A Confession

I hide food.

Not Ding Dongs or Cheetos or Fudge Rounds.

I hide healthy food.

Specifically Quaker Mini Rice Cakes. Ranch flavor.

I love the things as a replacement for the handful of potato chips that I used to have with my sandwich at lunch everyday. The bags aren't big but I can make them last about a week and a half if I eat 10 (the recommended serving size) per day.

The problem is Brian loves them too. And he doesn't necessarily follow the servings suggestions.

If he knows we have them the bag might last two days.....tops.

And it's not like Fiber One Bars where all I have to do is buy the peanut butter flavor to be sure that he won't eat them all. He actually likes ranch flavored stuff.

And it's not like I don't want him to eat healthily. I do. But I won't get any of it if he chows it all. And if the kids find out about it then I'll be lucky to get a single solitary rice cake. Selfish, I know. But that stuff is expensive!!

So. I hide them. I've found various places that work pretty well.

I put them in the highest cabinet behind all of boxes of cereal and the glass pitchers I never use. But when the cereal runs out he can see that teal colored bag through the glass pitchers.

I put them in the back of the knee high shelf in the pantry behind a bunch of boxes of Tuna Helper and Rice Pilaf. I don't think he ever spotted them there, but they were hard to get to and I had to keep clearing off the shelf everyday just to make my lunch.

Then I hit upon the perfect place. Down in my craft cabinet. I have more cabinets in my kitchen than I need so a few of them are dedicated to seasonal decor and craft supplies. Brian never gets in any of those. So I snuggled my bag of contraband right in next to the Easter eggs and the empty hermit crab cage.

But then I forgot about it. I didn't remember it until I opened the drawer of phonebooks and found a single rice cake laying there. I knew immediately what had happened. Sure enough I opened the craft cabinet and found that a mouse had eaten a hole in the bottom of the bag and devoured a good portion of my secret stash!

Serves me right for being so sneaky, I guess.

But here is the poetic justice portion of the story.

I threw the bag on the counter and sat down to eat my lunch. Next thing I know Brian is in the kitchen munching on rice cakes.....mouse droppings and all. (Apparently he didn't notice the big jagged hole in the bottom of the bag.) I tried yelling out a warning but my mouth was full. All I could do was wave my arms wildly. He finally got the message and spit out the mouthful he was crunching.

What did we learn?

A) I need to find a new hiding place.
B) We have mice.
C) Look before you eat.

I"ve Been Reading....

There are book reviews of two more books over on the 2009 Reading List on my sidebar.


Check it out.


Now I'm in the midst of Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brother's Karamazov", and my next book club selection to read is "Mississippi Solo" by Eddy Harris. Look for updates soon.

The Wedding

We haven't had a wedding in our family for 7 years. My brother was the last of our generation to get married.....that is until last weekend.

On July 4th my cousin Christina (known to all of us, and referred to in the rest of this post as, Pudd) got married. It was a big deal and a lot of fun for all of us.



All the "girls" worked all day on Friday to decorate the reception area and make all of the food. It was fun to spend an entire day together....even if it was a lot of work. It was also fun to spend a few days at Mom and Dad's house with my brother and his family, who we haven't seen since December.



Saturday started out with torrential (or at least pretty steady) downpours, but ended a beautiful day. I met some of the girls early on Saturday to do their hair. (Including the bride....talk about pressure!) Fortunately all of the "do's" held up despite the weather.



We went to the church early for pictures, then enjoyed the wedding (no problems) and then I rushed to the reception to start cutting the cheesecakes I had made the day before. I don't know how many people were actually at the reception but they ate EVERY piece of cake and 5 1/2 Chocolate Truffle Cheesecakes not to mention lots of fresh fruit and I don't know how many quarts of chocolate from the chocolate fountain.

I think everybody went away full! We went away with enough marshmallows to make us all 10 s'mores each every night of our upcoming camping trip, a gallon of Blue Hawaiian Punch for Cainan's birthday party, some pie filling, a giant can of baking cocoa and a can of pineapple juice. A pretty good haul, I'd say.

Here are some pics of the big day.

Ryker hanging out before the wedding. Isn't he dashing in that tux?

Kinley chatting with cousin Brooklyn.

My nephew Eli wishing he could dump that basket of flower petals.

Jacob and the girls. (Everybody in this picture is my cousin (or niece) except the girl on each end...and Jacob,of course.)

Jacob and Pudd running the gauntlet of rice and "poppers" (fireworks).

Blue punch. White dress. Bad idea. Amazingly my niece, Kira's dress came through with just a touch of chocolate from the fountain.

Pudd visiting with Grandma.

Cainan feeling very important after completing his job as "Rice Hander Outer".

Brian snacking on a blueberry.

A disclaimer: Anyone who has ever read this blog before has probably already realized that these pictures were not taken by me. You've likely never seen photos this good on here. These pics were all taken by Travis, my cousin in law. I envy his skill.....and his camera. Thanks for sharing the pics.

AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

Hushpuppy Help

We recently had a good ole Ohio River catfish fry. It was as delicious as always.

I made hushpuppies to go with the fish. I used the recipe straight from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Complete Guide to Country Cooking by Taste of Home. They turned out beautifully.

They were perfectly golden brown on the outside and nice and moist on the inside. (I had a pic but had to delete it when my memory card was full. Christmas pics take priority over deep-fried bread.) They even had that kinda round, typical hushpuppy shape.....but they were a little bland.

They basically tasted like hunks of plain cornbread....and not even the good kind with lots of sugar. They need something. Some kind of spice. Some kind of kick. A little flavah.

Here is the recipe I used. Any suggestions on what I should add to improve the taste?

Hush Puppies

2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. baking soda
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream

In a bowl combine dry ingredients. Add egg, milk and sour cream; stir just until moistened. In a deep fat fryer heat oil to 375. Drop batter by spoonfuls into oil. Fry until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly. Yield: 12-15 servings

Manic Monday

Now you can wear your "despair" for all to see.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

You may remember that I made this ultra rich cheesecake for Ryker for his birthday this fall. I posted pictures of the dessert but I never posted the recipe.



Well, today, 8 months later, you get the recipe.



I'm posting this today because as you read this I am likely in the midst of baking one of these beauties.



You see, back at that birthday party in November my cousin's fiance tried a piece of the cheesecake and declared that he had to have it for his groom's cake at their wedding on July 4th of this year.



So today I am making six Chocolate Truffle Cheesecakes for the wedding tomorrow. Join my and try one for yourself.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

Crust:

1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs
2 T. sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla

Topping:

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 t. vanilla

In a small bowl, combine cookie crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a greased 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Reduce heat to 325.

In a saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Remove from the heat; add cream and mix well. Set aside.

Ina mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add coca and beat well. Add eggs; beat on low just until combined. Stir in vanilla and reserved chocolate mixture just until blended. Pour over crust. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set.

For topping, melt chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat. Stir in cream and vanilla; mix well. Spread over filling. Refrigerate overnight. Carefully run knife around edge of pan to loosen. Remove sides of pan.

Just before serving, garnish with whipped cream and miniature chocolate kisses if desired.

Yield: 12 Servings

Goin' on a Berry Hunt

You may have noticed a lot of blueberries popping up around here this week.

That's because we had a family blueberry picking trip out to our friends' farm on Saturday. We brought home 5 pounds of huge, delicious blueberries. I've been using them in as many recipes as possible and I think I'm going to have to go back and get some more because I have more recipes than I do berries.

The first thing I made was some blueberry jam (for toast and bagels every morning and for my Bakewell Tart). It was so easy. It literally took about 5 minutes....and it should have taken 3, but I was playing Puerto Rico while cooking it so I wasted a little time building harbors and such.

Blueberry Refrigerator Jam

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup sugar

1 (1.75 oz) pkg. Ball Fruit Pectin*

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. Boil for two minutes. Pour into jars and refrigerate.

This recipe made one small ziploc bowl full of delicious jam.

*You can use unflavored or lemon Jell-O in place of the fruit pectin if you want.

I also made some warm and yummy blueberry pancakes.

This recipe originally came from Williams and Sonoma, but I found it at Annie's Eats. It was a real hit. The only problem I had was that my blueberries were so big that they literally held the pancake up off of the griddle so that it took them a long time to cook after I flipped them.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

3 Tbs. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 1/4 cups buttermilk

4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 to 2 Tbs. vegetable oil or nonstick cooking spray

1 cup fresh blueberries

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat an oven to 200ºF.

In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the eggs on medium speed until frothy. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla. Stir just until the batter is smooth and no lumps of flour remain; do not overmix.

Heat an electric griddle to medium-high heat until a few drops of water flicked onto the surface skitter across it. Lightly grease the griddle with oil or spray with nonstick cooking spray. Using a batter dispenser set on the large setting, dispense the batter onto the griddle. Alternatively, ladle about 1/3 cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake. Scatter 1 Tbs. blueberries evenly over each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on top and the batter is set, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spatula, flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes.

Transfer to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while cooking the remaining pancakes. (*This really works...don't skip this step, it makes all the difference. Stick your bacon in there too.)

Dust the pancakes with confectioners’ sugar and serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Makes about 16 pancakes; serves 4.

I've got company coming over tonight too, so I'm looking for yet another blueberry dessert recipe. I'll let you know what I try.

The Bakewell Tart....er, Pudding

"The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almond pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almond sponge cake-like filling. "

The version I made is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam and this is how it turned out:

I either a)am a very poor photographer or b)have a bad camera or c) both, because these pictures do not do it justice. The tart was very pretty and tasted great too. I tried it out on several people and they all enjoyed the flavor of the almonds and the blueberries.

Frangipane was a new taste and texture for all of us but we all enjoyed it and started to wonder what it would be like on top of other fillings....specifically chocolate. What else?

It was great fun to try a classic British dessert (without the expensive airline tickets) and I look forward to trying more "international" baked goods in future challenges.

I was a little intimidated by the recipe at first, but once I got in to it I really enjoyed it. Here is the chronicle of my very first experience as a Daring Baker:

June 2

-Read the challenge and was totally overwhelmed. What is a frangipane anyway?

June 6

-Was finally bored brave enough to read the whole challenge. Phew! Can I do this? (In good news a frangipane is an almond paste and I'm allowed to use a Victoria sponge in it's place if I want to. Now that that's all cleared up......)

June 8

-Checked the forums and found that someone has already completed the challenge...the day after it was posted! His tarts looked pretty and somewhat easy. I'm feeling better about this.

-Realized I will have to invest in a fluted tart pan for this recipe. I've been wanting one for a few years anyway so.......YIPPEEE!

June 10

-Looked up the pronunciation of "frangipane" at dictionary.com. It's [fran-juh-peyn].

June 13

-Bought a big round fluted tart pan at IKEA.

June 24

-Realized I only have 6 more days to make this recipe. Help!

-Decided to get started! Assembled my ingredients and dug in to the recipe.

-Realized those crazy Brits use metric measurements. Good thing Brian is around to do all of my conversions.

-Realized it would just be a lot easier to use a food scale and forget about all of the math.

-Realized I don't have a food scale.

-Brian volunteered to bring home an electric balance from the school.

-Project postponed for at least one more day.

June 25

-The scale is here. All ready to go. But........too tired.

June 27

-Step One: Made some homemade blueberry jam for the filling. Took all of 5 minutes.

June 29

-Step Two: Made my very first Bakewell Tart....er Pudding.

And now the recipe.

Bakewell Tart....er, Pudding

Shortcrust Pastry

225g (8oz) all purpose flour

30g (1oz) sugar

2.5ml (½ tsp) salt

110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)

2 (2) egg yolks

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)

15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater.

(Isn't that the coolest idea? I've never thought of grating frozen butter before but it really works great for getting your mixture to a "coarse crumbs" stage. I'll definitely use that technique again.)

Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll chilled dough to a 1/4 inch thickness and pat into tart pan and freeze for 15 minutes.

Frangipane:

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened

125g (4.5oz) icing sugar

3 (3) eggs

2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract

125g (4.5oz) ground almonds

30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy.

( I always thought primrose was a pale pink. Apparently not. Apparently it is a very pale yellow. Oh the things we can learn from our neighbors across the pond.)

Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine.

After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Behold: Frangipane!

To assemble the tart:

Remove crust from freezer and spread with 1/4 cup to 1 cup of jam or curd, depending on taste.

Spread frangipane over jam layer.

Bake at 400 degrees (200 C) for 25 minutes. Top with sliced almonds (I obviously only had slivered almonds on hand) and bake for an additional 5 minutes until frangipane is golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream or custard sauce.

(I tried it warm with Cool Whip, the poor mans whipped cream, and it was good. I tried it at room temperature 24 hours later and it was even better.)

So there you have it. The Bakewell Tart....er, Pudding. Enjoy!

My sous-chef had to make a few cookies with the leftover shortcrust pastry dough. Bonus!

An Announcement and a Cheesecake

Drumroll Please!

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'm a Daring Baker!

The Daring Bakers are a group of people from all over the world that participate in monthly baking challenges selected by the members themselves. And I was accepted into the group!!

Each month I will be making some kind of new adventurous baked good and posting about the experience on my blog.

And lucky for you tomorrow (the 1st of the month) is the appointed day! Come back tomorrow to see what kind of crazy challenge they came up with this month and what I had to go through to make it.

I'll share lots of pics and links to other Daring Bakers so you can check out their creations too.

Now, on to the cheesecake.

For a meeting of ladies that I am attending tonight I was asked to bring a cheesecake. (I'm kind of a cheesecake specialist.) I wanted to do something stunning, but not too difficult. When I opened up my latest issue of Woman's Day I found a gorgeous recipe that I just had to try.

Blueberry Key Lime Cheesecake

Crust

10 shortbread cookies, crushed (I used Pecan Sandies)

1 T. butter, melted

Filling

3 (8 oz) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

3 eggs

1 T. grated lime zest

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1 t. vanilla extract

1 drop green food color (optional)

Blueberry Topping

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 t. cornstarch

3 T. water

3 cups fresh blueberries

1 T. lime juice

Heat oven to 325 and spray an 8 inch springform pan with nonstick spray.

Mix cookies and butter until moist. Press into pan. Bake for 10 mins.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add sour cream and mix well. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth and creamy. Pour over crust.

Bake for 60 minutes or until cake is almost set and center still jiggles slightly when touched. Remove to rack to cool. Slide knife around edge of pan. When cool, refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours before serving. (Cake will sink as it cools).

In a small saucepan mix the sugar, cornstarch and water for topping. Add 1 cup blueberries. Mash with a potato masher and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture has boiled for at least one minute and has thickened. Add lime juice and 1/2 cup whole blueberries. Pour over cooled cake. Cover top of cake with remaining whole blueberries.

Isn't it beautiful? It really turned out exactly like the picture in the magazine. I can't wait to try it tonight.

Head over to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for some more yummy recipes.

Faux Sourdough French Bread

I've baked a LOT of bread in my time, but for some reason I had never tried to make French Bread until just a few weeks ago.


We were having spaghetti and I really wanted some garlic bread to go along with it. I had plenty of time and all of the ingredients, so I decided to whip up some french bread.


I checked one of my favorite recipe sources (http://www.recipezaar.com/) and found that most of the french bread recipes were made with a sourdough starter. I did NOT want to do that. #1 it takes a few days to get the starter going and #2 starters are a pain to feed and keep and divide, etc. So....I thought I was up a creek without a paddle.


And then I spotted this recipe for Faux Sourdough French Bread. It has the flavor of sourdough with out the starter. The vinegar, sour cream and ginger give it that little zing that you expect from a sourdough bread, and it incorporates wheat germ...something I'm always trying to work in to our diets, so I decided to go for it. Here it is:


Ingredients:

4-5 cups bread flour
2 T. wheat germ
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. ground ginger
2 pkg. instant yeast
1 cup water
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 T. vinegar
1 egg white
1 T. water


In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 cups flour and remaining dry ingredients. Add water, sour cream and vinegar and beat well. Stir in additional 2 to 2 1/2 cups flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.


On a floured surface, knead in 1 to 1 1/2 cups flours until dough is smooth and elastic. About 5 minutes. Placed dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 23-25 minutes.


Punch dough down and let rest for 15 minutes under an overturned bowl. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 14 x 8 rectangle. Starting with long side roll up dough pinching seam to seal well. Taper ends slightly to look like traditional french bread. Place seam side down on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 15 minutes.


Bake bread for 25 minutes at 375 degrees.


Beat egg white and water and brush over bread. Bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes until top is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.


That's my loaf of french bread in the picture above. Pretty nice, huh? I skipped the egg wash step so the crust isn't shiny but it tasted great!


I also found a recipe for garlic spread to put on the bread. I always try to mix softened butter and garlic powder or garlic salt but it never tastes like garlic bread. This time I discovered a better way.


Make a paste out of olive oil, minced garlic and grated parmesan cheese. Spread it on the warm bread and voila! Garlic Bread.


If you really want to go all out, put some mozarella cheese on top of that and slip it back in to the oven to melt. We did that on 1/4 of one loaf and it was EXCELLENT! I couldn't make more because we would have pigged out on it and been sorry later.


Give this simple sourdough french bread recipe a try the next time you are having pasta. You won't be disappointed.