The Crafts of Mommyhood

Daring to do it: Quick Bread

2012-02-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

This month's Daring Baker's challenge was another one which made me think twice. At first glance, it looks too easy. Then comes the decisions. Ok, Lis gave us a real challenge - choosing what to make! The options truly are limitless..

My first offering was a strawberry-blueberry-oatmeal quick bread. I based the recip on the basic one in Lis' write-up with a few tweaks - including using part oats for that whole oatmeal thing...!

Next was a cranberry cornbread. I love dried cranberries, and Iwill add them anywhere I can. They were a fabulous addition to cornbread. Try it. You will like it!

Finally I wanted to do a savory quick bread. I had lots of ideas, but not enough follow-through. So finally I made a "bread" which I grew up with. Popovers. Though they sort of reverted to pop-unders, since they deflated before we were ready to eat them. They still tasted great. I really have to make those more often!

Lis, this was so much fun! I actually thought there would be more quick breads from my kitchen, but things just got away from me. I loved this challenge, and had a great time baking with you. It was amazing to see what the other everyone came up with for this challenge. I think you will think so, too... You won't be disapointed when you check out what the other Daring Bakers created!

Quick Sourdough Fix

2012-02-23T13:09:00.010-05:00

Remember my wonderful new friend Eve? You know, my sourdough starter! I think I might be in love. I have been playing with her about once a week, and I am having a great time finding new recipes. Talking with my sister a week or so ago, about food as usual, we were discussing our starters and what we had or could make with them. I was trying to figure out things I could make same-day, rather than being good and waiting for things to rise and all. I stumbled across this website and knew I had struck gold.

My first recipe (and actually, the only one I have done so far... bad Ruth!) from the list was the Whole Wheat Sourdough Crescent Rolls. I love whole wheat breads, I love sourdough, there was almost no way this could go poorly!

The recipe starts off very basic - just like making pie crust or biscuits, fat (vegetable shortening for me) is rubbed into the dry ingredients. But then, instead of using milk or water as the liquid, sourdough starter is mixed in to make the dough. The recipe called for 2/3 cup of starter. All three times I have made them I needed closer to a full cup. But no big deal.

Once the dough comes together it is divided in two, with each half getting rolled into a 9 inch circle, then each circle being cut into six wedges. So far, this has taken... something like 6 minutes. I can handle this, even with the two little ones!
The wedges are rolled up from wide end to narrow, they are bend into crescents, then they are baked at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. That is it. In half an hour you can have yummy sourdough rolls...
And yummy they are! We all loved them. The taste, the texture, the ease, the convenience... I think this is our new go-to dinner roll!But then Auntie Twin told me what she did with half of her crescents - filled with cheese and peperoni. Ok, no peperoni here. But cheese? Heck, yes! Using what I had on hand, I mixed ricotta cheese, a touch of cream cheese, minced garlic, salt and pepper together and spread the mixture onto the dough before rolling it up.

They might not be the prettiest crescents you have ever seen, but my are they delicious! If you have a sourdough starter at home, and you are wondering what to make next, do not hesitate - make these crescents!!! Both of our families love them. (And, yes, I am thinking of dessert crescents. Cinnamon sugar and butter inside? Chocolate filled? Mmmm....!)

(and, again, I am to the point in my post where blogger won't let me link. But check out Auntie Twin's crescents here: http://cmomcook.blogspot.com/2012/02/sourdough-crescents.html)

Daring to do it: Patties

2012-02-14T00:01:00.008-05:00

It's that time again... Ok, yes, it is Valentines Day. Love to all. It is reveal day for the Daring Cooks!

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

When I joined the Daring Kitchen, I was psyched for all of the new, strange, exotic delicacies I would be learning about. Patties? Not what I expected. But really, why not? While it might not be "exotic" or even complicated, it is versatile, creative, and something which every cook should have in his or her arsenal.
The most well known patty, and the first one most people probably think of, is the hamburger. Well, not in this house... My mind went nuts, thinking of the different kinds of patties I could make. I was "disappointed" in myself, I only made four variations this month. And I only photographed three of them... (Sadly, the ones I thought turned out the best are the ones I didn't take pictures of. My last batch is a sad knock off... sorry!)
My first patties are actually something I had made a couple of weeks earlier to rave review, so I remade them for the challenge. Potato cakes:

These are mashed potatoes, cheese, eggs, bread crumbs and seasonings mixed together and pan fried to crispy goodness. I love potatoes, I love cheese, I knew these would be good... I know I will be making them again!

Next, home made veggie burgers:

Two kinds of beans (kidney and black eyed peas, if I remember correctly), shredded carrots, onions, egg, breadcrumbs, and the trusty "seasonings" mixed together to make something other than the boxed burgers we generally have on hand. These were good. I will have to keep playing with my flavors, though, since there are so many options, and I think I under seasoned these.

I next made collard green cakes. I had sauteed collard greens and onions together one night, and while I liked them, they weren't anything great. The leftovers sat in the fridge for a couple of days. Then, making dinner in a rush, I figured I could make some patties from what I had left - both to use it up and to add some extra veggies to dinner. Instead of bread crumbs I use matzah meal. These were amazing. Better than the plain collard greens in every way. I have to make these again. A lot.

Trying to replicate the yumminess with what I had, I made spinach cakes:

Except I was (again) short on time. So no sauteed onions, just spinach, egg, matzah meat and more "seasonings." Good, but not nearly as good as the collard green cakes. Again, I will have to play...! The insides looked good, though!

(I did find that these were better when the leftovers were warmed and topped with garlic and herb goat cheese...!)

Thank you, Audax and Lis, for reminding me and all of us Daring Cooks about how much fun we can have with something that is normally considered an everyday food. I had a great time with this challenge, and seeing the fun variations everyone came up with! You'll like to see what they came up with too... Take a look!

http://thedaringkitchen.com/blogroll/cooks

Daring to do it: Scones (a.k.a. biscuits)

2012-01-27T00:01:00.017-05:00

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

When I first saw this challenge I was kind of disapointed. Biscuits? Really? I have made baking powder biscuits before, and I enjoy them, but as a challenge? After reading through Audax's vast research and information, though, I was excited. He really showed the science and art of something so simple, and I wanted to see where I could go with it. I decided to use his techniques to see if they really would produce lighter, fluffier biscuits.
First was to tripple sift the dry ingredients. Not owning a flour sifter, I used my fine mesh strainer. Using half whole wheat flour, I was left with some of the wheat bran (I think that's what that is...!) in the sifter. I just dumped that back in, since the sifting was to lighten the flour, not to remove anything.
Then the fat was added. I don't use butter, keeping things dairy free. I use vegetable shortening. Aud recommended freezing and grating the shortening, so I did.
Then the liquid was added and the dough was worked together. I used soy milk for my liquid. Again, keeping things dairy free...

Once the dough came together I rolled/patted it out to the aproximate size I wanted. I do not have a biscuit cutter. Nor do I have a plain round cookie cutter. So I used my sharp knife and carefully cut squares. Into a very hot oven to bake, and ten minutes later I was rewarded with this:

Light, fluffy, yummy biscuits. But not as high as I had hoped. I was pretty sure, though, that I knew what changes to make in order to improve both my technique and my end results. So I made another batch:

Better! Vanilla scones this time, using vanilla soy milk and adding in sugar. Was I done there? Nope...!

Batch number three:

With dried cranberries. Yummy!!!

Batch number four:With fresh blueberries. I wanted to eat this whole batch for breakfast.

Batch number five:

hCheesy goodness. Shredded cheese and spiced added tot he dough. So good.

And batch number six:

Chocolate chocolate chip. So good. so very good...

So, for a challenge I wasn't sure was a challenge, there came six variations. And that's only what was made this month! The recipe Audax gave us is so easy and accessible, it is something that can be made at any time. And it is (as you might have noticed) so versitile!

Thank you, Audax, for giving us this fun challenge! It was great to play in the kitchen with you and all of our fellow, amazing Daring Bakers. Do yourself a favor and get inspired by looking at what they all came up with!!

http://thedaringkitchen.com/blogroll/bakers

Daring to do it: Tamales

2012-01-14T00:01:00.009-05:00

I love Mexican food. Well, at least the version I know here in the US... So when this month's Daring Cook's challenge was announced I was really excited.

Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year!

I have never actually made tamales before. Heck, I have never actually eaten tamales before! But it was something I had always wanted to try, and I was glad Maranda had given us the challenge. What I wasn't expecting was how hard it would be to find corn husks. Traditional tamales are made by steaming a filled corn based dough wrapped in a corn husk. It is like a little present on a plate... Except I couldn't find corn husks. I wanted to find an Hispanic market, but I had no clue where one might be locally, and I had zero luck when I looked in every other market or store I went to. I was able to find banana leaves, though, and I knew (I am not sure how) that those could be used instead.

Now came the hard part. See, I hadn't left myself quite enough time to make the tamales. None of the components here are hard -
the masa dough came together quickly, I had already cooked the black eyes peas, and the spinach and onion filling was cooked. I had even cut the banana leaves to size. But wrapping the tamales takes time. This is a task I highly recommend you recruit help for... I also found it hard to work with the banana leaves. True, I was trying to work "efficiently," but I kept getting frustrated by the ripping, separating leaves. Four tamales in I was ready to stop. But dinner still had to be made...

So I took the cheater's way... I put a layer of banana leaves on the bottom of a baking pan. Then I layered the masa dough, the spinach filling, beans and cheese. I topped that with the rest of the dough, covered the whole thing with more banana leaves and baked it in an oven. I did put two pans of water on the bottom rack to try to produce steam, as tamales tend to be steamed...

Then end result was something quite yummy. We all found it to be a bit dry on its own though, which I had thought might be the case. Since I didn't have any salsa in the house, I heated some simple tomato sauce. It worked really well.

Thank you, Maranda, for giving me the opportunity to finally try tamales! I am sorry I didn't do them the traditional way, but I do feel that I got a taste for them, and now I want to try again. Next time, though, I will make two changes - I'll make sure I have more time to assemble them, and I will make sure I have people there to wrap and roll with me!

I hope you take a look and see the creative tamales my fellow Daring Cooks came up with!
http://thedaringkitchen.com/blogroll/cooks

Apple Pickin'

2012-01-05T20:37:00.015-05:00

Now that Little Girl is getting bigger, she is learning to play new and different games. When we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house a couple of weeks ago she discovered the game Hi Ho Cherry-o. She loved it, and particularly loved playing it with Grandma. When we got home, she continued to talk about it. She wanted to know when we could go back to Grandma's to play again. I decided that, while we didn't have the actual game, that shouldn't keep us from playing...! It was time to get to work. But, in order to avoid copyright infringement (or to make sure the two year old sees a difference...) I figured we should call our game something different. So instead of cherries I decided our game would use apple - and Apple Pickin' was hatched.
First we made "apples." Using sculpy clay we made four different colors of apples. Little Girl chose red, yellow and green, as she loves all three of those colors of apples. She then chose blue for the fourth color. Maybe because she likes it, maybe because she knows it is my favorite color, maybe because she wants to see blue apples... No matter the reason, we rolled and baked our clay and soon had four colors of apples ready.
Next it was time to design the game board. I had a shirt box left from gifts my girls had received, and thought that would be perfect - good size, sturdy cardboard, built in storage for game parts... I cut paper to the size of the box, sketched some trees and set Little Girl to work coloring. The problem? Her pictures were so nice and pretty (and unrecognizeable as trees) that I didn't want to poke holes in the, So while she rested I cut colored paper trees to glue onto the box. I felt bad, but I really didn't want to poke holes in her artwork... I used a hole puncher to mark the spots in the trees where the apples would "grow." I then had to poke corresponding holes in the box so that the clay apples would sit in the trees without rolling away (too much). Thank goodness both girls napped so I could use a screwdriver without worrying about anyone (other than me) getting hurt! Finally, the game board was done! Would the apples stay in the trees? Yup...! (I did have to make the holes a little bigger with a larger screwdriver so the apples wouldn't roll as much, but that was an easy fix.)
Now that the board was done and the apples were ready, it was time to play, right? Almost. We needed a spinner. I wasn't sure how to make that with what we have on hand at home. What I really wanted was one of those brass "Brad" paper fasteners, but I don't keep those at home. (I think I have only ever used them for arts and craft projects in school settings, so I never thought to have them here...) I suggested making a large paper die, but Little Girl insisted that it had to be a spinner. So we improvised. I drew out the circle, the options and an arrow. The spinner base was glued onto cardboard for strength. And the arrow? Held on with a sewing pin. Not as safe as I would like for my two and a half year old, nor as secure, as it tends to pop off if spun too strongly, but it is functional until I can fix it...
The end result? A fun knock off which Little Girl loves to play! When Daddy got home that night she wanted to play with him, when friends came over this evening she wanted to play with then... So much fun!

I am so glad Little Girl wants to play games, especially one like that which uses counting, taking turns, color recognition... And I am really proud of her for helping create her own version which she can share with her friends. I can't wait to see what games she wants to make next!

Daring to do it: Sourdough

2011-12-27T00:01:00.024-05:00

I know I say this a lot, but this month's challenge was something I was really excited about. Despite the fact that I am a "Daring Baker," I am still somewhat hesitant to try things that

have difficult reputations, so I was thrilled when Jessica announced that I would be tackling another one of my "someday" items.

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

I love bread. Most types. But there is a special place in my heart for sourdough. Chewy, flavorful, crusty... it is just goodness! And, on a personal note, Hubby and I went to San Fransisco for our honeymoon, so there is a special place in my heart for sourdough... But it was always something that intimidated me when I thought abut making it. Sourdough requires a starter. A starter is kinda scary. It is a living thing that requires care. I know, I have children, I can care for living things. But a starter just seemed... scary. The science and art of it was confusing, and I was sure it was beyond my capabilities. Jessica's recipes and instructions were
heaven-sent this challenge! She was detailed, she was readable, she was just a great host! Using just whole wheat flour and water, over the course of a week I went from this play-dough like ball (over there on the left) to this wet clay-like blob (over there on the right), then finally had this bubbly, gooey concoction. Meet Eve:

You see, most of the Daring Bakers who have been cultivating their sourdough starters for many years had named their starters, as they are living entities. So I named mine Eve - mother of many things in my kitchen!

The first thing Eve created with me was a traditional Hannukkah treat - jelly donuts. (Sufganiot.) Using the starter fresh from the container I made a sweet dough which puffed nicely when fried in oil, had great tang to it, and tasted really good filled with strawberry jam and rolled in cinnamon sugar!

The next project for Eve was the French Country Bread recipe which Jessica had given in the challenge. This one required us to use the starter to make a production leaven, then use that leaven to make a rustic bread. Kneading this bread was interesting because it was all by hand, very sticky, and really needed a bench scraper. Which I don't have. So I took Jessica's advice and used the next best thing - a well washed (and used up...!) gift card. It worked really well. I do recommend reading the recipe, as there are lots of steps and lots of time involved. But the time really was the most difficult part, especially when you are as "patient" as I am. After most of the day, though, I had a beautiful crusty loaf, hot from the oven. Of course, since this had taken most of the day, it was 10 pm when it came out. So cutting into it had to wait. Which was really hard because the smell was fantastic. Like, really amazing...! So the next day the loaf went back into the oven to warm. When I cut it I was totally rewarded. I got the holes I was hoping for, and the taste was fabulous. Chewy inside, crusty outside... Kinda dense, considering all of the holes there, but so good.
There was leftover production leaven after making the bread, and I didn't want any part of Eve going to waste. So I played around and found a way to make sourdough biscuits. Sweet sourdough, again.. This is me, I try to make dessert versions of pretty much everything... The biscuits were really good. But I kicked it up a notch by making them into sourdough short cakes. Yum!

Jessica, this was awesome. I am really excited to have this new skill under my culinary belt, and to have this wonderful new addition to my kitchen/family! I am going to have so much fun seeing what other great things Eve and I make together.

I highly recommend that you take a look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers created.

**Ok, Blogger is being weird, I don't know why it isn't letting me put in links. For the recipes go here: http://thedaringkitchen.com/sites/default/files/u11/62_Sour_Dough_-_DB_Dec_2012.pdf

For the blogroll go here: http://thedaringkitchen.com/blogroll/bakers

Daring to do it: Cha Sui and Cha Sui Bao

2011-12-14T00:01:00.023-05:00

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Cha Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Cha Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

I will be honest with you. When I first saw this challenge I was not impressed. Ok, I was impressed, I mean, this is something I would never have thought to make in a home kitchen. I guess it is more that I wasn't enthused. This is not really a Kosher/vegetarian dish. Traditionally, cha sui is pork. When Hubby asked what the challenge was, I said "barbecue pork buns." For a long time there I pretty much put it out of my mind, and figured I would just sit this one out. But I finally got to the point when I was about to go away for a week, and not come back until posting day. It was literally a case of do the challenge tonight or not do it at all. And when push came to shove, I didn't want to sit it out. And I am SO glad that I didn't! This was super yummy, and I am already trying to narrow down the possibilities for fillings when I make these again!
I started with the bun dough. This is a sweet yeasted dough, which didn't scare me, as I work with yeast pretty regularly. I was dismayed, though, with how my yeast-warm water-sugar combination looked after 15 minutes. Not frothy, foamy, or active looking at all. I was all of a sudden back to thinking that I wasn't destined to do this challenge... I stuck with it, though, and kept moving forward. Instead of using all A.P. flour, I substituted 1/4 whole wheat flour. Then I used the mixer to kneed. I had to add a lot more flour to get a good working consistency to my dough, but I eventually got there. Into a greased bowl, time to rise.
Next it was time to work on the filling. Generally speaking, the filling wasn't too strange - marinated protein sauteed with green onions and various sauce-making ingredients. (Yes, this is very much an over-simplification. Check out Sara's actual, informative, detailed recipe here...) After I did the measuring (and improvising, based on what ingredients I did and did not have on hand), I let Little Girl mix the marinade. The did a great job, and spilled a lot less than I would have! This was then poured over the tofu and left to marinate for not nearly long enough. (The flavor was good, but it would have been better if I had planned ahead and let it sit for the recommended time!)
I cooked the tofu in the oven for about 15 minutes, then followed the written directions for the pork filling Sara had given.
Filling done, it was time to work the dough. After more than five hours of rising time, my dough ball looked like this:
Not nearly as impressive as I would have thought, but, again, I stuck to it and continued. The dough was divided into 12 balls which were rolled out into disks. One disk, though, was commandeered by Little Girl to "work with." It became a snake, a turtle, a necklace... and eventually small baked (unfilled) rolls for her to eat, or not, as she saw fit. The filling was spooned into the disks which were then closed around it. (Hubby could not figure out how I had gotten the filling inside the buns... I probably shouldn't let him see this post and let him continue thinking that I am just that good!)
As I don't have a steamer basket, I baked my buns. I did not use the egg wash on them, even though the recipe called for it. They still developed an amazing golden brown color. And despite my concerns about the yeast, the buns were fluffy and light, so it all worked out for the best.
All of us around the table loved these "pork" buns. I was so glad that I finally decided to participate, and they were totally worth it. I am definitely going to make these again - both with the given (if somewhat altered) recipe and with yet to be determined fillings of a less traditional style!
Thank you so much, Sara, for teaching me something so new, and for being so supportive and encouraging. This was a wonderful challenge, and I highly recommend that you check out the versions created by my fellow Daring Cooks!

Daring to do it: Filipino Desserts

2011-11-27T00:01:00.003-05:00

I am not home to write this post, we are at the in-laws' for the Thanksgiving weekend... Therefore I don't have all of my photos and such available to me until after the posting date... But this challenge was simply too yummy to delay, so you will have to make do with what I have access to here. :)

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

This was a fabulous challenge. Not too hard, procedure-wise, but different, and learning about a new culture. I must admit, I spent the whole month saying I needed to get in touch with my cousin who is Filipino to ask her about her experiences with the Sans Rival, but I never quite got there. I will have to ask her, anyway, since I totally want to make this again. As in, this past Wednesday I was looking at my stock of eggs thinking "should I make it?", but knew we had too much for for the holiday as it was, and didn't want the yumminess to be wasted!
Sans Rival is a layered dessert of meringue, butter cream and nuts. I made the meringue as written (well, using almonds instead of cashews, as that was what I had), but changed the butter cream. Being lactose intolerant, I don't keep butter in the house, just margarine. I also had raspberries I wanted to use. But my butter cream wound up way too thin - not fluffy at all. I tried adding some powdered sugar, no help, I tried whipping in a soy milk and flour thickener, nope... So I used the raspberry butter cream as the filling between the layers, and made a more standard (though nondairy) butter cream for the edges.
I loved this dessert, and I really want to make it again. I see this one being added to the regular rotation, at least for special occasions!!!

At some point in the future I would like to look into the other recipes Catharine gave us, for the Bibingka and the salted eggs, but it just wasn't in the cards for this month.

Thank you so much, Catharine, for teaching us about this amazing dessert! This is the reason I joined the Daring Kitchen, and you were such a great host to work with! If you want to see what me fellow Bakers created, check it out here, just be sure you have a napkin or two to mop up the drool!

Daring to do it: Cooking with Tea

2011-11-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I feel like I owe Sarah an apology - I don't feel like I did this challenge the justice it deserves. I love the idea of cooking with tea. It is something I would have never thought to do, and yet now I have ideas bubbling away like crazy! Unfortunately, though, I never seemed to get around to most of them... I hope that I will keep this idea in mind, though, and keep using tea for more than just a warm and relaxing beverage!
I did create two tea inspired dishes. Here are my variations:
Pasta with sauteed cabbage, onions, and lentils cooked in green tea with lemon:

Cranberry oat bread, oats cooked in decaf chai tea:

Both of these dishes were delicious. The tea flavor was much more pronounced in the cake, which was amazing. The light lemon flavor in the lentils, though, added a great, fresh touch which is something I will keep in mind in future lentil dishes!
Thank you, Sarah, for such a great challenge. I love the creativity you inspired with your recipes, and the freedom you gave us to explore on our own! I recommend that you look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks created!

Daring to do it: Povitica

2011-10-27T00:01:00.019-04:00

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

When I fist saw this challenge I was confused. It looked both complicated and somehow familiar... Then it hit me. Babka! This is just like a babka! (Don't know what a babka is? Look here...) I have even made a babka before, which made me feel much more comfortable, and much more excited to get things going. Hopefully I will get the chance to make it again, (well, both, the povitica and the babka!) so I can get a real side-by-side comparison. Until then, though, I was realty pleased with how this recipe turned out.
I decided to make a half batch, as the full makes four loaves. I also decided that I would use different fillings for each loaf, because there are just too many ideas to do only one! The dough came together pretty easily. I did sub in some whole wheat flour, as I usually do. It did use more flour all together than I had expected it to, but I don't know if that was just me or if it was particularly humid or what... While the dough was rising I got to work on the traditional walnut filling. Except I didn't have enough walnuts, even for the quarter batch of the filling... I wound up using half walnuts and half almonds. Then Little Girl helped me combine all of the dry ingredients.
It was then time to roll the dough. (The Darning Kitchen is certainly giving us, and our rolling pins, a workout! Moo shu, phyllo dough, croissants...! Phew!) The goal was to get the dough thin enough to see through, I don't know if it my imagination, but I think I am seeing the texture of the granite through that dough... I was pleased!!
Once rolled out, the dough is then covered in the filling, then rolled up as tightly as possible.
Once rolled it is time to coil. (I know, lots of different types of rolling and such. But trust me, it is worth it!) The dough is coiled around and on top of itself to get cool patterns.

Before it is baked, the loaf is brushed with a coffee and sugar syrup. Can I just say yum? Time to bake.
When I finally cut my first slice of the traditional povitica (I had to wait for it to cool. That part is no fun, what with the amazing smell it was giving off...) I was a little sad. I hadn't taken a bite, so I wasn't disappointed in the taste, it was the swirl - where were all of those layers of swirls?

Then I remembered that the end of the loaf was not where everything was layered. So I cut further in. There was the awesome swirliness I was hoping for!!
And for my second loaf? Peanut butter and jelly povitica, at your service! That was Little Girl's favorite...!

Thank you, Jenni, for such a great challenge! I loved learning how something I grew up knowing (babka) really is both so culturally rich and different, and so versatile and yummy when made in new ways!! Please do yourself a favor and look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with. The variety of sweet and savory treats will blow you away!!

Back... in blue!

2011-10-19T19:55:00.013-04:00

Ok, I promise, I haven't forgotten about this blog. But, as you can imagine, the two kiddos are keeping me on my toes. Really, the thing that falls to the wayside is the picture taking. We are still cooking and crafting, I am just not thinking about the camera when we do... Well, I am trying to fix my ways. Hopefully I will go back to sharing the fun things we do in our home other than the Daring Kitchen...!

This morning, to kick things off, I asked Little Girl if she would want to bake something special. She requested a cake. She chose to make it chocolate, with chocolate chips. When asked what shape cake she wanted, she said a heart. And when I asked what color heart she wanted, she told me blue. With our task set, it was off to the kitchen!
We started with the cake. I used the chocolate cake recipe from the cookbook that came with my trusty Kitchen Aid mixer, adding chocolate chips toward the end. Cakes baked and set out to cool, we set off on our errands.
During "rest time" I made the frosting. I find it easier to work with sugar on the stove top when neither the two year old nor the four month old are attached to me...! I used the same Fluffy While Frosting recipe I have become addicted to from my birthday cake last year, and added blue food coloring to get the color Little Girl requested.
Next it was assembly time, at least once the resting was done. We started by spreading a layer of frosting on one of the cakes, and adding some extra chocolate chips for good measure. Then the second cake went on top. So there, we have a circle. How to make a heart? We cut out a small "v" from the top of the circle and moved it to the bottom. Cover the whole thing in fluffy blue frosting to smooth the corners, and voila!!
So now we had the blue heart. Pretty, right? But it could always be prettier, right? So hand the kiddo some sprinkles, gum drops, and extra chocolate chips, then set her loose...!
The end result was a yummy, colorful chocolaty heart cake that made all of us smile! (Well, all except for the four month old who can't eat cake yet... You'll get there, Baby Girl!!)

Chocolate Cake
2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. low-fat milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate

Combine dry infredients in mixer bowl. Add shortening, milk, and vanilla. Mix about 1minute. Stop, scrape bowl. Add eggs and chocolate, mix again for aprox. 30 seconds. Stop, scrape bowl. Beat batter for a minute.
Pour batter into two greased and floured 8- or 9-inch round baking pans. Bake at 350(F) for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. remove cakes from pans, cool completely on wire rack.

**My adaptations:
I used 1 c. white sugar, 1/3 c. brown sugar. I used margarine for my shortening. I used rice milk (vanilla flavored) instead of low=fat milk. I used pre-melted packets of chocolate as my chocolate squares. And, of course, I added a couple of handfuls of chocoalte chips after the high speed beating.
Enjoy!!

Daring to do it: Moo Shu

2011-10-14T00:01:00.004-04:00

This month was a special challenge for me! See if you can figure out why...

Hi! I am Shelley from C Mom Cook, and I am super excited to bring you this month's challenge. I have been a member of the Daring Kitchen for almost two years now, and have learned so much from the experience. I am also glad to be able to have my twin sister and fellow Daring Cook, Ruth, from The Crafts of Mommyhood, to help me out. Despite being twins, we have very different personalities and cooking styles, not to mention different food preferences and dietary restrictions, so my hope is that we are presenting a challenge that will work for the majority of cooks, and that will be enjoyed by all!

I kind of lucked into the position of hosting this challenge – I think I accidentally volunteered when working on a FoodTalk article late last year, but was then so excited to see my name on the hosting schedule, that I just had to go with it. Deciding on what to present, however, was another story. I considered and tested several different ideas before settling in on one.

I am extremely fortunate to have a friend and neighbor who went to culinary school, and with whom I always discuss my latest kitchen adventures. Recently she offered me an unbelievable gift – she offered to loan me her binders and notes from culinary school. I turned each page carefully, amazed by the information, tips, and recipes it contained. And then I saw it. A recipe for Moo Shu. All of the other ideas I'd been tossing around were tossed away. Moo Shu is one of the dishes that introduced me to Chinese food, and remains a favorite of mine. A simple, yet multi-component dish, my challenge was chosen.

The recipe that was included in my neighbor's binder was intended for restaurant use, with fancy ingredients, make-ahead components and scaled very large. Perfect for inspiration, but not the best recipe for a home cook with limited access to specialty ingredients and not needing to feed a restaurant full of people. After poring through cookbooks and websites, I selected the recipe for this challenge because it is both accessible and adaptable to a variety of dietary requirements, while maintaining authenticity to what Moo Shu is supposed to be.

Deh-Ta Hsiung, a renowned authority on Chinese cuisine, published a beautiful book called The Chinese Kitchen. The book is a wonderful and encyclopedic volume containing a wealth of information about all aspects of Chinese cooking, from ingredients to process to history. The recipes are accessible, flavorful, and clearly written. His recipe for Moo Shu, like the others, is straightforward and delicious, and is what I am sharing with you for our challenge.

In preparation for this challenge, I contacted Mr. Deh-Ta Hsiung, who is pleased to have his recipe as our challenge. Mr. Hsiung is widely considered an international expert on Chinese cooking, though his original work was in the arts and film-making. Chinese cooking was his passion, though, and he proceeded to take lessons from top Chinese chefs and work in professional kitchens around the world. Having written numerous books and articles, Mr. Hsiung is a respected authority in the world of Chinese cooking.

About this dish, specifically, Mr. Hsiung offered us a brief anecdote from his earliest work, regarding the origins of this dish's name. In The Home Book of CHINESE COOKERY, Mr. Hsiung discusses the dish as follows:

PORK LAUREL (MU-HSU PORK)
Some explanation is needed for the name of this dish. In China, we have a tree called kwei; according to my dictionary, kwei is called laurel in English, and it is a shrub rather than a tree; but the laurels we have in the garden of our London home never seem to flower at all, while the Chinese laurel is a large tree which produces bright yellow, fragrant flowers in the autumn. The pork in this recipe is cooked with eggs, which give a yellow colour to the dish – hence the name. But to add to the confusion, the Chinese name of this dish is mu-hsu pork, mu hsu being the classical name for laurel (are you still with me?). So you might say that calling it pork laurel is taking a poetic license.

Simply put, Moo Shu is a stir fry, containing thinly sliced or shredded vegetables, meat (traditionally) and scrambled egg. It is usually served on flat, thin, steamed pancakes, and is accompanied by a complementary sauce.

Moo Shu pork (the protein most commonly used in Moo Shu dishes) originates in Northern China (commonly attributed to the Shandong province, though sometimes attributed to Beijing), rising in popularity in Chinese restaurants in the West in the 1960's and 70's. As the dish became more popular, different restaurants adapted the recipe to meet their own styles, or to accommodate for expensive or hard-to find ingredients, so there is a lot of variation among recipes. Common among them, though, is a basis of cabbage and the inclusion of scrambled eggs.

The history and etymology of the dish are widely disputed, as indicated by Mr. Hsiung's anecdote above. There are two primary theories as to the origin of the name. Many, including the author of our challenge recipe, suggest that the Chinese characters, read as mu xi, refer to a tree that blooms with small, fragrant blossoms. They suggest that the scrambled egg in this dish is reminiscent of these blossoms, and thus a variety of egg dishes are referred to as mu xi. An alternative suggestion uses the Chinese characters reading mu xu, roughly translating to wood whiskers or wood shavings. The dish is thus named, it is said, due to the appearance of the shredded vegetables and meat, resembling wooden whiskers, or wooden shavings that were used as packing materials.

Recipe Source: The challenge recipe provided for the Moo Shu filling comes from The Chinese Kitchen by Deh-Ta Hsiung. The pancake recipe comes from the same source, though we have also provided an alternate method for preparing them, adapted from a variety of online demonstrations. The sauce recipe provided is from epicurian.com.

Blog-checking lines: The October Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

Notes:

A few notes about the traditional main ingredients of a Moo Shu stir-fry:

Cabbage

The primary vegetable within the Moo Shu stir fry is generally cabbage. While there are many varieties of cabbage available, the most traditional for this style of dish is the Chinese cabbage, also known as Napa cabbage.

Chinese cabbage is a traditionally cool weather crop which thrives during the shorter days of the year, so it is normally planted during the second half of the calendar year. It generally reaches maturity within about three months after planting. In order to provide a continual supply of the vegetable, a late crop is planted in areas with appropriate conditions. There are several varieties of Chinese cabbage, which all have delicate, sweet flavors, and blend well with the other foods with which it is cooked. It also holds up well to various cooking methods, which is why it makes a good base for dishes such as Moo Shu. Stored in the crisper of the refrigerator, Chinese cabbage can keep for up to ten days.

Scallions

Scallions, also known as green onions or Spring onions, are milder than most other species of onion. They may be eaten raw or cooked, and are very common in Asian recipes. Scallions are generally sold in bunches with the roots still attached. Stored properly, in a plastic box to allow them to breathe, they can keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Bamboo Shoots

Bamboo shoots are the edible shoots of a variety of bamboo species. They are available fresh, dried and canned. Fresh bamboo shoots must be parboiled to eliminate a harsh, bitter poison, hydrocyanic acid, prior to being eaten or used in recipes. Dried bamboo shoots must be soaked prior to use. Both parboiled fresh and reconstituted dried bamboo shoots need to be rinsed with fresh water as the final preparation step. Canned bamboo shoots are parboiled and require no reconstitution, though should also be rinsed.

One of my favorite quotes about bamboo from The Chinese Kitchen is as follows:
Traditionally, the bamboo symbolizes the virtuous man, bending in the wind yet never breaking.

Fungus

Not generally a word most casual Westerners associate with food, there are a wide variety of mushrooms that are used in Asian cooking. The specific fungus specified in Mr. Hsiung's recipe is dried black fungus, which has long been cultivated in China. While there are many different varieties available in China, there are only a few commonly available in the West. Stored in a dry, dark place just as they are packaged, they can last indefinitely. Once reconstituted, they can be stored for up to five days in the refrigerator in a bowl of fresh water.

Mandatory Items:
You must make Moo Shu pancakes using the provided recipe, a stir fry, and a complementary sauce.

Variations allowed:
Substitutions for purposes of dietary requirements are allowed, and creativity with vegetables, proteins and sauces, maintaining the spirit of the challenge, are encouraged.

Yes, my sister and I hosted. To read the recipe and such, (and Shelley's fabulous pictures) check things out here.
I just wanted to add my two variations for you.
I clearly did not make pork. I made a tofu moo shu that was really good. I did play with the veggies, Hubby doesn't like mushrooms, and I like lots of vegetables!!

I then wanted to try something very out of the box that Shelley and I had wondered about - dessert moo shu.

Apples cooked in margarine, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. A scoop of vanilla ice cream would have made this even better, but I loved it as it was!

Thank you, Shelley, for letting me help with this challenge. I had a lot of fun, and I hope to return the favor! Thank you to Lis for... well, for the Daring Kitchen! And thank you to the wonderful Daring Cooks who moo shu'ed along with us! Please check out their creations here!

Daring to do it: Croissants

2011-09-27T00:01:00.016-04:00

This was an awesome challenge that deserves a wonderful, glowing write up. But things are busy right now... So unfortunately this post will be fairly basic. But this is something I want to make again. And again...!

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

I love croissants. But I don't eat them too often because of that whole butter thing... Lactose intolerant me doesn't like to overdo the dairy... So I made my croissants with soy milk and margarine. They worked really well. I made the recipe twice. First time I followed the recipe (well, except for those two dairy changes/substitutions).
Some process pics:

Out of the oven - half plain, half with cinnamon sugar on top.The inside. Not as fluffy as "professional" ones, but darn tasty!!I was impressed with the flavor, the texture, and the butteriness, despite not using butter! So I made them a second time. This time I made half cinnamon sugar:

Look at those layers!!
Then the other half I made into pain au chocolate. Yup. Chocolate.

Thank you, Sarah! I love this recipe, and I think this is something I am going to do a lot! They were not nearly as difficult or time consuming as I had feared, and they worked SO well! If you can control your urge to lick the screen, take a look here at what my fellow Daring Bakers made!

Daring to do it: Stock and Soup

2011-09-14T00:01:00.008-04:00

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cook’s September 2011 challenge, “Stock to Soup to Consommé”. We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consommé if we so chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!

I have long wondered about the difference between "stock," "broth," "consomme" and "soup." Thanks to Peta, I have a little bit more of an understanding!! For this challenge we were asked to make stock, then take it to another level. I was not brave enough (read: didn't think I could) to attempt a vegetarian consomme, but I did make one of my favorite soups, which, oddly enough, I had never made myself before! And I made a yummy side for the soup, which really made this challenge super yummy, even if I didn't stretch myself as much as maybe I could have...
My first Daring Cooks' challenge taught me to make stock. In the year and a half since, I have made stock quite a few times, and I tend to keep vegetable ends and cuttings in my freezer for that purpose. For this stock I used the ends of some leeks, onion skins, broccoli stems and asparagus stems, as well as some fresh carrots and celery and seasonings. It all went into the slow cooker overnight, and when I woke up what had started like this:
had turned into this:
Off to a good start! When we woke up, Hubby commented on how good the soup smelled... With a stock that smelled that good, I knew the soup would have a great flavor.

One of my favorite soups is one my mother makes. It is a quinoa vegetable soup, and it is really quite good. Hearty but not too thick, warming and a complete meal, thanks to the wonderful food that is quinoa. Somehow, though, I never get around to making it myself. Thanks to Peta, I finally did! I had to make a few changes to the recipe, based on what I had in the house, but it seemed to work out well.
The veggies:
There were also split peas and (of course) quinoa, Add it all into the pot, let it do its thing, and then you have this:

Yum.

Peta asked us to make some sort of accompaniment to go with our soups. I really wasn't sure what to make, though, since this soup really can stand alone. I could make bread of some sort, or try again to make bread bowls... Nothing called to me. So I turned to Mark. No, not my husband Mark! Mark Bittman, of course. MY favorite cookbook is his How to Cook Everything
Vegetarian. In there I found his recipe for cheese shortbread. Kind of like Cheez-Its for grown ups. Perfect!

These were so good. Better warm, but perfect with the soup. We wound up breaking them into pieces and stirring them right in...

Thank you, Peta, for giving me the kick I needed to make this soup! You were a supportive host, and it has been so much fun to see how everyone has taken something seemingly simple and made it so creative!! If you want to see what my fellow Daring Cooks came up with, then take a look here!

Daring to do it: Candy

2011-08-27T00:01:00.022-04:00

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com/ offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Yes, another challenge, and with it another contest. The contest part is kind of... well, a non-issue for me, I guess. But the challenge? Way cool! Candy making is something that has always seemed beyond me. Sure I have tried in the past, but not with the expectation of it being "real" candy, just a treat for me. But with the recipes provided by our fabulous hosts, I knew I would at least have fun trying! While the challenge was hosted by a chocolate company, there were plenty of non-chocolate options to choose from, also. Here at the four candies I completed this month.

Peanut butter fudge:

I followed the recipe as written, except I halved it (which I shouldn't have done!!) and I used soy milk. It turned out AMAZINGLY - Hubby is the peanut butter addict in the family, but I think I ate most of the pan!

Sponge candy (aka Honeycomb):

From a scientific perspective, this was awesome! Unfortunately I wasn't as thrilled with the taste as I wanted to be. There was too much of a baking soda taste, which interfered with my enjoyment. Strangely, though, I kept coming back for more nibbles... (There was some discussion in the forum about this candy, with other alternative recipes with differing amounts of baking soda... So I think I will have to try this one again.

Pate de fruits:

I used watermelon, strawberries and blueberries for my pate de fruit. I knew it would be a bit more complicated because of the high water content of the watermelon, but, having never made this before, I figured I wouldn't really know any better anyway! I used powdered pectin instead of liquid, as that was what I had. This was good. I would like to try a peach pate de fruit, as there is a peach tree growing in my backyard giving such yummy, juicy fruits!

Chocolates:

Ganache:

Tempering:

Molding:

These were good. I made my ganache with dark chocolate and soy milk. The ganache never set as firmly as I would have liked, but I think that is because of the milk - using cream, as is usually done, would have added more fat and depth. I then added pretzels to it, for crunch and yumminess. As for tempering chocolate... I will call what I did "pseudo-tempering." I don't have a chocolate thermometer, and the candy thermometer simply does not go low enough to be accurate. My chocolate shells had the right snap to them, but not the shine of a proper temper. I definitely want to do this again, with peanuts... And probably with candy molds so they will be a bit of a more manageable size!

I did attempt one more candy - rock candy. But that is one that requires days to grow. And it hasn't been enough days, so I don't think it has finished growing... Hopefully you'll see that one some other time...

Lisa and Mandy, thank you so much for this fun challenge. It was great to learn along with my fellow Daring Bakers, and to see the amazing and creative candies everyone made! Take a look for yourself, but try not to drool on your keyboard!

Daring to do it: Appam and Curry

2011-08-14T00:01:00.003-04:00

One of the reasons I joined the Daring Kitchen was to broaden my horizons. I like to think that I am open minded when it comes to food, and this is a great way to really get my hands into foods which I otherwise might never try, or even hear about!! This month was a great example of just that...

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Mary is wonderful. I love looking at her blog, both for the challenges and otherwise, since her dishes are always so beautiful, both to look at and from a flavor perspective! I knew she wouldn't lead us astray, even if she was having us make something I had never heard of!!

Appam are sort of like crepes, but yeasted and made with rice. (I know, yeast in a flat bread? Sounds like an oxymoron!) I generally only have brown rice in the house, just as a personal preference. While appam are usually made with white rice, I decided to go ahead and try brown, just to see if I could...

Start by soaking the rice for several hours. Because I was using brown rice, I soaked mine overnight.

Once thoroughly soaked, the rice is blended with proofed yeast. Blend and blend and blend... You want your batter as smooth as you can get it.The blended batter then gets set aside to rise. Actually, you want it to go beyond rising to fermenting. Did I mention that this is not a dish you can decide to make spur-of-the-moment? Yeah... lots of time needed, but most of it is unattended, so not too bad. I let me appam batter rise all afternoon, then I put the bowl into the fridge overnight. I took it out and let it come to room temperature before moving on to the next step.

Coconut milk and salt are added to the fermented rice, and the appam are finally ready to be cooked. A few tablespoons of batter are put into a lightly greased frying pan, the pan is covered and the appam cook for about two minutes. After all of the time that goes into preparing the batter, the cooking is really quick and easy!
I was actually a bit more worried about the curry than the appam in this challenge. I have never really tried curry, and was nervous that it would be way to strong for my taste... Also, despite the variety of great looking recipes Mary had provided for us, I couldn't find one that spoke to me... or that didn't have so many spices I had never even heard of! After looking at a lot of recipes on-line, I decided to fake it... I made a list of the spices I saw popping up in many of the recipes and headed to one of my favorite local stores which I knew would carry at least some of them. I bought fenugreek seed, cumin seed, green cardamom pods and curry powder.
(They didn't have curry leaves, so I had to go for the next best thing...) I toasted the seeds and pods in a pan before crushing them. This, along with the curry powder, was my Indian spice blend. For the actual food part of the curry dish, I chose to go simple. I sauteed onion, carrots and lentils in coconut oil until the carrots were a bit softened and the onions were translucent. I added halved grape tomatoes and some vegetable stock, as well as the rest of the can of coconut milk left from the appam batter. (Oh yeah, and the spice mix, too!) The resulting curry dish was really good! The coconut milk added just a touch of sweetness which was really nice. And the appam were a great accompaniment, both for taste and texture. I wound up snacking on them by dipping them into the curry sauce as I was cleaning up! The curry was also great the next day over rice... I am really glad that I have more spices so I can do this again! (And so is Hubby!!) Thank you so much, Mary, for this amazing challenge! You were a wonderful and supportive host, and I loved working with you! To see what my fellow Daring Cooks created, take a look here.

S'mores going on than you know!

2011-08-11T21:05:00.009-04:00

Amidst the craziness that is having a two year old and a two month old, I really am keeping up with crafting and cooking. And not just for the Daring Kitchen!! It is just the blogging part that seems to fall by the wayside. Hopefully one of these days I will catch up on some of the more interesting and amusing projects we have undertaken... But today's, for a couple of reasons, had to get posted. (This was not something I had planned, ergo the lack of pictures from the process...)

A good friend came over for dinner tonight. Someone we had not seen in a while, and we had missed, so I wanted to make something special. Well, when you ask Little Girl what she would like to bake, her usual answer is cupcakes. Which she said today. So I searched for cupcake recipes. I kept seeing s'mores cupcakes, and I thought that sounded both yummy and fun. I found this recipe for cupcakes that I liked. It looked easy enough and also didn't call for any ingredients I didn't already have in the house. Instead of using Nutella like the original poster used, I made my favorite quick fudge icing for the chocolate layer, and for the marshmallow frosting I used my fluffy white frosting recipe. While the finished cakes looked nothing like s'mores (not that there was any thought they might!), they were really quite cute, and I was excited to try them. In Hubby's words, they are a little more understated that expected - they are not overwhelmingly sweet, and the marshmallow frosting really brings out the "s'mores-ness" of them.

Now the reasons why I had to post these... It turns out that yesterday was National S'mores Day. Why there is a National S'more Day is beyond me, but who am I to question a day celebrating gooey, chocolaty goodness? And how did I find out that it was National S'mores Day? My sister, Auntie Twin posted about it on her blog this evening - having made s'mores cupcakes of her own!! Apparently this twin thing had its mojo working today! It was just too much fun to pass on the post, so here it is, in all of its s'mores-y goodness!

Daring to do it: Fraisier

2011-07-27T00:05:00.004-04:00

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

This month's challenge looked amazing. Ihad seen cakes like this before in bakeries, but never thought how they were accomplished. Thanks to Jana, now I know!

Start with a chiffon cake, which will be split in half. Yum... Light, airy, and not too sweet.

Then make pastry cream. This is actually a whipped cream substitute made with tofu which was blended with the soy pastry cream I made...Get together the cake, cream and the other components you will need: simple syrup and fruit. Traditionally, fraisier is made with strawberries. (Fraise...) I added blueberries to the mix, too. And don't forget your springform pan lined with plastic wrap.

Assembly was so easy, my two year old did it!! (Ok, she just helped... best sous chef ever!)

First wet the bottom layer of chiffon cake with the simple syrup.

Then arrange halved strawberries around the edge of the pan, cut sides facing out. Add blueberries if you want...

Pipe (or in my case, squeeze!) cream around the berries, essentially holding them in place. Then add a layer of cream on top of the cake.

Put more fruit on top of the pastry cream, This will then be covered with the second layer of chiffon cake.

Soak the top layer of cake with more simple syrup.

Wrap the whole cake in the plastic wrap, let it set in the fridge for at least four hours.
I topped the cake with more berries and some colored sugar sprinkles. The pastry cream didn't set up as firmly as I had hoped, but I was still very pleased with the way the cake looked!

And, more importantly than the look, the taste of the cake was amazing! I could eat this cake every day! All of us, including my parents, loved the way it turned out. As long as my dad doesn't know that the filling was made with tofu, I think he will go on loving it! (He knows it was non-dairy. We just didn't point out the whole tofu thing. Safer that way.)

Thank you, Jana, for this fun, beautiful and delicious challenge! I can't wait to make this one again! If you want to give it a try, here is the recipe.

If you want to see what fabulous creations the other Daring Bakers came up with, look here.

Daring to do it: Handmade Noodles

2011-07-14T00:05:00.006-04:00

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

I live in the best neighborhood ever. When Baby Girl was born the neighbors got together and made a schedule to provide dinners for us. As much as I love to cook, it was SO appreciated to have the chance to not worry about timing and being in the kitchen. I felt badly, though, since we have dietary restrictions in our family. Because of the vegetarian and Kosher limits, many of the meals we were gifted with were pasta based. Which is fabulous, as we all like pasta, especially Little Girl! But then this challenge was posted... More pasta... Yummy, but possibly a bit of overkill! What was I to do? It was time to be a little creative...

The first dish I made was gnocchi. I love gnocchi. I love potatoes, so what could be bad about potato pasta dumplings? I have actually made gnocchi before, so I didn't really rely on a recipe. Mashed potatoes, seasonings and whole wheat flour, mixed together until it "felt right." (Proportions? Measurements? Who knows!) Little Girl helped me roll the dough into snakes, and then we cut them into pillows and used a fork to give them the traditional gnocchi look. The cooked gnocchi made a great lunch dressed with garlic butter and shredded cheese.Even with the vast amount of pasta we had been eating, I was really intrigued by one of the recipes Staph provided - spatzle (spaetzle?). I had heard of spatzle before, but hadn't known what it really was. It looked like a good, quick and yummy version of pasta. But more pasta? Well, me being me, I decided that I was going to make it, but not quite as given. Introducing chocolate spaetzle! I replace part of the flour with cocoa powder, and used cinnamon and sugar as the seasoning, but otherwise left the recipe alone. And instead of the breadcrumb "dressing," I used graham crackers (and topped it with chocolate sauce...!). Yes, it was still pasta, but it was dessert! I was excited about it, and the leftovers didn't last long!

I thought that would be it for me for this month. Two recipes for the month more than covered the "requirement" for my participation. But the egg pasta looked too good to pass up. So dinner for the last night before posting was handmade egg pasta with roasted veggies. The dough came together very well and very easily - it was done with my right hand while I held a fussy five week old Baby Girl in my left hand. (Oh, yeah, I am left handed...) Then Little Girl helped me roll the dough out. So it was a family affair! The noodles were so good! I commented to Hubby as we sat down to eat that the house smelled like fresh pasta... And Little Girl came back for seconds. And thirds. And fourths, I think!

Steph, this was a really exciting challenge! I love the freedom we had to explore the world of handmade noodles, and it was a lot of fun to see what our fellow Daring Cooks came up with. If you want to see for yourself, take a look here.

Daring to do it: Baklava

2011-06-27T00:05:00.009-04:00

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

The Daring Baker's monthly challenge is announced to the participants on the first of every month. This month was no exception. (Duh.) So on June 1st I see that the challenge will be to make homemade baklava, including homemade phyllo dough. Wow. That sounded kind of intense under normal circumstances. But factoring in the whole baby-is-due-in-a-week thing made it a little more intimidating. Flash forward three days. Baby is here! Yes, Baby Girl was born on the 4th, and we are so in love with her. Big Sister (previously called Little Girl, now we are going to have to play with the names!) wants to hug her, hold her, help her all the time. But with a two year old and a newborn, finding time to make multi-step desserts is a little hard. What's a mom/Daring Baker to do? Break it down and do one step at a time.

I started with the dough for the phyllo dough. I knew I could make it and put it in the fridge, so I didn't feel pressured with that step. The dough came together beautifully. I was really impressed! Into the refrigerator it went. I thought it would be there overnight. Two nights tops. Well, it had to sit a little longer until I had the chance to use it... Suffice it to say, this dough keeps well in the fridge!

Next step - rolling the dough. If you have ever used phyllo, you know that it is paper thin sheets. I never thought I would have to roll dough that thin! While time consuming, this wasn't actually as difficult as I feared it would be. True, it was a lot of rolling to get enough sheets for a pan of baklava, and yes it was kind of frustrating that the thinner the dough got the more fragile and prone to ripping it got... but the dough was satiny smooth to roll, and it was the kind of thing that gave a real sense of accomplishment! After flouring each sheet generously and layering waxed paper between each one, I again put everything into the fridge, this time for a real overnight for assembly the next day.

Traditional baklava filling consists mainly of nuts. I did not stay traditional. I started with walnuts and a few almonds, but then used graham crackers to fill out the crunchy filling. I don't know why I did this, I guess I just didn't want this to be so overwhelmingly nutty... The filling was "seasoned" with brown sugar and cinnamon, then we were just about ready to get to work. Baklava requires a lot of butter as it is assembled. I, of course, used margarine, but that seemed to work fine for me. Butter the pan. Add a sheet of phyllo. More butter. Another sheet. More butter... While not as time consuming as rolling the dough, this was a little... tedious. But I had my trusted kitchen helper with me, which always makes things more interesting! As I layered in the first round of the nut filling I decided to go with an idea I had been kicking around. I added golden raisins to each filling layer of my baklava. Again, not exactly traditional, but it just sounded good to me. Lots of layers of phyllo, butter, crunchy filling and raisins later, the baklava was ready to go into the oven.

The final element for the baklava was the syrup. Once cooked, the pastry is doused with a honey based syrup which infuses the whole thing with both moisture and flavor. Instead of using the given recipe, I used this one from Lemon, Vanilla and Honey Baklava. My amendments to the recipe were to use half brown sugar, added a vanilla bean and the grated lemon rind in addition to the juice. The biggest problem with the syrup was that the given recipe is for a 9 x 13 pan, and I made a 9 x 9 pan... There was a bit too much syrup... Oops... So my baklava was swimming a little bit.

And the finished product? Well, everyone who tried it loved it. Everyone. None of us was able to eat just one piece. While there were leftovers, they didn't last very long! Everyone was a bit doubtful when I told them about the graham crackers in the filling, but we all agreed that it tempered town the nuttiness without taking anything away from the dish.

This was a fabulous challenge. It really was Daring, making phyllo from scratch! Erica, thank you so much for giving me the chance to do this! It never would have occurred to me to make phyllo sheets. Will I do it again? Possibly, but not until my girls are older than two years and newborn! Will I make baklava again (with store-bought phyllo)? Yes, yes, yes!!

If you are interested in trying this for yourself, here is the recipe Erica provided. And if you want to be amazed, look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers created!!

Daring to do it: Potato Salad

2011-06-14T00:05:00.011-04:00

uI promise, there are lots of things going on here other than Daring Kitchen challenges... But time has been kind of hard to capture, and keeping up with posting has been less than easy... I hope to get back into the swing soon, but you never know... Especially because there are now two little ones in the house to play with!

This month's Daring Cook's Challenge was a little different than usual. It was, like the edible containers challenge, a contest, which is fine, I guess... I never cook or bake to win prizes, though, so I sort of ignored that aspect.

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

I love potatoes. A lot. So this was a challenge that I thought would offer endless possibilities to me. And, in some ways it did. But, as I mentioned above, things have gotten a little hectic around here, and the birth of our new Little Girl (there will be an update one of these days!) took precedence over even my favorite food, the potato.
I made two different potato salads this month. I will give brief descriptions of each and show you the pictures, but this post will be a bit briefer, as you never know when a newborn is going to need you!

Potato Salad #1: Empty the Fridge!
This was a very basic salad - boiled russet potatoes and pretty much any vegetable I could find. Only the potatoes were cooked, everything else was raw to maintain color, freshness and texture. I used: broccoli, carrots, snow peas, sugar snap peas, sweet onion and zucchini. To dress the salad I simply used balsamic vinegar, tossed in while the potatoes were still warm. As I said - pretty basic. Yummy, though. Sometimes things are best kept simple, don't you think?

Potato Salad #2: Roasted Potato Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes

Having made a raw salad, I wanted to also make a warm, cooked one. I love roasted potatoes anyway, so this was pretty much a natural for me.
I started by roasting my potatoes with onions and garlic. To that I added any other vegetable I could think of: red pepper, green pepper, yellow squash, celery... I think that was it! I also added some cooked white beans, for flavor, texture and protein. To all of that I then added some Italian herbed sun dried tomatoes. Everything went (back) into the oven to heat through, then the whole thing was dressed with white wine vinegar and some additional Italian seasonings.

Thank you, Jami, for giving me an extra opportunity to play with one of my favorite foods! It certainly was fun to see the amazing variations which our Daring Cooks around the world came up with. I am definitely going to have to try some of those!

If you like potatoes half as much as I do, do yourself a favor and look here to see what my fellow Cooks made!

Daring to do it: Marquise on Meringue

2011-05-27T00:05:00.014-04:00

(Sorry this post won't be as "well written" as usual... Time grew short, and Little Girl's birthday took precedence over the writing process...)

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

This was an intimidating challenge. Just looking at the recipe I was concerned... So many steps! So much time! So DAIRY!!! I know, there was a vegan alternative presented, but it just didn't seem like it would turn out "right" (at least not the way I wanted it to...). After putting it off for a long time, claiming to be looking for a time when there would be more people to eat it, Ifinally got down to business. I did spread the process out over a couple of days, which was actually really helpful.

The marquise itself consists of the chocolate base and the "actual" marquise. Neither one was particulartly hard, per se, just somewhat labor intensive. This dish is all about the texture being right, so I tried very hard to make sure that my cream whipped up well and the chocolate was smooth. In order to keep portions controlled, I chose to make my marquise (well, part of it anyway...!) in my brownie bites pan. The little squares would be easier to unmold, and would have the benefit of being smaller than I would likely cut portions for myself!
The meringue was a great recipe, unlike any I have used before. I had never disolved the sugar in the whites over heat before. It was an interesting way to make a smoother meringue, and I might have to play with that again! (It was, though, impossible to photograph, as one hand held the bowl and the other was mixing the sugar in the whites...!)

I chose to forego the nuts and caramel sauce reccomended by the hosts. As delicious as they sound (and I really do hope I find a chance to make them another time!), I didn't have it in me... The berry sauce I made was a combination of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries cooked with the juice of one orange, a bit of water, a sprinkling of sugar, a little cinnamon and a splash of vanilla. The sugared berries were exactly that - the same variety of berries, tossed with some sugar for shine.

This really was an amazing dessert. The chocolate marquise had an amazingly smooth, rich texture, and the meringue's sweetness and crunch (because I made cookies) were a great compliment to each other. I also found the tartness of the berries to be a great accompaniment, so I was pleased with the choice I had made...!

Thank you, Emma and Jenny, for introducing us to this amazing, decadent, beautiful and delicious dish! This was like going to pastry school, except without the pressure, cost and competition!!

I highly recommend that you look here to see the wonderful creations created my my fellow Daring Bakers!

Daring to do it: Gumbo

2011-05-14T00:05:00.025-04:00

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Wow... Gumbo... This is a dish I never thought I would make. For one thing, it never occurred to me that there would be a vegetarian alternative for it. (Which, I know, is silly, as there is pretty much a veggie alternative for everything!). Another hindrance was that I have never had okra, and I never really thought I would have it. I had been warned of the sliminess factor enough times to feel that it was not something in which I would be interested... But here was the May challenge, and gumbo it was - okra and all. After thinking it over for a while, and seeing the interesting combinations people were coming up with, I finally decided that I would dive right in. Except for one little problem... This is a BIG recipe. It makes a lot of gumbo. Who was going to eat all of it? And this is how it came down to the wire, the last day of the challenge month, and I just made it. With enough left over to have for at least two more dinners for us, and a large container going home with a friend!

In case you don't know, gumbo is a stew which has roots in many different cultures - from Africa to Native America. There seem to be certain elements which are needed in order to make a real gumbo. (Meat or seafood, I think would normally be included as "needed," but there are others!) First is the roux. I have made "normal" roux before - butter (well, margarine) and flour cooked to thicken a white sauce. Roux for gumbo is different. This is a dark roux combining fat and flour and cooking them together for a long time until it develops a beautiful brown color and a rich flavor base for the gumbo.

The second important element for gumbo is the "Holy Trinity." No, this challenge did not make me change religious beliefs. The trinity here is the three core vegetables of the dish. I am used to the trinity being the traditional mirepoix - onions, celery and carrot. The Creole/Louisiana trinity, though, is slightly different: onion, celery and green pepper.
The third piece of the gumbo is the okra. Okra is used as both a flavor component and a thickener for the gumbo. As far as I can tell, okra is not NECESSARY for gumbo, but it is traditional, and it adds a certain quality which makes gumbo stand out. Another thickener usually used in gumbo is file (pronounced fee-lay) powder. This is an ingredient I had never heard of, and knew I would not use again, even if I make gumbo again (which I think I will!). So I omitted it.
Because I was going to be making a vegetarian gumbo, I felt pretty strongly that I should make my own vegetable stock. Without the added flavors of meat or seafood, I felt it was important to take the extra step, and also to make sure I was adding flavor wherever I could! I then chose to use as many vegetables as I could! To make up for the quantity of "stuff" in the stew which would normally be chicken, sausage or shellfish, I upped the veggie quotient, and loved it! In addition to the trinity vegetables and okra I used carrot, parsnip, zucchini, tomato and garlic. I think that chopping the vegetables was the most labor intensive part of this process! I am glad I did it the night before so it would all be ready and waiting for me! (The term mise en place really took on a new importance with this dish!) I also wanted to be sure to add some sort of protein element to my gumbo, so I used lentils and texturized vegetable protein.

Veggies ready, it was time to start cooking. First and foremost was the roux. One cup of vegetable oil was heated in my biggest pot (which, I must say, is not big enough!), then one cup of all purpose flour is added. Then whisk. And whisk. And whisk some more. Here are a few pictures of the progress from light to dark, which really was a magical transformation!

When the roux was as dark as I could get it I added my diced onions. The smell was amazing-- rich, deep, almost like wine, but in a good way! (Don't forget, I don't drink wine, don't like wine, so this was a surprising smell for me to like so much!) One by one I added in the other vegetables, giving each a good toss in the roux for coating and flavor. I also added my own seasonings, as I don't have Creole spices, nor do I even have all of the components to make my own. Each addition created a new smell sensation which was amazingly intoxicating. Apparently it could be smelled a couple of houses away, too! Last to go in were the okra and the vegetable stock, then it was time to let everything simmer away.

It was recommended to us Daring Cooks to make Louisiana rice to accompany our gumbo. I wasn't up for that challenge, so I made a Basmatti rice blend that I had in the pantry which included some vegetable flavorings of its own. Once dinner time arrived we were all ready to dig in! (Even Little Girl, who for the previous ten minutes had been walking around saying "I like gumbo!" Despite the fact that she had never had it... So cute!)

I have to say, the gumbo was absolutely worth the effort! The roux added a deeper flavor than I am used to in a soup, and the mix of vegetables was delicious! The okra did not "dissolve" the way I had thought it might, but the sliminess factor was not what I had feared - it added texture to the stew and was soft and easy to chew. With the lentils, TVP and rice this was a hearty, warming and filling dinner! The one place where I did not do as well as I would have liked was with the seasonings. I was hesitant to go too strong, not wanting Little Girl to get upset, but I think I went a bit too light. Next time I will be a bit more aggressive. We did balance this somewhat with the nontraditional (I assume) addition of cheese to our individual bowls, but I think more seasonings would go well. All of us really enjoyed the gumbo, even going back for seconds despite feeling somewhat full from firsts...!

Thank you so much, Denise, for challenging us to make this! It was a lot of fun to work with you this month. Your support and enthusiasm were helpful and appreciated!

Take a look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks created. It really is a treat for the eyes!!

Daring to do it: Edible Containers (Sweet)

2011-04-27T00:05:00.000-04:00

For the first time since joining the Daring Kitchen, I have had to sit out a challenge. Between craziness at home and Passover, I just didn't have the time, energy, availability and ingredients to give the challenge the attention it would have deserved. Nonetheless, here you go...

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

I did attempt to make some chocolate cups on my own, but they totally failed to keep their shape, and the warm weather ensured that they melted (ok, softened...) despite time in the freezer. I did help my sister with her chocolate cups, which turned out beautifully. Check those out on her blog.

Evelyne, thank you for hosting the challenge this month. You did inspire some beautiful creations. Please look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with! And don't forget to vote!

Daring to do it: Edible Containers (Savory)

2011-04-14T00:05:00.025-04:00

It's that time again... But this time there is a twist! Come check out what is going in the Daring Kitchen!!

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!

Wow. What a fun, creative, and interesting challenge! And so open ended...! For many people, this would be great - no limitations, total freedom... For me this was incredibly daunting! As much as I love to create and twist recipes for my own purposes, I find it helpful to have some sort of parameters set (even if I choose to break through them later on!). Renata provided us with some great ideas and suggestions, but then gave us free reign to create any sort of container that sounded good to us - and any sort of filling to put inside of it! (I must say, Renata was the best host for this kind of challenge - she provided amazing support, suggestions, and encouragement throughout the month, which really allowed for the creativity to flow from my fellow Daring Cooks!) Once I got over my intimidation of doing something "wrong," I finally got going. And I actually tried my hand at three different containers! (Ok, four, but one of them was such a flop it didn't even make it to the table!)

Container number one: Rice bowls with roasted vegetables

My first thought for an edible container was rice. Doing a search for "rice bowls," though, brings up a lot of examples of conventional kitchen bowls filled with rice, vegetables and protein of some sort. Yummy, but not what I wanted. I finally found this link. It was perfect! And included pseudo-origami, so I got to exercise more of my crafty muscles! The bowls came together pretty well, and baked up nicely. They also held the veggies, which made the endeavor a success in my book!

Container number two: Bread bowls with vegetable soup

I have eaten bread bowls before, and liked them very much. Most of them that I have encountered were large rolls of crusty bread hollowed out to make room for the soup. That is what I expected to make. Then I found this recipe to make bowls from bread dough. I was intrigued enough to try it. The recipe was straightforward enough, and the resulting bread tasted great. But it was a little hard to remove from the ramekins on which they were baked. The end result was yummy, though, and I have some thoughts on what to do next time to make it work better. And I really do think there will be a next time!

Container number three: Potato cups with scrambled eggs/veggies

I love potatoes. I think I have made that pretty clear over the course of my cooking and eating life! So I had to try a potato bowl! Using a mandolin I thinly sliced potatoes and layered them in cupcake tins, sort of flower petal like. I then lined the potato cups with foil and filled the foil with my fancy "pie weights," aka dried beans and rice. Into the oven they went. The foil/weights were removed partway through the baking in an attempt to brown up more than just the outer edges. The cups looked great coming out of the oven. Getting them out of the cupcake tin, though, was another story. The cups didn't really hold their shape... They tasted great with the eggs and veggies, and I was able to almost reassemble them for the initial "presentation," but I am not sure I can call them successful containers... I have a variety of thoughts on how to produce a more cohesive potato bowl, and hopefully if I do them again it will hold together better.There are still a bunch of ideas floating around my head, some more nebulous than others...! Hopefully I will have the time, energy and guts to try some of them out at some point...!

Renata, thank you so much for being such a great hostess for this challenge! I really don't think I would have gotten as into it as I did without your energy and support. Please take a look here to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Daring Cooks. You will be blown away by the imagination and skill displayed! And please vote for your favorites!

Daring to do it: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

2011-03-27T00:05:00.021-04:00

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This challenge was posted at the perfect time. I was in Florida visiting my family and was in the mood to make something special for dessert. I saw this recipe and was immediately drawn to it. I printed it up and showed it to my mother. She was intrigued, too. We made it on the first day. We then made it a second time before returning to PA. I then made it two more times, making a total of five different flavors for this one recipe! I don't think I have ever been drawn to a challenge recipe in this way. Sure, there are others that I have made a couple of times, and there are a few more which I plan to make again. But I made this one four times, with five different flavors...! All during the course of the challenge month! And I can't wait to make it again! I honestly think that the reason this is such a great recipe is that it is one which was found in a family collection. Jamie found it when going through her father's things - undated, uncredited... but SO good!
Having made bread before, I was not intimidated by the yeast dough. I was a little curious at the hosts' description of the dough as being "soft, smooth, sexy and elastic." Sexy? Bread dough? As odd as the word choice might have seemed, it was dead on. This dough was so smooth, so sexy, I loved working with it. Clearly!!
For the explanation of this recipe/the fun picture part, I'll show you the dough process from the first time, then I will just show you the variations I did, along with any changed I may have made. I was super thrilled with how easy it was to play with this recipe - different flours, varying amounts of sugar, different types of milks... All versions led to amazing cakes!
The dough starts with warmed milk and butter. For this first version I used rice milk and margarine. (That way the resulting cakes would be parve.)

Once risen, the dough is divided into two parts to make two different loaves. For this first time through I made a cinnamon and chocolate version. The dough is rolled out, then meringue is spread over it. I then sprinkled cinnamon-sugar over the meringue, then chocolate chips were generously added and the soon-to-be loaves were rolled up jelly roll style. The recipe calls for the rolled up dough to be formed into a wreath (like in the stollen challenge from a few months ago), which I did with one of the sections. For the other, though, I folded it into a loaf pan so it would be more like a babka. (If you don't know what a babka is, it is a yeasted and twisted filled cake. Love it!) The cakes rise again, and are then painted with egg wash and baked.

They came out of the over beautifully. We cut into the babka loaf that night, and were rewarded with an amazingly soft, light and chocolaty cake that was almost impossible to resist! I knew right then that I would be making this recipe again...
I just didn't know how many times!

And now for the variations:

I made a strawberries and meringue wreath with part whole wheat flour:

I made a savory spinach and cheese braid, mixing ricotta cheese in with the meringue, and filling with sauteed spinach, onion and garlic, and sprinkling with shredded cheese:
I made a chocolate peanut butter loaf version, using this recipe for peanut butter meringue and plenty of chocolate chips:
And I made a lemon meringue wreath version, adding lemon zest to the meringue and filling the cake with lemon curd:Thank you so much Jamie and Ria for hosting such an amazing challenge. And thank you, Jamie for sharing this recipe, which could have been a family secret, but you let us in. This has truly been one of the best challenges in in the year since I became a member.

I highly recommend that you look here to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Daring Bakers. But be sure you have a napkin ready to wipe up the drool!!

Daring to do it: Ceviche and Papas Rellenas

2011-03-14T00:05:00.013-04:00

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

My curiosity was piqued the moment I saw this challenge go up. I love learning about foods from other cultures, and Peru is a place I know virtually nothing about. So this was going to be a learning experience. Which is always a good thing, if you ask me. Then there was the "hmmm...." moment. I knew what ceviche was. Fish, barely "cooked" in an acidic citrus marinade. Vegetarian households and fish don't generally go so well together. (And even if we weren't vegetarian, me being pregnant means that raw, or barely cooked, fish is a no-no anyway!) And I had never heard of papas rellenas, but the moment I heard they were potato based, I was in! Now, knowing that there were people with dietary restrictions, Kathlyn actually said that it would be fine to make only one of the challenge dishes - either the ceviche or the papas. But I knew that there had to be an alternative...

After looking around on the internet, I found that there are many alternatives to fish which can be used to make a vegetarian ceviche, or at least a ceviche style dish. Cooks can use tofu, hearts of palm, mozzarella cheese... I chose tofu, as it is an ingredient I really like, and I love trying new recipes with it. Based on a combination of the challenge recipe, my internet research, and the ingredients I had in the house I came up with a marinade that I thought sounded good. I used lemons and oranges for my fresh citrus juice, then added a combination of white vinegar and soy sauce to round out the amount of liquid. To this I added a variety of spices, including ground mustard, ground ginger, cumin and paprika. I meant to add some minced garlic, but I forgot about it... (I don't know how I could ever forget garlic, but it happened...!) This marinade was then poured over cubed tofu and the dish was set in the refrigerator to soak overnight.

The next day it was time to tackle the papas rellena, and to complete the tofu ceviche. Papas rellenas are, essentially (and in a very simplistic interpretation) mashed potatoes wrapped around a filling then breaded and fried. As a potato fan, I knew this would be a versitile technique for me...! I chose to make a broccoli and cheese filling for my papas, thinking that a familiar flavor combination would be a good way to approach such a new dish. (I had toyed with the idea of adding black beans, texturized vegetable protein, or both to the mix, but decided that might be too heavy served with the tofu.) I thin sliced onions, part to add to the ceviche tofu, and part to saute along with broccoli and garlic. To that mixture I added a lot of shredded cheese. Yum...!

For the potatoes, I decided to try something new. (Ok, new to me.) I have always made my mashed potatoes by boiling the potatoes before mashing them. This time I decided to bake them, both to see how it would taste and to try to reduce the amount of moisture in the resulting mash mix. Once roasted, I scooped the flesh from the potatoes, and did a sort of mashing/shredding combination to them. An egg was mixed in and I was ready to assemble the papas. This was a very messy process, so there are no pictures. (Sorry!) I took a handful of potatoes and flattened it into a disk in my hand. I then put a scoop of the broccoli mixture into the potatoes and closed it up - essentially making a potato shaped bundle. The sealed potato ball was then rolled in flour, dipped in egg and coated with home-made breadcrumbs. (I actually, on the recommendation of one of my fellow Daring Cooks, double breaded the papas - re-dipping in eggs and crumbs after the initial layer.) I got six papas from the amount of potatoes I had. It was finally time to fry...

This was the second month in a row where the Daring Cooks challenge involved deep frying. (Remember the tempura?) I don't deep fry that frequently, and I wasn't too keen to do it again so soon. I decided to do a shallow fry for these papas. I didn't realize, though, how quickly they would fry! My first batch burned on the bottom. Not too badly - they still tasted good, but they looked a little black... Oops... I was more vigilant with the second batch, and they came out nice and golden brown on the outside and melty on the inside.

Dinner that evening was a Peruvian feast! (Ok, it was a totally Americanized Peruvian feast...!) The tofu ceviche and broccoli and cheese papas were fabulous! It was the perfect combination of light yet satisfying. I am really looking forward to trying different variations on both of these dishes!

Thank you so much, Kathlyn, for openig my eyes to Peruvian cuisine! This was a wonderful challenge, and I am really thrilled to have been able to participate this month!

I highly recommend taking a look here to see the amazing Peruvian treats created by my fellow Daring Cooks!

A brief departure

2011-03-11T10:13:00.003-05:00

I know this is usually a light-hearted, somewhat silly little blog.
But I just wanted to take a moment to send love and hope to everyone in Japan, and everyone who has friends and family there. I hope you are all safe, and that you remain so for a long time to come!

Daring to do it: Panna Cotta and Florentines

2011-02-27T00:05:00.018-05:00

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

Reading what the February challenge was going to be was pretty exciting for me. My next door neighbors growing up, who were more family than neighbors, were Italian, and cooked and baked some of the most amazing foods. While I can't remember them ever making home-made panna cotta, I do remember eating some version or another with them, and loving it. I have also been to Italy a couple of times, and love any sort of happy reminders of that beautiful and delicious country! The biggest problem I saw with this challenge, as far as I could see, was the dairy factor. Panna cotta means cooked cream. And I don't use cream. That whole lactose intolerant thing... So right off the bat, I knew that my take on the challenge wouldn't be quite authentic. (Can you still call it "cooked cream" if there is no "cream" in it?) Luckily I am not the only Daring Baker facing this issue, and there was some amazing support for us to find alternatives. I found this recipe for a tofu panna cotta which looked good, even though I did alter it up a bit to suit my own tastes. (I only used the panna cotta part of the recipe - not the blood orange or candied pistachios.) For the Florentines, I was able to use the recipe as it was written, with only a couple of tweaks.

Here is the mostly photographic tour of this delicious challenge

Infusing vanilla non-dairy creamer with even more vanilla-y goodness:

Combining the vegan gelatin substitute and sugar: Tofu and brown sugar (instead of honey) ready for a spin in the blender:Letting it all cook and thicken up:
Panna cottas ready to chill out: The Florentines called for quick oats. Which I don't have. I have old fashioned oats. What to do... Using a plastic baggie and my trusted rolling pin, I made my own quick oats!

Melting the margarine:

Adding the rest of the ingredients (subbing light corn syrup for dark, since I don't have dark, but using some brown sugar to fill the molasses-y flavor), adding cinnamon to the mix: Ready to go into the oven:Spread a little, but cooling down:
Coating with chocolate... yum:

Finally, I topped my panna cotta with a fresh blueberry sauce, let it all set, then waited for dessert time. And it was definitely worth the wait! The brown sugar vanilla (soy/tofu) panna cotta set up so beautifully, and had the perfect texture. The blueberries on top were a great complement to the creamy dessert, too.

And the Florentines? There were those who found the cookies to be a bit too sweet for their tastes. I was not one of them. These were delicious. Crispy edges, chewy centers, some with chocolate on them... I found myself snacking on one pretty much every time I went into the kitchen until they were all gone! (Which didn't take long...!)

Thank you so much, Mallory, for this amazing challenge! I loved every bit of it - but mostly the eating! You have absolutely given me recipes which will remain in my arsenal for a long time!

If you are in the mood for a treat, take a look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with!

When is a quiche not a quiche?

2011-02-24T21:08:00.008-05:00

A few weeks ago (remember, I am clearing out some backlogged stuff here!) I had quiche on the meal plan for dinner. Not a problem, it just meant that we had to get to the grocery store to get a few ingredients. Like eggs. Then the weather decided to get interesting on us. As you may have heard, there has been a LOT of snow here in our part of the the world. And that day there was a lot of it. Keeping me from having any interest in driving to the grocery store. But I had already made my quiche crust dough the night before. What's a mom to do? Get creative, that's what!

Looking in the pantry and the fridge I discovered that I had some ingredients on hand that would go really well together. Onions, goat cheese and Jarlsberg cheese. This sounded to me like the makings of a French onion soup. Except pie/tart crust isn't generally a part of soup. And I really wanted to use the crust while it was fresh. So I made, with the help of my favorite sous chef, a "French" onion tart! Little Girl helped my cut the onions, and was very excited to be a part of the process. (Plastic knife, VERY CLOSE SUPERVISION, and specific instructions that if she used the knife in any way that didn't involve both the onion and the cutting board she would lose all of the tools!) Once sliced, the onions went into a pan with a bit of salt, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of brown sugar to caramelize. Is there anything better than the smell of sauteing onions? It just makes the whole house smell amazing...! While the onions did their thing I baked the tart shell. Once baked, the crust was spread with creamy goat cheese, then sprinkled with a layer of shredded Jarlsberg cheese. Since the onions needed a few more minutes, I put that back in the warm oven to get melty. Once the onions were ready they went on top of the cheeses, then were smothered with more Jarlsberg. Back into the oven for more melting, and dinner was ready!

I have to say, I don't think I have ever been so happy to have been missing a key ingredient! This tart was so good! It really was fairly reminiscent of a French onion soup, and it made a great meal. I am going to have to remember this one down the line. So instead of saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," I guess I have to say "When life runs you out of eggs, make an onion tart!"

Daring to do it: Soba Salad with Tempura

2011-02-14T00:05:00.012-05:00

The February 2011 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She has various sources for her challenge including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com, and itsybitsyfoodies.com.

I can honestly say that I never thought I would make tempura. I am a bit intimidated by the thought of deep frying, and the few times I have done it I have made a HUGE mess. Add to that the fact that home-made Asian food always seemed like it would be... complicated? Well, I am so glad that Lisa challenged us to make this combination! There was no better way to get over my hesitation than to just jump right in. Did I make a mess? Absolutely! I was cleaning up tempura batter and splashed oil for a couple of days. Was it worth it? Yes, yes, yes!!
One thing I did to make this challenge a bit more challenging for myself was to make it for some friends of mine who have spent time in Japan, and who are fans and, may I say, connoisseurs, of Asian food. I was nervous to hear their response to the meal. But sort of proud to have their high-level of knowledge and experience to help me along!
Here's how it went:

Making the soba salad was not complicated. It involved prep work, but no real assembly - everyone built their own to suit their own tastes. The noodles cooked up easily, pretty much like standard pasta. I kind of liked the fact that, once the noodles are done boiling, the directions call for the soba to go into an ice bath. It made the fact that I wanted to make the noodles early in the day a breeze - and freed up my pot for making the tempura! To accompany the noodles, and make them into a salad, I had strips of red pepper, green pepper, scallions, pan fried tofu and scrambled eggs. For the dressing/dipping sauce I had to do some improvisation. The recipes which Lisa provided looked and sounded fabulous, but called for ingredients that I don't keep in the house. So I made up my own using soy sauce, white vinegar, brown sugar, cumin and Chinese five spice powder. (I think that was all...!) Little Girl, my best kitchen helper, did a great job shaking everything up, and with that, it was time to get down to the business of tempura-ing.

For my tempura I chose a variety of vegetables that had looked good to me in the produce store. I used carrots, yellow squash, zucchini and broccoli. I was a bit nervous about the carrots cooking through, even using baby cut carrots, as tempura should only be in the oil for a minute or two so as to keep its light color and texture. So I cut them even thinner...! It was then time to make the batter. The recipe called for regular all purpose flour. No problem, right? Unbelievably, I had actually just run out of AP flour baking up dessert... So I used whole wheat flour. I was sure that there would be some sort of issue with the batter because of the switch. Nope. Not a problem in the slightest. The color was fine, the texture was good, I totally need to start using whole wheat flour more often!! Once mixed, the tempura batter bowl was put into its own ice bath. As I learned from the host and the Daring Cooks who had completed the challenge before me, one of the ways to ensure a crisp crust is to keep the veggies and batter very cold before shocking them in the hot oil. So cold is how I kept things. Other than being time consuming and messy, the frying process was easier than I thought it would be. Into the oil, watch for a minute or two, then onto a cooling rack to drain. My friend, who was keeping me company in the kitchen, commented "Wow, it looks like tempura!" when the first batch came out. (While that might not sound like a compliment, I was thinking the same thing, and her comment made me VERY proud!)

Finally it was time to assemble and eat my very first home-made Japanese (style) meal. When I tell you we all had seconds, I mean all of us - Little Girl included! This was SO good! To the point where my Asian food experts requested the recipe...!
Thank you so much, Lisa, for making me get out of my comfort zone and try a new technique. This is exactly why I joined the Daring Kitchen, and I feel so lucky to have been a part of this challenge! Please do yourself a favor and see the amazing creations assembled by my fellow Daring Cooks!

Blogging Back-log...

2011-01-31T21:13:00.009-05:00

It has been quite a while since I have gotten down to the business of blogging regularly. Thanks to the Daring Kitchen, I am guaranteed to post a couple of times a month, but, considering how frequently I cook, bake and craft, and take pictures of the process, it seems I have amassed a small collection of things I have been wanting to post about but haven't... So I am going to try to fix that situation, and share some of the things we have been up to recently.

Several months ago I was Foodgawking and came across a recipe that sounded fabulous. Fairly easy, pretty to look at, and best of all, it's a potato dish! I kept it in the back of my mind, but never got around to it... Then someone else posted pictures of their version of the dish. I took this as a sign that I really was supposed to give this a shot. And that is what led to me making mini-Pommes Anna.

With my helper at my side, (after the slicing, of course,) I got to layering my potatoes, margarine, salt and pepper into a muffin tin. This was great fun, and good practice counting, too! (How many slices per layer?)

Once the muffin cups were filled, the tin went into the oven. When they came out, I wasn't sure what to think. The potatoes were not as crispy looking as I had expected. I wasn't sure what would happen when I flipped them out onto my plate.

Luckily, potatoes are not the easiest things to mess up. Especially when they are prepared so simply. The potatoes came out of the pan well, with a little bit of encouragement, and the tops (once the bottoms....) were crispy and golden. I loved eating away at these layer by layer... I can't wait to make them again. They will be perfect for one of those times when you want to look fancy without putting in the fancy effort...!

Daring to do it: Joconde Imprime/Entremet

2011-01-27T00:05:00.023-05:00

(This is going to be a kind of long, kind of photo-heavy post. I will do my best to keep it manageable!)

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

When I first saw this challenge, I was convinced there was some sort of catch. This looked complicated, it looked time intensive, it looked just plain hard! Heck, I wasn't even sure I could pronounce the challenge, let alone complete it in a way that wouldn't be a total embarrassment! After seeing some of my fellow Daring Bakers' work, though, I began to get inspired. I knew my cake wouldn't look like theirs, but their enthusiasm made me want to dive in. The given recipe told us how to make the joconde paste and sponge, but the entremet (inside filling) was completely up to us. Therefore, that was the part I was obsessing over! So many options for flavors, textures, combinations... It was really daunting. I finally decided to stick with something I knew and trusted. Chocolate and vanilla. Puddings were what I chose. (I did not photograph the making of these puddings, though, since I knew that the outside would be the more interesting part...!) I used my go-to recipe for the chocolate pudding, and for the vanilla I used this pastry creme recipe from Silk Soymilk's recipe collection. Both are keeper recipes on their own, and they worked together really nicely, too! I made both of these puddings early in the day and let them set in the fridge so they would be ready for me when I was ready to fill my dessert.

Now for the interesting part...!

When I first looked at the recipe for the joconde and decorating paste, I was intimidated by the sheer number of eggs - egg whites, specifically, I would be needing. After reading the comments of some of the other Bakers, though, I learned that I would be able to halve the recipe and still have more than enough batter to complete the challenge. I started with a half-batch of the decoration paste. After mixing the batter I had to choose colors. I chose green (Hubby's favorite color), blue (my favorite color), and purple (my mom's favorite color, and she was visiting). For the design I decided to kind of just wing it. I made a rectangle to be cut for the ring of cake and two discs for support and the base.
Once the designs were piped, the trays had to be put into the freezer to set up solid. That's the easy part, right? That is where disaster struck. My base design piece decided that it didn't want to go into the cold. It jumped. Onto the floor. Paste side down. I was not happy... But if the design in the cake would come out anything like the design on the floor, I thought this might not be a total waste... Thankfully, even a half-batch of paste left me with more than enough to redo my swirls, so I was able to redo my base and safely get it into the freezer. (I must say, though, that if this had happened to someone with more artistic talent who had made an actual, intricate design, it would have been HEARTBREAKING!)

While the decor paste set I made my half-batch of the joconde sponge batter. This half batch did not feel nearly as generous as the half-batch of paste had seemed. I was worried that I would not have enough batter to cover all of my pieces. Luckily, though, the idea is to make a thin layer to keep the sponge flexible. With a little bit of encouragement I was able to get my sponge spread out and get the trays into the oven. Being so thin, this was a baking process that needed to be watched carefully. I felt like I was watching a souffle rise! This cake can bake through in anywhere from four to 15 minutes. So I sat in front of the oven watching for signs of doneness...! Once the cakes were done (about eight minutes for me) they were taken out of the oven to cool for a minute before being flipped out onto powdered sugar coated parchment paper. I am not usually one to pat myself on the back, but when I flipped the cakes over and saw the designs I couldn't help but say out loud "Wow! That looks so cool!" (Moreso the colors and the imprint on the cake than the actual design, but, still!) Now I was REALLY excited to see how the finished dessert would be!

Now that all of my elements were ready it was time to build the final piece. (I am going to do my explaining in one lump, then put all of the pictures together at the bottom.) I started with the outside ring of sponge. This was actually the hardest part for me! I really tried to get my pieces in tightly, trying to get my cake walls to be somewhat solid. It didn't happen so well. My seams were not so tight. But they held together fine, so I have something to work towards next time...! Once the sides were as built as I could get them I put my base disc on the bottom. Then came a layer of chocolate pudding. Then some strawberries, because, yum! Then the second sponge disc to separate the layers, topped with the vanilla pastry creme. On top of that went more strawberries, then the whole thing went into the fridge for a final set.

I had to admit, after each step I just got more and more excited. I saw that this was really coming together, and had pretty high hopes for a really awesome looking dessert. When the time came to plate and serve, I was not disappointed! Sure, my piping and design are pretty amateur, and the edges and lines could use some work. But I was thrilled! This is a dessert I want to keep around and pull out for a special event! Or an event which I want to make feel special!!

Thank you so much, Astheroshe, for introducing me to this amazing technique! I can honestly say that I would have never dreamed of making something so intricate, and you have opened my eyes to a new world of possibilities. I can not wait to do this again!

Please treat yourself to a peak at the amazing creations done by my fellow Daring Bakers!

Daring to do it: Cassoulet

2011-01-14T00:05:00.011-05:00

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

Living in the northeastern part of the U.S., it is expected that winters will be cold. During these cold months, I love nothing more than a nice, hot meal to warm me up inside and out. This challenge looked to be perfect for this time of year (at least in my part of the world, that is!). But I was a bit hesitant. Cassoulet is traditionally a meat dish. Like, four different kinds of meat. Would a vegetarian version really stand up to the tradition? (I was also kind of wondering if the veggie version would be much different than the bean based vegetable soups and stews I generally make.) And the confit... Cooking/preserving in fat. Ummm.... really? While I am sure that the carnivorous/omnivorous Daring Cooks would disagree with me, even the photos of both processes looked less than appealing to me... It took me a couple of weeks to dive into this challenge....
Once I got myself into the proper mindset (you know, "Well, I don't want to skip a month, and it can't hurt to know a new bean stew,") I got to work. Most of the ingredients for this cassoulet are things I keep on hand. White beans? Check. Carrots? Yup. Celery? Usually. Garlic? Always! Leaks were the one ingredient I had to make an effort to (remember to) have on hand. Other than that, there were some herbs that I don't keep around, as wouldn't use them often enough, but I figured that improvising the spice mix would be just fine. (You can check out the posted recipes, meat and vegetarian, here.)
I started by soaking a full pound of Great Northern Beans over night, then simmering them until they were tender. (Again, nothing new to me, but a process which I enjoy more than anyone really should...!) While the beans were simmering I took the "down time" opportunity to make my confit. While the garlic confit recipe given by our hosts looked really good, I wasn't sure I could handle pealing that quantity of garlic! (65 cloves!) So I looked around on-line, trying to see if there was another recipe which might be a bit more manageable. I decided to sort of combine recipes I found, and covered garlic cloves and some sliced onions in lightly seasoned olive oil. The hardest part of this process was making sure the garlic didn't burn. But the smell of roasted garlic and onion in the house was amazing! And the finished confit looked so great, I couldn't wait to try it!

After that, the vegetarian cassoulet recipe felt almost like a cop out, at least compared with the time-intensive steps required for the traditional recipe!! Sautee the vegetables, add the beans, add water and let everything simmer together with the spices and seasonings.

The finishing touch for the cassoulet was toasted garlicky bread crumbs on top. I used some home-made challah for my crumbs, and margarine instead of olive oil to toast. (I used up all of my olive oil in the confit. Had I thought about it, though, that garlicky, oniony oil would have been great on the crumbs!!) Instead of sprinkling the crumbs over each serving as suggested, though, I decided to pour the finished cassoulet into a casserole dish, cover it with the bread crumbs and bake/broil the whole thing. I love the crunchy crumb toppings on dishes, I thought this would be good... Except for the part where I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have, and the top layer of crumbs burned. Like, black burned... Ick... Luckily the crumb layer was thick enough that I could carefully spoon off the charred bits and salvage the flavor and consistency I have been hoping for.

I served the cassoulet with the garlic and onion confit spooned on top. It was really great! The cassoulet itself was fairly mild in flavor, which was fine with me. The confit added a great burst of flavor and richness, which I loved, and the bread crumbs - those which hadn't turned to cinders, added amazing taste and texture. I was so glad that I didn't sit this one out! This might have to become a regular dish, as we all loved it for lunch, and the (plentiful) leftovers were enjoyed by not only us, but a friend who travels to France frequently, and was very interested in trying this vegetarian cassoulet. (She also keeps Kosher, so cassoulet was not something she has the opportunity to eat too frequently when visiting France...)

Thank you so much to Jenni and Lisa for introducing me to both confit and cassoulet! I can honestly say this is not something I would have ever sought out had you not brought it to my attention. I am really glad I tried it, and I can't wait to make it again!!

If you would like to see the amazing creations, both meat and vegetarian, of my fellow Daring Cooks, take a look here and get ready to drool!

Friendly faces on a cold day

2010-12-29T19:41:00.009-05:00

It has been cold and snowy here for the past few days. Which has made going outside to play a much less appealing activity for me... But there is still a Little Girl to entertain, so I have been doing my best to be creative. One problem though, is that when I ask Little Girl what she would like to do, her answer is usually "Elmo!" Well, we can only watch so many Elmo DVDs in a day (that would be one...!), and her Elmo stuffed animals and coloring book don't hold her attention for as long as other activities. So today I decided to get creative. It had been a few days since I had baked anything, and we should be getting some company tomorrow, so I thought it only appropriate to multitask. I asked Little Girl if she would like to help me make Elmo cupcakes. She was pretty excited about the idea, so I figured we should go for it. I started my looking on-line for different examples of Elmo cupcakes. I then needed to think about what I had on hand to use for decorations. My two concerns were: 1) I didn't have enough eggs to make both cakes and frosting and 2) the only red food coloring I had was liquid drops - I knew that would water down the frosting and end up pink... So Little Girl and I made a quick trip to the craft store and the neighboring grocery store for gel color and eggs. Tools in hand, it was time to bake.

I used my regular yellow cake recipe, but added a whole lot of red (liquid) food coloring to it. How much? Oh, something like 18 drops. And the result? Still pink. But oh well, the cakes cooked up nicely, so I figured that the pink base would be fine...!

Next, it was frosting time. I used the same frosting recipe I used for my birthday cake a few weeks ago. I then added my new red gel food coloring. I watched the gel mix into the white frosting... and watched it turn pink. I added more gel. Still pink. Hmm... Not how I had hoped things would go... I decided to use the pink as a base coat on the cakes while I tried to figure out how to make sure Elmo didn't wind up being pink through and through...

When I spoke with my sister later in the day she offered her bright red sanding sugar to me, but the little matters of a 45 minute drive between our houses and her just getting home after having a baby (welcome home, Baby Boy!!) made it so that the genuine offer wasn't very practical. But it got me thinking. With the gel coloring, I wouldn't have to worry too much about dissolving... I would try to make my own red sugar! While I think that my fingers might be permanently stained, I wound up with a great color that was much more appropriately Elmo than the pink was!!

With the color right, it was time to make the facial features. I didn't have marshmallows or black decorating icing or anything. But I did have miniature spice gel candies, mini chocolate chips and small chocolate sandwich cookies. Those turned into eyes, noses and mouths.

This was a lot of prep work, and I wasn't even done yet. But it was finally time for the last step. Assembly. I have to admit, though, I was enjoying myself the whole time. (Well, except for the part where it was a little creepy seeing 16 pairs of little googly eyes staring at me...!) I couldn't wait to see how they looked put together. And I was also curious to see if Little Girl would like them.

When she woke up from her nap I brought her to the kitchen to see who was there. She took one look and answered, with a huge smile:

ELMO!!!

Totally worth it!

Daring to do it: Stollen

2010-12-23T19:48:00.013-05:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baki ng. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

While I can't say it was a surprise, I was a little... frustrated? disappointed? concerned? when I saw that the December Daring Bakers' challenge was something so very Christmassy. Me being so very Jewish, I was considering sitting this one out, more on principle than anything else. That and the fact that this looked to be a lot like a fruitcake. Something I never had any interest in even trying... But after thinking about it for a couple of days, I realized that this might be an interesting one to do, Christmassy or not. For one thing, my mother-in-law loves fruitcake, so this might be something nice for her to enjoy. For another, my husband's family is of German descent - Pennsylvania Dutch. ("If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much," as my husband has said on occasion...!) This being a traditional German treat, it was just another reason to give it a try.

Once I decided that I was going to take part in this challenge, I had to decide how I was going to put my own spin on it. I knew I wouldn't be using candied fruits, as I don't have any interest in them. I knew I would not be using any nuts, as we have not yet given Little Girl any nuts. And I knew I wouldn't be soaking anything in rum, as we don't have any, don't drink it, don't like it, and otherwise have no reason to keep it around! Looking at all of these limits I was giving myself, I again thought about sitting this round out. Then I got inspired. Really, I think it was the huge bag of dried cranberries that got me. I decided to make two different versions of the stollen - both using cranberries as the primary fruit component.

My first stollen would be made for a holiday party for the mom's group I am a part of. This one was an orange-cranberry-white chocolate stollen. I soaked the cranberries in orange juice, and used only orange zest in the dough. The dough was not difficult to make, but it did take a lot of dishes, and I was really glad to have the use of my KitchenAid to do the kneading! Once the dough was made it went into the fridge for a nice, slow, cool rising. I actually kept the dough in there for about three days. Other than taking up a lot of room, it wasn't even close to an issue! When it was time to make the stollen, I took it out and let it warm up for a couple of hours. The next step was to roll the dough out. This is not something I am used to doing for bread...! For this first go, I actually don't think I rolled the dough thin enough... Oops... Before rolling the dough into a log, I sprinkled chopped white chocolate chips onto the surface, just to add more dimension to the final product. Once rolled, the log was formed into a ring. Penny had wanted us to shape our stollen like wreaths in honor of the holiday. As wonderful as Penny is, and as amazing as her stollen looked, I just didn't feel right making a wreath. So I stuck to a ring. Another rise and it was into the oven to bake. But the baking isn't the last step...! As soon as the stollen came out of the oven it was time to brush the whole thing with melted butter (or margarine, in my case...) then give it a few generous dustings of powdered sugar. Messy? Absolutely. Worth the mess? Heck, yeah! The finished stollen looked like a snow covered island. Because this was made for a party, I couldn't test taste it or there would be a big gaping hole... Luckily, though, I had planned ahead... Before forming my ring I had cut off a small section of dough and made a mini "bun" to taste. I am glad I did, too...! The stollen was enjoyed all around, both at home and at the party. So I was really glad that I hadn't walked away from this challenge!

But I wasn't done. Remember that Pennsylvania Dutch family of mine? I still wanted to do a stollen for them, too! So I made my second version - lemon-cranberry-dried pineapple with cinnamon sugar stollen. This time around I rolled my dough thinner, making for better rings. I also decided to make three smaller loaves and a set of six muffins instead of one large loaf. This way I could give one to my parents-in-law, one to my siblings-in law, have some for snacking, and even have one for myself! I have not yet had the chance to taste this creation, but I am really looking forward to it... The smell of it baking was amazing, and the combination of the lemon and cranberry, with the bits of pineapple... So tempting! But I am trying to keep things intact until they can get to my in-laws' house tomorrow...

Thank you so much, Penny, for encouraging me, and the rest of the Daring Barkers, to try something so wonderful. I can honestly say this is not a recipe I would have ever made were it not for the challenge, and I am really glad that you gave me the opportunity and the push to do it! If you want to see what the other amazing Bakers did with their stollen, take a look here!

Daring to do it: Poaching

2010-12-14T00:05:00.000-05:00

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

I have, in the past, tried my hand at poaching eggs. While they turned out tasty, they were not all that attractive, and I didn't feel like I had actually done the process as it deserved to be done. I had even recently torn out an article from a cooking magazine to which I subscribe about how to have better success poaching eggs. Then came this challenge! The timing couldn't have been better if I had planned it myself! What made the timing even more amusing was that the challenge was announced on a day where my weekly meal plan had us scheduled for eggs for dinner! The stars were absolutely aligned, this was something I was supposed to do!

Luckily for me, the hosts of this challenge were much more interested in getting us Daring Cooks to poach than they were in having us follow the exact recipes they provided. Even making substitutions for vegetarianism/Kashrut, Eggs Bennedict with its Hollandaise sauce wasn't something I felt the need to try. And the Oeufs en Meurette would be great, except we are not wine drinkers, so the wine poached eggs/sauce probably wouldn't have been appreciated... (The vegan sausages looked really great, but I didn't feel quite up to that challenge...) So I decided to be somewhat creative and give things my own spin.

While I was not making Eggs Bennedict, I did decide that English muffins would be a great base for my dish. After looking at a variety of recipes online, I decided to go with this one. I did sub in some whole wheat flour, which I was very glad to have done. I also baked them in the oven instead of using the pan fry/bake method. Again, I was very happy with this decision! The muffins came out beautifully and deliciously. I will never buy English Muffins again!!

Then next step was to tackle the poached eggs. The hosts gave a whole list of suggestions to try, some of which I had heard, some I had not. The one I made sure to use was adding vinegar to the poaching water. I don't know the science of it, but it does seem to help... I also made sure my water was simmering, not boiling and not simply warm. This did help a lot. My whites did spread a bit more than I would have liked, but I was much more successful this time than I had been on my previous foray into poached eggs!

Finally it was time to assemble my dish. I started with warm English muffins, then placed a slice of cheese on each half. Onto the cheese went a poached egg, and all of it was covered with warm tomato sauce. Served with roasted asparagus and butternut squash, this was an amazingly delicious meal!! All of us agreed that this was something to be made and enjoyed again!!

So it seemed I was done with this month's Daring Cook's challenge. On the first day. Huh? I knew I couldn't let it go at that. So I gave it one more stab. On the last day. Yes, this post goes up on the 14th, I made another poached egg dish on the 13th. It seems I was into the timing extremes on this one. For this meal I wanted to do something similar to what I have done in the past as a comfort meal: eggs poached directly in tomato sauce. Eggs and tomato go so well together... Instead of using a bread base this time I made pasta to use under sauteed spinach and garlic topped with a roasted vegetable tomato sauce in which I poached the eggs. (It sounds kind of fancier than I meant it to be when it is all spelled out there...) This, again, was really yummy. The spinach and the tomatoes and the egg just worked so well together! They made for a great sauce for the pasta, and it was a great, hearty and comforting treat.

So thank you to Jenn and Jill for such a great challenge! I had so much fun trying different combinations, and poached eggs (and, hopefully, other things!) will definitely make it into our regular meal rotation!

To the the amazing creations of my fellow Daring Cooks, check things out here!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

2010-12-12T19:52:00.009-05:00

So today is my birthday! Yay! I still love birthdays. Not for the years, not for the presents, and not for the center of attention thing. I just love birthdays. It is fun to celebrate, share happy occasions, and have an excuse to make and eat cake! When I said something about making my own birthday cake, Hubby was shocked. "You shouldn't have to make your own birthday cake!" But I have fun baking, so I explained that this was actually something fun for me. I searched high and low for the perfect shape cake for my birthday, and came up with nothing good. Sure there are some amazing cakes out there, but there wasn't anything that seemed right to me... So I stuck with traditional round cake, and decided that it would be fun anyway!

This year Little Girl was able to help me make my cake. Last night we made my regular yellow cake recipe, but added some cocoa powder to make it a marble cake, which is my favorite. She helped me measure, pour, mix and smooth the cakes, which was a ton of fun!! I did decide to do the marbling myself, though... I just thought it might be less of a mess that way...

Tonight it was time to make the frosting. The traditional white frosting that I grew up making requires a double boiler and a hand mixer. A double boiler I can improvise, but the lack of a hand mixer would have made it a bit tough. So I searched around and found this recipe for Fluffy White Frosting. So similar to the one I grew up with, but even easier! I think this is going to be my new go-to frosting recipe!! I was so amazed when, after walking away from the mixer for a few minutes, I saw how light and fluffy this became!

Finally it was time to assemble the cake. I used some triple berry sauce (store bought... sorry!) between the layers, just because I like it! (It's my birthday, I get to do my own thing!) Then the frosting! Lots and lots of smooth, fluffy, marshmallowy frosting! I usually make a mess with this part, which is fine... I make the mess, I clean it up...! But this frosting was so easy to work with! I had fun covering the tops and sides, and even making a little bit of a swirly design.

Now a white cake is pretty and all, but I wanted a little bit more festivity. So on with the colorful sugar sprinkles!! Now this is a birthday cake!!

I would like to thank my family and friends for making this such a fun birthday. I am very lucky to have such wonderful people around me!

But now it is cake time!! Enjoy!!

When laziness wins...

2010-12-08T20:49:00.005-05:00

The meal plan for the week showed that tonight's dinner was to be a baked vegetable and pasta dish. Nothing fancy, nothing too involved. Especially because I still had a nice variety of vegetables left in my refrigerator all ready to be used. So while Little Girl napped, I started chopping. As I chopped, though, I realized that I had a lot of veggies. A whole lot. More than would fit in any of my pans to be sauteed before being tossed in with the pasta. And I am way too lazy to use multiple pans - more dishes to wash? No, thank you!

I then realized that I didn't have to saute. I could roast. Why did I never think of this before? No worrying about overcooking none veggie or undercooking another by adding them in the "wrong" order. I pulled out my biggest baking dish and threw everything in all at once - onions, carrots, parsnips, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, garlic... Add some olive oil and some spiced and get the whole thing into a 425 degree oven, and no more thought necessary!!

Once the veggies were cooked, I added a can of kidney beans, shredded cheese and the cooked pasta. After popping the whole thing into the oven, dinner was ready.

I don't know why I never did this before. In addition to saving on prep dishes in need of washing, roasting the vegetables added a whole new layer of flavor that I never thought of!! This was a wonderful dinner, with plenty of leftovers for Hubby to take to work for lunches! I can't wait to make this one again!

Daring to do it: Crostata

2010-11-27T00:05:00.012-05:00

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

This was a fun challenge. It was the kind of thing that allowed for a lot of freedom, which meant that I could do whatever I wanted! (Which is actually a double edged sword - I love the freedom, but it also leave open a lot of "what about this?" questioning...!) I knew I would do a sweet crostata. I mean, really, I love sweets, so why wouldn't I? I was trying to figure out, though, what I could do for a savory one. There were a bunch of ideas floating around, but I just wasn't sure if any of them would actually work...

For my sweet crostata, though, my ideas were coming fast and furious. Jam! Fresh fruits! Chocolate under a vanilla pastry cream! Really, there was too much, and I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't make any of them since I wouldn't be able to decide. Then I looked at the week's supermarket circulars and saw that fresh raspberries were on sale. Mmm... Raspberries are my absolute favorite. Then I remembered one other thing - I had two beautiful lemons sitting in my kitchen which had been grown on the tree in my mother's backyard. Lemon and raspberry... Perfect!

Simona gave us two recipe options for the pasta frolla, or crostata crust, dough. I chose the first option, as the second contained a variety of flours and such that I don't keep on hand. As I usually do, I used vegetable shortening instead of butter to keep my dough dairy free. This recipe was very much like the pie crust I usually make, except this on uses eggs rather than water. I was a little concerned, it did not look like there would be enough moisture to hold the dough together. But it really did come out beautifully! I was really impressed by the tender dough that held together so nicely.

For my lemon layer I made the same lemon curd that my family has always made for our lemon meringue pies. It was strange, though, because we usually only make that pie on passover. So my recipe calls for potato starch. Which I don't have in the house. It took me a moment to remember that potato starch is really the passover substitute for corn starch, and that it really was ok to use the corn version! The fresh lemons were so good in the curd! The whole kitchen smelled lemony, it was heavenly!

Because I was using a cold, precooked filling, my pasta frolla crust would need to be prebaked, or blind baked. This was process which seemed to be new to a number of my fellow Daring Bakers. But I have done it a number of times, when making my home made pie crusts. This challenge gave me another opportunity to pull out my trusty, fancy pie weights! Dried beans and rice to the rescue! This challenge also gave me the chance to buy myself a present of a tart pan. I was very excited about it! Because I was prebaking my crust, I knew I was not going to be making the lattice top for my crostata. I was a little happy about that, since I am a little intimidated by making the lattice... Instead I used the extra pasta frolla to make heart shaped cookies, which turned out to be really tasty!

Crust cooked and cooled, curd chilled and ready, it was time to put everything together. My finished crostata looked so good! I couldn't wait to cut into it!! My parents-in-law came for lunch, so this was set to be the perfect dessert. Finally it was time to cut...

It seems my lemon curd did not set up as well as I thought it had. It was a little bit leaky... But the taste was AMAZING! All of us had a hard time keeping our forks out of the dish to take more tastes! And the fresh raspberries complimented the lemon to well. The crust was like a big, subtle sugar cookie. This was a fabulous treat!

With the success of the sweet crostata, I decided to just do it and go for a savory one. I used the same pasta frolla recipe, but cut the sugar from a cup to about a tablespoon. This time I knew I would be baking the filling, so I left the extra dough to make my lattice. That was hard! I knew there was a reason I kept avoiding it! The dough was very fragile, and I had a hard time getting my strips up from the counter onto the pie... But I eventually got there...! For my filling I used spinach, onions, eggs and cheeses. It was quiche-esque, but crossed with a savory cheesecake texture. Yet again, this crostata was a success! It was a satisfying, filling, delicious dinner that was enjoyed by all!

Thank you so much, Simona, for such a wonderful challenge! This is such a fun, versatile dish, I know I will be making it again and again! If you want to see the amazing creations my fellow Daring Bakers came up with, take a look here! I guarantee it, you will not be disappointed!

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-25T21:31:00.007-05:00

Another November, another Thanksgiving here in the States. This being our first year in our new home, we really wanted to host the meal. And, our family being as great as they are, they agreed to let us! This might not seem like a big sacrifice on anyone's part, having someone else do the bulk of the cooking, baking and cleaning, but you have to remember that we have a Kosher, vegetarian household and my in-laws are neither of those things. So Thanksgiving here means a break from the traditional traditions.

We do what we affectionately call the "All Dessert Thanksgiving" in my family. There is a real meal before the dessert part, but the Thanksgiving-y stuff is all at dessert. The centerpiece of our table, though, is still the turkey. It just isn't the same turkey most think of. Our turkey is made of cake, frosting, and any decorations we choose. My nieces were here to help me, Little Girl and my best friend make this one of the best turkeys ever!!

I hope that your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it!) was filled with great food, wonderful people and tons of joy! Enjoy your own family traditions, no matter how strange they are!!

Daring to do it: Souffle

2010-11-14T00:05:00.013-05:00

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

This was an amazing challenge. Souffle is one of those dishes that everyone is intimidated by, but, in reality, isn't as hard as it seems. I had made souffle once before (I don't even remember what kind...!) and was really excited to do it again. Especially with the tips and guidance of some amazing fellow Daring Cooks! I only had one regret with this challenge. I only made one souffle during the course of the month. I had planned on making a sweet souffle at some point, but it never happened. Sad... But, luckily, I am not limited by the month of the challenge! So hopefully sometime soon you will check back here and see a delicious sweet souffle!!
Now to the one I did make....
One of the challenge recipes provided was for a Watercress Souffle. Sounded good, and was a nice, vegetarian recipe to use. But I have never used watercress. Nor do I care to. Not that I have anything against it, I just am not jumping up and down to try it. Not when I could easily substitute one of my favorite leafy veggies - spinach. So I adapted the recipe a little to make my own spinach and cheese souffle.
Souffle is basically composed of two basic parts - the beaten egg whites and the base. The egg whites give the souffle its trademark lift and fragility, while the base provides the flavor and the "structure." The base recipe Dave and Linda gave us was really like making a white sauce - make a roux, add the liquid, add the flavoring/cheese. Their method, though, added the liquid in small batches rather than all at once. It worked so well! I have to try to remember that the next time I want to make home-made mac and cheese! Once the sauce is made, it is time to add the egg yolks. Dave and Linda recommended tempering the yolks before adding them by, essentially, cooking them over a double boiler. This was a method I had never heard of before, but it worked well. It brought the yolks safely up in temperature for health reasons and for ease of adding to the base. Yet another great trick learned courtesy of the Daring Kitchen!!

The egg white part of the souffle is the one which most people get nervous about. Whipping egg whites can be intimidating. Whip them too much and they separate into dry and wet elements. Too little and they don't have enough air to do much of anything. I must say, though, I love my KitchenAid mixer...! It made whipping the egg whites easy - just a matter of watching them! Nice and firm peaks, not too stiff, but plenty of hold.

Egg whites whipped, base ready, only a few more steps. Prepare the baking dish - butter the dish well, then coat the dish with something - in this case grated cheese - to help the souffle climb, and also to provide a bit of texture. Then the base and the whites have to be combined carefully - mixed enough to combine, but not so much that the egg whites deflate. Finally the mixture is poured into the prepared dish, then the whole thing goes into the oven. One of the hardest parts of souffle making is keeping the oven door closed during the baking process. Letting heat out of the oven makes it so that the souffle won't rise as much. Thankfully I have a window in my oven door, and I was able to watch the progress safely!!

Yeah, it rose a little crooked, and no, it didn't get as high and fluffy as I would have liked. But oh well. The important part (as with so many things...!) was what was on the inside. I had a nice crispy crust, and then the inside:

It held its form, but was still a little gooey... Yum! This was an delicious dinner! We all agreed - even Little Girl!

As I said at the start, this was an amazing challenge! It brought out such creativity among the Daring Cooks, you have to check out their work! Dave and Linda, thank you so much! I am so glad to have this in my arsenal now, and I really am looking forward to making this dessert souffle soon!

My Budding Artist

2010-11-10T19:45:00.006-05:00

As you have probably guessed, I enjoy being crafty. I don't exactly see myself as a talented artist, but I am a crafter who has a lot of fun creating things. Little Girl, subsequently, sees a lot of me puttering around with food, fabric, yarn, crayons and more. I have always hoped that she would enjoy some of these activities, too... She seems to have fun in the kitchen, playing with her kitchen tools and helping me cook and bake. And with our book club, I have seen her enjoy coloring and crafting, which is a ton of fun.

The other day we went to one of my favorite places to explore - the craft store. I love looking for new ideas and seeing what is out there, even if I don't buy much. One thing I couldn't pass on, though, was a foil poster featuring Little Girl's favorite fairy friends. With the hefty price tag of one whole dollar, I knew this was a splurge that would be worth it. And it really was! Little Girl LOVED coloring the fairies and seeing the shimmery foil background. She did really well with the markers, too, opening them and even getting the caps back on fairly securely! It is so rewarding to see her enjoy herself, and at an activity that I enjoy, too! I really am the luckiest mommy in the world with my amazing, crafty girl!!

Sharing the love

2010-11-03T21:40:00.010-04:00

Sometimes it is hard to imagine that there is actually anyone out there who is looking at your blog. It is a big world, and there are blogs out the wazzoo!! And while I mainly keep this up for myself, it is really nice hearing every once in a while that what I say (or cook, or bake, or make) made someone smile. I love sharing my fun with my friends and family, and this blog has been a great way to do that.
Recently, though, I was touchd in a whole new way. One of the bloggers whom I love to follow recognized me as an inspiration! I was shocked, flattered, and a little overwhelmed. How does one respond when a role model says s/he appreciates what you do? It really just makes me see how lucky I am.
So I would like to share Anula's award with some of the people who have inspired me, and kept me going when I felt like blogging was just sending my words into a void.

Anula chose seven people and their blogs. She then asked us to share this award with seven people of our own - people who inspire us to do what we do. It is actually a lot harder that you would think!! She requests, and I do too, that this award keeps going - that you choose seven people you admire, whose blogs are a part of your web-surfing rituals, and let them know that you appreciate them welcoming you into their lives the way I appreciate you folks doing with me!

In no particular order:

Beth from Someone's in the Kitchen with Brina - I love your style, your creativity, and having Jewish holiday foods to drool over!
Shelley from CMomCook - hey, if it were't for you, I probably wouldn't have started this thing...!
Audax from Audax Artifex - you are an inspiration month in and month out in the Daring Kitchen, and your love for what you do comes through in all of your creations!
tease-spoonof sugar - your recipes are always so yummy looking, and your kids are just beautiful!
myrecessionkitchen - budget friendly, crafty, and presonable, all rolled into one!
Aparna from My Diverse Kitchen - beautiful photography, creative recipes, and all around lovely to read!

And, of course, I can not make this list without mentioning:

Anna from Anula's Kitchen - Your blog is one I love to look at, your cfreativity amazes me, and your love for life is truly inspirational!!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:38:00.005-04:00

While Little Girl was around for Halloween last year, and I did make her a costume, she was a little too young to go trick-or-treating. So this year was going to be a big one - our first Halloween in our new house, and Little Girl's first time going out in costume! (Ok, she is still a little young for it, but oh well!)

Hubby and I have decided that Little Girl can be anything she wants to for Halloween, but the deal is we will make her costume, not buy it. This works out great for Hubby, as I am the one who does the making...! But it is fun for me, and was really my thought to begin with, so no complaints! This year, as she is still a little too young to choose for herself, I chose to make a costume based on one of Little Girl's favorite characters. I made her into Tinker Bell! Working with wings from the dollar store and a shirt from the clearance rack, I made a no-sew costume that wound up looking great!! And she really had a blast, loving running around with her wings on! Hubby is already excited for next year!!

And, despite the fact that she can't eat the majority of it, Little Girl wound up with a pretty good haul for a one year old!

Daring to do it: Doughnuts

2010-10-26T23:21:00.016-04:00

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

This was a great challenge. A lot of fun, allowing for a TON of creativity...! But it has also been a VERY busy month in our family. We are (still) in the process of moving into our new home, and things have been a little nutty. So, while I did completer the challenge, and enjoyed it greatly, I did not have the chance to be nearly as creative as my fellow Daring Bakers. PLEASE check out their amazing work here! So this post is going to be text-light and picture heavy...

To sum up the process - I used the Alton Brown yeast dough recipe provided and let it rise overnight. Little Girl was a great help mixing the batter together. The dough was stickier than I has expected, given the comments of of some of my "cohorts," but it worked well. I do not have a doughnut cutter, nor do I have biscuit cutters. So I used a drinking glass to cut the doughnuts, and the back of a piping tip to cut the holes. I shallow-fried everything, and dipped some in cinnamon-sugar while coating the rest in a vanilla glaze. The doughnut holes were dangerously good - it was way too easy to just pop one in my mouth as I passed by!

And, finally, the finished products!!

Lori, this was so much fun. I can not wait until Hanukkah when I can use this recipe again to make my sufganiyot!!

Daring to do it: Stuffed Grape Leaves

2010-10-14T00:05:00.001-04:00

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.

This was an intriguing challenge for me. I am not usually a fan of stuffed grape leaves. But I decided to give them a shot, to see if making my own might produce a product I liked better. Lori's one main requirement was that our leaves be stuffed with a rice-based filling. I chose to use brown rice, as I find it more flavorful and, honestly, it is what I keep around! I also added some chickpeas, sauteed onions and garlic and "spices."

Unfortunately, though, I encountered a bit of a snafu... My rolls unrolled themselves. I got a couple that stayed together, and got a photo, but most of them unraveled themselves. So we had un-stuffed grape leaves for dinner!

To accompany my Mediterranean feast I made some home made hummus (ok, chick pea spread... I didn't have tahini...) and some home made pita using the recipe from the Daring Cooks' mezze challenge. (I was not yet a Daring Cook then, but I hear great things about the recipe and decided it was worth a shot!)

Dinner was pretty good. I liked the stuffing, and we loved the pita and hummus. The grape leaves themselves? Not such a huge fan... But it was worth the attempt, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to try something which I otherwise never would have.

Thank you, Lori, for helping us learn something so new! It was a lot of fun! To see what my fellow Daring Cooks came up with, please look here!

My Little Cook

2010-10-03T19:53:00.003-04:00

The other day I was getting ready to make a nice, easy lunch of scrambled eggs and toast. I took the eggs out of the carton and took slices of bread out of the bag, and I left them to warm up to room temperature. As I was getting the frying pan out, I was holding Little Girl, who was in a bit of a clingy mood. When I turned to look at what she was reaching for I saw she had one of the (uncooked) eggs in her hand. I realized I had a choice... I could tell her no, that eggs are fragile and take it away, or I could remind her to be gentle and see what she would do. I decided to let her explore a bit.
Well, it seems that Little Girl has been watching her mommy in the kitchen! She carefully put each of the eggs and the slices of bread into the pan so that she could make lunch for us!!!

(I swear, I didn't touch these... this is how she set them!)

I was amazed, excited, impressed, overjoyed and undeniably thrilled to see her work. It is so amazing to see what children will do when given the opportunity, and also so see how much they pick up when they are with us. I really am the luckiest mommy in the world!!

Daring to do it: Decorated Cookies

2010-09-27T00:05:00.004-04:00

2The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I love cookies. I don't make them too often though, because I think I am just a little too lazy... It is faster and easier to make bars! So this month's challenge was going to involve as much time management challenge as baking challenge!! Actually, though, the baking aspect was not what intimidated me. The sugar cookie recipe looked fairly straightforward, and Mandy actually gave us some great hints and tips which helped a lot. It was the decorating part that had be pretty well scared. I want to be artistic. I know I am (kind of) creative, but artistic isn't really my thing. Luckily, though, Mandy gave us a lot of freedom in our decorating. She gave us the theme of "September," and we could shape and decorate our cookies in whatever way said September to us.

As you know from the last Daring Cook's challenge, one of the big events for me in September is the Jewish New Year. Apples are part of the celebration, so apple shaped cookies were in order. Also, an apple is one of the (very) few cookie cutter shapes I have, so that worked out well!

I made the challenge cookie recipe as written, except I used part brown sugar instead of all white sugar. That is just my silliness... The dough came together really quickly. Then, as Mandy recommended, I rolled the dough out in three pieces before refrigerating it. I don't know why this idea has never either occurred to me before or been pointed out to me before. It is brilliant! It makes working with the dough so much easier, since it is still fairly soft when you roll it, but you can keep the extras cold while you work with one section at a time. For that alone, Mandy, this challenge taught me usefull baking skills!

When it was time to cut out the cookies I recruited my best kitchen helper, Little Girl. She had a great time using the cookie cutters, and rerolling the scraps to cut again. And I had a blast seeing her have so much fun! She is definitely hired for future cookie making projects!

Once the cookies came out of the oven and were completely cooled it was time to tackle my fears and start decorating. The challenge recipe for frosting was royal icing. This uses raw egg whites. Which I am not generally opposed to, but for the sake of... curiosity? health? keeping on my toes? I decided to find an egg free icing recipe. I used this one which I found on allrecipes.com. It looked straightforward enough, so I went for it.

First I tried mixing food coloring into a portion of the icing to make the red for the apples. No matter how many drops I added, though, I couldn't get darker than pink. And piping? I made a HUGE mess. (Sorry, I refused to take pictures of the mess... it was sticky...) I then resorted to painting. I put the plain white icing onto the cookies and dipped a (clean!) paintbrush into the food coloring. It worked ok. Or, it would have worked really well if I had any artistic talent. So I made as many red apples as I had patience for (I think it was four), then I moved onto jarred frosting and colored sprinkles... At least they were decorated!

For one last bit of fun, I used the extra scraps of dough to make one extra-special cookie. Hubby and I bought our first house. So I made a celebratory house cookie for us to share... I again used the painting method, and made a cute little house that doesn't really look like our new house, but it got the point across nicely!

Thank you so much Mandy for making me face one of my kitchen fears! I can't say that I have conquored it, but I can say that I now have a better understanding of what I still need to learn! It was totally worth it. If you would like to see the beautiful, creative, artistic creations my fellow Daring Bakers made, take a look here and be amazed!

Fuzzy Buddy

2010-09-16T21:51:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago Little Girl and I were wandering around the craft store, as we sometimes do when we are looking for inspiration. I love wandering the aisles and getting ideas for crafts of all sorts, from knitting to scrap booking to baking and beyond. Unfortunately, I can't buy everything I would want to, for a number of reasons (practicality and sanity being two of the top ones!). Even so, I do gather ideas to file away for the proverbial rainy day. On this particular day there was a table set up with an employee encouraging children to try a new craft called Fuzzoodles. True, Little Girl is a little too young to partake on her own, but that didn't stop me from checking things out. And the employee was generous enough to offer Little Girl a package of her own, which she was very pleased about. (Though she might have just been excited to pull at the packaging...) We took our prize home and got to "work" creating.

While the craft is very basic, I wasn't sure how Little Girl would approach it. While I am sure that her playing wasn't exactly what the manufacturers had in mind, she had a blast! She twisted the oversized pipe-cleaners, she played with the eyes, and it really kept her attention for a long time (well, a long time for a one year old!) I had fun making little critters, too, so this was an all around fun craft, especially for the price of free!

Daring to do it: Food Preservation

2010-09-14T00:05:00.002-04:00

It's that time again! (I promise, I do make other crafts, not just the Daring Kitchen foods! I just seem to have a hard time getting to the posting thing... I am going to try to be better about that...) Sit back, relax, and read all about it!!

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

This challenge was a true learning experience. I have never canned food before, and the freezing that I do is mostly reserved for leftovers... (That's still food preservation, right?) My father-in-law cans, though, making the best pickles in the world, as well as a variety of other pickled vegetables (from his garden, no less). I was excited to see if he would let me in on the family secret for this challenge. John, though, made what could have been an unbearably daunting challenge something so great. He provided more than just a recipe, more than just a new method, he provided a ton of information. His challenge layout really was a lesson in science, in cooking, and in sociology! It was a lot of fun to read, and the cooking process was just that much more fun, knowing the science and reasoning behind what we were doing!!

Before I got to cooking, though, I had to conquer what might have been the most difficult aspect of this challenge - the logistics. I do not have a canning set up at home. Heck, the largest stock-pot I have is only five quarts. And the food to be preserved is supposed to go into the jars warm, so how could I make a lot of food and then can it in the same pot? Then I had to find jars! I could have borrowed some from my father -in-law, but I was pretty sure I wanted smaller jars than he had available. I finally found the right size jars, and figured out a way to use my crock-pot in conjunction with the stock pot, and I was ready to cook and can!

One of the recipes which John gave us for this challenge was apple butter. I know a lot of people who love apple butter, but I honestly don't think I had ever had it before. And I know I have never made it before! I have made applesauce, and apple butter seemed to be pretty much the same, just cooked down longer. This being September, the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanna, was going to fall during this challenge. What perfect timing! Apples and honey are traditionally eaten to celebrate the new year. So why not make honey-apple butter? So now I was excited for this challenge on yet another level!

I made my apple butter in the crock-pot, using a recipe which was based on a bunch of different ones I had seen in my searches. I know John wanted up to credit our sources, but unfortunately I kind of can't... I did what I do for my applesauce, substituting honey for a large part of the sugar. I then let it cook all day. The apple smell filling the apartment was so good!! After about six hours I opened the pot to start the mashing. It was great, and I was so excited to see how the finished product would turn out!

With the apple butter well on its way to being ready it was time to prep the jars. They have to be carefully washed and dried before being filled, then they should be warmed before the warm food is put in. Washing was no problem. For warming? A low oven did the trick perfectly!!

Finally I was ready. I filled my stock pot, lined the bottom with some towels to buffer the heat from the jars, and started boiling away. As silly as it seemed, I was really excited. And as the jars cooled, I was rewarded with the amazing little "ping" sound which indicated that the jars were properly sealed! It was so cool!

This apple butter was so good! My mother-in-law ate it with a spoon straight from the jar! So did I... So did Little Girl... For this alone, this challenge was a HUGE success.

But I wasn't done. I couldn't do a canning challenge without seeing how my father-in-law works his magic. His willingness to share his process and his recipe with me really made me know in a whole new way just how much a part of this family I have become. It was a really special day for me...!

The weekend we were there, my father-in-law had planned to make pickled green tomatoes. And these green tomatoes started the day on the vines in his garden. You don't get any fresher than that!!

After the tomatoes are cut they are loaded into the jars. My father-in-law does not heat the jars before filling them. He does, though, heat the lids and bands. The room temperature tomatoes are covered with hot brine. Once they are sealed they go into the canner to cook and to set.

This was traditional family canning at its very best. And I was so flattered that my father-in-law included me and shared his family "secret" with me!!

Thank you, John, for introducing me to canning, and for giving me the opportunity to learn new ways of celebrating the New Year and my amazing family! This challenge taught me a lot. And about food preservation, too!

To see the amazing creations my fellow Daring Cooks came up with, take a look here. Try not too drool on your keyboard!!

Daring to do it: Brown Butter Ice Cream Cake

2010-08-27T00:05:00.002-04:00

**UPDATED!!! The pictures have arrived! Thanks for your patience... and enjoy!!**

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

My first reaction when reading this month's challenge was something along the lines of "Didn't we just do cake and ice cream? And, really, more ice cream for the lactose intolerant girl?" I then remembered that the challenge hosts do not know what the challenges around theirs will be, so there was no way Elissa could have known about the Swiss roll ice cream cakes from July. I also thought, "Man... Here is an 18 year old with such great ideas, inspiration and ambition, no whining allowed!!" Of course, being lactose intolerant, I did have some questions/concerns regarding this challenge, but (again,) I wasn't going to whine - I was up for the challenge!

My first concern for this challenge actually had nothing to do with the ice cream element. With last month's challenge under my belt, I felt confident that I could make something work for that. I was actually more worried about the brown butter. I don't use butter in my house. I use margarine. When limiting dairy intake, this is the easiest substitution, and is, usually, not an issue when baking. But margarine does not brown. Butter browns when the milk solids separate and carmelize and turn nutty and toasty and really yummy (this is NOT a scientific assessment of the browning process, just my attempt to wrap my brain around it!). I tried to do some research about vegan alternatives for browned butter, but came up with not too much information. The best answer I could find was that, of the vegan butter alternatives, Earth Balance Buttery Spread came the closest to butter when browned. Encouraged, I bought some to use. I did, however, have some reservations. This is a pound cake. It calls for a LOT of butter. If this didn't work well, I would have a cake that no one would eat. So I called upon my sister, and fellow Daring Baker, Aunty Twin to help me out. I recruited her, her kitchen, and a stick of her (real) butter, and we did a side-by-side comparison. (Pictures will come, and they will help...!)

The Earth Balance did brown, though it took longer than the butter did. It also did not get as dark and toasty looking, but that wasn't so much of a surprise, as there were no milk solids to do the actual browning. By appearances it looked like I had something I could use for my cake. By taste? Not so much. While I did get some of the nuttiness, the browned Earth Balance was much too salty for my taste. For a savory dish, maybe with pasta or veggies, it would work, but for a cake I thought I had better steer clear.

All of that is to explain that my brown butter pound cake was not, actually, a brown butter pound cake... I used margarine. I did melt it on the stove to see if anything would happen, but was not surprised when nothing did. To keep the "brown" theme, though, I substitute dark brown sugar for the light, and light brown sugar for the white (granulated) sugar in the recipe. While it didn't have quite the same depth of flavor and richness as the brown butter cake did, (thank you, Auntie Twin, for letting me taste it!) it was still a VERY good cake!!

It was now time to choose my frozen dessert element... Having made two different non-dairy ice creams last month, I decided to do frozen yogurt this month. I also decided to cut my husband a break. He is a major chocolate addict. Really, he might need a twelve-step program...! And my Swiss roll bombe last month had no chocolate in it at all. So I knew right away that my "ice cream" would have to be for him. I also wanted to have some sort of "nutty" flavor in the dessert, as I didn't have the brown butter's nuttiness in the cake. I therefore chose to make chocolate peanut butter frozen yogurt. I used the basic frozen yogurt recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, added cocoa powder, adapted it for not having an ice cream maker, and added peanut butter towards the end. (Other than that, though, it was exactly his recipe... ;)) I learned after last month that I had to be very vigilant about stirring the mixture frequently at the start of the freezing process. The time and diligence are worth it, though, as my frozen yogurt had a really great creamy consistency which I hadn't thought I could achieve on my own!!

Up until this point, I actually hadn't been sure if I was going to make the baked Alaska or the petit fours. I have made baked Alaska before (though not since I was a child), and thought that would be fun, but the petit fours looked to beautiful!! Come showtime, though, it came down to the fact that I didn't have the time to make the chocolate glaze, so baked Alaska it would be. But. When I made the cake I had used my brownie bites pan. So I had little cakes, which seemed the perfect size for something petit four like... Introducing...

Baked Alaska-Fours!!
Chocolate peanut butter frozen yogurt sandwiched between two layers of brown sugar pound cake, all surrounded by a cloud of meringue and toasted to a golden brown. They looked like little toasted marshmallows, but with a surprise filling! Everyone was impressed. And Hubby was loving the chocolate peanut butter...! All in all, it was a great success.

Thank you, Elissa, for such a fun and creative challenge! I had a great time playing in the kitchen, learning new techniques, and eating such yumminess! Good luck as you start college. Having seen how hard you worked as our host, and how much time, energy and love you put into this challenge, I know you are going to achieve greatness. Please keep baking!!

If you would like to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with, and I highly recommend that you do!!, please take a look here!

Snacking outside the plate...

2010-08-19T20:01:00.005-04:00

Sorry to have been so quiet... I was kind of excited to have had an even 100 posts... But here we go on our way to 200!! There has been plenty going on to tell about!

As you can clearly see, we are a family of eaters. We like food, and we like to try new things. When Little Girl first started eating solids she didn't seem that into it... I was worried... How can a child of mine not like food?! As it turns out, she seems to just not have been a fan of plain oatmeal. Not too big of a concern after all! (Just wait, Little Girl, until you have oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon when the weather gets cold again... yum!) So she likes to eat. She just isn't always interested in sitting down to do so... There is just too much to do and see, why waste time sitting still? So I call her my little grazer. I put a plate or bowl (plastic, to keep things safe!) on the coffee table in the living room, and she can snack throughout the day. A Cheerio here, a blueberry there... it's all good.

The other day, while Little Girl was in the kitchen with me, she started playing with one of the cupcake tins. She put a few "O's" into a cup, then picked them out, smiling up at me. I was so impressed! Clever girl!! So she now has a new snack tray! This way she can have a little bit of pretty much everything she likes, and she doesn't get as frustrated trying to tell me what she wants. She also likes, as you can see, mixing and matching her snacks in infinite ways in the cups of the tray.

So while this might not be any sort of groundbreaking discovery or the most creative thing in the world, it has been yet another layer of fun seeing how Little Girl's mind works and watching her adapt to and with the world around her!!

Daring to do it: Pierogi

2010-08-14T00:05:00.001-04:00

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

I have to say, I was really excited to read this month's challenge. I love pierogi!! I get the frozen ones from time to time, and have even made them from scratch once, too. So when I saw that this would be what we were making, I was psyched. The one thing that I was a little stuck on that the "local interest" thing... I live in the Philadelphia (PA) area. Foods that come to mind for me: cheese steaks (not for the Kosher vegetarian, thanks!), soft pretzels with mustard (inside a pasta-type outside?), Philadelphia cream cheese (possible, I guess)... I was kind of stuck. I wanted to get an early start on the challenge, but trying to come up with a filling was frustrating me! I finally decided that my locale would be home, and I would make my filling a family favorite.

I made the Russian style pierogi dough recipe rather than the Wareneki which has a dairy base to it. The Russian dough is much more like pasta, and felt (to me) to be a little more versatile. It is also the one I am more familiar with... I know, not so daring of me, but... oh well, that's how things go sometimes! According to the recipe, the dough should rest for about 20 minutes. I actually made it the day before I planned on using it, so it went into the fridge overnight - I was saying that my dough was more rested than I was!!

For my filling, as I mentioned, I decided to do a "local" favorite - nachos!! (Yes, I oh-so-creatively called these "Nacho Ordinary Pierogi" 'cause I am clever like that...) I started with a combination of black and pinto beans, soaked overnight and simmered until tender. I then mashed them up a little bit along with some shredded cheddar cheese. Our favorite nacho toppings were now ready to go on the inside!

The traditional way to make pierogi involves rolling out the dough and cutting circles with a biscuit cutter. I don't have a cutter, and I had been seeing some people express concern that rerolling the dough made it tougher to work with. So I took the advice and experience of Aunty Twin and made my pierogi "shells" individually - roll a "snake," then cut small pieces, roll them into balls and flatten them out. Not as pretty, even or uniform as the traditional way, but effective!! Next step was to fill these pseudo-circles, then crimp them closed with a fork. I probably should have used some sort of measuring spoon or something to scoop my filling, but that would have required thinking of that in advance! So I used a regular spoon and had an adventure trying to get enough filling, but not too much!, into each pierogi. Just as with the dough, I wasn't exactly consistent, but it seemed to work out fine!

The pierogi are then cooked twice. First they are boiled, then they are fried. I have eaten them only boiled, but I have to say, the frying makes them crispy, which is something I love. I highly recommend taking the extra step!! For this batch I actually fried the pierogi with onions, just for the extra flavor and nacho-ness.

Traditional pierogi (as far as I know, at least) are served with sour cream. Yes, this would have worked beautifully with my nacho filling, but I decided to go, again, with the house favorites - home made salsa and guacamole. Hubby, Little Girl and I all loved the results! This is something I am DEFINITELY going to have to make again!!

I thought I was done for the month, then I decided to make one more type, this time using an actual local influence. As I said, I am near Philadelphia. I am also (relatively) close to Hershey. Yes, Hershey - as in Hershey's chocolate. So, yes, I made chocolate pierogi! There is very little out there that doesn't make me want to try a dessert version...!

I used the same Russian dough recipe, but added a little bit of sugar and a bit of cocoa powder. the resulting dough looked nice and chocolaty! For the filling I used Hershey Kisses. Yup, into each small circle of dough I placed a single Kiss. It was a little silly, but really quite fun!

Once sealed, I still did the double cooking process. Fried and crispy, these were tasty little morsels!! I guess they could have been served with whipped cream, or a fruit puree... But we just ate them straight! They were crispy on the outside, gooey and chocolaty on the inside... Well worth it!!

So thank you to LizG and Anula for this amazing challenge! Even knowing pierogi, you made me think about them in a whole new way, and it was so much fun! Thanks to you, pierogi will be reentering our family's regular rotation!

If you want to see the fun, creative and flavorful creations made by my fellow Daring Cooks, take a look here.

Blueberry Inspiration

2010-08-12T20:02:00.007-04:00

I don't know about you, but I get my cooking and baking inspiration from just about everywhere. I am one of those people who will look at a food item, recipe, picture, whatever, and pretty immediately start thinking "How would I make that?" Yesterday Little Girl and I took a trip up to my in-laws for lunch, swimming, and a LOT of love and fun. Despite the fact that this is family, and I knew that there would be plenty of food, I am just no good at showing up places empty handed. So I started thinking about what I could bring... My inspiration this time was the yummy pint of blueberries I had sitting in the fridge. I tried looking for some blueberry crumb cake recipes, but nothing really grabbed me. Then Aunty Twin reminded me of something she had made and posted recently: Blueberry Breakfast Cake. True, she made hers with strawberries, too, but it still looked pretty quick, easy and delicious. She even came over to help me bake and brought me the lemon I needed... What a sister!!

The biggest (intentional!) change I made was to use only brown sugar. You know me, I love the stuff...! I also used soy milk instead of "real," but that is par for the course for me, so I don't really consider that a change!

When I came time to make the streussal topping I also used brown sugar. I really had meant to follow the directions, but I did use a little too much margarine. So instead of having a crumb type topping I had a creamier topping that spread on almost like frosting... I wasn't worried, I was just curious how it would turn out!!

The cake smelled AMAZING while it was baking! All warm and berry-ish... I was really excited to cut into it...! Unfortunately for me, it would have to wait until we got to dessert the next day with the family!

As we were driving, I realized that the cake was "supposed" to have a powdered sugar drizzle on top of it. I had totally forgotten... I knew I could have asked my sister-in-law if she had some, but I decided that it wasn't worth it... (We didn't wind up missing it, so no big deal!!)

The cake turned out great. Moist, not too sweet, and the "crust" streussal topping was just fine! This is a great all-purpose cake - dessert, breakfast, snack... it would work for anything! So thanks, Aunty Twin!! You know I'll be looking to you for inspiration again!!

All quiet...

2010-08-09T20:41:00.003-04:00

...but not gone for good!
Sorry, things have been a little crazy, but hopefully I will get back to blogging soon. I promise, there has been crafting and cooking and baking... Hopefully I will get to the posting part, too!
Thanks for hanging in!

Daring to do it: Swiss Roll Bombe

2010-07-27T00:05:00.000-04:00

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

My first thought when I saw this month's Daring Baker's challenge was "WOAH..." followed very closely by "Ice cream? But I can't have ice cream!!" This looked absolutely amazing, fairly complex, and utterly horrible for the digestive tract of a lactose intolerant person like myself. At no point, though, did I think about skipping out on the challenge. I knew that there would be a way to make it work, as the recipes have to be adaptable for people with dietary restrictions. I know that there are vegan Daring Bakers who would come up with some amazing recipes, and that inspired me to give some extra thought to how I would pull this off....

One of the best parts of this challenge was the fact that Sunita, our wonderful hostess, was really open to having us play. She seemed interested in having us experiment with flavors, styles and combinations. We had to make a Swiss roll of some sort, two "ice creams," and a "fudge" sauce. Notice the quotes though- freedom was not only allowed but encouraged!

I first assumed that I would be making frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. This was just as intimidating a process, though, considering I do not have an ice cream maker... Lots of research on the internet ensued, leading to a bit of frustration, as so many recipes for both ice cream and frozen yogurt give you ingredients and a process, then instruct you to freeze according to the instructions on your machine. What to do...

I finally decided to attempt a dairy-free dessert (though not vegan, as I used eggs in the Swiss roll). Instead of chocolate and vanilla, my bombe would be strawberries and cream. Perfect for the season, and (hopefully) easily accomplished without milk...!

I started with the vanilla ice cream. I found a recipe for Fancy Pants Vanilla soy ice cream and adapted it for my own use. First off, I halved the recipe. Second, I used only soy milk, as I don't keep soy creamer around. Third, I used part brown sugar. Finally, I used corn starch instead of arrowroot, as, again, I don't keep arrowroot around. The ice cream base came together easily, and I was kind of excited to improvise my freezing process. I had put my bowl into the freezer, so I added the cooled mixture to an icy cold bowl. I then knew that I was going to have to mix the ice cream about every hour or so to try to keep it creamy. I think I wound up stirring and whisking my mixture three or four times before it was time to call it a night... I just had to hope this would work!

For my strawberry ice cream I used a recipe, or a vvariation of a recipe, that I kept seeing. A way to make ice cream quickly and easily. For this Five Minute Ice Cream I used silken tofu instead of cream, and I froze fresh strawberries instead of using store-bought frozen berries. Toss everything into the blender, give it a good whir, and there we were. I think I might not have let my strawberries freeze long enough, or I should have frozen the tofu a bit, because my mixture seemed a bit soft, but, again, I mixed it part-way through freezing and hoped for the best.

The next step to conquer was the Swiss roll. Because I was not making a chocolate roll as the given recipe was for, I decided to call upon something from my past. I called my mother and asked her for the recipe she used to use for jelly roll. The recipe came from the Kosher Gourmet cookbook, and it came out just as well as I had remembered from my childhood! I have no idea why we stopped making these, but I think it might just work it's way back into my dessert rotation!

The final element needed for this challenge was the fudge sauce. Sure, strawberries and chocolate go great together, but I wanted to keep this a purely strawberries and cream treat. So instead of fudge I made a strawberry jam/compote layer to put between the two ice creams. I needed a little more corn starch than anticipated to get my mixture to jell, but it did turn out, so all was just fine.

Finally, after making all of these elements, it was time to assemble the bombe! (Thankfully, I had given myself three days to accomplish everything, knowing that this was not a dessert to make day-of!!) Into my plastic wrap lined bowl went a layer of jelly roll slices. On top of that went the vanilla ice cream, then the whole thing went into the freezer.
The next morning I took the bowl out of the freezer and added the strawberry "fudge" layer. Then the whole thing went back into the freezer...! After a couple of hours I took the bowl back out of the freezer and added the strawberry ice cream. (I will note - my ice creams were... well, not creamy... I let them soften a little bit and then mixed them in my mixer for a couple of minutes each to try to lighten them us and break up the ice crystals.) Once the strawberry ice cream was on I used the remaining slices of the jelly roll to form a base for what would turn into the bottom of the bombe. The (finally) finished dessert then went back into the freezer, not to be touched again until it was time to eat it!!

Dessert time arrived, and it was time to unmold the bombe. I was really excited to see it plated - the swirls of the jelly roll were really inviting, and the hint of ice cream peaking through looked great!

Slicing into the cake, I knew that I would have to work on my ice cream recipes. It was hard. Even after letting the bombe sit out for a while and using a knife dipped in warm water, the ice creams were fairly, well, icy! But I was able to cut some good slices, and all of us really enjoyed eating them!!

All in all, this was a successful venture in many way. The jelly roll and the vanilla ice cream were GREAT. The strawberry "fudge" turned to ice, but tasted pretty good, and the strawberry ice cream, while not bad, didn't have as much flavor as I would have liked. But this was fun to make, and opened my eyes to the idea of making ice cream - dairy or not! - without an ice cream machine. I am already thinking of things I want to try so that next time I will get a better result consistency-wise.

Thank you so much, Sunita, for challenging us with such a complex, intricate and beautiful dessert! This was lot of fun to make, and was definitely a learning experience!

If you want to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Daring Bakers, take a look here!

International flair...

2010-07-19T20:17:00.005-04:00

Take a little bit of Mexican, a little bit of Italian, add in a Jewish-American cook, and you get a mixed up, but yummy meal! Tonight's dinner was a Mexican lasagna. Well, Mexican is probably an over-reach... Americanized version of Mexican...

One thing that had been a combination of fun and interesting recently is that Little Girl is now eating almost everything we are. This means that I am no longer making multiple meals every night of the week. It also means, though, that the meals I do make have to be a little on the blander side so as not to knock Little Girl's socks off. To that end the sauce I used for the "lasagna" was a combination of mild salsa and plain old diced tomatoes. I know that Little Girl isn't really a tomato fan anyway, but I wanted to be sure I wasn't making the whole dish too spicy.

I took the "lazy" route today and used store bought tortillas. I just didn't have it in me to make them from scratch. No, they weren't as good, but they worked well, saved me time and energy, and let Little Girl and me have a nice day playing with Auntie Twin and Little Miss, so it all worked out. I did decide also to add spinach into the lasagna. I happen to love spinach, as does Hubby. And I thought Little Girl did, too, but...

So I layered away - sauce, tortillas, spinach, a combination of black and kidney beans and shredded cheese. Then repeat. Top layer of tortillas was smothered with sauce and cheese, then the whole thing went into the oven to get nice and toasty.

Hubby and I loved the dish. Little Girl loved most of it. The tortillas, beans and cheese were a big hit. The tomatoes? Well, I knew those weren't a favorite, so I didn't push it. The spinach? At least three times she let me put some in her mouth and then promptly removed it. I was shocked! She had eaten - and enjoyed! - spinach before... Oh well... She is allowed to change her mind... I just hope she changes it back!!

Daring to do it: Nut Butters

2010-07-14T00:05:00.001-04:00

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

At first glance, this looks like a non-challenge. Especially for those of us with food processors. Nut butter? Great, you toss nuts in the processor, give it a whir and you're done. Where is the challenge? The challenge was to make savory recipes using the home made nut butter. That, I must say, was a TON of fun!

Instead of walking you through step-by-step like I normally do, I am just going to give you a little summary of the process and show you the pictures.

First was walnut butter, used to make a walnut-garlic sauce for pasta and veggies. Little Girl helped me make the walnut butter. She likes pushing buttons... I used the challenge recipe for inspiration but kind of winged it. In love garlic, but this was too garlicky for me. Maybe next time I will saute or roast the garlic to mellow it out. Using it raw, though, made it way too overpowering...

I also made cashew butter. Because I love cashews. I turned the cashew butter into a mock-Chinese dish. I used my recipe for General Tao's Tofu and turned it into sweet and sour cashew tofu. This was AMAZING! The cashew added a great flavor, and my best friend who won't eat tofu said she'd eat this again any time!!

This challenge was a ton of fun. While I knew that it wasn't hard to make nut butters, it never occurred to me to do so. I am so glad that I did! I might have to play with home made nut butters a lot more often! I also learned the difference between roasting the nuts and not. I used raw nuts for both of my recipes. Auntie Twin came over to make her nut butters (since she doesn't have a food processor) and roasted hers. We both used cashews, so we did a taste test... The difference was clear. I can't say one was better, but there was a clear difference....!

I would like very much to thank Margie and Natashya for a great, fun challenge! I loved the creativity and freedom, and really enjoyed seeing what my fellow Daring Cooks came up with!!

To see the recommended recipes from the challenge, take a look here.

Stinky but sweet

2010-07-09T19:49:00.005-04:00

This past weekend we were invited to a friend's home for dinner. To accompany her main dish, I offered to bring a focaccia. Normally I made focaccia by making my usual pizza crust dough, stretching it to the pan and sprinking the top with olive oil and salt. For this dinner, though, I decided to look around on line to see if I might find an actual focaccia recipe that would be just as easy to make. I was not disappointed! I found this recipe for Stinky Bread and had to give it a try! I love garlic to begin with, so I had a good feeling about this one...

Before I got started I had to look at the recipe carefully. It calls for a bread machine. I don't have one. I don't actually want one... My KitchenAid does a great job with the kneading, and I have no interest in baking loaves of bread that have big hook-holes through them. So I had to look over the ingredients and actually understand what order things would be added in, as I can't just dump thing into the machine and let it go. I started by proofing the yeast in warm, not room temperature, water. Once the yeast got foamy I added the olive oil, flour (I used one cup of whole wheat, three cups of AP and 3-4 Tbsp. of vital wheat gluten), salt and garlic. Instead of rosemary or Italian seasonings I added dried basil. Then the mixer did its thing. I love seeing dough come together so nicely... and not having to knead by hand!!

While the dough was rising I fretted a little bit about the fact that the garlic had gone in raw. I know the bread, as a whole, would be baked, but I was concerned that there would be some of the sharp raw-garlic taste left. Should I have roasted the garlic first? Even sauteed it? Well, you'll see...

The dough rose beautifully. I was glad to see that the seasonings were still visible, that they hadn't all congregated in the middle of the dough or anything. I was sure this meant that the finished bread would look great with the basil and garlic speckled through!

The dough was then spread into an oiled and corn-mealed pan, left to rest again, spread with more olive oil and salt, then baked. The apartment smelled AMAZING. The garlic was clearly roasting, the oil even smelled good!

The resulting focaccia was crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, and flavored so well. The garlic was not overpowering, the basil was just sort of a hint... We all loved it. So much so, in fact, that I made a second loaf of it two days later when friends came for lunch!

So stinky as it might be, this is an amazing recipe, and a definite keeper!!

A crafty mom's latest adventure...

2010-07-01T19:25:00.002-04:00

The book club it up!

You might have noticed that I tabbed a new page, hinting at some sort of reading group... Well, the wait is over! Introducing The Crafty Book Club! We'll be reading picture books and sharing our thoughts, crafts and more! Every month, on the 1st and 15th of the month, a new book will be announced, along with some ideas Little Girl and I have tried out to extend the fun from the story. It is a pipe dream of mine to turn this into an actual forum, and to add books for children of all ages... If this idea picks up, and I learn a thing or two computer-wise about how to run the forum set-up, then it might actually happen...!

But for now, picture books abound! If you have kids, if you babysit, if you play with a friend's kids, if you have nieces or nephews... Come read along and craft along! The more the merrier! Nothing makes a book book better than sharing it with friends!

Power Outage Pizza

2010-06-30T19:25:00.006-04:00

Last Thursday we had a major storm in our area. I was expecting the thunder and lightning, but not everything that came with it! Hail, 70 (or greater) mile-per-hour winds... even some tornado spottings... Wow, The destruction was pretty major here by our apartment complex. Downed trees, downed power lines, downed telephone poles... One tree fell right onto the swing-set, completely crushing the sliding board. In all of this, our power got knocked out. Unfortunately, no electricity makes it rather hard to cook or bake...

The storm hit just as I was trying to get Little Girl to take a nap, so I couldn't look out of the window to see what all was going on. While I gave her some time to settle down, I decided to try a new recipe for whole wheat pizza crust. Just as the mixer was finishing up the kneading process, that was when the power died. Ok, I figured, I can just knead by hand for a few minutes, and then when the power comes back on in a couple of hours I will still be able to make dinner as planned. With the flash of my camera, I was able to see that I had a well risen dough, which was exciting to me.

But the power didn't come back. Around 5:15 pm Little Girl and I ventured out of our apartment and were amazed. There were trees and branches everywhere. We even saw a helicopter flying above us. When Hubby got home it was via a circuitous route, as the police had blocked off the road and he couldn't get into the parking lot... So my whole wheat crust was not going to get baked that night... I did a very quick opening of the fridge to put the bowl inside, hoping that the residual cool would help keep the dough ok, and hoping that the electricity would be back the next day...

It didn't come back on Friday. By midday it was clear that power wouldn't be back any time soon, so we packed up and went to my in-laws' house. I have to tell you, we are SO lucky to have such an amazing family! Unfortunately, though, when Hubby packed up the food from the fridge to bring, he forgot the bowl of dough. On the counter. Oops. (Totally understandable how it happened, I was surprised he even thought to bring it!) We got home on Sunday to a bowl of dough that looked like this:I think I could have played Frisbee with the top part. And when I lifted the "lid" I was greeted with quite a smell. I thought it smelled like beer. Kind of over fermented beer... So I have no clue how this dough would have come out...

Hopefully I get the chance to try this recipe again really soon. And hopefully, when I do, the weather will cooperate and I will get to eat it!

As a side note, we did have pizza for dinner last Thursday night... But not home-made... Thankfully the pizza place up the street still had power.

Daring to do it: Chocolate Pavlovas

2010-06-27T00:05:00.001-04:00

***UPDATED!!! PICTURES ARE NOW INCLUDED!! Thanks for your patience... And thanks to the electric company for working around the clock to get us back up and running...***

**Due to some incredibly wacky weather, I am writing this post from my in-laws' home. We have no electricity, and won't be getting it back until after the challenge post date. So I am posting my Daring Baker's experience now, but pictures won't be added until I can work from my home computer again. I know, it isn't nearly as interesting without the photos, but this is the best I can do for now...**

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

I had actually heard of pavlovas before this challenge was posted - we make them for dessert during Passover sometimes, as the meringue crust is a great no-flour recipe. What I am used to is a meringue shell topped with yummy fresh berried and drizzled with melted chocolate. This recipe looked to be a bit more complex than that! I was a little concerned at first, as this is a very dairy recipe, I don't keep any sort of liquors in the house (neither Hubby nor I drinks it, so why have it?), and also because mascarpone cheese tends to be on the pricey side. Even with all of that in mind, though, I was determined to find a way to make this work!!
My first challenge, yet again, was finding an excuse to make this much dessert! Much as I love these challenges, they really are designed to make enough food to feed more than just two people... Well, it was still playoff time for hockey, and the Flyers were heading to the Stanley Cup final, so I invited a friend over and had my excuse. Of course, you know, I then had to turn this into a Flyers themed dessert... (See? The pictures will make this make a LOT more sense!!)
I started with the meringue, as it needed a long time in the oven to dry out, and could then spend time cooling so the mouse topping wouldn't melt. Making meringue isn't that hard, you just have to know what you are doing. Separate the eggs carefully, and whip those whites senseless! In order to make this a Flyers dessert, I transferred the meringue to a piping bag and made Flyers logos out of it. I had some success with the shape, not as much with consistent sizing... It worked out nicely in the end though!!

While the meringue baked I worked on the chocolate mascarpone mouse. Mascarpone cheese is pricey, though, and I wasn't willing to spend $15 on just the one ingredient to get as much as the recipe called for. I bought one 8 ounce tub and substituted for the rest. My substitution? Drained yogurt. I had gotten some full fat plain yogurt to give to Little Girl, but she wasn't so into it. So I had a lot of yogurt left... I strained it through a towel over a colander, and what was left was a thick, creamy, yummy "cheese" (or Greek yogurt, I guess...) that seemed perfect for this recipe! I also used soy milk instead of either whole milk or cream. While this wouldn't be a dairy free dish, I felt better using soy... The mouse came together pretty easily. I was a little concerned about the lack of sweetness, as there is no sugar added, just whatever is in the deep dark chocolate, and I wasn't using Grand Marnier to jazz up the flavor, but combined with the mascarpone, yogurt and soy milk, the mouse was really good - Hubby wanted to stick his face in it...!

Finally it was time for the mascarpone cream. I had never made creme anglaise before, but I have wanted to. This was a nice excuse to do it! It was also a good way to use the egg yolks leftover from making the meringue!! Yet again, I used soy milk as my dairy. While it took a while for the sauce to thicken, it wasn't hard to do. I think using soy milk, which is thinner than whole milk or cream, was the reason for the extra time. I think, if I make this dessert again, I will leave the creme anglais as it is for the sauce. I am not saying that the mascarpone/yogurt added to it wasn't good, it absolutely was! It is just that there is so much richness to this dessert already that it would stand up well to the "lighter" sauce! (I actually had no idea what Sambucca tasted like until I asked Hubby, and then I was actually glad I didn't have any interest in using it!)

All three components made, it was time to assemble everything. I actually chose to use the mascarpone cream as a base for the dessert, not just as a drizzle on top. So there was a layer (or lake...) of cream, then the meringue, then the mouse, followed by a little more cream. This was SO good! While I added some fresh fruit, it wasn't actually necessary. The crispy meringue matched with the cool, creamy mouse so well, and the creme anglaise sauce was just so refreshing! We all enjoyed this thoroughly, and were pretty much licking our plates at the end!!

Thank you so much, Dawn, for such an amazing challenge! Each element alone was fabulous, and together it was out of this world!!
If you would like to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with for this challenge, take a look here!

A crumby dinner

2010-06-23T19:20:00.008-04:00

As you know, I have been baking a lot of bread over the past few months. Clearly, I love it. Even so, there is only so much I can eat...! So there have been some partial loaves of challah left unfinished which I did not want to see going to waste. So I put them into the freezer, awaiting inspiration. Usually, this is the stuff of great French toast. But I had different plans for these lonely challah halves. I wanted to use them to make breadcrumbs. Yes, breadcrumbs. No, they aren't fancy, heck they aren't even that creative! But I don't tend to keep them in the house, since I don't use them all that often. But every now and then they pop up in a recipe, so I thought that some day I might want to have breadcrumbs hands. As it turned out, today was the day.

Thanks to my handy food processor, the breadcrumbs were SO easy to make. I really don't foresee buying them. Ever. Why let them sit around forever when I can make them fresh when I want them?! I started by toasting up my frozen bread. I just tossed the loaves onto a foil covered sheet pan and popped them into a 350 degree oven for... well, for a while. After about 15 minutes or so I turned the oven off but left the bread in to let it dry out a bit more. It worked well! Next it was into the food processor for a spin. I did wind up having to do this in batches, as I had too much bread and I wanted somewhat uniform crumbs, but that was (clearly) not a problem. And, thankfully, this food processor is quieter than my little one, so I was able to do this while Little Girl napped.

So there I had it. Freshly made breadcrumbs, ready to be seasoned (or not) as I might want, and used however I saw fit! And how did I see fit? The weekly meal plan told me that macaroni and cheese was to be dinner this evening, and while I never usually use a breadcrumb topping, this was my opportunity! Little Girl helped me season the breadcrumbs with pepper, basil, ground mustard and shredded cheese to match the seasonings in the cheese sauce. Then the topping was sprinkled over the casserole and the whole thing was baked to gooey, crispy doneness. I can see why this crispy, crunchy topping is traditional in home made macaroni and cheese... It was really yummy, and the texture was really good with the soft pasta! I think I will be doing this again!!

Weekend bread baking

2010-06-20T19:55:00.005-04:00

It would appear that I have not made challah in quite some time... and that is sort of true. For a while I was working on the frozen loaves in the freezer, and then there were a few weekends when Little Girl and I, or all three of us, were away. But this weekend we were all home for Shabbat dinner, so I wanted to have bread for the blessings. Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead enough to make challah dough early in the day. So I needed something that would be a little quicker, and a little less labor intensive. I decided on rolls. Because preportioned loaves of bread sounded better to me than big loaves that might not get eaten quickly enough! I found this recipe, which looked easy, yummy, and used some whole wheat flour, which I really like.

The dough came together nicely, even though I thought my water was too warm and the yeast would be killed, it rose beautifully! I was excited to get my hands in there... then I thought, hey! Little Girl can play, too! I have always included Little Girl in my kitchen activities, but usually more as an observer or mimicker with her own set of utensils. This time I was brave enough to let her handle the real stuff! After a quick sanitizing of her tray and the table, and a thorough wiping of her hands, I was ready to see what she would do with nice, soft, warm bread dough. Turns out, she had a great time! Of course, she is only one, I knew there would be a certain amount of dough going into her mouth. Maybe I should be more paranoid, but I was more curious as to how she would react to the raw taste than how to keep her from eating it! It was a lot of fun to see her pat, smoosh and squish the dough. I can't wait to do this with her again!!

The bread turned out really well. I had enough dough to make seven fairly large rolls, one small braided loaf (it was for Shabbat, after all!), and six cinnamon-brown sugar cloverleaf rolls. Plus whatever Little Girl managed to eat! They browned up beautifully, and were incredibly soft, especially for whole wheat bread not using any bread flour! They made a great accompaniment for our Friday night dinner, and were a great addition to the Father's Day barbecue with Hubby's family. See what happens when Little Girl helps out? Lots of success!!

Little Girl, Big Help!

2010-06-17T20:13:00.005-04:00

I know I haven't been posting a lot recently... Sorry about that! Little Girl is getting so active, sometimes it is hard to find the time! She has also developed a love for the camera such that any time I try to get a picture of her doing something crafty, she stops and comes to investigate... We'll see how that goes as time goes on...! We are working on a few new projects together, so hopefully you'll be hearing all about that soon enough!

So today was a somewhat busy day. Little Girl loves to help out with whatever is going on around her, which is a lot of fun. She and I visited Daddy (Hubby...) at work today, and she even got to help out there! Daddy's coworkers love it when she comes in, and I think they appreciate her efforts to keep things in the office moving along! She did great answering calls, sending e-mails, and, best of all, keeping up morale!

Little Girl also knows how to help around the house! I have noticed that one of her favorite "toys" right now is a dust-pan and brush. She does a great job of sweeping up, now I just need to teach her to throw the dirt into the trash instead of back onto the floor! Today's job was a quick wet mop of the kitchen floor. She was more than happy to supervise, assist, and inspect, making sure that Mommy's work was up to par!

We really are lucky to have such an amazing helper around. She absolutely makes everyday more fun, and we love to see what she'll come up with next!