March22012
We like breakfast at our house. Lots. It’s a staple for dinner at least every other week. But what we have varies greatly. For our wedding we got a Barnyard Waffler. That was an obsession for a while. It will be again…especially once Arthur’s old enough to care. (Waffles in the shape of cows, pigs, chickens and barns…what little boy wouldn’t love those?!) After that…we moved on to delicious varieties of pancakes… I’m not sure we’re done with those actually. But, we took a break, just this once. I gave Charlie the option of Chai Pancakes (someday…) or the Creme Brulee French Toast. As you can already see his choice, I won’t trouble you with his answer.
http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/01/overnight-creme-brulee-french-toast.html
It.was.delicious. Also, it used a small bit more of that corn syrup that’s now lying around after my marshmallow escapade.
Only note on this one, I only let it sit for an hour and the fridge and it was still excellent. Not sure that it would really be improved by waiting overnight…just may suit your breakfast needs better.
Oh…and I may have made some bacon in the oven. Cooked for the same amount of time as the French toast…and cleanup was easy. Only problem: Not all the bacon in the package fit on the tray. Ah well.
February292012
These. Were. Tasty.
Also, I do realize they’re upside down…they just lay in the pan better this way.
These graced the cover of The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Weekends…so I went on a mad search through the book to find the recipe. Found it. The hens happened to be on sale as I was reading the recipe. Therefore, we had hens. You should too. So. Good. And their sauce was just outstanding.
And, if you manage to not finish them the first night, may I recommend making little foil packets for them, and pouring the sauce over them…and then reheating them in a 350* oven? Excellent.
And just to be sure you remember what it is you’re making:
February272012
I’ve been wanting to make marshmallows for a while, but I kept getting hung up on one ingredient: corn syrup. It’s bad. It’s just so bad. No one wants to use it…and if you do, you’re apparently going to be banished to, well, I don’t know where, but you surely won’t like it. Or so it seems. I just didn’t want it in my house. And what else am I going to do with it? (I still haven’t figured that much out.) Finally I caved. I searched high and low and found very few recipes without corn syrup. And if they didn’t use that, they used something similar.
Then, the corn syrup sat in the cupboard. And I didn’t make marshmallows.
But…we ran out of brandy whipped cream. And I think pinterest introduced me to someone making Bailey’s marshmallows. Bailey’s. Marshmallows. Whoa. WHOA!
We’re out of Bailey’s. :(
Wait, you say the original recipe was for beer marshmallows?! And, do I recall correctly that we still have beer-that-shall-not-be-named-for-lack-of-quality in our fridge? We do? Well…beer marshmallows it is! (Only later did it occur to me how icky beer and marshmallows sound together. Ah well. Put them in some hot chocolate and you won’t care.)
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/05/chocolate-covered-beer-marshmallows/
Her recipe’s great. But I didn’t have a candy thermometer…so I looked it up, and you want the sugar mixture to get up to 240*, which is Firm Ball. This means that when you drip some of the hot sugar mixture into cold water, it forms a ball that will not flatten unless pressed. I tried it, and it worked. Good luck!
And just for kicks, check out the beer and gelatin mixture:
February242012
I make many good foods. Not trying to be boastful, but just helping to illustrate the things I am bad at. Frozen pizza. That’s a big one. Another: baked potatoes. No idea why. Shouldn’t be a problem, but they never turn out well. Ever. So, Charlie requested baked potatoes with the Slow Roasted Pork. Lovely. Also, the temperature is supposed to change several times throughout that roasting. So, along with the fact that I stink at making baked potatoes, I’d have to account for those temperature changes. Sure. Ok. That’ll happen. And then I remembered… Baked potatoes can supposedly be made in a crock pot. Hm.
I have a crock pot. I don’t use it often. I don’t really like it. It makes me feel lazy. And besides, I don’t like my food to mix. But there are occasions where it’s useful. I figured, what have I got to lose. My baked potatoes in the oven are sure disasters, so why not try them in the crockpot. It’s not like they’ll be a larger disaster there. (Secretly hoping they’ll explode inside it. Wouldn’t that be fun!?)
Turns out, they worked. Better (for me at least) than in the oven. Hm. Great! (I suppose.)
Here’s how it’s done: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/01/crockpot-baked-potatoes_28.html
February222012
If I haven’t mentioned it (I surely have), my sister got me The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Weekends for Christmas. Excellent gift. Very excellent. Very delicious. Mmm… There will be more posts from there. And actually, there should have been already, but it appears I forgot. Ah well, you’ll have to wait in breathless anticipation.
Until then, drool over this:
I followed the recipe as the book states, no tweaking (surprisingly). But, I did add the asparagus to the pan as well to cook in the glaze. Charlie approved. Arthur liked to play with the asparagus…but he LOVED the pork. I think it may be his new favorite food. Well, that and peanut butter. But at least I can take credit for making this one. The peanut butter, not so much.
February202012
There’s more to this post than you see here…but you’ll have to wait a few months to hear the rest. The part I can say now is that I was driving home from work recently and it occurred to me that I have crystallized ginger at home that I purchased at Penzeys around Christmas. And I’ve looked up how to make it. Seems pretty simple. Then…I realized we had cherries at home. And we neglect to eat them all sometimes. What if I crystallized them?
Upon arriving home, I did a quick internet search. Didn’t find much. But heck, if you can crystallize ginger, why not cherries? Huh? Why not?
Well, I can’t tell you why not. Because I did. And they worked. Yea!
PS: The leftover syrup is yummy in coffee.
Oh, and making them. Here’s how.
Pit and quarter your cherries.
Add equal parts sugar and water to a pot. (I believe I did 1 cup of each, with 1/4 cup of cherries)
Boil the water and sugar.
When boiling, add the cherries.
Keep them on the heat until the syrup is thick and purplely. (It will try very hard to boil over, so you’ll have to watch it closely.)
Remove the cherries with a slotted spoon. I cooled them on waxed paper and poured the syrup into a jar. I hear you can add it to soda (Cherry 7up, Cherry Coke… I do wish to try, but haven’t yet.)
After the cherries are cool, roll them in sugar.
The end.
February172012
Pinterest.
Does anything more need to be said?
Not really, but I will anyway.
So here goes. Pinterest is covered with a wide variety of deliciousness of any and every sort imaginable. As far as I can tell, there are about 10 people ever who have made the food pictured and the rest just drool over the pictures and save them to oogle at a later date. I, on the other hand, am the origin of very, very few…but do like to make use of them.
This is one such occasion.
The gorgeous picture led me here. http://www.eatmedelicious.com/2007/12/snickerdoodle-muffins.html
I was thrilled to make them, and then found out I was out of salted butter, and cream of tartar…and sour cream.
Did that stop me?
Heck. no.
Thank you to http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html which I have now bookmarked, for all sorts of substitutions.
Unsalted butter instead of salted.
Lemon juice instead of cream of tartar
and buttermilk (aka, milk and vinegar) instead of sour cream.
Voila! Delicious muffins WITHOUT a trip to the grocery store. Hooray!
February152012
Who knows why I made these? I think I just wanted something sweet…and we still had some brandy whipped cream lying around. What’s a girl to do? (Hah hah… Sorry, Bat for Lashes…anyway…) I found the recipe in the Penzey’s Fall 2010 catalog. They were tasty.
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk (which I NEVER have around, so I always use milk and 1 tbsp cider vinegar. Works like a charm every time.)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Oh…and I added 1/4 tsp ground ginger. Because ginger and chocolate are tasty.
(It calls for a frosting, but I didn’t use it…so I’m not including it.)
Preheat oven to 350*. Grease a 10x15 rimmed pan or 9x13 pan (for more cakelike brownies) {I used the 9x13…because it’s what I had.} and set aside. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a medium-large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the cocoa and water and stir well to combine. When the mixture starts boiling, remove from heat, pour over the dry ingredients and stir. Add the buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into the pan and bake for 18-20 minutes, 25 if baked in a 9x13 pan.
February132012
Charlie’s next request after the soup was chili, chicken chili. Searched around Pinch of Yum (favorite!) and found http://pinchofyum.com/smoky-white-bean-chili-with-pork Sounded good, but needed chicken instead… So I worked that part out on my own. Her recipe covers everything, but below are my changes:
Instead of the 1lb of ground pork sausage, you’ll need 2 chicken breasts.
Instead of the chili powder, I used 1 tsp of Ancho and 1 tsp of Cayenne.
For the chicken, I heated a frying pan, added the chicken and sprinkled the top side with cumin, paprika, cayenne, Ancho, black pepper and garlic salt.
Flipped the chicken, sprinkled the top with the same spices.
Added 1 1/2 tsp butter-made sure each side had a light coating and then added 1/4 cup chicken broth, kept cooking, covered.
Then left to cool covered and in liquid, shredded chicken and poured the liquid over it.
