Cooking day

I cooked so much today! It's been awhile since I've spent this much time in the kitchen, and it was really fun!

First I made a batch of French bread, although I took the shortcut route and prepared the dough in my seldom used bread maker. I think it's the first time I've used it in about three years, but it really came in handy today on the dough cycle, to be able to just put everything in and let it go to work. I took the dough out mid-afternoon, shaped it into 4 small balls instead of one long loaf, and then baked them on some stoneware. We shared one for a snack, spread with Earth Balance and Marmite (yum!), then had another with some leftover minestrone soup that I made last night (sorry, no pictures of either bread or soup).

While the dough was mixing up in the bread maker, I made some vegan vanilla ice cream using a recipe from A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. This was my first time making vegan ice cream, and it turned out really well! I made the Fancy Pants Vanilla, and modified it very slightly, using almond milk instead of soy milk (I still used soy creamer), and corn starch instead of arrowroot. I ran it through our cheapo ice cream maker for about 30 minutes, then put it in a container in the freezer to firm up more. I'm really excited to try some other recipes from that blog! I think I see a lot of ice cream in our future...

The last thing I made today was apple crisp. I used the recipe that I grew up with, my Grandma's recipe, that has a crumbly strudel-type topping instead of the oat topping most people seem to use. The only thing I changed was subbing Earth Balance margarine for the butter, and I don't know how well that worked. While the apple crisp tasted delicious tonight, for some reason that apples cooked down into mush, and the topping never fully crisped up. I think that real butter may be the key to the perfect crispy, crumbly topping, so if you're not vegan, then by all means stick to the original recipe. I did pop this directly under the broiler for several minutes at the end of the cooking time, which helped somewhat. Regardless, though, this was delicious, even if it was more applesaucy than chunky. I served it topped with several miniature scoops of vanilla ice cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon. So satisfying!

Pineapple Habanero Salsa

This is the fabulous salsa I made for yesterday's football game. It's super spicy, so consider yourself warned! The only habanero peppers they had at the store yesterday were itsy, bitsy, tiny ones, each about the size of a dime, so I used three. Yowza! Those three tiny peppers packed a wallop! I really love the salty-sweet-tangy-spicy nature of this salsa.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog that I would like to try roasting the pineapple next time. I bet it would taste great!

Pineapple Habanero Salsa

1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
Reserved pineapple juice
1 small red or green bell pepper, diced
3 medium green onions, thinly sliced
1 habanero pepper, seeded and minced
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp agave nectar (can substitute honey, molasses or sugar), to taste

Mix all ingredients, including reserved pineapple juices, in medium bowl. Cover and let stand at least one hour at room temperature. Serve with tortilla chips for dipping.

4th of July food

We've had a whole weekend of 4th of July celebrating! Thursday we bought fireworks for the kids, and had an absolute blast firing them off our back porch. I haven't done fireworks since I was 15, and we all had SO much fun! Friday we went over to my mother-in-law's house for the afternoon, then late that evening we set off the rest of our fireworks. We found out that they're illegal in our city (although we're not sure if we are within city limits or not), but you couldn't tell it from the rockets' red glare all over our neighborhood. I couldn't believe how many people were doing fireworks -- and huge ones, like professional display quality. I had no idea you could even buy those! We got one really nice one for free because an employee was tossing it to someone else when we were shopping, and she aimed badly and it hit Brad instead. She felt bad, so she said we could have it for free. Ok! It shot off 36 incredible exploding, spinning fireworks. So cool! Our whole neighborhood was shrouded in smoke from the collective fireworks displays by the time we finally went to bed. Crazy, but oh, so much fun!

Today we're going to Brad's aunt and uncle's house for a 4th of July BBQ pool party, which I'm sure will be equally as much fun. I made several goodies to bring along.

Another batch of sorbet, this time adding some lime juice to the pineapple-orange-ginger mixture. Yum!

And this big bowl of vegan potato salad, using a horseradish vinagrette instead of mayonnaise. Oh, baby!



And a big fruit pizza, veganized so I can eat it, too. Can't wait!





And we're off! See you tomorrow!

TWD - Mixed Berry Cobbler

Tuesdays with Dorie! And I'm on time, even if not early in the day. Woohoo!



This week's recipe was chosen by Beth of Our Sweet Life. I was super stoked about this recipe, because I adore blackberry cobbler! Yum! I wish I still lived in Seattle, where blackberries literally grow wild like weeds, and you can pick them by the bucketful for free. Here, though, the best I could do was frozen berries from our local produce stand. Works for me!

I put this together as soon as I walked in the door from work, since I knew it had a long baking time. It was ridiculously simple to make, just a quick biscuit dough, and a few ingredients tossed with the berries. I used 4 cups of blackberries and 2 cups of raspberries. That's a little more berries than the recipe called for, and I honestly wish I had used even more. I made mine in a 9x9 square pan rather than a deep pie dish, so I could have easily fit several more cups. So if I were going to make this again, I'd use 8 cups of frozen berries, and increase the other filling ingredients accordingly. In my book, you can never have too much berry filling.

Oh! I almost forgot to add that I used vegan margarine instead of butter, and almond milk instead of cream, and the topping turned out great! And I served it with dairy-free vanilla ice cream. Another successful veganization! Woot!

All in all, this isn't my favorite cobbler recipe, but it was still delicious!

TWD - La Palette’s Strawberry Tart

Tuesdays with Dorie time! Or Wednesdays with Dorie, in my case. Sorry I wasn't able to deliver yesterday, but better late than never, right?

This week's recipe, La Palette's Strawberry Tart, was chosen by Marie of A Year at Oak Cottage. The kids and I adore strawberries, but Brad hates them. Alas, no dessert for him. I don't often make things that I know he won't enjoy, but I didn't want to miss another week of TWD, and I've never made a strawberry pie or tart before, so I went for it.



It was easy peasy to make. The crust is a cinch, then I just brushed it with strawberry jam, filled it with halved strawberries, drizzled with them a little Chambord, and served it with a dollop of freshly whipped cream on top. Voila!

There were a few speed bumps along the way, but they were minor. First, I didn't realize that we were out of butter when it came time to make the crust, so I had to use two parts vegan margarine, one part shortening, and one part vegetable oil. Yikes! I also left out the egg yolk, just to see how it would work without, and it turned out beautifully! I also didn't have fine quality strawberry jam, but you know what? The cheapo generic kind I buy for the kids sandwiches worked just fine. And the only fruity liqueur I had was Chambord. Again, though...it worked. And really well! We're on a budget, us later-in-life-returning to-college students, so I'm glad I was able to piece this tart together with what we had on hand. All I had to buy was strawberries and whipping cream. Nice!



I think my overall preference is my mom's fresh strawberry pie, made with a cream cheese layer in the pre-baked crust, then topped with fresh strawberries and a strawberry glaze. But this is such a nice, simple, fresh tart, and I love it for what it is!

If you don't have Dorie's book yet, I highly recommend you go get a copy. The decision has been made to no longer post the recipes in our blogs, which I think is awesome, but hopefully the recipes you've seen here, as well as on other blogs, will be the motivation you need to run out and get yourself your own copy of this book. I love it! Plus, then you could join in on the TWD fun!

If you do as I did, and use non-dairy fats in the crust, and (not as I did) use a non-dairy whipped topping, this would be a vegan recipe. Nice!

Cinnamon Applesauce

Tonight we're having pork chops, and it just doesn't seem right to have them without applesauce. My girls absolutely love fresh applesauce, and so do I, so I cooked up a quick batch this evening to have with dinner. It's so quick and easy to make, and tastes so much better than anything you can get at the store. I like to add a healthy amount of cinnamon when I make it, and a fair amount of sugar (I like mine sweet, what can I say?). I wish I had thought about it beforehand, and I would have tried using blue agave nectar, but it completely slipped my mind. Oh well, next time, right?

On that note, I bought the blue agave nectar awhile back, and haven't used it yet, because I just don't know what to do with it. Any suggestions? I'm afraid to substitute it for sugar in baking, in case it doesn't turn out, but if anyone has tried and true uses for it, I'd love to hear them!

Last time I made applesauce, it was really smooth, but tonight I wanted it to be chunkier, so I held back a couple apples while the rest of the applesauce cooked. Once it was all cooked down and smooth, I diced the remaining apples and added them to the sauce, cooking just until they were tender. Perfect!



Fresh Cinnamon Applesauce

6 Granny Smith apples
1/4 cup water
1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (brown or white)
1 tsp cinnamon

Peel and core the apples, then cut into chunks. Place in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add water. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-45 minutes, or until apples cook down and soften. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste. Serve warm or chilled..

Tuesdays with Dorie - The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

It's time again for Tuesdays with Dorie! This week's recipe was chosen by Mary from Starting From Scratch. I was really excited about this lemon tart recipe. I've only made one tart prior to this (a yummy cranberry tart for Christmas 2005), and my tart pan has been sitting in my cupboard ever since, lonely and longing to be put to use again. Well, wait no longer, little tart pan!



The tart was fairly easy to make, though I did have a few small complications. First was the lemon cream filling. I don't know if there was something wrong with my thermometer, but after something like 30 minutes over the simmering (and at some points, full-on boiling) water, it never did reach 180 degrees. What the hell??? I finally just gave up at 165 degrees and took it off the heat. Does anyone have tips for checking the calibration of my thermometer? it's a digital, and I've never had problems with it before, but I have to wonder about it's accuracy after this recipe. Or maybe it's just me. I tried making lemon curd back in the mid-90s, and it never got to temperature, either. Hmmmm.

But I'm not upset, because the filling tastes fab. u. lous. It was all Brad and I could do to not dig in with a spoon and just eat it by itself. But we were good, and I covered it with plastic and stuck it in the fridge.

[UPDATE: I just realized while looking through the recipe that I only used 2 sticks of butter in the filling, and not the additional 5 Tbsp it calls for. FYI, it tastes glorious and the texture is just fine even without the extra butter, so feel free to leave it out if you make this tart. You could probably even get by with less than 2 sticks, in all honesty.]

Yellow is my favorite color, so I couldn't resist snapping a picture of all those gorgeous yellow ingredients!



I prepared the crust Saturday night after we got back from the football game. It came together really easily in my food processor, and pressed neatly into the tart pan. I was skeptical of the instructions to butter foil and press it against the dough, but I did it anyway. And yeah, when I VERY CAREFULLY removed the foil as directed, it peeled up half the dough with it. Nooooooo! I was ticked, let me tell you. I managed to piece it back together, and used some of the held back scraps to patch the rest, but I'm still annoyed that it came to that. Why not just bake it without the foil pressed so tightly against it? I don't get it.

But at least it turned out in the end! I decorated mine with thin lemon slice halves around the edge, and to be honest, I'm almost ridiculously pleased with how pretty it is. And it's just as delicious as it is beautiful! The filling is fairly tart, which I love, so the sweet pastry crust provides a great balance. This is definitely something I'll make again. In fact, I'm going to be preparing the food for an upcoming bridal shower, and I think this will have to be featured on that menu.



The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart
From Baking: From My Home to Yours

1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, at room temperature
1 9-inch tart shell (recipe below)

Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer and a blender or food processor at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy and very aromatic. Whisk in the eggs, followed by the lemon juice.

Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180 degrees F. As you whisk - you must whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling - you'll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. Heads up at this point - the tracks mean the cream is almost ready. Don't stop whisking or checking the temperature, and have patience - depending on how much heat you're giving the cream, getting to temp can take as long as 10 minutes.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain it into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the zest. Let the cream stand, stirring occasionally, until it cools to 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high (or turn on the processor) and, with the machine going, add the butter about 5 pieces at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container as needed as you incorporate the butter. Once the butter is in, keep the machine going - to get the perfect light, airy texture of lemon-cream dreams, you must continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If your machine protests and gets a bit too hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest between beats.



Sweet Tart Dough

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 T) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces (I used only 1 stick of butter)
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in- you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal fakes and others the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses- about 10 seconds each- until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change- heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate and dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

To press the dough into the pan: butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don’t be too heavy handed- press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferable longer, before baking.

To partially or fully bake the crust: center a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Butter the shiny side of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, against the crust. (since you froze it, you can bake it without weights). Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, carefully press it down with the back of a spoon. For partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack. To fully bake the crust, bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to create an airtight seal and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. The cream will keep in the fridge for 4 days or, tightly sealed, in the freezer for up to 2 months; thaw it overnight in the refrigerator).

When you are ready to assemble the tart, just whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon it into the tart shell. Serve the tart, or refrigerate until needed.

Limoncello

This takes about a month from start to finish, but it's worth the effort! Maximize your efforts and make a double or triple batch.

10 lemons
1 liter vodka
3 cups white sugar
4 cups water

Zest the lemons, and place zest into a large glass bottle or jar. Pour in vodka. Cover loosely and let infuse for one week at room temperature.

After one week, combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. DO NOT STIR. Boil for 15 minutes. Allow syrup to cool to room temperature.

Stir vodka mixture into syrup. Strain into glass bottles, and seal each bottle with a cork. Let mixture age for 2 weeks at room temperature.

Place bottled liqueur into the freezer. When icy cold, serve in chilled vodka glasses or shot glasses.

Watergate Salad

1 20-oz can crushed pineapple (do not drain)
1 pkg (4 serving size) instant pistachio pudding
1 c mini marshmallows
2 c Cool Whip

Stir together pineapple and juice, pudding and marshmallows. Gently fold in Cool Whip. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Apple Crisp

4 c sliced apples
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c water
3/4 c flour
1 c sugar
1/3 c butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350.

Spread apples in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and salt, then evenly sprinkle with the ¼ cup water. Mix together flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over top of apples. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream.

Lighter Banana Pudding

1/3 c flour
Dash of salt
2 ½ c skim milk
1 14-ounce can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
3 c sliced ripe banana
45 reduce-calorie Nilla Wafers
4 large egg whites
¼ c sugar

Preheat oven to 325. Combine flour and salt in a medium saucepan. Gradually stir in milks and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat until thick, about 13 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

Arrange 1 cup banana slices in bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Spoon one-third of pudding over bananas. Arrange 15 wafers on top of pudding. Repeat pudding layer twice and wafer layer once, arranging last 15 wafers around edge of pudding. Push cookies into pudding.

Beat egg whites at high speed of a mixer until foamy. Gradually add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pudding, sealing to edge of dish. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until meringue is golden.

Heavenly Orange Fluff

1 large or 2 small packages orange Jell-o
2 cups hot water
1 can (16 oz) frozen orange juice concentrate, undiluted
2 cans mandarin oranges, drained
1 large can crushed pineapple, not drained
1 package instant lemon pudding
1 c milk
½ pint whipping cream, whipped, or Cool Whip

Mix Jell-o with hot water. Stir in undiluted orange juice; mix well. Add oranges and pineapple, and pour into a 9 x 13 dish. Refrigerate until firm.

Beat pudding with milk until slightly firm. Fold in whipped cream. Spread on gelatin. Chill before serving.

Kate's Great-Grandma Pederson's Raw Apple Cake

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1/2 cup warm coffee
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 cups raw apples, chopped
walnuts and raisins, if desired
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 9 pan with baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together sugar, butter and egg. Add coffee, flour, soda and cinnamon. Fold in apples and, if desired, walnuts and raisins.

Spread batter in prepared baking pan. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon, and sprinkle over top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.