Tag Archives: cooking & baking

Aug24

Stream of consciousness

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Stream of consciousness

Hello, blogosphere.  Apparently it has been a week since I last checked in?  I don’t even see how that is possible, because either the last week was the fastest week of my life or my brain is swiss cheese.  Both are possibilities.  I am so tired today.

I remember in a psychology class I took in high school, we had to do a Free Association project.  I thought it was fun at the time, so I’m going to do something similar with this post.  And the word I will use is “today”.  Ready?  GO!

  • I somehow slept with my torso facing one direction and my feet facing another, kind of like what an owl can do with its head and body because it has a twisty neck.  Unfortunately I do not have a twisty back like that, so I have been moving like an octogenarian.
  • Analie has been sad yesterday and today.  I suspect a new crop of teeth.
  • Therefore, I am considering premature dentures for Analie.
  • All those commercials for, like, Polident and those dentures adhesives make me curious what it feels like to have your teeth glued on to your gums.  Can anyone tell me what it feels like if a parsley leaf gets in between?
  • I baked cupcakes with Angel.  They were ridiculous.  THEY CONTAINED BUTTER. She said they are going to decay my teeth.
  • Back to the dentures.  The fizzy water in the commercials looks like that stuff you’re supposed to take for stomach aches.  I’ve been reverting to my childhood habit of taking antacids before bed because of an upset stomach.  Every night the past few nights.
  • Shut it if you were going to say something about the butter I ate earlier today causing the stomachache.  I already considered that.
  • I decided it didn’t matter.
  • But please remind me to pick up another bottle of Gaviscon at the store on Friday.  They did NOT have that stuff when I was growing up and it is miraculous.
  • Gaviscon tastes like vanilla frosting, which reminds me that I almost finished all of my meals for the meal exchange this weekend.  (YAY ME!) And I did it all this morning!
  • Oh, except for the chicken thighs which I still cannot find and I have been to two stores looking for them.
  • And while we’re on the subject of chicken thighs, has anyone else considered how WEIRD it is that chickens have thighs in the first place?  Some of those pieces of meat are pretty big too.  So not only do chickens have thighs, they have THUNDER THIGHS.
  • If I eat chicken thighs, will they go straight to mine?
  • I should totally go to bed.
  • But I am concerned I will sleep in the owl position I slept in last night, though, and I am not looking forward to waking up like that again.  It was seriously hard to breathe most of the day.
  • Also, I ran into stuff at 5:00 am when I fed Analie.
  • Lots of stuff: walls, doors, couch.
  • JOEY IS NOW FIRED.  HE JUST BROUGHT UP THAT STUPID CROWDER SONG WITH THE DYING LITE BRITE LADY.
  • I hate that song.
  • Because Lite Brite people shouldn’t die in music videos.
  • It makes me cry.
  • OK it really is time for bed now.

 

May23

Kitchen Counters

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Kitchen Counters

I have a rather awkwardly laid out kitchen.  Our house was built in the 50s, well before the kitchen tools boom, and we have the perfect amount of cabinets for someone who has less of an, um, obsession with the kitchen.  So in order to make my kitchen tools and appliances fit, I’ve had to get a little bit creative.  And downsize some.  Because honestly, I had some things I wasn’t using.

Counter space is also a premium.  When we first moved in, I had my knife block, bread machine, stand mixer, food processor, flour, sugar and powdered sugar crocks, and utensil caddy all sitting on the counter.  I definitely could use my space, but everything looked so cluttered, and certain culinary projects required a full counter rearrange.   For instance, if I was rolling out pastry to fill a 13 inch pie dish.  (Not that I’ve been making any pastry lately; it has butter in it.  GLORIOUS, CREAMY BUTTER.) Several months ago, we got a little baker’s rack to keep my food processor, slow cooker, stock pot, and some various odds and ends.  I keep it the otherwise useless corner under my pots and pans.  The rack eliminated my food processor on the counter, so at the same time I got rid of the bread machine.  His home is now in the closet on the floor, and I think we all prefer it that way.

This morning, I woke up with the realization that I could hide my stand mixer in a cabinet if I just did a few simple tweaks to my cupboard organization.  Which I did immediately after I fed Analie, of course.  It was 7:30 am and Mondays are not the kind of days where you let moss grow on the clock.

Joey came into the kitchen and admired my  handiwork, then suggested we get a magnet strip for the knives we’ve been talking about.  I was all, YES PLEASE.

So we did.

And I love the results!

The knife block used to be in the corner where the laundry basket is sitting now.  We mounted the knives on the side of the cabinet, which I think is safer with Analie anyway.  I’m not sure the laundry basket will stay in the corner there, but for now I like it.  It’s so lame to be taking dirty towels to the hampers twice a day, but I’m not sure I want to sacrifice the counter space just for that luxury.

Like I said, not a lot of counter space.  But what I have is appliance-free now!  The stand mixer and food processor used to be in the corner where my crocks are now.

Aaaaaaand this is the awkward corner.  But hey, look at what’s NOT sitting on my counters, right??

After years and years of apartment living, having a kitchen this size is super awesome.  Even if the counter space isn’t 21st century style, and we have a random awkward corner over by the window.  Joey has made lots of little tweaks to the space I do have that has made it oodles better than it was when we moved in.

Yay for handy husbands!.

WINNING.

Feb10

Yummy

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Yummy

This morning during Analie’s first nap, I got inspired to finally add the latest dairy-free recipes I’ve been making into my cooking software.  This way they are much easier to take with me and share with others, all I have to do is print to PDF and email the doc instead of typing it out each time.

I am very persnickety when it comes to dairy-free cooking.  The recipe has to exclude all dairy ingredients (except in the case of pan sauces, I will substitute a few tablespoons of dairy substitute butter) or I won’t make it.  I feel like the chemistry gets all wonky if you start swapping almond milk for moo milk.  Plus, if a well loved recipe will taste mucho differento using dairy-free substitutes, and instead of being disappointed I’d rather just remember it how it was.

So I’ve been on a rampage to find new delicious things to make.

I put in 5 or 6 new tasty recipes this morning, then I went through all 259 recipes I have added to my software collection and tagged the ones with no dairy.  This way I can easily and efficiently filter what is dairy-free by just typing in the tag.

I found 56 recipes!  That’s ridiculous!  I was so glad I did that because about 45 of those I hadn’t realized were possibilities.

This really revitalizes my dinner planning for the next several months.

As much of a pain as it was to set up MacGourmet when Joey first bought it for me, it’s wicked awesome now.  I love it.  Love it.  Love it.  (Like, more than ketchup…so you know that’s saying something.)

Now all this talk of food makes me want hamburgers and french fries.  With ketchup.  On both.

Feb3

Emergency Chocolate Cake

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Emergency Chocolate Cake

I consider not being able to eat most kinds of chocolate for a year an emergency. Like, Category 5 with 400 mile an hour winds kind of emergency. Thankfully, there’s a recipe for that. And it’s good enough to make even if you can eat whatever you want.

Assuming you have the requisite seven ingredients, that is.

Emergency Chocolate Cake
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon vanilla

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat to 350 degrees. Lightly coat an 8 inch square pan with vegetable oil spray.

Whisk the flour, sugar, and baking soda together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the cocoa and water together until smooth. Whisk in the mayonnaise and vanilla. Stir the mayonnaise mixture into the flour mixture until combined.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs attached, 34-40 minutes.

Let cool 1 to 2 hours.

Jan9

The Mojo Returneth

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The Mojo Returneth

Today, we went to Panera for lunch because I actually know what I can eat at Panera.  And it is: Frontega Chicken (hold the cheese) and a Greek salad (hold the Feta).  I always ask for extra Kalmata olives since I don’t get to eat the Feta.  It’s ridiculously good and today I was successful at getting Joey to try one of the olives.  Last time he was all, Those olives are purple and withery; they make me uncomfortable to look at, I WILL NOT TRY ONE.

His reaction, upon eating one of my olives, was that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be but it was still a weird experience for him.

Because Joey is a lucky boy, he had a free treat on his MyPanera card, so he cashed it in on a cinnamon scone.  When he ordered it at the counter, I looked at him all questionable because of all the treat options in the bakery case, a cinnamon scone is NOT what I expected him to order.

Oh, Internet.  The cinnamon scone looked so delicious and creamy and buttery.  I picked up a piece of it and took a great big whiff of its dairy-filled goodness.  Here’s hoping that sniffs don’t somehow cross over into Analie’s dinner.

So when we got home, I was on a mission.

I have been dreaming about cream cheese (sadly it’s not an exciting dream) and chocolate.

I baked me a cake.

A chocolate cake.

With no dairy in it.

Granted, it’s not as ridiculous as a butter-based cake, but in a pinch it ain’t bad.  I might even consider serving it to company if pressed for time.  Hmm, on second thought it isn’t good enough for company.  But then…I can’t eat any desserts that are good enough for company, so if you’re unlucky enough to be invited to our house for dinner anytime in the next year…sorry in advance.

The baking of this chocolate cake set me on a downward cooking spiral.

I pulled a package of pork chops out of the fridge, set them in a brine, and whipped up a ginger-hoisin pan sauce to spoon over them once they were sauteed.

I sliced up some carrots and threw them in another pan to sautee in chicken broth and a bit of sugar.

And lastly, I got some water boiling for mashed potatoes.  Just for good measure.

An hour later, we sat down to eat a very midwestern meal as Analie fussed from her bouncy seat in protest that we weren’t holding her at that precise moment.  (She does that.  It’s her thing, but she IS getting better.)

I haven’t done the mountain of dishes from my dinner extravaganza yet, but it’ll probably take me 20 minutes.  Wahoo.  This is the first meal I have made in pre-baby style since Analie was born, and it felt really good to get in the kitchen and get my hands dirty.  (And spill oil all over my pants, but that’s just in the details, yes?)

Between the filthy huge amount of sleep I got last night (8 hours,WHAT??!?!), the fact that I got myself and my offspring ready for church in only an hour, and this meal I made, I feel as though I have gotten my mojo back.

EVERYONE WATCH OUT!!!

Sep30

The Applesauce

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The Applesauce

First things first.  Apparently our kid is going to be a Hoosier, according to The Poll from yesterday.  At least according to 66% of you.  And this is a democracy; I’m pretty sure that’s a margin that would even fly in Congress to pass a major bill.  So…she’s a Hoosier.

Now about the applesauce.

On Tuesday, Angel and I picked a bajillion apples.  OK, well, not a full bajillion but however many apples fit into a bushel.  They were extremely heavy and uncooperative (at one point, my full bag became possessed by the Apple Gremlins and spilled down the hill; I had to go chase after the stupid little things and I never did find them all.)

All told, I think I got about 42 lbs of apples and paid $24.00 for them.  Not bad, even though I had to re-pick the Golden Delicious bag.

With 42 lbs of apples, something Very Specific must be done with them.  Applesauce and apple butter were my plan.  That’s why this morning I woke up at 7 (although didn’t get myself out of bed until 8:00 because all my limbs felt like they were made of cast iron) and found myself at Wally World at 8:45 trying to find canning jars.  Then I went back to Angel’s house, where since 9:30 I have been making a royal mess of her kitchen.

I bought something like 48 jars, and I think they’ll be full by the end of the day.  At least the applesauce ones, the apple butter will have to wait until tomorrow because I have to simmer it all night once I get home.  I may have gone a little gangbusters, but I was thinking “hmm, the child will eat applesauce soon…” as I was standing in the canning jars aisle. I figure I can return a package if I don’t use it.

The apple peeler bit me in the thumb, and now I have a disgusting blood blister and bruise.  I’m not even sure how it happened.  I tried to re-create the situation and none of my attempts worked.

There are still oodles of apples to peel before we can be finished with the icky part (which is the peeling) and move on to the fun part, which is squashing up the peeled and cooked apples.  But according to my calculations, it takes 30 seconds to peel a single and slice the average apple and we still have…lots left.  Probably an hour and a half, actually.

A bushel is a lot.  It sounds really small but it’s really not.  It’s a lot.

Jul30

It will be cleaner than when I found it. (I hope.)

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It will be cleaner than when I found it. (I hope.)

Hello, Internet.

I’m in Iowa.  I’m in Iowa because last week Joey decided I needed to.  And then my Great-Grandmother (who lived to be 99 1/2!!) passed away last week so we wound up out here anyway for her funeral, which was Wednesday.  Joey left me at my parents’ house on Thursday and rode back to Indy with my grandparents in their RV.

So here I am.

In Iowa.

I decided I might as well as not make dinner for my parents, and my mom’s brother from Texas happens to be in town this evening.  He’s bringing a friend.

Fortunately, I packed my laptop which is my baking and cooking brain; almost all my recipes have been imported to my cooking software, so yesterday I sat down and planned a menu: beef & cheese enchiladas, mexican rice, refried beans.  (All from scratch, of course.)  Naturally I will omit the jalapenos from the rice and beans, as well as dial down the chili powder in the enchiladas.  I haven’t forgot which state I am currently in.

Mom and I went to the grocery store yesterday  afternoon and, would you believe it, THEY WERE OUT OF CILANTRO!  I just kind of stood there, pouting and staring at the empty space where the cilantro should be resting in the cooler and squeaked a few disgruntled squeaks.

Then, in the middle of the night, I decided I needed to also make a French Silk Pie for dessert (because that goes SO well with rice and beans, yes?)  We don’t have enough chocolate or heavy cream, so I’m headed back to a different store again today.

They’d better have cilantro.

I’ll probably be making a disasterous mess of my mom’s kitchen this afternoon while she’s at work.  In fact, I already have a spot of flour I forgot to wipe off the counter from when I was just whipping up my pie crust dough (which is now resting in the refrigerator for its alloted hour) and I should probably go deal with that before I get busted.

Childhood Laird Rule #1: you can experiment with making pretty much whatever you want in the kitchen, but you’d better leave it cleaner than when you found it. If not, Mom WILL come find you wherever you are and make you come back and do it right.

I’m hungry.  When’s dinner?

Apr24

We ran out of flour

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We ran out of flour

I woke up at 8:30 this morning and discovered it was one of those lovely Saturday mornings that seems like it belongs in a Leave it to Beaver episode: crisp blue skies, cool breeze, and the air smelled fresh from the rain that had just fallen.

Henry was wound tighter than one of those creepy tin-soldier windup toys and he was running circles around himself (and me) so I decided to take him outside for a second.  It was so beautiful I wanted to take him for a walk right then and there, but he’s also really clean from his bath last week, somehow, and since the ground was so wet still  I knew he’d get his paws majorly muddy.

So instead I came back inside with grand plans to make some pancakes to wake Joey up with.

Well, Henry and I managed to wake him up first, and when I told him about the pancakes, Joey immediately got out of bed.

Because pancakes are His Thing.

No sooner had he moved into the kitchen and began whipping our All-Clad off its hooks and onto the stove did he holler, “Um, are we out of flour?”

And then I remembered that YES….we were out of flour.

Can’t make pancakes without flour.

He had filled up my 1 cup measuring cup (incidentally, it’s All-Clad too and looks like a mini replica of my pots) almost to the top with flour…but not quite.  ”Looks like we’ll just have to have bacon and eggs,” he said, with great sorrow.

And I sat here and thought about what was in my pantry cupboards, and I remembered that while I may not have any more white flour, per the recipe, I do have: wheat flour, oat flour, soy flour, cracked cornmeal, bread flour, and cake flour.  SURELY ONE OF THOSE MUST WORK, right?  OK, maybe not the cracked cornmeal.

I suggested one of these options to Joey, The Pancake Master, and he said I might as well top the measuring cup off with the wheat flour.

Thus, I did so.  And all the while, the mini Pops that always sits on my shoulder whilst I’m in the kitchen jumped up and down and waved his arms and hollered “COOKING IS CHEMISTRY!  COOKING IS CHEMISTRY!!  THE RECIPE CALLED FOR WHITE FLOUR!!!  THEY WOULDN’T HAVE SPECIFIED WHICH FLOUR TO USE IF THEY JUST WANTED YOU TO USE WHATEVER YOU HAD LAYING AROUND, WILLY-NILLY!”

It is true that because of my Pops’ influence, for most baking I am a total recipe Nazi.  You level off that measuring cup with a KNIFE, not a SPOON, because if you use a spoon you might not get the correct proportions.  And if you throw off the proportions then who knows where the chemistry of the recipe will go?!  And don’t you dare go messing with a bread recipe.  That’s dangerous.

Cooking IS chemistry.

But we really wanted those pancakes.  So I ignored the voices in my head telling me NOT to substitute flours, and I dumped the flour mixture into the bowl which Joey instantly snatched from my hand and began mixing other ingredients into it.

I’ll save a bite of pancake for the mini Pops who always sits upon my baking shoulder…just to see how he thinks it tastes.

****UPDATE****

The pancakes are….weird.  They turned into small, thick, globs.  When one is making whole wheat pancakes, one must use an actual whole wheat pancake recipe.

Lesson learned, Pops.

Apr20

Berry Crumble

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Berry Crumble

Joey is helping put together an A/V presentation for an upcoming funeral, and tonight we’re hosting one of the family members so they can discuss layout, music, and a bunch of other things.

We didn’t clean our house this weekend because we were in the beautiful Indiana enjoying the kooshy green grass and lovely purple flowering trees.  And by the time we got home, there was just no opportunity to clean.  We were doing good to get a few groceries last night.

So tonight, as SOON as I got home, I rushed around spot-cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floors, and running the vacuum in high-traffic areas so that our house wouldn’t look like we were scuzzy seminary students who, like, never cleaned.

Horrors.

I’m about to throw together a triple berry crumble for dessert.  (And I am crossing all my fingers and toes that this woman doesn’t have a gluten allergy…because that would be embarrassing since there is flour in the crumble…)  I’m sort of making it up, too, because the berries I wanted to get at the store were more expensive than what I felt like spending, so I grabbed another kind at the last minute to save a couple bucks.

Here’s hoping it still tastes OK.

As soon as I’m done baking a crumble?  I’m going to lay on the couch and vegetate because frankly, looking at all that lovely green grass in Indy wore me plumb out.

Apr4

Chocolate Ganache-Filled Cupcakes

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Chocolate Ganache-Filled Cupcakes

I’m exhausted.

We’ve been at church, like, every day since Thursday.

My throat hurts from all this singin’.

So…what did we do today?  After church?  We came home, put on lounge pants, and crashed on the couch.  We watched Amelia and I baked Chocolate Ganache-Filled Cupcakes…after we picked up bittersweet chocolate from Tom Thumb (boo, Central Market was closed so we had to settle for Ghirardelli; and yes, I realize that statement makes me sound like a food snob.)

The cupcakes look off-the-hook amazing.

I haven’t tried one yet, the frosting is still just a bit soft since it’s about 85 degrees in here.

But ohhhhh, aren’t they pretty?  (If not slightly out of focus.  But hey, that’s a nice placemat, right?)

I’m dying to find out how the ganache filling worked.