Made my cake and ate it too

There can be nothing more nerve wracking (for me) than taking something to a pot providence (I don't believe in luck). Last Sunday, I went to my first pot providence at my new church, and I was SO nervous! I spent all week fretting over what to bring. I don't know about you, but I always like to bring something different to pot providences. Something I wouldn't normally eat or at least something I haven't eatten in a while. I love pot providences for the most part, and it's kind of funny that no matter where you are, it seems there's someone who brings fried chicken and green bean casserole. Mind you, this isn't a complaint, just a joyful observation.

I figured I should bring a cake of some kind. After deciding to make cake, I then was plagued by the nearly endless possibilities of the cake world. For an Easter gathering, I made a lavender-almond bundt cake with a green tea-poppyseed glaze. It was fine, but not suitable for this larger gathering. As I was wandering the aisles of a store, looking for inspiration, I came across some amaretti cookies that were only $1.50 a package. Woohoo! Hello inspriation! After grabbing the bag, I vacated the store (everything else was so overpriced, I couldn't stand to be in there another second), and went to a more reasonable grocery store with variety.

I'd never actually had amaretti cookies, but I had a "feel" for how they would taste, so I worked off of that. This is the flavor palate I worked up in my head: almond, apricot, chocolate and maybe coffee. I got regular chocolate cake mix (forgive me, but I just didn't feel like putting forth the effort to do it from scratch), a jar of apricot spreadable fruit (not the sugary jam or preserves), chocolate frosting, and almond extract. Once home, I made the cake according to the package.

Once I pulled them out and let them cool, I spread the apricot filling over the top of one layer, sprinkled them with crushed amaretti.

The second layer then went on and everything was given a chocolate frosting bath. To trim the cake, I made an almond buttercream. Just as I was getting ready to practice making nice buttercream shells around the boarder of the cake, I discoverd that I left all of my decorating tips in Waco. SIGH. I just loaded a bag with the frosting, cut the tip and hoped for the best. It didn't turn out too badly (I think).


Side veiw


Much to my relief, the cake was a hit...or at least the people at church are very nice. ;)

Tools for tots

This, my dears, was one of my favorite "toys" as a child. Yes, it is a meat cleaver that's over 20 years old. Before you label my parents as terrible terrible people let me explain.

Yes, knives, can be extremely dangerous and should not be handed to children without proper training and not before they're mature enough to handle it. I started using this beauty when I was around 4 years old. My mother was always willing to let me help her in the kitchen. She didn't hesitate to let me hold the knives, but before she did, she showed me how to use them. That's the difference right there. Rather than try to make me afraid of the knives, or make them seem like forbidden fruit, she showed me how to use them! I immediately fell in love with the cleaver, of course, since it was so big and looks SO COOL (okay, so I still love big knives...). As far as I can remember, I only cut myself a couple of times with the knives, and that was because they'd gotten a bit dull and slipped. As a small child, I loved grabbing the cleaver and carefully and meticulously chopping the veggies for meals. I don't condone handing any random child a knife and letting them go to town, but I do recommend educating your children on how to use things that are potentially dangerous, so that they don't hurt themselves out of curiosity mixed with ignorance. My mother explained that the knife is sharp and can hurt you badly, but if you use it properly and don't treat it like a toy, it won't give you problems. She showed me how to sharpen it, and told me that dull knives are more likely to hurt you. All of this at 4. I remember every bit of it, even now.

Momma built my confidence, rather than instilling fear. Those initial lessons are the reason why you're here visiting this blog (thanks for that, by the way). For me, learning how to chop stuff up was one of the first steps along the way to becoming a foodie. Being part of creating the meals that fed our family made me fall in love with food. Even the youngest little chefs can get busy in the kitchen. 2 year olds can wash veggies, 3 year olds can tear lettuce for a salad, the possibilities are endless! Heck you can utilize a toddler's love for throwing and shaking things and have them mix up some yummy salad dressing sealed tightly in a plastic jar. Get your babies in the kitchen, you'll never regret it. Years from now, you could be relaxing on the couch watching your favorite TV show while pots and pans are banging together in the kitchen and a FEAST is being prepared in your honor by that very chef YOU trained.

I'd rather eat cake

Somehow, I've managed to land a job as a baker. Of all things, a baker! It's not a bad job, and can lend itself to creativity. My sweet tooth is quickly decaying. I've never been a fan of cookies, I just don't see the point in their existence. How...HOW can a cookie be more or just as satisfying as a slice of pie or cake? I dare not even put them in the same sentence as cupcakes! Cookie recipes are fairly easy to manipulate, so it's a great way to combine lots of random flavors with little effort, but that's about all cookies have going for them...unless they're covered in frosting. Frosting makes everything better.

Anywho, I got to work on a huge order this week and made 350 cookies. In the pictures are the following types of cookies:

Walnut-chocolate chip
White chocolate orange
Cranberry orange w/orange glaze
Soft molasses
Peanut butter
Oatmeal raisin
Cowboy


Enjoy...I ate about a bite out of one of the white chocolate-orange cookies that fell apart. Eh...still a cake woman.

Pasta imperfecto

Yesterday I decided to make some homemade stuffed pasta. I was in the mood for a heavy Italian meal, and felt like getting my hands dirty. I had the best intentions, really. I was going to make fun pasta pillows stuffed with Italian sausage, spinach and cheese. I knew it would be a little labor intensive, but I didn't count on giving up 3 hours of my life (minus shopping time)! I was so exhausted at the end, I could barely enjoy my meal! I neglected to take a picture of some of the stuffed pasta pillows, sorry. They were all randomly shaped, some where oblong rectangles, some where petite rounds, some where massive triangles, all were tasty. :) My sauce was ultra chunky and chocked full of veggies.

Garden sauce:

2 medium zucchini, quartered and thinly sliced
about a cup of carrots, thinly sliced (about the same size as your zucchini)
1 cup cremini or button mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine or chicken stock
1 small can tomato sauce
2-14 oz cans diced tomatoes (no salt added)
1 tbs oil
S & P
2 Tbs Italian seasoning (usually a mix of basil, fennel, oregano maybe some rosemary)

Saute the veggies in the oil until they begin to caramelize. Deglaze pan with stock or wine, then add tomatoes, sauce and seasonings. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes until nice and thick.

Pasta Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour (plus more for the board)
3 large eggs
1 tsp oil (preferably olive)
1/2 tsp salt

Make a well in the flour, then crack the eggs into it. Sprinkle with salt. Take a fork and carefully beat the eggs. Add the oil, then carefully start mixing in some flour from the bottom (not the sides!) of the well until you have a nice bright yellow paste. Using a bench scraper or a knife with a large blade (think cleaver or butcher knife) start scraping the walls of the well into the moist middle. At this point, you're gently folding in the flour, just to get it incorporated, go easy on it until a dough forms! Once you have a dough, knead it just until it's got a smooth consistency. To test to see if your gluten has been properly developed, poke the dough with a thumb. If it springs back, you're good...if the indentation stays, keep kneading. Once the dough is ready, cover it, and let it rest in the fridge for at least 10 minutes. If you try to roll it out right then, it will keep shrinking back and drive you crazy! Not to mention, the pasta will be tough. Once the dough has rested, half it, then roll it out into workable portions. You can then shape it however you wish. You can cut it into strips for fetutini or squares for ravioli. Use your imagination! Remember: fresh pasta only takes about 3-5 minutes to cook, so don't leave it alone for too long!

Sausage, spinach and cheese stuffing:

15 oz Ricotta cheese
1 cup chopped spinach (I used really well drained and thawed frozen spinach)
1 lb Italian Sausage (or you can make your own with 1 lb of ground pork)*
1/2 cup onion, finely minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup Italian blend of cheeses (take your pick)
1 Tbs oil
1 egg
S & P
1/4 tsp nutmeg (it's generally a good practice to use nutmeg when you have dark green veggies)

Brown the meat in the oil with the onions and garlic. Season with S & P. In a big bowl, mix the remaining ingredients. When the meat mixture is done, allow it to cool to room temp so that it doesn't melt the cheese or scramble the egg. After it's cool, mix it with the cheese. You're now ready to stuff some pasta or use it in a lasagna!

Pasta, please!

I'm in the mood to make some pasta. I haven't made any in a few years, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I'm excited about getting my hands in some dough, though. Here's the game plan, I will make some cheesy, sasuagy pasta pillows, and nestle them in a nice veggie-packed marinara sauce. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sunday eats

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, Sundays were feasting days. There was usually chicken or pot roast and plenty of sides to please even the pickiest crowd. My mother made Sunday cooking look effortless. Somehow all of this amazing food appeared on the table with little to no effort. I now know that I was just not paying enough attention. Sunday meals take tons of planning, shopping and preparation. Last Sunday, my plans to go to church were thwarted by a flat tire, so I stayed home and treated my parents to a good ol' fashioned Sunday feast.

The menu:

Beef roast braised in red wine
Citrusy green beans topped with crunchy fried onion rings
Roasted garlic-herb potatoes


Since I hadn't been planning on making roast, I had to take one out of the freezer and toss it in the microwave to get it defrosting. While the microwave worked it's magic, I got a pan screaming hot and roughly chopped an onion and the rest of the garlic bulb left from the pizza. I took the meat out of the microwave, and cut it into about 5 large pieces. My pan was starting to smoke, so I quickly dredged the meat with flour and tossed them into the hot oil. I just wanted to get some color (and thus more flavor) on all sides of the meat. After everything was browned, I added about a cup of baby carrots, the onion and garlic. I took the briefest moment to listen to everything sizzle (I just love that sound!) before deglazing the pan with 3 cups of warm water (unfortunately I had no beef stock) and about that much red wine. I just wanted to cover the meat with liquid. A few seasonings (S/P, and about 2 Tbs of Mrs. Dash Southwest chipotle seasoning) went in, then I covered the dutch oven and put it in the 400 degree oven for 3 hours. When I checked on it, everything was bubbling nicely, so I lowered the temp to 375 for another hour.

During that last hour of cooking, I heated a pot of oil to 350, and very thinly sliced an onion. I did the typical egg dip/flour dredge routine then plunged the little darlings into the hot oil for a quick fry. I diced a few potatoes and tossed them with melted butter and garlic salt, then they went on a sheet pan and into the oven. Two cans of green beans, 1 Tbs of orange zest and the juice of the orange + a little s/p went into a casserole dish and then into the oven. I drained the fried onions on paper toweling, pulled out the roast and placed it in a bowl so that I could make a pan sauce with the cooking juices. Thanks to the flour from the original searing of the meat, the sauce thicken really well. The green beans came out of the oven first...they just needed to be warmed through. The potatoes were next once they started to get nice and brown. The fried onions were laid to rest atop the green beans. The gravy was poured on top of the meat, and the potatoes were dumped onto a serving platter.

Things moved very quickly at the end, but thanks to good planning, the timing was great...everything was ready at the same time! Woohoo! Sorry there are no pics of the potatoes, I didn't think they were that interesting looking...I mean, we all know what cut up potatoes look like.

and a big, fat pizza pie!

A couple of weeks ago, I began working as a baker for a local catering company. I'm not the most enthusiastic baker in the world, I actually don't care for cookies very much. As with most food related things, I'm comfortable with baking, it's just tedious. I enjoy making things pretty, which baking lends itself to, and there's a certain amount of creativity there. At any rate, I spend my days baking tons of cookies, a few pies, and the occasional cake. There are worst ways to make a buck.

Anywho, after a long first week, I wanted nothing better than to come home and stuff my face with pizza and nurse a glass of Shiraz. I've taken to buying boxed wines, I'll let you know how that's going in another post.

While frozen pizza does have it's convieniences and can be tasty, I'm a scratch girl. It's healthier and you get exactly what you want on your pizza. I was also craving garlic in a big way (when am I not, really?). The pizza began forming on my 30 minute commute pack to the ol' homestead. I stopped by the store and grabbed a bulb of garlic and some mozzerella cheese. Once home, I reached for my quick and easy pizza dough recipe, it has seriously changed the way I eat pizza! I started by mincing 4 garlic cloves and sauteeing them in a little butter. I threw that down atop the pizza dough, then quickly sauteed the canned tomatoes in the same pan to catch left over garlic flavoring, tossed some sugar and italian seasonings in, gave it a quick stir, then it too went on the crust. I mixed my cheeses then they crowed my lovely pie. After 14ish minutes in a 450 oven, my pizza was cooked to perfection. It took only 25 minutes, start to finish!

Can we say tasty? It married beautifully with my Shiraz. My belly was all kinds of happy!

Pizza dough in a flash!

2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 packet (1 Tbs) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 Tbs oil (preferably a good olive)
1 tsp sugar
a couple of pinches of salt


Mix the yeast, water and sugar in a small bowl. Add half a cup of the flour, and mix until it's smooth. Add the remaining flour, and knead until the dough is a nice, smooth ball...maybe 2 minutes. Let the dough rest while you get the rest of the ingredients for your pizza together. The oven should be at 450. I always like to put a nice thin sprinkling of cornmeal on my baking sheet or pizza stone. It helps the pizza slide off and I like the texture. After you've added your tasty-goodies to the top of the rolled out dough, it only takes about 15 minutes for it to bake to perfection. ****Caution**** When the oven temp is this hot, DO NOT walk away! Keep careful watch over the pizza!!

Updates

It's not that I've forgotten you, my love, but more that I've been enjoying some really tasty food and have been so consumed with making and eating it that my fingers haven't been free to blog about it. I will attempt to revamp this site and add some pics, recipes and whatnots. Fear not! I am only human, though, so if I fail, please don't judge me too harshly. :)