Saturday, March 27, 2010

Daring Bakers: Orange Tian

OK so I looked at this recipe right at the start of the month. I thought it looked interesting. Never made anything like it so I didn't really know what to expect. So I started off the month buying all the oranges and making sure I had everything for this recipe.

Well, this wasn't a very good cooking/blogging month. In case you didn't notice by the lack of posts and the lack of content in the posts that did make it up. Even the stuff I made was not really blog worthy. And my threshold for being blog worthy is pretty damn low. In case you hadn't noticed.

I was even home all month. Wasn't travelling. Haven't even planted much in my garden yet. I can't really say I've done much of anything. So no, I don't have anythng exciting to tell you about instead.

I guess I have been busy being pissed off at the world and society in general. Oh well. That's about all I have to say. Wasn't that uplifting?



The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris. Go look somewhere else if you want to see it.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Barefoot Bloggers: Caesar Club Sandwich Wrap

The second recipe for this month was the Caesar Club Sandwich, chosen by Karen. If you want to see how the recipes are supposed to come out, you should go there. She's much better at this than me.

Apparently I wasn't in the mood to follow recipes this month so I adapted it pretty liberally. First off, I had a bottle of caesar salad dressing in the fridge collecting dust. There isn't really any dust in my fridge because it's a sealed vessel but you get the idea. I didn't want to make dressing when I had a bottle already in the fridge. I know, that's the whole point of the recipe but whatever.

I don't really have much bread around the house. Whenever I buy/make a loaf I end up throwing out most of it or putting it in the freezer, where it rarely gets pulled out and not being tossed in the trash. So I decided to make it a wrap.

I had some spring greens so that's what I used rather than arugula.

Let's see, what else. I am sure there were other things. Ah yes. bacon instead of pancetta because i had bacon in the freezer and I'm lazy. And I left out the sun dried tomatoes because... well since I was failing pretty badly I stopped checking the recipe and didn't notice them there.

I know, I know, I failed pretty bad at following this recipe but at least my wraps were pretty good.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Barefoot Bloggers:Individual Meatloaves

This month's first recipe was chosen by Tonya. First off, let me just say, if you are looking for some inspiration, you should go to her site. Her pictures are hot. Look at the gooey butter tart squares. Or pizza. Or the swedish meatballs. mmmmmm

OK gotta focus. Individual Meatloaves. Tonya chose Individual Meatloaves.

I made it with ground turkey. I had some in the freezer. At some point they had some good sales on meat at the grocery store so I picked up a bunch. Or I was craving protein. Whichever.

Anyway, so I made this meatloaf with my liberal adaptations. I upped the onions because I figured the turkey could end up dry. I upped them more than I realized. I halved the recipe because I don't need that much meat loaf. I made the half recipe into 4 loaves just because. And I replaced the bread crumbs with rice crispies because I had rice crispies in the pantry that I never eat. Which makes you wonder why I have it. Along with all the other cereals that I also don't eat. No, that was not a lead in to an entertaining story.

I suspect it is because of all the onion adding a ton of moisture but my meatloaves did not have that nice crusty edge. For me, that is the best part, the crusty part with just a bit of the ketchup. So it made me sad not to have the crust. When I reheated one in a pan I got a bit of browning on the bottom, which made it a little better but still not quite the same.

I just realized I didn't take a pic. Oh well. The verdict: It was OK but not great. Maybe because I followed the recipe very loosely. Perhaps it would have come out better if I'd followed better. Oh well. There's lots more recipes out there to try.