Daring to do it: Cabbage Rolls

Sorry for the long silence.  I am finally back to the challenges - making them, not just editing them!!
I am also sorry that I am having a hard time getting the pictures in here.  I used my phone instead of my camera, and I guess I don't really know the right way to transfer the files..!  I will keep trying!

December’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge had us on a roll! Olga from http://www.effortnesslessly.blogspot.com/ challenged us to make stuffed cabbage rolls using her Ukrainian heritage to inspire us. Filled with meat, fish or vegetables, flexibility and creativity were the name of the game to get us rolling!

Olga's recipes looked amazing.  And the pictures she took were out of this world.  I don't think I have ever had stuffed cabbage before and I was almost drooling wanting to make these!  But with time being what it is, and with now working full time, I wasn't sure when I was going to get this done.  Then came the brain - I have a slow cooker!  I found this recipe for slow cooker stuffed cabbage and knew I had it set.  (Bonus - I also had a snow day on Tuesday, so extra time to work with!  Yay!) I did make a few changes, as usual...  I used beans instead of mushrooms, and I used yellow squash in the filling.  I also omitted the cheese...
I don't have pictures of the process, but while I was separating out the cabbage leaves I had the thought that I must have been a Daring Cook for too long if I think pealing off cabbage leaves is fun...!  It was really neat to see the leaves come apart so smoothly!
Thanks to Olga's great explanation and pictures, rolling the cabbage was not nearly as hard as I feared it might be.  And, by using the slow cooker, I could do all of my prep work the day before, then just set the crock pot in the morning.  It was great!!

Hubby and I really liked the rolls.  Big Girl wasn't a fan, but she has become quite a picky eater these days, so she says she doesn't like dinner about three nights each week.  Little Girl liked it, which was nice.  I brought leftovers into work the next day, and my teaching cohort and I inhaled them.  These are better the next day...!  And the day after, if there is anything left!

Thank you, Olga, for such a wonderful challenge, and for all of your patience and support!!
Take a look here to see what my fellow Cooks created this month!!

Tribute to the Queen of All Daring Bakers, Lis

I am very sorry to be writing this post.  It is going to be kind of rambling, stream of conscience, bumbling along...

One of the reasons  I started this blog was so that I could join the Daring Kitchen.  I remember sending in my request to join and waiting for a response.  Would I be accepted into this community of talented cooks, bakers and bloggers?  After what felt like forever I called my sister and asked her how long it should take to get a response.  She told me to e-mail Lis, the co-creator of the forum, to make sure my request went through.  A day or so later I got an e-mail back welcoming me warmly to the Kitchen.  For the past three and a half years I have been cooking and baking with an amazing group of people from around the world.  I am even lucky enough to have become friends with some of these people in the "real" world.
I always looked forward to my dealings with Lis.  Her personality came shining through, and she always made me feel special.  We have teased for the last two years about finally getting together to meet - and eat!!
On Tuesday of this week, Lis died suddenly.  I never got to meet her.  I never knew how much it could hurt to lose someone I didn't even really know.  She and I had just been e-mailing over the weekend.  She was getting ready for back surgery, and was looking forward to the improvement in her quality of life.  She had asked my sister and me to help with some of the Daring Kitchen responsibilities while she recovered.  This was a daunting task, and one I was honored to be asked to help with.  But I knew Lis would be there to guide me, and laugh at and with me...
I keep thinking that I will wake up and this will be some sort of twisted dream.  Lis inspired so many people.  She helped create more than an on-line forum, but a real community.  We have shared joys and sorrows together with other members.  But this one hits in a different way.
I have started and deleted so many sentences while writing this post.  What words are there?  I know, I never met Lis. Heck, I only really learned her last name this week in learning of her passing.  But I still consider her a friend.  A woman full of life, love, energy, creativity and humor.  Any time a person is taken too soon is a tragedy.  But this one feels so wrong. 
To say that Lis will be missed would be like saying that there are a couple of stars in the sky.  Lis's presence was felt every day around the world.   
I wish so much that this post, and the many like it being posted today, were never needed.  I wish Lis's heart had been as strong as it was big and loving.  I wish a lot of things.
I wish love, comfort and peace for Lis's family.
Lis - wherever you are - you are loved.  You truly are the most Daring of us all.

#tributetolis #daringbakers

Daring to do it: Sopa Castellana

Thank you to Begona for this wonderful challenge.  Sorry for the short post which does not do justice to this host or this dish.

Our November Daring Cooks’ hostess was Begoña, who writes the beautiful blog, Las recetas de Marichu y las mías. Begoña is from Spain and didn’t want to go with the more common challenges of paella or gazpacho, she wanted to share with us another very popular recipe from Spain that we don’t see as often called Sopa Castellana which is a delicious bread soup!

Colder days call for soup.  This one fit the bill amazingly.  I made a vegetarian version based on the recipe I found here.
Home-made veggie stock, home-made sourdough bread, add in an egg or two, and an amazing dinner was had by all!



Take a look at what my fellow Daring Cooks created this month.

Daring to do it: Savory Pot Pie

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was nothing new to me, but was so super amazing.  It was the return of a favorite dish which I had sadly not thought of in way too long...

Hannah of Rise and Shine was our October 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she challenged us to bake our own double crusted savory pot pies. Using any from-scratch crust and filling we choose, we were allowed to get completely creative with our recipe, showing off the savory flavors and fillings from our own home or region.

I love pot pie.  I mean, really, I love a flaky pie crust, so how can you go wrong with a dinner stuffing into one, or two, of them?!  I used to make pot pies pretty regularly.  I remember doing it in the apartment where Hubby and I used to live.  I don't remember making one, though, in the last four or so years.  WAY too long! 
I was all set to make my vegetarian for dinner last Friday night.  On Thursday night I set the tofu pressing, I made the triple batch of crust dough, I had it all set up so that when I came home from work I would chop and saute the veggies, make the gravy and bake it all up.  Then life laughed at me.  I had a little knife oops at work (I know, I am in a preschool with one-year olds, how can that be where I oops with a knife?!) and wound up with two stitches in my hand.  And a husband not letting me use a knife for a few days!
But I finally got the pie made, and man was it worth the wait!
Crust bottom, rolled out and ready:

The filling -  onion, carrot, celery, zucchini, broccoli, garlic, tofu and white beans, and the veggie gravy on top:

Into the crust it goes:

(Sorry - I have no idea why these two pictures are oriented strangely!)
Covered and vented:

Baked up golden, crispy and yummy:

Flaky crust, tender filling:

 I loved this challenge.  I am so happy to have pot pies back in my life!  This is definitely going back into the meal plan rotation!
Hannah gave us some amazing recipe options in her challenge.  I am really interesting in the Mediterranean Pizza Pot Pie!!
Thank you, Hannah, for reminding me how amazing pot pies are!  I loved every minute of the challenge.  And, next time, no stitches to hold me back!!
See what my fellow Daring Bakers made this month, and please treat yourself to a pot pie of your own!!

Surprise! Quickbread

I don't know about you, but I don't necessarily put the word "sourdough" and "quick" together.  So when I saw that this month's project for Sourdough Surprises was sourdough quick breads, I giggled at the oxymoron, then drooled over the tasty possibilities. 
And then I waited.  I am not sure what I waited for...  time? inspiration? energy?  Well,  I waited a bit long.  I made my quick bread today.  On posing day.  But it still counts, right?!  I made Cinnamon Sourdough Muffins.  But I made them it as a loaf instead of muffins.  Because I wasn' patient enough to deal with the muffin tins!  (Pretty much the same general reason why I make cookie bars instead of cookies!)
I actually started last night with the starter mixture.  Equal parts starter and flour.  Eve is a pretty wet starter, but even after an overnight, my mixture seemed pretty thick:

Then I added in (most of) the other ingredients - egg, brown sugar (instead of honey), salt, vanilla, oil, cinnamon.  I wasn't so worried about how thick it was anymore!

When these two mixtures were well combined it was time to add the magic - baking soda!  Just look at those bubbles:

Before baking I decided to add a layer of cinnamon sugar to the top of my loaf, because how can more cinnamon hurt a cinnamon bread?

Out of the oven and cooling, this smelled amazing:

Sliced and ready to taste:

Really good.  I kept nibbling at this until I had to leave the house this morning.  Even my four year old, who doesn't love sourdough as much as I do, was asking for seconds.  This was an awesome treat!!
Check out what my fellow sourdough friends made this month, you are sure to find something to tempt your tummy!

Daring to do it: Tres Leches Cake

***Somehow, partway throgh writing this post, I lost the ability to add pictures.  I am going to try to fix this!!***

Is it just me or did this month go by really quickly?  With so much going on I kind of lost track, and didn't realize it was Daring Bakers' reveal day already!  Luckily I remembered with enough time for this month's challenge.

Inma of la Galletika was our Sept. 2013 Daring Bakers’ hostess and WOW did she bring us something decadent and delicious! Pastel de Tres Leches or Three Milk Cake, creamy yet airy, super moist but not soggy.. just plain delish!

Tres Leches?  Really?  I mean, I have heard of this before, and it always sounded amazing, tempting and decadent, but in my house?  With me being lactose intolerant and Little Girl's milk allergy?  I knew there had to be a way to make this, I just wasn't sure how it would turn out.  Inma was great, and had links to several delicious looking vegan options in her challenge.  I decided to use her recipe for the sponge and play with the milks for the soaking liquid, using a few of the suggested recipes as guides.
In conventional Tres Leches cake, the three milks are sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream.  (I know, this is not a cake for the light, low fat crowd!)  None of those would work for me.  But I still wanted three milks.  So I used home-made sweetened condensed coconut milk, vanilla soy milk and chocolate soy milk.  (Ok, so I am sort of cheating by calling it three milks, as two are soy, but...) 
I could write a separate post about making the condensed coconut milk.  It is not hard, but it takes monitoring.  Which is challenging with active kiddos running around.  And friends arriving for a playdate.  So, of course, a bit of a mess was made.

Oops.  Despite the mess, and the loss of a bunch of the coconut milk, I did end up with about 2/3 cup of thick, sweet, non-dairy goodness to use.


Once the sponge cake was made and cooled, and the three milks were combined together it is time to make tres leches magic.  The drenched in the milks and allowed to soak.  Most recipes indicate that this should be a LONG (read, 24 hour) soak.  I didn't have that kind of time.  So it was a five hour soak.

The assembled cake is supposed to be "frosted" with freshly whipped cream.  I made a common vegan alternative - whipped coconut milk.  Of course, I did add cocoa powder to up the chocolate.  And I added chocolate chips in assembly. Because, hey - chocolate chips!

The final cake was kind of magical:

I was worried, especially with the shortened soak time, that the cake would be soggy.  Instead it was creamy, light and smooth.  I was amazed.

The coconut flavor was a bit strong for my girls, but Hubby and I enjoyed it a lot.  I am already thinking of playing with the recipe and making a coconut free version for next weekend...  I would call that a success!

Thank you, Inma, for a wonderful challenge.  One day maybe I will try the "real" tres leches cake to see how this version stacks up, but for now I will be happy to drool over the amazing work of my fellow Daring Bakers!

Daring to do it: Gnocchi

Just a really quick post for this month's Daring Cook's Challenge.  This reveal day happens to fall on Yom Kippur - a fast day in Jewish culture.  So a long food post is not exactly going to help me!

Todd, who is The Daring Kitchen’s AWESOME webmaster and an amazing cook, is our September Daring Cooks’ host! Todd challenged us to make light and fluffy potato Gnocchi and encouraged us to flavor the lil pillows of goodness and go wild with a sauce to top them with!

I love potatoes, I love gnocchi, I really thought I would do a lot of variations of this challenge.  I made gnocchi once this month.  Oops.  But I really liked it, and I want to make it again...!

"Ricing" the baked potatoes:

Mixing up the dough:

Shaping the gnocchi:

Trying to get the shape and lines on there:

Cooked, served with sauteed spinach and onion and lots of cheese:

Thank you,Todd, for a yummy challenge!
Here's what the other Daring Cooks created!