Updates

There have been a few new recipes we've tried, and when I've had time, I've posted one out of four over at Barefoot in the Kitchen.

Go there for a plethora of yummy ideas!!

Checking In...

Bathtime 4
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

I know I haven't posted here in a long time...I've been a little busy. :) I hope to have more recipes to try, and more time to try them, in the near future as the days get shorter and the oven begins to do double duty as a way to heat the house!

Hot Chocolate?

Whipped whites
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

Pudding with Whipped Cream?

Go here to find out what this is (and how to get some for yourself...)!

The Gourmet Pregnancy

It was a well-balanced meal: tons of vegetables, dairy, starch, protein, and even a little bit of a spicy zing!

Corn, spinach, cheese, yogurt, tortilla, tomatillo, onion, garlic, butter, brown sugar, salt, jalapeno...

Who am I trying to kid? We had homemade kettle corn (corn, butter, brown sugar and salt), cheese-and-spinach quesadillas (cheese, spinach, tortillas and Greek yogurt, which is an excellent substitute for sour cream when you've run out) and salsa verde (tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapeno).

Matt will probably never again say "Whatever you feel like" when I ask what we should have for dinner.

:)

It's the Little Things

Gentle Farmer and his glamorous wife came to visit us this weekend. He taught me to make a pie crust. I actually made one all by myself! I think it's probably time to come out with the long awaited (by some) story of the Flying Pie Crust of Rage.

Just need to line up some ducks, first.
Stay tuned...

A New Resource

For as long as I have been baking, my cookies have been coming out flat and crunchy, and not at all like the moist, chewy goodnesses you get at the open air markets or the coffee shop. Then I found this.

And I made the Alexis' Brown Sugar Cookies, halving the vanilla extract and replacing it with almond extract. And they are HEAVENLY, and there is only one left now, so I might be making more chocolate chip cookies tomorrow...

The Leftover Pasta of Summer

It's all in the presentation
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

I made dinner from leftovers last night. (And ate THOSE leftovers for lunch today!)

I had some extra steamed asparagus, a few cherry tomatoes going soft, fresh baby carrots (REAL baby carrots: just the tiny ones, fresh out of the ground, not the ones you get in a bag that have been miniaturized with an awl, or something...) fresh radishes, a bit of leftover radicchio and some other greens.

I heated some water for pasta, while I grabbed the rest of a bag of TJoe's frozen shrimp out of the freezer (a weakness of Matt's), and put it in a bowl of cool water. Added some butter and about a half cup of white wine to the shrimp in a pan, and let it simmer for a few minutes, while angelhair pasta boiled away in the pot of water. Drained the pasta, transferred it to another pan and added a pat of butter, the asparagus (cut up) and the tomatoes (halved). Stirred it around a bit, just until the asparagus and tomatoes were no longer cold, and then plated it up with the shrimp over all.

Sliced a few carrots and radishes, sprinkled them over the radicchio and greens, and called it dinner!

Pie-Brain

So, I've been eating these delicious peaches I got at the Farmer's Market on Monday (note to self, ask Matt about his client with the peach trees, ie, HOW'RE THOSE PEACHES COMIN' ALONG??), and since I still have pie-in-my-mind, I think I'm going to go to the one after Mass tomorrow morning and get a bunch more, and make a PEACH PIE. And then probably eat the whole thing myself.

Here's hoping it's not too hot tomorrow, since I'd also like to make banana muffins again. Not for us, for some people hosting a dinner party tomorrow night. If there's one "hostess gift" that's been a consistent hit, it's providing "breakfast for tomorrow" for the hosts of what will probably be a very late night.

Breakfast Prep

Breakfast Prep
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

You may find the recipe - and the philosophy behind this method - over here.

This pie was a huge hit, both with our camping buddies, and with our fishing guides, on our recent camping trip. I do recommend a pie for breakfast when you're camping. Nothing better than a slice of pie and a hot cup of coffee (or hot chocolate) on a cool morning.

Preparing for Camping

So we're off tomorrow into the wilds of North-Eastern California (according to Maps.google, it's almost exactly halfway between here and Death Valley, a coincidence that is not at all lost on me.)

I've been in the kitchen all afternoon, preparing some home-baked supplies for the next three days. This trip is a fishing/camping trip for ourselves and another couple. Matt has been talking about fishing in the early morning, and the early evening, with time during the day for naps and hikes. I plan to get up to start breakfast after he leaves, which means they'll be going off with nothing in their bellies, unless they want to fortify themselves with:

Teresa F.'s Grab-n-Go Breakfast Cookies.

1/2 c. softened butter or margarine
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 14 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained well*
3 c. quick-cook rolled oats
1 c. whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. raisins, or dried blueberries, or cranberries**
1 c. walnuts, or pecans, or almonds, chopped***

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

Beat butter and sugars with mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, and beat to combine. Add pineapple to mixture, and beat to combine.

In large bowl whisk together flour, oats, cinnamon, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to the egg mixture, and beat just enough to combine. Mix in dried fruit and nuts by hand.

Drop 1/3 c. of dough on cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. With a damp hand press cookies to 1/2" thickness. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. These freeze well.







*I don't like pineapple, and I can't have it anyway (triggers contractions, or something), so I substituted some canned peaches that I ran through the blender real quick.

**I, for whatever reason, was out of raisins, so I chopped up some dried apricots, threw in a handful of dried cranberries, and topped it off with some dried coconut.

***Half cup of chopped pecans, half cup chocolate chips. I couldn't help it...

On the Prowl

Today, I am hunting for pie recipes. So far, an apple pie looks promising, along with a no bake berry pie...

Mother's Day Lunch

Mother's Day Lunch
Originally uploaded by gaffentine

Herb Salad with Goat Cheese; Strawberries on Kiwi Slices (Mama T's donation!); Caprese Salad; Cheese-and-Baguette; and (Matt's Favorite) ROUND TABLE TAKEOUT! :)

Holy Crap, you guys.

I'm speechless.

Also, I want it.

Muffin Mania!

I've been eating fruit nonstop since we got The News, but even my voracious appetite sometimes has trouble keeping up with the natural process of ripening going on in the fruit bowl. So Thursday and Friday were spent "salvaging" soft fruit, by baking it all into muffins!

On Thursday, I took the soft pears, and made Pear-Walnut-Raisin Spice Muffins. The original recipe can be found here. I used whole wheat flour instead of regular, and added a dash of ground cloves, allspice, and a sprinkling of ground ginger.

On Friday, keeping in mind the bunch of bananas that were never touched, I trawled the pages of Google returns, finally settling here for the PERFECT banana muffins. The recipe calls for white chocolate, and since I had to go out and get white chocolate, (and since Baby Brain is NOT a myth, this first necessitated a shower, and then drying my hair, finding something to wear that would kind of fit, finding my keys when I was looking for my wallet instead, finding my wallet, losing my keys, and then wondering if I'd actually put on deodorant (I probably put deodorant on five times a day, so great is my horror of forgetting)), it was well past noon by the time I got to the drugstore (I'd ordered scans of the ultrasound, and they were being printed there), and then they didn't have ANY white chocolate that didn't have coconut in it, so not only did I use wheat flour, I used white chocolate with coconut in it!

I brought samples of both kinds to my toenail painting appointment, and they were gone by the time I was done, so I suppose they're good! (I've had several of the pear muffins, but I don't usually like baked-banana things, so I haven't tried those yet.)

Here are the remains:



I will definitely fill the cups more when making the Pear Muffins (that's the one sad little one, there, in the middle). I have such a fear of overflowing tins that I usually don't fill them up all the way. The recipe said there would be eighteen muffins, and I ended up with twenty-four, due to my timidity. I did not, as you can see, repeat this mistake with the banana muffins!

Coming Clean (Finally)

While I *did* have a head cold, and was out of commission for a long time because of it, I am also entering the second trimester of my first pregnancy. (Yay) And since I am a wimp about being sick at the best times, my first ride on the first-trimester roller coaster of smells, sights, talking about food, hearing about food, thinking about food, etc. has been eventful.

But now that I'm getting back on the cooking and baking bandwagon, maybe we'll see a little more action around here!

Updating

My sinuses have cleared, and I'm actually out of bed. I'm not feeling up to tackling any cooking yet, though, so I'll be going to the Farmer's Market this afternoon to pick up some fresh juice and berries. The berries will be mixed altogether in a bowl with snipped mint leaves. It'll "stew" in the fridge all day, and make a very refreshing appetizer to Matt's Famous Chicken Melts!

*Radio Silence*

The only cooking going on around here lately has consisted of "Open can, pour into soup pot, heat, eat, go back to bed".

We've been stricken with The Head Cold From Hell. Catch y'all later.

Apple and Brandied Currant Tart Filling, part two in a series

Apple and Brandied Currant Tart ~ Chez Panisse


3 pounds baking apples, peeled, quartered and cored. (Reserve skins and cores)
½ c. plus 2 tbs brandy
1 c. currants
10 oz. Galette Dough*
4 tbs unsalted butter, melted
¾ c sugar

Glaze

Reserved skins and cores
1 c. sugar

Preheat the oven to 400.

Peel and core the apples and slice ¼ inch thick and toss with 2 tbs brandy.
In a small saucepan, warm the currants with the remaining ½ c of brandy and ½ c water, over medium heat. Bring to a simmer; remove from heat and leave to plump up.

Remove the pre-rolled dough from refrigerator and place on a buttered or parchment lined baking sheet. Leaving a 2-inch border, arrange the apple slices over the pastry mounding the fruit to a thickness of 3 or 4 slices at the edges. Trim away most of the border, leaving about ½ inch of pastry. (Save the trimmings to make little sugar cookies.)
Finish the tart by folding the exposed border over on itself, crimping to make a narrow pastry rim around the fruit. Brush the edges with melted butter. Sprinkle buttered edges with a tablespoon or so of the ¾ c of sugar, and sprinkle the remainder over the apples.

Bake in lower third of over for 30 minutes, rotating several times to make sure the edges brown evenly. Drain the currants and scatter over the apples. Continue baking 20-30 minutes, until the apples are soft and the pastry edges have begun to caramelize. Slide the tart directly onto the cooling rack, and allow to cool slightly.

While the tart is baking, simmer the cores and skins with 1 c water and 1 c sugar until a thick, rosy syrup is achieved, about 20 minutes.

Strain the syrup and drizzle over the tart just before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream or creme fraiche.

It was so delicious that by the time I thought to take a picture, there was nothing remaining but some crumbs and a lonely currant on the baking sheet.

The Chez Panisse Themed Dinner Party

Could have been a disaster, but was not, due to loving friends and their forgiving natures!

The fish was the wrong kind, the grilled endives were over-grilled, the beans in the bean soup were a little...not soft, but the wine was flowing (not for me, DD!) and there was cheese and good conversation!

Here is part one of the two part masterpiece of the evening: Apple and Brandied Currant Tart.

I had put Melanie in charge of it, since she knows how to make a pastry crust, and I think that's why it turned out as well as it did!

Here is the crust recipe, with the filling to follow later.

Galette Dough ~ Chez Panisse

2 c. All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt
6 oz. (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter
½ c. ice water

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add half the butter to the mixture and work it in with your fingers until the dough is the texture of think oatmeal.

Add the remaining butter and quickly work it in until the biggest pieces are the size of large lima beans.

Dribble the ice water into the dough in several stages, tossing and mixing in between additions. Don’t try to dampen the dough evenly; it should look rather ropy and rough.
Stop adding water while there are still a few bits of dry flour remaining in the bottom of the bowl.

Gather the dough into 2 balls and wrap tightly in plastic. Press down to flatten into disks.
Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Roll each flattened ball in a 14 inch circle on a lightly floured board. Dough should be ¼ inch thick.

Refrigerate rolled dough at least ½ hour before using.

(Rolled out circles can be frozen and used the next day.)

Stay tuned for the filling! Coming up next!

Diving into Lent

In case you didn't know, Lent began yesterday and this year, we are attending the Byzantine Lenten services, and observing Byzantine Lenten practices. This means that yesterday was a Strict Fast Day: no meat, eggs, or dairy.

Fortunately, little Miss Veganese Chef over here has quite an arsenal of recipes adhering to these restrictions. Unfortunately (for you guys) all I did was The Lentils (yes, again), BUT, I did accompany it with a rousing (and slightly tweaked) rendition of Spicy Cornbread, the recipe of which follows:

"Sassy"* Cornbread.

Prep:
Seed and chop fine 1 red bell pepper
Seed and dice 1 chile pepper
Squeeze two tablespoons of lemon juice (this was 1 meyer lemon)
Cut the kernels off 1 ear of corn (or thaw 3/4 c. frozen corn)

Preheat the oven to 350, and lightly oil an 8x8 pan with olive oil and dust it with cornmeal.

Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a saucepan, and saute the peppers together until tender, about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, allow to cool.

Mix together 1 c. soy milk, the 2 tbs lemon juice and 1/2 cup olive oil in a small bowl.

In a larger bowl, whisk together 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I used regular WW flour) and 1 c. stoneground cornmeal, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp sea salt. (In place of the chile pepper, I sprinkled a teaspoon of cayenne into the dry mix.)

Add the soymilk mixture and combine, using as few strokes as possible so as not to overmix. Fold in the peppers and corn.

Spread the batter evenly into the pan and bake until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. (20-25 minutes.)

Cool for five minutes. Cut and serve hot or warm.

I found this in a book called May All Be Fed; Diet for a New World. It has some great recipes in it, but at times I found the text to be...I don't know...a little too "OMG! Teh guvermints, it brane-washes teh childrens! Oh noes! Kwesh-tun EBBERY-TING!" You know? (Not that we shouldn't be mindful of our food sources, mind you, but I guess I'm a little overly-sensitive to any hint of hysterical paranoia. Except my own, apparently.)

*Yes. Left out the chile pepper AGAIN. Big fat baby, over here. I blame the potato-loving Irish side of me.