole day in the kitchen.  I baked potato bread, prepped the blueberry crumb cake ingredients for this past week's Tuesdays with Dorie, and baked the coconut butter thins for NEXT week's Tuesdays with Dorie (it's my turn to pick a recipe, so I figured I should have my post ready in PLENTY of time for a change), and since I was in such a baking mood, I found myself looking around the kitchen for other innocent bystanding foods to throw into my stand mixer and pop in the oven.

Unilateral Discharge and Other Hilarity

Last fall sometime I brought Blur to the vet because she had a runny nose and she was sneezing.  You know how sometimes something just overtakes you and you sneeze multiple times in rapid succession?  That's the sort of sneezing she was doing.  She's pretty much never been ill in her life, so this was an unusual occurrance.  I figured maybe she caught some germ the kittens brought into the house with them and it had taken this long to manifest.

I saw a different vet - our usual Dr. C was off that day - a Dr. H.  He pointed out that the discharge was only one one side (mucus only coming from one nostril) and that could mean something more than just a cold, especially in older cats.  He ran his fingers gently along the front and sides of her face - a forwardness she did NOT appreciate at all - and looked in her mouth.  No abnormalities, which was good.  He prescribed an antibiotic and sent us home.  If the discharge didn't clear up, we'd maybe have to come back and have her head x-rayed or something.  You know, in case there was a tumor.  Great.

Fortunately the discharge cleared up by the time the round of antibiotics was completed, and that was that.

Until, of course, recently.

She's been sneezing again.  And she's been sounding kind of snuffly.  Congested.  It's especially pleasant when she sneezes on our heads in the middle of the night.  So not only have I had small children who don't think to RUN to get a tissue until AFTER the grossness is running down their faces post-sneeze, now I have a cat who sneezes grossness on our heads while we slumber. 

I didn't bring her to the vet at the first sneeze - or the second.  I didn't want to, truthfully.  I was hoping it would just subside.  My kids had been sick - heck, we've ALL been sick - and I was hoping - irrationally, perhaps - that with the warmer weather (HA!) and windows open and fresh air flowing throughout the house, all those ucky germs from the past couple of months would just BE GONE and we'd all be breathing clearly through two nostrils and not sneezing all over each other any more.

Well, that "not sneezing" part hasn't happened yet for Blur.  Oh, yeah, and the discharge is just coming out of one nostril again.

Yesterday morning I noticed that there was a tiny bit of blood on her fur right next to that runny left nostril.  Not a lot - just kind of a little smear.  I called the vet as soon as they opened and got an appointment for that afternoon.

Then I spent the day thinking the worst.  And looking up feline medical symptoms on the internet.  Because that's how I roll. 

I thought about...well, about how old she is.  She's eighteen now.  I've had her eighteen years, almost exactly.  She's had a very good life....on and on...that kind of thinking.  And to make it worse, she stayed next to me on the loveseat while I attempted to write up my Tuesdays with Dorie post.  I tend to read WAAAAAAAAAY too much into things like that, so in my mind, she was acknowledging that yes, it had been a long and good life, and she was content, despite her yucky nose.  She curled up in such a small and lightweight little ball beside my legs. 

Of course, the fact that she does this ANY time I'm sitting on the loveseat, typing on my laptop, meant nothing.  I was busy looking for signs. 

The other thing I thought about was the great WHAT IF possibility.  What if I had to make some sort of final decision TODAY?  I knew, if it was a question of her being in pain, or having a greatly diminished quality of life, I could do whatever was best for her.  Words like "dignity" and "peace" and the like were whispering in my mind.  I've had to make the decision before, and it's horrible.  Horrible.

Worse, though, was my worry that I'd have to go through that IN FRONT OF THE KIDS. 

Bill wasn't going to be home til after we'd left for the vet, so I couldn't leave the kids with him.  I thought about calling up my friend across the street and explaining the situation and asking her to watch the kids for the half hour or so til Bill got home, but that didn't pan out.  And besides, when they heard I was bringing Blur to the vet's, they wanted to come. 

So, for better or for worse, the kids came along.

I was already gearing up mentally for worse.  I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing to do, but habits are hard to break and I've had this habit for a long, long time.  I suppose it's a control thing.  If I imagine all the ways something could turn out, and gear up for the very worst of them, then I will be able to handle whatever comes my way without embarrassing myself.  It's a lovely theory, isn't it?

I told the kids that they would need to be VERY GOOD while we were at the vet.  It wasn't the zoo - they needed to just SIT DOWN and WAIT PATIENTLY until it was our turn to go into one of the exam rooms.

Yeah, that worked.  Well, it worked with Alex.  Julia?  Not so much.  We walked into the office and right in front of us in the waiting area was a man with a dog on a leash.  The dog looked kind of like a beagle, but bigger and longer, and more like the size of a bassett hound, only without the bassett face.  The man was apparently waiting for something or someone.  I turned the cat carrier so that Blur wouldn't see the dog and freak out, and so that the dog wouldn't see Blur and freak out.  I sat on one of the benches and told the kids to sit with me.

Remember my daughter, Julia?  Yeah.  She obediently sat, hands folded in her lap, and waited quietly until our appointment.  Hahahahahaha!  No, she ran some kind of fake-out play, meandering over to the two fish tanks across from us but then crossing quickly and purposefully to the man with the dog.  "May I pet your dog?"  she asked first, and when he said yes, that was it.  She wasn't sitting on any bench anywhere any time soon.  She was busy. 

And okay, fine.  No harm in that.  I need to relax about her sometimes.  She wasn't doing any harm, she wasn't causing any sort of disruption, she was just saying hi.  She and the dog became buddies, and then a few minutes later ANOTHER dog came out, dragging our vet along for the ride.  The two dogs were almost identical.  Julia was overjoyed.  "Ohh!!!!" she chortled, "you've got TWINS???"  The man chuckled and said they weren't even brothers, but yes, they do look a lot alike.  Then he turned to discuss dog #2's condition (or lack thereof, from what I could hear) while Julia introduced herself to the other dog.  

And then we were summoned into room number three.  Come on kids, time for fun.

OH - I forgot this part.  (It's twenty past three in the morning - I don't know why I'm awake, but I am, or at least I was.  I seem to be a third asleep now.)  On the ride to the vet I casually but pointedly reminded the kids that Blur was pretty old and so MAYBE and HOPEFULLY this was just a cold, but we needed to bring her to the vet to find out for sure.

And Alex said "I hope she doesn't have leukemia!" 

Yikes.  He's very aware of this now because of the Pasta for Pennies fundraiser at his school earlier this month. 

Julia asked what leukemia was, and Alex sort of explained to her what it was, mainly by listing symptoms...you get a lot of bruises...your bones break easily...you're tired.  And he also told her that "when you take the medicine for this sickness, it makes your hair fall out."

We all agreed we hoped Blur didn't have leukemia. 

So back to the vet's. 

First in was the tech, a nice girl who may be relatively new there, as I haven't seen her before.  She was a loud talker, a trait she'd probably developed to be heard over barking and yowling dogs. 

I told the kids to SIT in the two chairs while I put the cat carrier on the exam table and opened the little door.  Loud-talker-tech peeked in and oohed at Blur and was incredulous when I confirmed that Blur was eighteen.  "She doesn't look eighteen!  She doesn't have an old lady face!"  Nope, just a bloody, drippy nose. 

We got Blur out of the carrier, and the first order of business was to check all her vitals.  Starting with her temperature.  Out cane the little jar of vaseline, the thermometer, and, as I held Blur and Loud-talker-tech did the deed, out came the sound of my kids' horrified voices.  "EEEEW!!!" 

And then Alex:  "You put that RIGHT IN HER BUTTOCKS!!"

Loud-talker-tech and I both attempted to hold our breath and then gave up and burst out laughing.  Yep, that's where she put it.  Right in Blur's buttocks.  Thanks, Forrest.

The kids kept up a commentary through the rest of that preliminary exam.  They didn't stay in their seats, either (the thermometer incident pulled them to their feet pretty fast), and Julia in particular was all over the place, first on one side of the exam table, then on the other ("what's THAT?"  it's vaseline.  "can I smell it?"  um NO.), while I tried to have a conversation without actually saying THE MAIN WORDS of the topic.  Loud-talker-tech and I managed just fine, with nods and eye contact and words that danced on the outskirts of unpleasant paragraphs.  She knew I knew what MIGHT be happening.

She left to go get Dr. C., and while I had the chance I directed the kids back to their seats and asked them to please SHHHHHH when I was talking to the vet.

A few moments later Dr. C came in and we had another of those conversations without having a conversation, and she checked Blur out...listening to her heart and her breathing...running her fingers over Blur's face to feel for any lumps or bumps that hadn't been there before...checking her teeth and inside her mouth, too, for those bad lumps or bumps.  Nothing.  So maybe there's something else in Blur's nasal passage that is getting irritated and infected and causing the drainage.  Hard to tell.  For now, we agreed on antibiotics (a two week dose) to see where that got us.  And then, after that, we'd play it by ear.

Blur happily went back into her carrier and pretty soon we were on our way home. 

It's kind of funny - once we were home, Blur became a little more active than she usually is.  She ate some food...wandered around the kitchen sniffing things...explored the dining room...ate a bit more...maybe she was just glad to be home.  Maybe she was energized by her little adventure, such as it was. 

Maybe she thought that by appearing extra perky she could avoid another incidence of that greasy thermometer in her buttocks. 

Let's hope so.

Namaste

Recently Julia has been going around saying what sounded like "Mama stay," with the emphasis on the second "ma" in that word.  At some point I asked her what she was saying, and she said "Ma MA stay!  It's from doing yoga!"

AH!  Okay.  So I told her no, it's Namaste - with an "N."  So she said that a few times for practice and henceforth has been saying it pretty well correctly.

Just a few minutes ago I was on the computer in one room and Bill was in the other room.  I called to Julia to tell Daddy what she says when she does yoga.  She came in and whispered that she couldn't remember, so I whispered "namaste" to her and she grinned and ran out of the computer room and into the living room, shouting "Namaste" over and over.

Bill had no idea what she was saying, even when she said it slower and quieter, so I yelled in from the other room, where I was busy looking at my stats or looking up the hours for the local DMV (I know I was doing either one or the other at that moment)

"She's saying NAMASTE!"

And Bill said "What?"

"NA MA STE - I THINK IT MEANS PEACE - IT'S SOMETHING YOU SAY WHEN YOU'RE DOING YOGURT!"

And then I laughed and laughed uncontrollably for quite a while.  I am clearly no longer able to think or say or do two things at once with any degree of success.

Update:  Or maybe not an update per se...more like a correction.  I just looked up "namaste" and it actually translates roughly as "I bow to you" or "The light within me honors the light within you."  Either way, it is generally not accompanied by yogurt, either plain or with fruit.

TWD - Blueberry Crumb Cake

 

I knew Alex, especially, would love this one.  My son loves anything with blueberries.  So this one was definitely a winner before I even read the rest of the ingredients.

Sihan of Befuddlement selected this week's recipe, and what a lovely choice.  Thanks, Sihan!

I actually made this over the course of two days.  I made the topping and combined the dry ingredients Saturday night and put the whole thing together early (like, five-thirtyish) the next morning.  I am pretty sure I'll make this one again, especially late this summer when the blueberries are ripe.

First up, the topping, which, for me, is often the best part.

 

I assembled all my ingredients - flour, butter, brown sugar, chopped walnuts, white sugar, and salt - and then combined everything but the nuts in the food processor.

 

 

And then I added the nuts, after dumping this mixture into another bowl.  Yum.

 

I covered that and stuck it the fridge.  Then I whisked together the dry ingredients...

Actually, no, Julia whisked them.

 

Then I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and that was it til the next morning.

Like I said, I finished this up EARLY on Sunday morning.  Bill took the kids skiing - in North Conway - for the day, so they left a little before five that morning.  (Julia even has her own (second-hand) skiis and the most adorable little ski boots.  And the boots are adjustable!  She'll be able to get about three years' use out of them!  Pretty cool, huh?  We're hoping to do the same thing with Alex in the fall.  We'd have done it this year, but the place we're buying from didn't have any more skiis in Alex's size (at least none in time for this trip), so we just rented Sunday and we'll get him outfitted in October.) 

Woah, that was a bit of a tangent.

Anyway, my parents were going to come up for coffee and a visit later that morning, so I figured I'd whip this cake up in time for them.

Also, I didn't want to just make one 8" square cake.  Instead, I broke out my mini springform pans and made 6 adorable little round cakes instead.

The process photos didn't come out that great - pre-dawn lighting isn't all that great - but here are a few of them, just because.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They baked for about 40 minutes, and smelled wonderful in the process.

Here they are fresh from the oven...

 

Want a closer look?

 

After they cooled a bit, I loosened the rings and let them cool some more.  Then I removed the rings and the bases of the pans and let them finish cooling before plating them up.

 

I ran one over to our friends across the street right away, and kept the rest handy for picture-taking and eating.

 

 

My parents and I shared one little cake, and I gave them another to take home.  At the moment, we have one left.  Alex has eaten most of the other two. 

Big raves all around - from my friend across the street, my parents, Bill and the kids, and - oh, yeah - me.  Soft, moist, easy to make and delicious.  Like I said, I'll be making this again, especially during blueberry season.  I was also thinking this would work well as a batch of muffins.

Many thanks so Sihan for choosing the Blueberry Crumb Cake for this week - you can find the recipe on her site or in the pages of Dorie Greenspan's Baking:  From My Home to Yours.  (Pages 192-193 to be exact.)  You can also go read what the rest of the TWD crew had to say about this one.  The blogroll is LOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG, so pace yourself!

And the Winner Is...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2009-03-23 10:52:05 UTC

~~~

There were 12 entries in the "Yay, It's Spring!" cookbook giveaway.  I put that info in the lovely Random Integer Generator and the random number chosen was 9.

The ninth comment to that post was left by Jessi, so CONGRATULATIONS! to Jessi!!

Jessi, please shoot me an email with your shipping address and I'll get the cookbook out to you as soon as possible.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and look for another cookbook giveaway later this week!

Saturday in the Kitchen

Well, I needed to make bread, first of all.  And I also needed to bake for the upcoming week's Tuesdays with Dorie post.  And, because the week AFTER that is "my" Tuesday - my recipe selection - and because I wanted to be sure to have THAT recipe made well in advance, just in case there were any problems and also so I could be sure to have the post and photos ready in plenty of time, I decided to do that TWD recipe as well.  And since I was making bread, why not make more bread.  I'd cooked the last four russet potatoes in preparation for the potato bread I'd planned to bake, and I also had three big sweet potatoes on the counter that I decided to bake, mainly to clear some space and to cook them before they started to get soft.  And, hmmm...if I'm going to make potato bread...I wonder what it would be like if I used sweet potatoes?  Do I have a sweet potato bread recipe? 

I had no idea.  I poked the sweet potato skins with a knife and popped them in the oven to bake while I flipped through a few bread books.  There were SWEET sweet potato breads - mainly quickbreads and other sweet items.  Nothing savory.  Not in the books I checked, anyway.  And no, I didn't check all of them.  I wasn't in a book-perusing mood.  I was in a cooking and baking mood.  So I made up my own sweet potato bread recipe.  And I'll post that later, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow.  I'm happy with how it turned out, I will say that.

So I made a total of four loaves of bread, a coffee cake, a batch of cookies, and - for dinner - gnocchi.  I only needed one potato for the bread, so I had three left to play with, and gnocchi sounded perfect.  Easy to make, comforting to eat.

Julia had helped a bit with the cookies, and when she saw me peeling a potato, she grabbed a chair from the dining room to stand on and demanded that I let her help.  Once her hair was in a pony tail and an apron was tied around her little waist, she was ready to go.  (Hands washed, too.  Yes, Mommy, with soap!)

She watched me scrape skin off the potatoes, and then helped me put them through the ricer.  She spooned salt, I scooped flour.  She cracked eggs.  I poured olive oil.  We both tossed everything together, taking turns with a fork.  Once the dough was just combined, it was time to make ropes.  Or worms.  She's nearly five.  She's quite familiar with worms.

I didn't take pictures; I've photographed the process before for this site, and I just wanted to get the gnocchi made so I could get dinner ready.

I did, however, ask Bill to take a couple of pictures while Julia and I were working. 

We were standing at the counter - me, barefoot on the floor; Julia, barefoot on her chair.  We wore aprons, our hair was pulled back and out of the way.  Our hands were dusted with flour, and we were intent on our work as we rolled sticky blobs of potato dough into long "worms" of relatively uniform thickness. 

As we worked together, mother and daughter, I had this feeling, as I sometimes do while working in the kitchen, of...of being more than just myself.  And of how, while I am "me" the whole time; I am always "Jayne" no matter how old I am or what my position is in the family - daughter granddaughter niece sister aunt wife mother - I am also NOT the same person. 

The view changes and overlaps and rewinds.  I see things through different eyes and from different perspectives.  It's disconcerting.  I am me, but suddenly I am not just me, watching my daughter's small, slightly awkward, determined hands manipulate dough in an imitation of mine.  I am also my mother watching me, her small daughter.  And I am also her mother, my grandmother, watching.  And one day, perhaps, Julia will be the mother, and she will step into this spot, standing where I am now and feeling the same sense of multiple selves that I do on occasion, while she watches her own daughter try to be a big girl. 

Highland Piper

Well, okay, maybe I'm reaching a bit.  More like piper on a hill.  I'm from Rhode Island.  We don't have highlands here.  And not many hills, either.

I don't know how old I was when I stitched this little scene (on a pair of shorts) - junior high?  No idea. 

I'm roughly a quarter Scottish, and I went through a brief fascination with tartans and bagpipes for a while.  I think I expressed an interest in learning to play the bagpipes when I was maybe ten?  I had a chanter for a while (like a recorder), and then I guess I switched to flute for a year.  That was the extent of my musical career.  I was more a visual artist.

Clearly.

Pest

 

I'm trying to take pictures of several different foods for several differnent upcoming posts. 

I'm using the dining room table because of the lighting and I like the green tablecloth as a background.

I'm arranging and moving things and taking away and replacing.

And when I get too close to the table, someone grabs at my leg, at my shirt, and peeks up from her hiding spot.

 

Brass

Years ago, back when Bill first got hired as a middle school music teacher, he was told he'd be teaching band.  So the summer before that first school year, he gathered an assortment of band instruments so he could familiarize himself with them enough to start teaching them to students.  Then, maybe a month (if I remember correctly) before the first day of school, he was told he'd be teaching chorus instead of band.  So a huge change of gears ensued and the assorted band instruments were loaned to a colleague who was teaching elementary school music in Connecticut.

Recently Bill got most of the band instruments back, and he trotted a couple of them out so the kids could see them and try to make sounds come out of them.  A clarinet.  A trumpet.  They're both already familiar with guitars and keyboards a bit.  Both of them liked the trumpet best.  Julia, in particular, her little cheeks puffed out huge like Dizzy Gillespie, managed to achieve some nice, loud, clear notes. 

Yesterday Bill brought home a trombone, just so the kids could see one and try to get some sound out of it....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't even begin to describe what our house sounded like.

Oh, and wait - there's me!

 

Wait.  I'm upside down.

 

There.  That's better.

Impromptu Live Blogging and Twittering Sweet and Tangy Scallops for Tonight's Dinner...

(When I originally wrote this post, I live blogged it and updated it on Twitter as I went along.)

For dinner tonight I'm using one of the recipes in this cookbook.  I'll be updating it on Twitter, so you can follow along there if you'd like to.  And I'll update photos in this post as I go along, so keep checking back.

The "Yay, It's Spring!" Cookbook Giveaway

       

(If you'd like to skip my babbling and just enter the contest, scroll down a bit til you see the entry rules in bold type.)

I've had this one for a couple of months now.

I have other cookbooks to give away, too.  Books sent to me by the publisher.  Books to share or keep. 

They kind of stacked up during Christmas time and with all the cookies and everything else going on at that time, I just didn't have time to do anything with them.  So, like I said, they stacked up.

And so now I've got a bunch of cookbooks that don't fit on my shelves and I've got to get rid of at least SOME of them, because I don't know that we've got room for another bookcase in the dining room.  Unless we want to change the name of it to "the cookbook library" and eat on tv trays in the basement.  That might be fun once and a while, but not forever.

And so I figured I could do a bunch of giveaways over the next however many weeks, until my stack is less ominous. 

Therefore, to kick off this upcoming giveaway extravaganza, I thought I'd start things off today, this first day of Spring, to give it all a kind of festive, celebratory feel.

Or something like that.

Anyway.  First up is the book you see above, Weight Watchers in 20 Minutes.  The little pink circle sticker you see there reads "Includes POINTS values and new Weight Watchers momentum plan recipes."  The book also includes plenty of full-page photos of many of the recipes.  And I have to say, they look pretty tasty.

I'll just flip through the pages - by the way, the book is a hardcover "concealed-wiro" so it'll lie flat on your counter while you prepare your meals - and here are some of the recipes that catch my eye:

Lemon Pancakes with Fresh Raspberry Sauce

Spiced Oatmeal Brulee

Crab and Chive Frittata

Grilled Vegetable-Gruyere Sandwiches

Avocado, Tofu and Tomato Sandwiches

Kielbasa and Black Bean Soup

Corn and Crab Chowder

Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

Lamb with Cucumber-Radish Salad

Veal Cutlets with Lemon-Caper Sauce

Sausages and Onion on Crispy Polenta

Parmesan and Potato-Crusted Flounder with Tomato-Cilantro Sauce

Warm Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

Orange-Poached Figs with Yogurt and Pistachios

Double Chocolate-Cranberry Pudding

...hungry yet?

The recipes sound delicious and look pretty simple.  In fact, I think maybe I'll pick one to make for dinner tonight.

I made tacos last night, so I'm not in the mood for anything meaty (or turkey-ey, as I used ground turkey) or Mexicany...

What I'd really like is seafood...the kids like seafood too, so I'll get feedback from everyone which I can share with all of you out there.

Okay - I'll make the Sweet and Tangy Scallops.   Haven't had scallops in ages and so this is a good excuse to get some.  I'll probably serve them with rice or couscous and a salad. 

I'll let you know how it turns out, and also how easy it is to make.

In the meantime, if you'd like to enter this contest, all you need to do is this:

In the comments section of this post, just answer one or some or all of the following:

        Do you (or will you) have a vegetable and/or herb garden this year?  If so, do you start your plants from seed indoors or do you buy it all as seedlings a bit later in the season and plant them?  Or is it a bit of both?  What's your favorite fruit or vegetable from your own garden every year?  And if there are more than one, what are they?  How do you like to cook them? 

And just to start things off, here are my answers....

Yes, we'll be growing herbs and vegetables and fruits this year.  We start (or, rather, Bill starts) the majority of the seeds indoors.  If something doesn't grow well, we'll buy seedlings later on at the farmers' market.  I can't pick one favorite - but one of the first vegetables we get is asparagus, which we like either tossed in olive oil and grilled or sauteed in a little butter with a squeeze of lemon.  The kids love the early peas, which they eat right off the plant and if I want any I have to fight the kids for them.  The peas rarely make it into the house in any quantity.  My own personal heaven is when the tomatoes start ripening and I make vats of roasted tomatoes and freeze them for sauce in the winter.

Deadline for entering will be Sunday night, 22 March 2009, at midnight, eastern standard time.  I'll pick and announce the winner on Monday, so please check back to see if you've won!  I'll need a mailing address from the winner, which can be sent to me at jayne (at) barefootkitchenwitch(dot)com.

Only one entry per person, please!

And....let the games begin!

Crispy Orange and Meyer Lemon Beef

 

I don't have a lot of photos for this one - actually there are only two - because Bill made this dish and I was doing other things at the time and wasn't able to hover over his shoulder (under it, really, since I'm nearly a foot shorter) to capture all the steps.  So you'll just have to use your imagination today.

I don't have a lot of photos for this one - actually there are only two - because Bill made this dish and I was doing other things at the time and wasn't able to hover over his shoulder (under it, really, since I'm nearly a foot shorter) to capture all the steps.  So you'll just have to use your imagination today.

I don't have a lot of photos for this one - actually there are only two - because Bill made this dish and I was doing other things at the time and wasn't able to hover over his shoulder (under it, really, since I'm nearly a foot shorter) to capture all the steps.  So you'll just have to use your imagination today.

Mine

 

 

TWD - French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

   

Oh, yum.

I knew I'd like this before I grated a smidge of lemon zest.  The recipe just read as yummy.  And since I knew I'd like it, I tripled the recipe.  I was going to quadruple it, but figured I should save some eggs for the rest of the family.

Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction selected the French Yogurt Cake for this week and it sounded so good I made it well in advance of the posting date (something I haven't done in some time.)  So thank you, Liliana, for picking this fabulous recipe!  And of course, thank you, Dorie, for sharing it with us!

First up, the measuring of the ingredients.   Flour, baking powder, salt, and ground almonds.  Please keep in mind this is a triple batch, so if that looks like a lot of salt in the third picture below, well, that's why.

 

 

 

   

These dry ingredients are whisked together...

 

And then, to continue...sugar and lemon zest.  I was nearly out of white sugar, so I used turbinado sugar for the rest.

 

Oh, AND, I used Meyer lemons.  I'd seen them when I walked into my local Dave's Marketplace, and I just started grabbing them like a crazy person.  I forced myself to stop at eight.

 

Since they're smaller than the lemons I usually get, I zested four instead of three (for the tripled recipe).  That worked out nicely.

 

I added the zest to the sugar and rubbed them together.  My kitchen smelled like spring.

 

Onto the wet ingredients...the yogurt, vanilla, eggs, and oil.

 

 

 

 

And into the mixer we go.  First the sugar and eggs and yogurt and vanilla.

 

Oh, it smells heavenly!

 

And then the flour mixture.

 

 

And finally the oil.

 

 

Once I'd folded the oil in it was time to divide the batter into all my pans.  That's right, ALL my pans.  Part of the reason I tripled the recipe was so I could give some of the cake away.  I figured mini loaves of different sizes would be cute and would allow me to share the wealth with more people.  So I buttered four mini loaf pans, three smallish loaf pans, and one little square pan.  I ended up not using the square one.  The other seven worked perfectly for my purposes.

 

 

And then it was into the oven for all of them.  I checked them at 30 minutes, and continued baking for another fifteen, which was just right.  And oh, did the house smell good while that was going on!

 

Mmmmmm, lemony.

After ten minutes, I removed the loaves from the pans and set them out to finish cooling.

   

And I made the glaze - lemon marmalade and a bit of water.  Dorie's recipe says to strain the marmalade and then warm it up in a pan with the water.  I admit it.  I'm a rebel.  I heated the marmalade with the water first and then strained it.  It seemed like the easier route, since the marmalade was thinner and dripped through the strainer more easily.

 

So pretty.  Like jewels....

And that was it.  I wrapped them up and handed some out to a few of my neighbors, and eventually found homes for most of the rest of them. 

 

Not ALL of them, of course. 

There would have been a mutiny or an insurrection or an uprising or something here, because, hard as it is to believe, EVERYONE in the household really liked this cake.  Yay! 

 

And who could blame them?

If you'd like to make one or three or seventy batches for yourself, you can find the recipe on Liliana's site or in Dorie Greenspan's book Baking:  From My Home to Yours on pages 224-225.

And you can also check out the other TWD members' blogs and see what they thought of this lovely cake.

I Don't Remember What This Was All About...

 

 

 

But it makes me smile.

To Whoever You Are - I Am So, So Sorry You Had to See That

Every once in a while I like to check out my stats, mostly to see where new readers might be coming from.  And to allow my neuroses to kick into overdrive if my readership numbers dip.  "What am I doing wrong?  Why doesn't anybody like me any more???"  It's sad and pathetic, I know.

Anyway, some time last week, I think, I noticed that someone had arrived via a medical-sounding site called Right Health.  Weird, I thought.  Why would that site link to me?

I decided to investigate further.

Apparently on that site you can, like on other medical sites out there, do a search for a symptom or disease or something and the site will pull up articles and information.

They also, with the help of Google, offer an image search function.  Which, if you think about it, makes lots of sense on a medical site.  Like if you're looking to see what, say, a Lyme disease rash looks like.  Pictures are so much more helpful than words in cases like that.

So anyway.

Someone had typed in the words "hard lump above breast" on the site.

And just seeing that, I cringed, already feeling concern for the person who had initiated the search.  Maybe it's nothing, of course.  But still...there's always the fear that it's SOMETHING.

But still...why in the world would that search lead them to something on my site?  Well, maybe any of the individual words...like "lump" - a lump of dough, for instance.  Or "Hard" - like "it's hard for me to stop eating home baked bread once I start" - you know, silly things like that.  "Breast?" - oh, maybe I was making something with chicken.

Anyway, those thoughts flitted through my head.  Then I went in and clicked on the little arrow thingy that will take me right to the page that brought the anonymous person to my site.

That was when I found out it was an image search. 

There was an image of one of those step-by-step how to give yourself a breast exam in the shower posters...

an image of a pink ribbon...

an image of a medical-looking diagram with little circles all over it (lymph nodes maybe?)...

a picture of two little girls (not sure how that fits, but still, it's not HORRIFYING)...

a tasteful picture of someone doing a breast self exam...

a cartoonish picture of people eating at an outdoor cafe (again, I don't get the connection, but still, it's not HORRIFYING)...

and then...

And then I saw it.

The image that came from my website.

And I gasped.

In HORROR. 

Because I immediately thought of the poor person who did the search on A MEDICAL INFORMATION SITE and what he or she might have thought when this image appeared.  Under a search for "hard lump above breast."

Here's the image.

Coconut Shortbread Cookies - Disguised As Sea Life

 

A couple of weeks ago we received Christmas gifts from some friends of ours.  They swung by the house with a bag of wrapped goodies and left quickly so as not to play host to any of the yucky germs that were in residence at the time.

Christmas in March?  Sure, why not? 

I received, in part, a set of seven sea creature cookie cutters (which includes a dolphin, as you've no doubt figured out on your own) and a cookbook entitled Best of the Best:  the best recipes from 25 of the best cookbooks of the year.  It's put out by the Food & Wine magazine people and includes recipes from notables as Jamie Oliver, Bobby Flay, David Pasternack, Alice Medrich, and Kylie Kwong.

On this most recent Saturday morning, when, at long last, everyone in the house was healthy again, I found the recipe for these Coconut Shortbread Cookies, decided they'd work well with the sea creature cutters, and proceeded to whip up a batch.  I should have doubled it.  They're pretty tasty.

But that comes later.

 

The recipe is by Jill O'Connor, author of Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey, and was created exclusively for this compilation.  Thanks, Jill!

As you can see above, it's a pretty simple recipe with very few ingredients.  Quick and easy to prepare.

   

Here's what you need - coconut, butter, flour, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and salt. 

First, you place your room temp butter in the bowl of your mixer.

 

Then you add in your sifted confectioners' sugar...

 

(which has been measured out by your able assistant, if you've got one)

 

And then you beat together the butter and sugar together until they're pale and creamy.

 

Then you add in your vanilla...

   

And then you take the remaining ingredients (flour, coconut, salt) which your little assistant has whisked together...

 

and you add those to the butter mixture and blend just until everything is combined.  You form that dough into a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Or, if you're pressed for time, as I was, you can take your chances after half an hour.

 

I rolled the dough out to between a quarter and a half inch thick and cut out an assortment of sea creatures.  The dough isn't the easiest to work with when you've got cookie cutters with narrow parts, like the base of a tail.  But with patience and a skinny knife, you can make it work.

 

While the cookies were baking, and smelling very, very good in the process, and while, because of the delicious aroma, Alex was moaning and whining in agony "When can I eeeeeeeeeeat one?  I'm staaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrvvvvvvvvvvvvvving!" because of course we only feed him once a week, food prices being what they are, Julia and I put together the royal icing in a variety of mouth-watering hues.

 

Yum!  Teal!

 

Once the cookies had cooled sufficiently, the kids and I gathered 'round the table to play.

(And for those of you concerned with Alex's growling tummy, yes, he got to sample a cookie before we started decorating the rest of them.)

These are Alex's works of art:

 

And this is Alex eating some cereal, because a boy cannot live on cookies alone.  At least not if Mommy's around to stop him from trying.

   

Inspired by the adorable photo in this post, I did a bunch of dolphins and that was enough for me.

Julia had done a bunch on her own, but then wanted to try to make some like mine, using a paint brush.

In order to create the look of my dolphins, I just piped the icing on either in stripes or concentric circles or stripes and dots - whatever struck my fancy as I was makikng them.

Next, to achieve the swirly or tie-dyed looks, I dipped a small paintbrush in water and just brushed the top of the iced cookie go gently drag some of the color into the adjoining color.  I rinsed the brush off frequently so the colors wouldn't get muddy looking by the end of the process.  I used a dot of black for an eye, and that was it. 

 

 

 

I showed Julia what to do, and she made a few painted swirly creatures herself.

 

We've still got a lot of icing left over.

 

I should probably make more cookies.

 

You know, just so the icing doesn't go to waste.  Because waste is bad.

And decorating is fun!

(The cookies themselves are pretty tasty, too!)

Any Guesses?

Actually, I don't think this one will be too difficult.  But it's all I've got at the moment.

For Tracey

And the rest of the gang at the Sudden Yurt Commune.

It's snack time....

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing Catch Up - TWD - Chocolate Armagnac Cake

Only I didn't use Armagnac.  Apparenlty we'd just run out of it.  Just kidding.  I went down to the bar area and took a look through all the bottles and chose to snitch some of the Basil Hayden's bourbon that Bill received as a Christmas gift (I think) from his friend, John.  I hesitated, just because I understand that in bourbon circles, it's pretty fancy schmancy stuff.  I don't particularly like anything in the great, big whiskey family, and it all tends to smell the same to me (I know, HERESY to some of you!), but I figured if this was good stuff, then it darn well deserved to be in my cake.

There's logic for you.

Anyway, it certainly flamed up nicely when I was preparing my prunes.  I did those one day and let them sit, then made the cake the following day.

 

 

Mmmmm, chocolate.

Though Alex hadn't even bothered to try the Lemon Cup Custard I'd made for this week's TWD post, I knew he would love this cake. 

He and I are the two chocolate lovers in this house.  Bill appreciates good chocolate, but when it comes to sugary stuff, or candy, he's more of a fruit-oriented (or artificially fruit flavored) kind of guy.  Julia also leans more in that direction.  Funny how tastes are.

Anyway, the cake itself was pretty easy to put together.  I decided to use four of my little mini springform pans rather than a full-sized pan, because I wanted to give some AWAY (and not devour it myself) and presenting a mini cake is (to me) a bit more fun than just hacking off a wedge and handing it over.

 

They baked up in about 30 minutes, I cooled them a bit in the pans, then released and removed the sides of the pans and the bottoms and the waxed paper and let them finish cooling while I made the glaze.

 

 

The kids wanted to decorate the cakes, so I gave each child some walnuts and some bittersweet chocolate chips and let them have fun.

Here are the results:

 

This one is Julia's...it's hard to tell from this angle, but some of her walnut pieces are standing on end, giving the cake a nice bit of vertical appeal that I completely ignored when I was taking these pictures.

Next up, Alex's...

 

He stuck a few bits and pieces on top and that was the end of it.  I added the walnuts around the edge of the cake.  I think he just wanted us to be DONE with this silly playing around part and get out the knives and forks and DIG IN.

I gave this one to our friends across the street -

  

 

And I left the last one "blank." 

It had the nicest swirls in the glaze and needed no further embellishment.

 

Once dinner was over and the dishes cleared, I gave each child a quarter of a cake.  Just a little bit, just in case someone didn't like it.  I didn't want to waste any.  We cut into Julia's first, by unanimous decision.  Alex's plate is the one with the tropical flowers and fish on it.  As you can see, all that remain are a few crumbs on the plate and a smear or two on the tines of the fork.  The pink plate (of course) was Julia's.  She picked off all the nuts and chips she'd carefully placed there when she was decorating, didn't eat them at all, and had a tiny taste of the cake.  "I don't like it," she said.  Can this be classified as a true genetic defect?  Just curious.

 

And Bill?  Well, remember this post?  And then this one?  It was finally his turn.  He wasn't interested in cake or anything else.  The next day he bravely had a nibble and said it was very good. 

Oh, and Alex had more the next night.  Now,  it would be tempting to blame the following pictures on the effects of chocolate, but it would also be inaccurate.  He's just like this.

A Cat and His Boy, Guitars and Crayons, Pennies and Quarters

 

I love this picture. 

Alex is always on alert for cute cat photo opportunities.  While I was making dinner he yelled "MOM!  YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THIS!"

I yelled down something dull and stodgy like "I've got my hand in a chicken cavity - I can't go anywhere right now!"

And then Bill somehow quietly yelled to me "He's on the couch with the cat" so I washed off my hands and raced halfway down the stairs to peek.  Sure enough, Alex was on the couch with Scratchy.  So I ran back up to the kitchen, grabbed my camera, and took too pictures before Scratchy, fed up with the flash, departed.

~~~~~

TWD - Lemon Cup Custard

 

Finally!  It feels like it's been ages since my last Tuesdays with Dorie post.  It probably has been, actually.  Last week I was so close to making the Chocolate Armagnac Cake - but I didn't, what with all the horrible bouts of illness that plagued my house.

Fortunately that seems to be over (knock wood, fingers crossed, and all those other gestures), and yesterday I spent most of the day IN THE KITCHEN, which made me pretty happy.  Not only did I make the Lemon Cup Custards for this week's TWD post, but I also made four loaves of Potato bread - much to everyone's delight.  Especially my husband's.

I was also hoping to make that Chocolate Armagnac Cake yesterday, too, because it sounds really good, and besides, I bought prunes for it and everything - but I ran out of time.  I'm hoping to work it in today.  I'll let you know.

Anyway - the Lemon Cup Custards.  The recipe was selected by Bridget, of The Way the Cookie Crumbles, and she has the recipe posted on her site, so if you'd like to make this simple little treat, head on over there to see how to do it.  You could also check on page 387 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking:  From My Home to Yours.

The recipe - milk, lemon zest, eggs and sugar - is wonderfully simple.  I meant to add a bit of lemon extract, but I got distracted (it happens so easily) that I forgot until I'd poured the custard into the ramekins, and then the idea of dividing 1/8 of a teaspoon of extract into 6 equal portions and then stirring them into each ramekin...um...never mind.  I was just glad I'd finally put something together that I didn't want to stop (to pour all the custard back in the bowl and add in the extract) because what if I got distracted AGAIN???  I'd never finish.  So into the oven (in their water bath) they went. 

Now, Bridget mentioned that hers cooked faster than Dorie's instructions.  Mine took about twenty minutes longer.  Ah well.  When they emerged from the oven, the custards were bright yellow on top and just jiggley in the center.  I let them cool and then popped them in the fridge.  They'd have a couple of hours to chill, and then I planned to try them out on my unsuspecting family members after dinner.

I figured I should taste on first, just to make sure there wasn't some horrible error made that I didn't remember, like using salt instead of sugar, for instance.  I had a little taste, and - no salt, fortunately - it tasted mildly lemony...very eggy, definitely custardy, as opposed, I guess, to puddingy.  Or curdy.  Or gelatiny.  I wasn't sure how I felt about it at that point.  It was...nice.

Time to make use of the children.  First up - Alex.

"Hey Alex, come here for a minute.  I need your help!"  (At this age, they still like to help.)

He came into the room, smiling with all his assorted-size teeth plus the one new gap.  "What do you need me to help with?"

"I want you to taste this dessert I made."  I opened the fridge and scooped out a little bit from one of the ramekins and started to cross the room toward him.

You'd think I was a chronically horrible cook by the way he reacted.  He sort of hunched his shoulders together and started to back away, the sweet expression on his face replaced by a polite cringe.

"What is it?"

"It's called 'Lemon Cup Custard!' " I said brightly, a big, probably scary 1950's housewife propaganda smile scotch taped to my face.  "Try it!"  I urged, advancing on the cowering child, spoon held out, like Snow White's stepmother with the poisoned apple.

"What's custard?" he asked, looking fearfully at the pale yellow eggy quenelle on my spoon.

I knew I was doomed to failure, but I kept that smile on and that chipper voice as I said, "It's like pudding!"

He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head from side to side, effectively telling me no and preventing me from trying to shove the offensive spoonful down his throat by force.  Like I'd do such a thing.  He still tried to smile with his eyes.  He's a kind boy.

I let him go and summoned his sister.  Actually, Alex sent her up from the basement, saying "Mom needs your help with something important!"  He was probably hoping she'd try it, just to see what might happen to her as a result.  I'm surprised he didn't sneak back to watch.

Anyway, I tried again with Julia. 

"What is it Mama?"  she asked, coming into the room.

"I want you to try a dessert I made!"  (My face just morphs into that scary smile all by itself.  I swear I don't do it on purpose.)

She looked at the new spoonful of custard.  I told her what it was called, and before she could ask what "custard" was, I had a flash of inspiration. 

"It's like YOGURT!" I said, with desperate enthusiasm.  She looooooves yogurt. 

"You eat it," she told me. 

Why do they think the worst of me???

So I ate what I had, smiled with delight, and got her some.

Reluctantly, she opened her mouth a bit and allowed me to spoon some in.

A second later she wrinkled her nose and said she didn't like it.

 

(This is Julia reenacting her dislike, but she kept laughing while I took pictures, so I was unable to capture her initial feeling with any accuracy.)

Okay, well, I figured Alex wouldn't like it because it's just a texture thing with him, plain and simple.  I'd thought Julia would like it, but I guess it wasn't really like yogurt after all.  Only one victim family member left.  I re-spooned and headed downstairs.

"Honey, I know you're still full from dinner, but could you just have a taste of this and let me know what you think?  The kids have already had some."

He sat up in his chair and Julia, who had followed me down, said "Go on, try it, Daddy.  It's good!"  (Huh?  Who IS this child?)  Bill didn't put up the same barricade of questions and suspicion that the kids did - maybe Julia was convincing in her BALD FACED LIE just then.  Anyway, he ate the custard, thought a moment, and then shrugged. 

"It's not terrible, but it's not exciting," he said.  "It could be more lemony."

Well okay.  Kind of a tepid response all around, at best.  Maybe I should have mixed in the lemon extract after all.  I thought of mixing up another batch right then and there, but did I really want to?  What if I got the same responses? 

Okay, never mind another batch, then.  I still would need to take some pictures and post something about it.  I'd made a yellow custard in white ramekins.  Not all that exciting to look at.  I needed to do something to gussy it up. 

Now, if I was in a truly fanatical baking frame of mind, I'd probably have made come candied lemon peel in really thin julienne strips, or maybe curls.  Yes, curls would be better.  And I could sprinkle a couple of fresh raspberries on top.  (Except that raspberries aren't in season locally and I'm not going to pay eighteen dollars for half a dozen berries and find that three are moldy underneath the label.  So nix that one.

And then I thought - what is one of my favorite desserts AND is a custard?  Of course.  Creme brulee.  Well then, I wonder how the Lemon Cup Custard would be with a nice thin layer of cooked, crackley sugar on top? 

Because the thing with me...well, it's also a texture thing, kind of like Alex, except I DO like the texture - I just prefer it with some kind of contrasting texture.  Maybe to emphasize the soft eggyness.  Like a pie shell, for instance.  "Crunch crunch...oooh, my, how soft and soothing this custard is by comparison!"  Something like that.  So hey - since I couldn't bake a pie around the already-made filling, I could add some crunch on top.

 

Last night was too late (for pictures), so this morning, after I brought the kids to school, I set up my platters and got out my little kitchen torch and played with fire for a bit.  And then I had to come up with another variation, because, well, I'm using this long, skinny white plattery thing with three sections, and I needed something for the third section.  I really do create many more complications than there ought to be.  This whole post could have been done half an hour ago if my brain would just STOP! 

Anyway - back to that fresh rasperry idea I'd had.  Because raspberry and lemon are lovely in combination.  Well..................I had some seedless raspberry all-fruit preserves in the fridge...I could warm that a bit and make a little sauce.  That would be nice, right?  At the very least, it would be pretty! 

And so that's the great long saga of what I did.

 

And by the way, when I tasted the plain, unadulterated custard this morning, I liked it better.  Maybe it just needed to be super-chilled.  Maybe my taste buds were still sluggish after several days of eating only a banana and then things just not tasting right for the next day or so after.  Who knows.  But for whatever reason, the texture was custardyer (Yes, I'm having a grand old time making up words as I go.) and the lemon flavor was a bit more lemony.  It was nice.  But my favorite version is still the one with the contrasty textures.  I ate ALL of that one.

 

To read what all the other TWD members thought of this recipe, check out the blogroll on the official Tuesdays with Dorie website!  It's a long list - you might want to get a little dish of something to sustain you while you read....

No One Is Safe

Especially moms who are right there in the trenches, cleaning up the mess and inevitably falling prey to the nasty germs who started it all.

I've been sick the past couple of days.  Finally able to look at the computer without getting dizzy.  Hope to return to something like normal posting soon.

Mermaids...and Other Fanciful Notions

I meant to post these pictures a while ago but, well, I should change this website name to "barefoot kitchen witch SLACKER GIRL" I suppose.  I have no excuse.  Just...didn't get to it.

Anyway.

Those of you who still read me despite my slackerly ways may remember the dolls I made not too, too long ago.  First, there was this one, and then this one, and finally, the Princess Julia doll.  (The original Princess Julia isn't all that enamored of her likeness, so the doll sits near my sewing area and cheers me on.)

I'd had it in my mind that a mermaid doll might be fun to do - a combination of the doll-making and the new fun-with-beads addiction I have recently fallen under.  Or should that be a fun-with-beads spell I've fallen under?  I suppose "spell" is more in keeping with the barefootkitchenwitch persona I've got here.

True to form - I digress.

I made two mermaids.  The first one was the learning-how mermaid (I'm all about hyphens today, apparently) and the second one was my not-for-julia-to-play-with mermaid.

Here they are, for your perusal:

 

This one is the first one - the experimental, see what works and what doesn't one.  I used pipecleaners in her arms and spine (one pipe cleaner across from hand to hand, one from head to tail) and decided that until I find a better way to do it, I'm not going that route again.  I thought it would be cool to be able to pose the mermaid, you know, sitting on a rock near the shore or something, but...no.

And here's the second one.

 

I toned the crazy hair down a bit by braiding it (ocean water does horrible things to hair, but unfortunately human hair conditioner doesn't seem to work on mermaids) and then stitching in some tiny clear aqua-colored beads - like the little oxygen bubbles that dot the surface of plants in my husband's fish tank.

 

I also treated her to lots of fancy-schmancy mermaid bling...

 

 

 

(Why do I write "bling?"  I don't talk like that, why do I write like that?)

She's also wearing a shimmery sort of stole/wrap thingy (I should write for fashion mags, I know) that's dotted with little bits of gold.  Because you know how when you're IN the water, you're perfectly fine and comfortable, but as soon as you rise out of the water and the air hits your skin, your lips and fingernails suddenly turn blue and you're riddled with goosebumps?  Well, my mermaid doesn't like that look, so she wears this for her excursions above the sea. 

 

And then...after playing with those gorgeous watery colors for a while, I made this -

 

and this -

 

(here's a bit of a closer look)

 

And that's my whole shy and roundabout way of letting you know that I opened up a little shop on Etsy, in case you're interested.  It's still in the fledgeling stage - I have ideas percolating faster than my hands can bring them to fruition.  But anyway, I just figured I'd let you know.  :)

It's March Now?

And me without a new banner!  I should probably do something to remedy that, huh?

Update:  Well, okay, I've sort of fixed the problem....

Hey! I Won Something!

 Last week I got an email from Jenn (The Leftover Queen)& Co. at The Foodie Blogroll to let me know I was one of two random winners in their monthly Foodie Blogroll Magazine Giveaway Contest!

Like I need another magazine!  (Well, of course I do!)  My choices were Gourmet, Saveur, Bon Appetit, and Food and Wine.  I already receive Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and so after much coin flipping, I chose Food and Wine.  Because...you know...food AND wine.

Congratulations also to Foodista, the other winner in February 2009!

And thanks to The Foodie Blogroll folks!

Girl With a Paintbrush

Yesterday afternoon Julia wanted to paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She told me she was painting a sunset.  For Alex.  Because he was sick.

Must Have Been a Monday

 

Pencil in hand, and lined paper folded into four columns?  Check.  He's writing out his spelling words, four times per word. 

Wet hair?  Check.  Just got home after swim class.

How did swim class go?  Judging by the little star stamped on his hand and the giant lollipop dangling from his mouth, things went pretty well.  His swim teacher brought the giant lollipops back from her recent trip to Disney.  Alex didn't finish it, but he wore it well - especially the blue - all over his face.

Julia

"Daddy, guess what's my favorite bug!"

"Ummmmm, a bumblebee?"

"NO!"

"A butterfly?"

"You got it!  How did you know?  They just...POP out of their canoe...and they're a butterfly!"

File Under "The Joys of Motherhood"

WARNING:  THE FOLLOWING POST MAY CONTAIN TOPICS OR GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS THAT WILL FRIGHTEN, DISGUST OR PERHAPS HORRIFY SOME PEOPLE.  PLEASE USE DISCRETION WHEN CHOOSING WHETHER OR NOT TO CONTINUE.