Winter Plum Cake

I cooked this cake last winter and have been thinking about it since December, but in true fashion I have waited until what I hope is the end of winter to make it.  I am so pleased that I did make it again.  The recipe is from Nigella Lawson, and I can’t remember how I got my hands on the recipe but I am so grateful that I did.  If you have time, before spring arrives, I urge you to make this cake:

 

Adapted from Nigella

• 300g of drained tinned plums (mine came in a 560g tin before being drained)
• 125g self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 75g ground almonds
• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp almond essence
• 160g unrefined icing sugar

 

Preheat oven to 170C. 

Drain plums, then chop and drain again. 

Mix flour, baking powder and almonds in a bowl.  In another bowl cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the eggs and then 3tbs of the flour mixture.  Beat in the almond essence.  Add the rest of the flour mixture and fold in.  Then fold in the plums.

Tip into the prepared tin and bake for an hour and a bit maybe, quarter of an hour more.  Mine took just over an hour. 

In the meantime (and this is where I change the recipe) heat the leftover syrup with 2tbs sugar.  Reduce until you are left with a thick syrup.  When the cake is slightly cool brush on some of the syrup.  I only did a thin coating. 

When the cake is completly cool ice with the unrefined icing sugar mixed with 2tbs hot water. 

The first time I made the cake I was skeptical about using unrefined icing sugar, but the taste is completely different to normal icing sugar, and gives it a more caramel flavour. 

We ate the cake when it was still warm (and then had a bit more when it was cold).  There is just over half the cake left and I assume that it will be gone by lunchtime tomorrow, which is a testament to how good this cake is. 

[Via http://perfectingpru.wordpress.com]

Patience is a Virtue

It’s so hard not knowing the future for us.  What I mean is it’s hard not knowing where we will be physically located.  I’m dying to know because without having an idea I’m unable to start planning!  And, I’m a planner!  =)  Unfortunately we have to wait.  That’s the way of the military sometimes – get busy waiting!

If I knew I could start to plan out my life for the rest of the year and that would keep me really busy and I would welcome that!  I love being busy now because it passes the time until I get to see him again!  I can’t wait for that day!!  It’s the most important thing I’ve ever had to look forward to in my life so far.  To be separated from the one thing in your life you feel most connected to who is in a place that is filled with danger is the hardest challenged I’ve faced.

I can’t wait to know where we will be going.  I am excited without even knowing where that may be!  I’ve started researching jobs and homes in one area where we might be going and homes in another and I’m really interested in continuing to explore my opportunities in these new places!

Once I know I can also start to tailor my business to the new region to that I can start getting customers there excited about my presence to come!  It’s going to be a challenge to start the business in a new place but with a little dedication and perseverance I know I can make it work!  I am up for the challenge in my life!  When you’re excited and happy about your life – anything is possible!!  That I know for sure!

Patience is key here!

[Via http://loveknowsnodistance.wordpress.com]

Planning and cooking overwhelming? Try this.

So the Week of Eating in was going great (I’ll post photos!) until today. I got home last night and made pancakes, and when I woke up this morning, I realized I didn’t have any leftover left. I didn’t even have stuff for a salad or sandwich! I also didn’t have time. So today I ate from the cafeteria. Boo.

Well, cooking all your meals takes planning! In that spirit, I’ll post this great website I found via Grist:

NoTakeout.com offers a complete menu, shopping list and detailed game plan—from the time you walk in the door after work—each day for that night’s dinner (big fan of last week’s mushroom penne). I think its tool list is marvelous—from bare essentials to well-equipped—so you can make sure you have the necessary pots, pans, knives, bells, and whistles. If you don’t, no need to go out and buy tons of new stuff. Ask a friend about borrowing an item like a hand blender that you may not use often enough to own one yourself (I did this for the butternut squash soup—thanks, neighbor!). Or scour your local second-hand store for some cool, vintage-y measuring cups to cut cost and new materials.

I have yet to try it, but believe me, I plan to!

[Via http://cleanhippie.wordpress.com]

Dedicated Biker

Bikers. They can always tell you the weather. They tell you if the roads are wet or dry. Some bikers only drive a motorcycle.

My Uncle Jack volunteered to pick up dinner, he told us he was going to pick up ribs. Yum! I love ribs. While we waited for him to arrive we prepared side dishes and fixed up the table. It was a nice summer day so we waited for him out side on the patio. It was getting a bit late and we wondered where he could be.

If you know someone with a motorcycle that drives it often to see you you, you start to know the sound of their bike. As I took a swig of my beer I could slightly hear the rumbles of a Police special Road King. I look at my brother confused. “Wait…who was getting the food?” I asked. Surely Uncle Jack didn’t pick up ribs for 7 people with the bike…Yeah I was incorrect about that one.

I took him a little long to get to the house because he was driving extra careful…that’s understood. Between the careful driving, the secured lid and the bungee cords, the food made it to us very safely. I’m don’t ride a motorcycle(well not yet) but if I did I’m not sure if I would have attempted this one.

[Via http://toiletblogs.com]

MOTHER’S DAY RECIPES: TENDER LOVING CREPES

From More Sensible Cuisine by Victoria Banksley, OBE

In keeping with the modern tradition of bestowing frivolous names upon themed recipes, my editors have encouraged me to imbue this crepe recipe with a motherly theme.  It can be sensibly enjoyed at any time of the year, by non-mothers and even non-females.  It is best enjoyed alongside the French-Kissed Vanilla Ice Cream (page 158), or possibly the Strawberry Confit (page 162).  As always, beware of the clown.

-½ cup whole milk

-1 large eggs

-1 tablespoon sugar

-1 teaspoon salt

-a scant 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

-½ teaspoon vanilla extract

-1 cup flour, divided into ½ cup portions

-¼ cup brandy

Firstly, mix the milk and eggs in a blender at a high setting.  Once foamy, reduce the setting and add the sugar and salt to the mixture.  After another intense pulse, add the butter and vanilla extract, and process at low speed until the mixture is uniform.

At this point, the sound of the blender will have attracted the clown’s attention.  Prevent the clown from physically upsetting the blender, and keep the cover top on to prevent it from spraying seltzer into the mixture.  Do not laugh at the clown, as it will only encourage it further.

Once the clown’s initial enthusiasm has subsided, remove the cover top and add one portion of the flour to the mixture.  The clown, now turned away, will almost certainly swing its leg backwards and attempt to kick the flour from your hands, all over the kitchen.  Remain stoic, and do not laugh at its acting-out.  Wait for the honking of its horn to subside, then emotionlessly stir the reserve flour in to the mixture.

Place your crepe pan over medium heat and brush with butter.  When the butter begins to smoke, pour 1/3rd of a cup of batter onto the pan, tilting to evenly spread it around.  Do not allow the clown to distract you with juggling, as it will surely result in your crepes being lopsided and undercooked in parts.

Cook the crepe until the underside is nicely browned, then flip it over, re-greasing the pan as you do.  The clown should be allowed nowhere near the element or flame, as it will attempt to use the heat to scorch its buttocks for comedic effect.  Failing to prevent it from this action will result in it running around your cooking area haphazardly, disturbing and knocking over as many instruments as are at hand, and distracting you from further crepe cookery.

Continue until all the batter is used.  Should the clown release a swarm of bees into your kitchen, reduce the heat of the element and vacate until they have become less agitated.  Should the crepe you were cooking burn during your absence, scrape off the char carefully and re-grease it.

Place completed crepes on a tray in the oven, set to a low heat.  When you have completed cooking the crepes, remove the tray, place the crepes on a tray and begin transporting them to the table where your expectant mother waits.  The clown will knock them to the ground.  This cannot be avoided.  Wordlessly return to the kitchen and pour the brandy into a tumbler.  Consume quickly, without ice, then hurl the empty tumbler at the clown as it awaits your applause.  Glower.  The clown will depart, defeated and visibly forlorn.  You are now free to begin the recipe anew, free from its torment.  Serves 2 humans and no clowns.

[Via http://terminallaughter.wordpress.com]

mini? check. oreos? check. cheesecake? check

Those that know me know that I have a love for all things miniature, especially when it comes to food, and so when I stumbled upon a recipe for mini oreo cheesecake (which itself was from Martha Stewart’s cupcake book), you could say I was excited. Now on further reading of the recipe I realised the oreos themselves weren’t miniature, but rather the  mini was in reference to the cheesecake, slightly less excited but not enough to put me off creating them. So after work I headed off to the shops to buy the whopping 4 eggs I needed for the recipe. After some imperial to metric conversions I decided that 1 kilo of cream cheese was a tad too much for me to purchase, so I halved the recipe. Below is my interpretation of the linked recipe above:

Ingredients

18 Oreos (just short of a whole pack – the one with two rows inside)

500g of cream cheese

1/2 cup of sugar

Splash of vanilla extract

2 eggs

(the original recipe had sour cream, however after some searching, other recipes didn’t include it – so I felt I could leave one fatty ingredient out)

Preheat oven to 135 degrees Celsius. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners or grease well with non-stick baking spray. Place 1 whole Oreo in the bottom of each cup.

With an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

Divide batter evenly among cookie-lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, until filling is set, about 22 minutes.

Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Finished product – may have got it out the fridge a few hours too early, but it was tasty none the less.

[Via http://adventuresoftheordinary.wordpress.com]

Chicken Tomato Bisque

One thing that I always turn to when the weather gets cold is soup. A good soup could warm the soul. This soup is pureed and creamy with small bits of carrots and onions that gave it a nice bit of texture. It was light, healthy, and would have been perfect if I had a grilled cheese sandwich to accompany it…alas I only had the Cheddar Cheese Biscuits (which were still very good).

Chicken Tomato Bisque

Adapted from Ladies’ Home Journal

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 carrot (chopped)

1 medium onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1/2 cup flour

1 can whole tomatoes with juice (28 ounce)

1 1/2 cup chicken broth (low sodium)

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups chicken (cooked and shredded)

In a 6 quart pot over medium-high heat, combine olive oil, carrot, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally until onion is soft (about 6 to 8 minutes). Stir in flour until vegetables are coated, then add tomatoes.

Add broth and 1/2 teaspoon oregano and stir, breaking up tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook 8 to 10 minutes.

If you have an immersion blender just blend right in pot. If not working in small batches, puree soup in a blender or food processor and transfer back to pot. Stir in cream, salt and chicken and heat through. Season to taste and serve garnished with remaining oregano.

[Via http://delightfullysweet.wordpress.com]

Scavenging for a Quick Meal - WildTree Scampi Blend To the Rescue

Hello again culinary fans,

OK, it was Monday night and we had worked all day.  We had to take the puppy to obedience class at 6:15pm and there was nothing for dinner.  We didn’t have a lot of time and I hadn’t been to the grocery store so all we had in the freezer was a chicken breast and some frozen sweet corn.  In the fridge we had a tomato and there was one onion.

Hmm… What to do with this…  Here’s what I did.

I defrosted the chicken breast, cut it into thin strips and put it in a mixing bowl.  To that I added some WildTree Garlic Grapeseed Oil, a bit of sea salt, some fresh ground pepper and a teaspoon (sort of heaping) of WildTree Scampi Blend seasoning.  I chopped the onion and the tomato and grabbed the frozen corn from the freezer.

I sautéed the chicken until it was almost cooked through and then added the chopped onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic and two tablespoons of butter.  I let that cook for about 5 minutes while I boiled some water.  I put a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt in the water and about 8 ounces of linguine (luckily we had some in the pantry).  When the pasta was el dente, I reserved some of the pasta water and drained the rest.  I added the frozen corn to the pan, the zest and the juice of half a lemon, some of the reserved pasta water and one more teaspoon of the WildTree Scampi Blend.  I mixed that all up and added the pasta.  When that was combined and bubbly, I added the chopped tomato and about a tablespoon of parsley.  After a few gentle stirs to combine everything, we were ready to eat.

What can I say?  This was not your classic Chicken Scampi recipe but it tasted great.  It had all the components that I like; Meat, Vegetables, Pasta, and a great taste.  The WildTree Scampi Blend saved the day.  This meal was short, sweet and delicious.  It took all of 20 minutes from start to finish and we made it to puppy class on time.

Until next time,

Thanks for listening

My Virtual Project

[Via http://lvtocook.wordpress.com]

Still here, some cookies and a blog

It’s been crazy lately, which is why I haven’t posted, or worked on my new bolero, or cleaned my apartment, for that matter.  Between consulate visits in Frankfurt and avoiding carnival I haven’t done much worth reporting. Also, for any Americans in Rheinland or Hessen, the consulate really does mean no electronics. They don’t have lockers anymore where you can keep your things!

I do want to write a bit about carnival here, which would be a much more exciting party if I didn’t live directly in the middle of it, but I’ll do that tomorrow. Today I’ll leave you with a recipe and an interesting blog I’ve just stumbled across.

The recipe:  Kouroumbiedes (thanks Kathy!), which are Greek sugar cookies, basically.

1000 grams of Butter

2 packages of confectioners sugar

2 egg yolks

6 cups of cake flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 cup of chopped almonds

1 shot of brandy or whiskey

Soften the butter till very soft.  Add 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and beat until fluffy and light-colored.  Add the egg yolks and beat.  Sift the cake flour and baking powder into the butter mix.

Toast the almonds for 2-3 minutes and add to the mix, then sprinkle the dough with brandy/whiskey and knead thoroughly.  The dough should not be sticky, but not dry either! Make cookies into half-moon or round shapes and bake on a cookie sheet  until light golden brown.  Take out of oven and cool, then sift the rest of the confectioner’s sugar over them (or put sugar and cookies into a ziploc and shake till they’re coated).

And the blog: http://hasidic-feminist.blogspot.com/ , which she has just moved to http://exhasid.blogspot.com

I stumbled across it today totally on accident. I love teh internets!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

[Via http://youngjeninspats.wordpress.com]

When Taco Bell Doesn't Cut It.

“I’m hungry.” I told my mom.

She didn’t respond.

“But not for fast food. I’m sick of fast food. I want a really fine-cooked meal.”

She laughed. In my family, we all love to cook, but no one has oodles of time to spare for that particular hobby. So we often subsist on leftovers, or fast ‘n’ easy’s. Nothin’ wrong with that.

But tonight… because it’s Friday… because I saw When in Rome with my mom and sis… and because I’m inspired…

…I’m going to bust up in the kitchen like it hasn’t seen in a good 2 months.

Even though I should be doing noble things, like cleaning and school and all that jazz, I’m going to put it all aside and make some delicious, gourmet food. Because I want to.

So we’ll see how things turn out. If it all turns into one very large cooking flop, I will notify you and post pictures. If not… I will still notify you and post pictures.

Ciao!

[Via http://abbiewrote.wordpress.com]

Are we doing enough?

I just watched Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk about food and the responsibility that educators have in reversing the terrifying trends that are causing so much poor health and even premature death. I was incredibly moved by Jamie’s passion and powerful arguments. We all know he’s passionate about food, many of us have his cookbooks and many of us have changed the way we cook and eat because of him. But, are we ready to be scared enough by his message to change the way we educate?

I am.

As a PYP Teacher and Workshop Leader, I constantly find myself talking to students and fellow teachers about how we are “preparing our students for the world”. I elaborate on that by echoing the words of Sir Ken Robinson who reminds us that we know very little about the world that our students will inhabit. One thing we do know for sure is… they will need to eat, and Jamie Oliver’s message is that they are going to need to develop very different eating habits to the ones currently in fashion. But, when did I last teach my 11/11 year old students to cook? When did I last do any food-related teaching that truly had an impact on my students and was so internalized by them that it changed the way they eat? Am I really preparing them for the future?

Why not?

I’d like to try and reverse this situation in much the same way as Jamie Oliver is. I’d like to be a part of a movement,in my school and in the IBPYP, towards more teaching and learning about food, food preparation and cooking.

I’m actually pretty lucky. Early Years students in my school do cooking on a regular basis. And Middle Years students do food technology for a term. So, the process has started. But there’s a big gap… I’d like to fill it.

[Via http://samworkshops.wordpress.com]

A tale of two chickens

I am the sort of person who entertains fantasies about being the sort of person who has endless supplies of home roasted cold chicken in the fridge; partially because I watch / read too much Nigel Slater, he of “Ohh I’ll just look in my fridge, ooh look there’s some of Saturday’s roast chicken left, one courgette and a lump of parmesan” and he goes and makes the most divinely gorgeous meal out of it but principally because I love proper cold chicken. I say ‘proper’ cold chicken because the little lumps of cold roasted chicken, you get in trays in the supermarket, neatly sliced into suspicious looking fatty lumps covered in a coating that you don’t particularly want, don’t really count. I feel almost the same about cold turkey (yet don’t particularly like hot turkey) and one of the highlights for me, of a post Christmas party on Mr. Lacer’s side of the family, is a ready supply of the stuff. I am of course, also aware that buying a whole chicken is a lot cheaper than constantly buying chicken breasts.

Anyway, so, I just happened to be sitting on my sofa, about a week and a half ago, on a Monday, laptop on lap, midway into doing my Ocado shop, when the postman just happened to deliver my copy of this month’s Delicious magazine, I put down the laptop and had a flick through the magazine for some timely grocery shopping inspiration and came across a couple of recipes that involved chicken, the sort of recipes where you buy a whole chicken, cook it and then divide the meat up into two or three dishes, thus making the purchase of a chicken a rather cheap option. So, I picked my laptop back up, searched for chicken and there was a special offer, two chickens, so I ordered two.

The chickens arrived on the Wednesday, I had to hurriedly rearrange my fridge to fit them in and there they sat, on the bottom shelf, starring at me every time I opened the fridge door, going “Are you going to cook us then, use by date of the 9th you know!”. Unfortunately, for the very reason I hate menu planning, the latter half of last week involved me coming down with a heavy cold, again and as usual my idea of the most strenuous time consuming cooking I could do, involved opening the freezer door and getting out the packet of Birds Eye chicken dippers. So I had two dead birds in my fridge, taunting me. It wasn’t until early Sunday evening, did I feel up to cooking at least one of them and even then I didn’t really want to. So I dug out the now cursed magazine (which was making me feel even more enthusiastic about cancelling the subscription for, for daring to give me ideas above my time and energy levels*) and stuck chicken number one in my stock pot and then went and did bed time for the kids.

Now, I’ve never poached a whole chicken before, I normally roast them, but that is what the recipe called for and I was actually quite pleased with the result, as when it came to removing the meat from the chicken, it was a lot easier and I feel I got far more meat off it than I would if I had roasted it first. And of course I was left with the water the chicken had cooked in. The recipe also required stock, so as instructed I had also bunged some carrot, onion, leek and bay leaves in with the chicken originally, however not according to the recipe, but using an extra step I remember reading from Jamie Oliver, before adding the water and the chicken, I had browned the vegetables off first, as I’ve only made stock once before and I remember not browning the vegetables off first and being distinctly unimpressed with the results. So,  by the end of poaching the chicken, I was left with a chicken which was easy to get the meat off and a stock that had the weirdly pleasant smell, exactly like that of Walker’s Roast Chicken flavoured crisps.

After getting the meat off the bones, I stuck the bones back in the pot with the stock and continued cooking for a few hours whilst I made the first of the magazine recipes; chicken enchiladas (which in my opinion were a bit stodgy, Mr. Lacer liked them though) and caught up with Being Human. I then went back to my stock (it was about 10.30pm by this point), drained off the stock and started cooking the next recipe, chicken and butternut squash gratin (which required the stock, which meant I couldn’t start cooking it earlier). By the time I had made up three dishes of the stuff, ready to go in the freezer, unbaked, it was nearing one o’clock in the morning and I still couldn’t go to sleep, much as I desperately wanted to, as I had to wait for the rest of the stock I had made and decanted into freezable containers, to cool enough to put in the freezer. I got to bed at 2am, exhausted and in the way how sometimes if you’re so tired and with no chance to properly wind down, before going to bed, I slept badly and consequently had to go through Monday on two and a half hours sleep. Needless to say, those three dishes of gratin, taking up space in my freezer, right now I don’t really fancy them.

I was curious however to try out one of the containers of my plentiful supply of stock, so last night, for the kids’ tea, I made the best test of a good stock I know, risotto. I made a fairly plain risotto, so that the flavour I was convinced was there, would shine through. So, I defrosted some stock, used it, came to taste the risotto, about twenty minutes into making it and it was the most dish water dreary risotto I had ever tasted! I quickly made up some stock cube stock and added that for the last five minutes, but oh dear, it wasn’t the nicest risotto I’ve ever given to the kids (not that Boy Lacer ate it anyway) and to compensate I had to smother it in more parmesan than usual, which is probably why Girl Lacer said she liked it more the normal. The only good thing about my home made stock, was that the colour of the risotto was a little more darker than normal.

So, I’ve got a lot of vaguely tasteless stock in my freezer and there I was looking forward to endless runs of gorgeous risottos and maybe some chicken noodle soup. I will still use it, but probably for home made soups instead.

So, you may possibly be thinking (if you’ve read all this way far down), what about chicken number 2? Well that was going out of date yesterday, so I had to cook it, despite not really wanting it, after trying a few spoonfuls earlier of the kids’ leaden risotto. Unfortunately it was the day before my next Ocado delivery and I had virtually nothing in the house to go with it. But looking through (of course) Nigel Slater, I found a simple roast chicken recipe that involved massaging it with butter and ramping up the temperature of the oven for the first fifteen minutes, so I tried that. The recipe called for potatoes to roast with the bird and it sounded so nice, the way how the potatoes roasted in the chicken-y, buttery juices, but I had no potatoes, not even a potato waffle to my name, so I cooked it without. Taking that chicken out of the pan without potatoes to toss in the lovely juices was almost criminal, so I will do that recipe again, properly this time, next time I can bring myself to order chicken.

* Actually, I was thinking of cancelling it anyway, I’ve done well over the last year or so, reducing the number of magazines I read and only still read Delicious because it was the one magazine I had on subscription and I’ve been too lazy about finding out how to cancel it.

[Via http://lacer.wordpress.com]

Cooking Videos: unforgettable recipes

Who can forget his mother and grandmother's biscuits or sweet bread? We the members of our entire lives eating, and video projects have also been coveted recipes and who manufactured attractions and personal voice.

The purpose of the video to a friend or family member in accordance with recipes, because of his or her favorite recipe to make – food preparation and measurement of the human personality procedure.

Recipe is the script. Each step taken in order, because it is执行. As a bonus feature, I will include a cook, on the history of cuisine, who taught in the history of the family members or friends of his or her recipe and place of the interview.

Here is the "recipe video":

Welcome to the Kitchen – Recipes Introduction

The list of required materials

List of ingredients added to the cover

Preparing food step by step

Including the preparations for the window close

HighlightTools and techniques

"Greenman shooting 'dishInterview to complete the boss

Through careful planning, you can come up with the exact order you want to shoot – including editing and all this in front of the camera end of the project. However, this is a project that will really benefit from editing. If you plan to edit, shoot, extra food preparation on the end of ups and downs, choose the best angle and time to prove the process.

Tip:

If your questionComfortable speaking in front of the camera, there is a "side-kick in the kitchen." This person could question what happened, chefs will be more comfortable than others about the implementation of the camera.

Grandparents teaching grandson is a wonderful dimension to the project.

Creativity and your books. Spelling cookie dough on the counter and write them in the kitchen table, chalk board, or write it in the icing on the cake. Use your imagination娱乐.

Allow 4-5 hours of shooting, and to ensure that your boss know that there is more formula, they are ready to shoot.

Preparation and measures, and the number of possible ingredients, and then start. You need to peel potatoes, only one everone understand the process. To attract workers, the remaining 20 will be the cook and Shell love you.

Using a wireless microphone to record audio. If you need to use the camera microphone, you are using in the vicinity, and talk about your bossLoud.

Recipes make great gifts film. You can buy cases and trademarks online or save to your computer. Handwritten recipe card is a perfect case of the final sum!

I wish you good luck volume history of the project!

[Via http://pancakesfromscratch.wordpress.com]

365-66 Caramel Dip (recipe included)

I learned this recipe ten years ago and get rave reviews every time I make it. The ingredients and steps are super easy and it is DELICIOUS!!!

Ingredients:

• 1 block of cream cheese
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Let cream cheese soften on counter for about 30 minutes
• Whip the cream cheese in a small or medium size bowl
• Add in brown sugar and whip some more
• Stir in vanilla
• Keep covered in refrigerator

Serve with apples or other suitable fruit.

[Via http://justmovingforward.wordpress.com]

My Kitchen

For any of those who are thinking that in order to cook and bake you need a large kitchen, you don’t. This is my kitchen, I know it is bigger than some and smaller than most. If I had three arms I could touch the cooktop, sink and refrigerator all at the same time. I am lacking on counter space, as well as storage.

My point is….that even if you have a small kitchen you can still do wonderful things in it. Sometimes you have to get creative with your work space (think cookie cutter cookies). The one benefit to having such a small space is that you can’t make a mess and go to the next station, you only have one station so you have to clean up before your next move, though that is also a drawback.

[Via http://muddycreekcreations.wordpress.com]

One lump or two...?

Now, there’s nothing quite like a lovely hot, steaming cuppa and maybe a couple of Ginger Nuts and/or Jaffa Cakes  surreptitiously dunked in for 5 seconds and shoved in one’s gob post haste – well, gotta watch the drips…Earl Grey is my tea of choice first thing in the morning, splash of milk, no sugar – lovely! I have a couple more cups throughout the day and maybe a coffee or two (can you tell I’m being guarded about how many I really drink!!) Anyhoo, whilst I was surfing on t’internet and thought I’d check out how much High Tea/Cream Teas were at more salubrious establishments, like Afternoon Tea at Claridges. You’ll be seated in the one of the finest and most luxurious tea rooms in world and be offered a choice of 30 teas from all over the world; a delicious selection of ‘finger’ sandwiches; a tempting selection of sweet pastries; freshly baked raisin & apple scones with tea-infused jam and Devonshire clotted cream – all this for £35 per person *chokes on PG Tips brew*.

I’ll put the kettle on…

[Via http://nickynackynoo.wordpress.com]

Enchiladas

I recently tasted real homemade enchiladas – not the type where you buy the red or green sauce, but real honest to goodness homemade enchilada sauce that took hours to make. I have to say, I don’t think that I have ever really eaten enchiladas but this sauce was delicious. So I decided to try and see if I could make something similar. First, I will let you know that these enchiladas were my own short cut version, but, I do have to say that they came out pretty well. I would definitely make them again.  The next time that I make the sauce though, I would try using fresh chili peppers. I also think that making enchiladas at home make them more healthy than if you were to go out to dinner and get them.

I made chicken enchiladas but you could use any type of meat or even make vegetarian ones.  Good luck!

Enchiladas

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breast

1/4 medium onion

1/2 Can of diced tomatoes (from 14 ounce can)

2 Garlic Cloves

1/8 teaspoon Chili Powder

1/8 teaspoon Cumin

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

———-

8 dried chilies (I used 4 ancho chilis and 4 cascabel chilis)

1/4 Onion Sliced

2 garlic Cloves

1/2 can of diced tomatoes

Unsweetened chocolate

Pinch of Cinnamon

Water

Corn tortillas

Grated cheddar cheese

Pam

To Make the Chicken Filling

Put the first eight ingredients into a slow cooker and let it cook together until the chicken is soft enough to shred. If there isn’t enough liquid for the slow cooker, add an 1/8 of a cup of chicken stock or water.  Finally, shred the chicken and mix all of the ingredients together. Set the chicken aside. (You can probably cook this on the stove, I just felt the slow cooker was easier)

To make the enchilada sauce

Add the chilis, onion and garlic to 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes to ensure that everything is very soft. Add the tomatoes, a pinch of unsweetened chocolate and a pinch of the cinnamon. Not too much on either or your red sauce will start tasting more like a mole. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the vegetables and put them into a blender. Or you can use an immersion blender which is what I did. Blend everything adding the same chili, garlic water slowly until you get the right consistency. Also make sure there are no lumps – biting into a chili pepper would not be fun.  That’s it. It’s surprisingly easy and you can adjust the chili types for more or less heat and the tomatoes for more or less tomato flavor. The chocolate and cinnamon are optional.

Making the enchiladas

Spray a baking dish with Pam so the enchiladas don’t stick. Spoon two to three spoon fulls of the red sauce into the dish and spread it around so the bottom is covered.  Now take one of the corn tortillas (I used the small ones), fill it with 1-2 spoonfuls of the chicken mixture, wrap it up and put it seem down in the dish. (Technically you are supposed to fry the enchiladas to make them more malleable. You could also stick them in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Honestly, I didn’t do anything. I just started rolling them) Repeat until your baking dish is full – mine took about 6 enchiladas. Spoon more red sauce over the enchiladas and then cover with cheese. Bake at 350-375 for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the insides warm.

I ate mine with a bit of extra sauce and leftover guacamole the first day and with plain avocado the next day. They were great both times! I would love to know how yours turns out.

[Via http://cook4one.wordpress.com]

Baking a cake standing up

Last year I was still somewhat out of commission after knee surgery when Susanne’s birthday rolled around, and by “out of commission,” I really mean, “still taking sponge baths.” This year I’m mostly back to my old form—I’ve returned to a bowling league, have kept up my routine at the gym, and can squat again when I need something from a low cabinet, which is pretty much the only time I squat—so I figured cake making would go easier this time around.

I should know by now not to make assumptions regarding the ease of anything. And still, I persist in my idiocy.

For her part, Susanne had requested a Schwartzwald Kirschtorte (say that 10 times fast), a.k.a. a Black Forest cake, but she’d thrown in a couple of twists: she wanted a layer of chocolate ganache in the middle of the cake layers, instead of the usual whipped cream and cherries, and she wanted, on advice from her mother, the cherries that go atop the cake to be dipped in chocolate. In the spirit of the upcoming Vancouver Olympics, I’ll explain the level of difficulty this entailed. Now your standard Black Forest cake, with its spongy chocolate cake layers, has a rating, under the old figure skating scale, of 3.2 out of 6 total, but because it also calls for whipped cream and systematic pricking with a fork so that it will uptake the kirschwasser liquor, has a final technical difficulty of 4.1, or in the new International Judging System, 8,237 points. Because I also had to make a ganache, dip cherries previously cured in liquor, and use that liquor as the base for a homemade liquored syrup, my new difficulty rating was a 5.8, or in the IJS, let’s see. . . carry the one . . . computing . . . 13,482 points.

But I was up to the task. I was certain of this.

While the recipe called for 7″ cake pans, presumably because the Germans enjoy smaller-sized desserts, I only had one 8″ cake pan and 3 9″ pans. What was a baker to do? I went for the 9-inchers, because 9, being a greater integer than 7, must be better. I whipped up 6 eggs, my arteries screaming no at me, blending in sugar and cocoa, and arrived at a splendidly smooth batter, which, upon pouring into the pans I could see rose to a withering height of . . . three-quarters of an inch. Hmm. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the cakes would rise in the oven.

After dutifully rotating the cake pans at the halfway mark of baking, I answered the timer’s bell and saw that indeed, they had risen. They were now one inch tall. I considered marking their progress on the kitchen wall, but instead I grabbed my car keys, wallet, and phone, and headed to the grocery store, as I was now out of eggs. And I figured I should pick up some extra whipping cream just in case.

Twenty minutes later I was the proud owner of assorted dairy products, and ready for round two of cake madness. I quickly washed out the cake pans, re-buttering and flouring them, in something like double speed for this redux. I started cracking eggs again and was dismayed that I’d bought some kind of weird-shelled eggs—each insisted on leaving a little bit of itself in the bowl, so I had to fish out chips every single time.

One mixer made a new batch of chocolate cake, the other started the cream whipping process, while I melted 72 percent dark chocolate in a double boiler and made a simple syrup on another burner. Pant, pant! I was a whirlwind of confectionery! A force of baking nature!

Two more cakes popped into the oven. Chocolate was melted carefully, while the syrup boiled and oh no, started to smoke. The kitchen quickly filled with the acrid, eye-stinging fog, so I tossed the offending concoction and started again. Again. Opening the back door helped a bit, though it was mighty chilly outside.

Okay, the chocolate was ready, so I dipped cherries in the double boiler, thinking to myself that since we picked these cherries ourselves last summer, this cake was officially six months in the making. They looked cute lined up on the wax paper, drying slowly as if there weren’t a flurry of activity just a few inches away from them. I added some cream to the rest of the melted chocolate, to start the ganache portion of the program.

Finally, the layering and stacking and glazing and frosting were finished. I looked at the creation. Four hours, a dozen eggs, 20 tablespoons of butter, 3 cups of cream, 4 cakes layers, 12 ounces of dark chocolate, and many cherries later, I had this:

I was so tired and hungry from all of the cooking, I almost dropped my face into the thing and ate it all, but figured it wasn’t worth the effort to make it all over again. A few hours later, several of Susanne’s friends came over to share cake and wine in front of the fire. We oohed and ahhed over the creation and by the end of the evening, it had disappeared into our collective stomachs. Susanne enjoyed the cake but noted twice to various people, including my mother-in-law, that she only got one piece of cake out of the whole thing. So it looks like I’ll be performing again, but this time it will be the short program. A tasty, short little program.

[Via http://evmaroon.wordpress.com]