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.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Daring Bakers: Tiramisu
OK, ready? I've made tiramisu a bunch of times before. It's pretty easy. So when I first saw what this was I thought piece of cake, no big deal. Then I looked at the recipe. They required us to make the mascarpone and savoiardi. Who does that? The mascarpone is like $8 for the tub and it's only in the cheese section of the fancy grocery store but whatever. That's how it's always been. As the lady fingers, it's not uncommon for christmas gift baskets to have lady fingers in them so those became tiramisu. Why would I do it any other way?
Making the mascarpone was pretty easy. Heat the cream. Add lemon juice. Stir a bunch. Strain. <$1 for ingredients, 10 minutes on the stove and overnight sitting in the fridge instead of paying $5+ for that little tub is definitely worth the effort. I'll definitely do that again next time i want mascarpone.
I am not really sure why we made a pastry cream, zabaglione, whipped cream, and folded them all together. The tiramisu's I've made before were just zabaglione with whipped cream folded in. Ah well. It was pretty good and rich regardless.
Apparently I never took a pic or am too lazy to get it off my camera. Whichever.
The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
Making the mascarpone was pretty easy. Heat the cream. Add lemon juice. Stir a bunch. Strain. <$1 for ingredients, 10 minutes on the stove and overnight sitting in the fridge instead of paying $5+ for that little tub is definitely worth the effort. I'll definitely do that again next time i want mascarpone.
I am not really sure why we made a pastry cream, zabaglione, whipped cream, and folded them all together. The tiramisu's I've made before were just zabaglione with whipped cream folded in. Ah well. It was pretty good and rich regardless.
Apparently I never took a pic or am too lazy to get it off my camera. Whichever.
The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Barefoot Bloggers: Baked Shrimp Scampi
It's been a rough week. I won't go into it in much detail because it's all stupid shit but it's been rough. Or maybe I'm just crazy and it just feels rough even though it wasn't really. I don't know. I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway.
The second recipe for the month was Shrimp Scampi. It was chosen by Jill.
This has been a good BB month for me. Both of these recipes came out really good. Now that I've looked at my picture it doesn't look so great but this was definitely tasty.
It was rich and buttery and satisfying that's a good meal when you've had a rough day. Granted I didn't actually eat it during that time but I am thinking about it now so that's close enough right? And there is still some left in the fridge that hopefully hasn't gone bad that now I'm thinking about heating up.
So I'll hold on to this recipe. We'll see if I actually think to make it again.
The second recipe for the month was Shrimp Scampi. It was chosen by Jill.
This has been a good BB month for me. Both of these recipes came out really good. Now that I've looked at my picture it doesn't look so great but this was definitely tasty.
It was rich and buttery and satisfying that's a good meal when you've had a rough day. Granted I didn't actually eat it during that time but I am thinking about it now so that's close enough right? And there is still some left in the fridge that hopefully hasn't gone bad that now I'm thinking about heating up.
So I'll hold on to this recipe. We'll see if I actually think to make it again.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Barefoot Bloggers: Coconut Cupcakes
OK so somehow it was already the last weekend before this post was due and I was just getting around to finding out what the recipe was. Never a good start. Oh well.
This recipe was chosen by Jamie. She chose these Coconut Cupcakes. Which is good because after my shrimp bisque disaster I needed something to work out better.
I started off intending to do the recipe as is. 18-20 cupcakes, no big deal right? Then I started looking at the recipe. 1.5 lbs of butter for 18-20 cupcakes. That's ridiculous! I only had 1 lb of unsalted butter and I had already run to the store for everything else so I wasn't going again so I decided to halve the recipe and make it into mini cupcakes.
And this recipe makes a ridiculous amount of frosting. If I had used all of it, they would have been 50% by volume frosting. So I have a pint of cream cheese frosting waiting in the fridge for the next thing it should go on. Maybe some cinnamon buns.
Wanna know a secret? I put some key lime curd inside of them. And it is wonderful.
This recipe was chosen by Jamie. She chose these Coconut Cupcakes. Which is good because after my shrimp bisque disaster I needed something to work out better.
I started off intending to do the recipe as is. 18-20 cupcakes, no big deal right? Then I started looking at the recipe. 1.5 lbs of butter for 18-20 cupcakes. That's ridiculous! I only had 1 lb of unsalted butter and I had already run to the store for everything else so I wasn't going again so I decided to halve the recipe and make it into mini cupcakes.
And this recipe makes a ridiculous amount of frosting. If I had used all of it, they would have been 50% by volume frosting. So I have a pint of cream cheese frosting waiting in the fridge for the next thing it should go on. Maybe some cinnamon buns.
Wanna know a secret? I put some key lime curd inside of them. And it is wonderful.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Apple Cider Donut Hole Mini Muffin Puffs
So I saw all those posts on donut muffins probably last summer or so. I starred them and meant to make them. That didn't happen.
Then in the fall when apples started coming into season I started seeing posts about the Apple Cider Donuts at assorted places, which made me think of the ones at Delicious Orchards in NJ. mmmm. So I starred a couple recipes and never made those either.
So now, several months later I have finally decided to combine the two and make something that vaguely resembles them.
They were good when they were hot. They were a little rubbery the next day. I suspect I overmixed so be careful about that.
PS I finally stopped being lazy and uploaded pics to a bunch of my old posts.
Apple Cider Donut Hole Mini Muffin Puffs
based on a combination of these three recipes
2 cups apple cider
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Boil the apple cider down to 1 cup. Cool to room temp. Mix together the applesauce and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift together the dry ingredients. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and apple cider to the applesauce mix so that you have 3 additions of dry and 2 additions of cider. Pour into a greased mini muffin pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until done. Brush with melted butter. Mix together cinnamon and sugar and toss the buttered mini muffins in the sugar.
Then in the fall when apples started coming into season I started seeing posts about the Apple Cider Donuts at assorted places, which made me think of the ones at Delicious Orchards in NJ. mmmm. So I starred a couple recipes and never made those either.
So now, several months later I have finally decided to combine the two and make something that vaguely resembles them.
They were good when they were hot. They were a little rubbery the next day. I suspect I overmixed so be careful about that.
PS I finally stopped being lazy and uploaded pics to a bunch of my old posts.
Apple Cider Donut Hole Mini Muffin Puffs
based on a combination of these three recipes
2 cups apple cider
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Boil the apple cider down to 1 cup. Cool to room temp. Mix together the applesauce and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift together the dry ingredients. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and apple cider to the applesauce mix so that you have 3 additions of dry and 2 additions of cider. Pour into a greased mini muffin pan. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until done. Brush with melted butter. Mix together cinnamon and sugar and toss the buttered mini muffins in the sugar.
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