Aside from baking...
I had an interview at Beaches Restaurant Monday. It went really well, and I think they really like me. They hoped to schedule me for another interview in about 2 weeks. This interview I would be working during happy hour (3-6), and I guess they'll judge me on my performance. I know I will do great, I just need them to schedule it, so I can show them! I do have a desadvantage in that I am so young, but I haven't told them I'm barely out of my teens, so maybe they think I'm 23 or 24...:)! Anyway, please keep me in your prayers regarding this. I want this job so so much.
I just got a letter from my choir director, Dean Applegate, that on March 5th, his 64th birthday, he is handing over the choir to his son, Blake. This hit me very hard, and he will be sorely missed. He has been my choir director for half of my life, and, as much as I love Blake (who has been giving me voice lessons for half of my life), it will be difficult. He will continue to be the music director for Holy Rosary ("as long as he can bare it" were his words), and he will be Blake's "deputy", but...:( Congrats to Blake, though. He brings out the best in us with his perfectionism. :)
Barry Manilow came out with his new and beautiful cd called "The Greatest Love Songs of All Time." I highly recommend this. Not just because it's him. There are some cds of his that I wouldn't recommend to a non-fan, but this isn't one of them. It is a beautiful anthology of classes standards from the 40s, 50s, and a few 60s. Worth a listen...or 15 or 20!
Another great cd I have been bonding with, is John Barry's soundtrack to "Chaplin: The Movie." If you like the "Somewhere In Time" st, you will love this one too. It's heartwrenching, heartwarming, and romantic. Love, love, love!
Hope my three readers are doing well! Cake tomorrow, Mommy!
This Friday I will make some meatless recipes for Aunt Jill!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Let Them Eat Cake!
First off, I will say that Maria Antoinette didn't say this, contrary to popular belief. But this week, I did say it (at least, in my mind), and Alton Brown, again, was the inspiration.
I made a one of the easiest cakes I've ever made (not counting a box). I decided to peruse my Whole Wheat Baking book again, and this time I happened upon a recipe for "Maple Pudding Cake." Since I make chocolate in all kinds of variations so often, I decided to try making just a good, simple cake. This one was delicious, and really, so easy! It took me probably 7 minutes to whip together, then you just cook it. Nothing more! What I loved about this recipe, was that it called for ingredients that I already had, and I think most others will have.
Now, my Alton Brown-inspired (created) cake is in the oven right now. Wednesday night he did his show on Classic American Recipes. The Tres Leche Cake was among these recipes. Ever head of it? I hadn't, and neither had Mommy. He starts out by sitting in front of a peice of cake and a glass of milk. He says, "Ah, cake and milk...Is there anything better?" Which prompts him to shove the piece of cake in his glass of milk, adding that there is a much better way to go about this. Hence, the Tres Leche!
So basically what this is:
Light, fluffy vanilla white cake. (Homemade; no box!)
Cool for a few minutes.
Poke holes vigorously with scewers.
Pour mixture of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and half & half over the top of this cake. (Yes, you read it right)
Put in cooler overnight.
Top with whipped cream (homemade, bien sur).
Cake just came out...smells delicious. I can't wait to eat this cake tomorrow morning for breakfast...:)
What an interesting variation on cake and milk! Supposely, this cake got so popular from being on the back of the sweetened condensed milk cans. Have you made this or heard of this before, Grandma?
Here are the 2 reipes.
Maple-Brown Sugar Pudding Cake
FIRST LAYER
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
4 T. butter, melted
1 cup copped walnuts
SECOND LAYER
1 cup brown sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1.5 cups hot water
Oven 350 degrees
8 x 8 or 9 x 9 greased pan.
Whisk flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt.
Seperate bowl, mix milk, syrup, egg, vanilla, and melted butter.
Mix with dry ingredients.
Add walnuts.
Pour into pan.
Combine brown sugar and cornstarch, and sprinkle over the batter.
Pour hot water over all.
Bake 45 minutes. Serve warm!
The sugar, cornstarch and water will have combined at the bottom to leave make a nice sauce!
********************************
Tres Leche Cake
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tres-leche-cake-recipe/index.html
Enjoy! I have the nutrition facts on the Maple Cake, if anyone is interested. Just let me know! Each serving has 11g of whole grains and complex carbs. so it's not a total loss.
I made a one of the easiest cakes I've ever made (not counting a box). I decided to peruse my Whole Wheat Baking book again, and this time I happened upon a recipe for "Maple Pudding Cake." Since I make chocolate in all kinds of variations so often, I decided to try making just a good, simple cake. This one was delicious, and really, so easy! It took me probably 7 minutes to whip together, then you just cook it. Nothing more! What I loved about this recipe, was that it called for ingredients that I already had, and I think most others will have.
Now, my Alton Brown-inspired (created) cake is in the oven right now. Wednesday night he did his show on Classic American Recipes. The Tres Leche Cake was among these recipes. Ever head of it? I hadn't, and neither had Mommy. He starts out by sitting in front of a peice of cake and a glass of milk. He says, "Ah, cake and milk...Is there anything better?" Which prompts him to shove the piece of cake in his glass of milk, adding that there is a much better way to go about this. Hence, the Tres Leche!
So basically what this is:
Light, fluffy vanilla white cake. (Homemade; no box!)
Cool for a few minutes.
Poke holes vigorously with scewers.
Pour mixture of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and half & half over the top of this cake. (Yes, you read it right)
Put in cooler overnight.
Top with whipped cream (homemade, bien sur).
Cake just came out...smells delicious. I can't wait to eat this cake tomorrow morning for breakfast...:)
What an interesting variation on cake and milk! Supposely, this cake got so popular from being on the back of the sweetened condensed milk cans. Have you made this or heard of this before, Grandma?
Here are the 2 reipes.
Maple-Brown Sugar Pudding Cake
FIRST LAYER
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
4 T. butter, melted
1 cup copped walnuts
SECOND LAYER
1 cup brown sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1.5 cups hot water
Oven 350 degrees
8 x 8 or 9 x 9 greased pan.
Whisk flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt.
Seperate bowl, mix milk, syrup, egg, vanilla, and melted butter.
Mix with dry ingredients.
Add walnuts.
Pour into pan.
Combine brown sugar and cornstarch, and sprinkle over the batter.
Pour hot water over all.
Bake 45 minutes. Serve warm!
The sugar, cornstarch and water will have combined at the bottom to leave make a nice sauce!
********************************
Tres Leche Cake
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/tres-leche-cake-recipe/index.html
Enjoy! I have the nutrition facts on the Maple Cake, if anyone is interested. Just let me know! Each serving has 11g of whole grains and complex carbs. so it's not a total loss.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Pitas
Today I made homemade pita bread. Pita bread is one of my favorite things in the world PERIOD. So it was super fun to make them. Very easy too, which is always encouraging. Flour (I used a whole wheat flour...again), oil, water, yeast, and salt. Mix, kneed for 8 minutes by hand, let sit for 1.5 hours. Oven 450 degrees with cookie sheet or oven stone preheated as well. Pop a couple of rolled out (like mini pizzas) pieces of dough for about 4 minutes (or until they start to balloon), flip for another 2 minutes. DONE. Easy, and I now have something delicious and homemade for my hummus. Yummy yum yum. I am going to tackle puff pastry tomorrow (I think), which I haven't done since culinary school. Wish me luck! :)
Monday, January 18, 2010
Getting Whole Wheaty...
Tonight, my mom and my older sister, Irene, are having over three lady friends (One mom with her two daughters that are in their late teens) for a movie night. They do this occasionally, and this time I thought I would cook for them. Usually I try to have some sort of theme (tea party, dips and crackers, hors d'oeurves, Italian foods, etc.), but this time I thought to just wing it, and use what I had.
For my birthday this year, my mom, knowing how well I enjoy making healthy muffins and breads,(often a little too healthy...i.e. sugarless and dry) bought me the King Arthur's Wheat Flour Cookbook. All recipes use the whole wheat flour, and a good portion of them are 'healthy'. This morning I busted the large book out, and plunged in. What did I decide upon? Nothing crazy, just delish! Double Fudge Whole Wheat Brownies and some homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I thought, why make all sweets? Why make all savories? How about a little of both. I know it seems dinnerish for a movie night, but I cut the pizzas in smaller squares so that they were very easy to pick up and eat on a napkin during a good Ginger Rogers/David Niven flick.
The brownies are out of the oven and seem the perfect balance between fudgy and cakey. I undercooked them a little, and as they cool the center will set completely. They will be best in about 24 hours, but I doubt they'll be too repelent tonight.
For the pizza, I made a cheesy cream sauce, added fresh basil and oregano, garlic. Then, I put some fresh spinach on top, chopped tomatoes (no seeds), toasted walnuts, and sauteed mushrooms. Light, but rich, creamy and savory, thin crust, lots of cheese on top...perfection, I think.
Honestly, pizza and brownies are not the easiest to make 'healthy' (even though it is very possible), and I made no claims that the pizza I made this evening was. But maybe by using little steps, such as using whole wheat flour almost whenever possible in all our baking, we can find a way to encorporate some health into our unhealthy cooking. When we eat pizza, we may not be losing weight, but at least our bodies are getting the fiber they normally wouldn't have gotten, had you used a white flour recipe. And if you eat way too much like me, and never fail to gain weight when you indulge, maybe you'll only gain half a pound instead of a whole pound. Who knows!
Whew! After a long day (I cooked homemade chili for dinner too!) I am ready to skip on over to the Barnes and Noble Starbuks with my chai tea (I bring my own; too cheap to pay $1.80 for a tea bag and hot water!), and put a 100 pg dent in my book.
Brownie Recipe Follows!
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Heat briefly until it is hot and beginning to bubble. This dissolves more of the sugar, giving you a shiny top on the finished brownies.
Stir in the cocoa, baking powder, salt, espresso powder (if using), and vanilla. Cool until you can test it with your finger. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until it is smooth and slightly thickened, then add the flour and chocolate chips. Stir again until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, bake 30-35 minutes, or until center is almost set.
Cool. Best after 24 hours!
For my birthday this year, my mom, knowing how well I enjoy making healthy muffins and breads,(often a little too healthy...i.e. sugarless and dry) bought me the King Arthur's Wheat Flour Cookbook. All recipes use the whole wheat flour, and a good portion of them are 'healthy'. This morning I busted the large book out, and plunged in. What did I decide upon? Nothing crazy, just delish! Double Fudge Whole Wheat Brownies and some homemade Whole Wheat Pizza Dough. I thought, why make all sweets? Why make all savories? How about a little of both. I know it seems dinnerish for a movie night, but I cut the pizzas in smaller squares so that they were very easy to pick up and eat on a napkin during a good Ginger Rogers/David Niven flick.
The brownies are out of the oven and seem the perfect balance between fudgy and cakey. I undercooked them a little, and as they cool the center will set completely. They will be best in about 24 hours, but I doubt they'll be too repelent tonight.
For the pizza, I made a cheesy cream sauce, added fresh basil and oregano, garlic. Then, I put some fresh spinach on top, chopped tomatoes (no seeds), toasted walnuts, and sauteed mushrooms. Light, but rich, creamy and savory, thin crust, lots of cheese on top...perfection, I think.
Honestly, pizza and brownies are not the easiest to make 'healthy' (even though it is very possible), and I made no claims that the pizza I made this evening was. But maybe by using little steps, such as using whole wheat flour almost whenever possible in all our baking, we can find a way to encorporate some health into our unhealthy cooking. When we eat pizza, we may not be losing weight, but at least our bodies are getting the fiber they normally wouldn't have gotten, had you used a white flour recipe. And if you eat way too much like me, and never fail to gain weight when you indulge, maybe you'll only gain half a pound instead of a whole pound. Who knows!
Whew! After a long day (I cooked homemade chili for dinner too!) I am ready to skip on over to the Barnes and Noble Starbuks with my chai tea (I bring my own; too cheap to pay $1.80 for a tea bag and hot water!), and put a 100 pg dent in my book.
Brownie Recipe Follows!
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Add the sugar and stir to combine. Heat briefly until it is hot and beginning to bubble. This dissolves more of the sugar, giving you a shiny top on the finished brownies.
Stir in the cocoa, baking powder, salt, espresso powder (if using), and vanilla. Cool until you can test it with your finger. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until it is smooth and slightly thickened, then add the flour and chocolate chips. Stir again until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, bake 30-35 minutes, or until center is almost set.
Cool. Best after 24 hours!
Ginger Crazy!
So, the other night, while enjoying my evening tea, Alton Brown's 'Good Eats' came on the telly. Alton Brown is probably my favorite Food Network cook/chef, though, that doesn't take a lot. In the show, Alton Brown takes one ingredient (from herb, protein, fruit, or legume) and shows the viewers how to make the most of it.
Well, the Ginger episode was on the other night, and it inspired me. He showed me how to make chrystalized or 'candied' ginger (very simple), homemade ginger ale, ginger snaps, and, of course, gingerbread. I started to get excited about it. I don't eat a lot of ginger, but this past Christmas I had begun to find a new love for gingerbread cookies. I hadn't cared for ginger before, due to a bad experience with Starbucks' Gingerbread Latte (ick!). But now I was thinking differently.
The next morning I traipsed off to New Seasons Market and bought some fresh ginger. I came home, and immediately started planning what I wanted to make. I decided to make some gingerbread chewy cookies, ginger biscotti, and gingerbread scones.
The cookies turned out very well. Nice and chewy (and are still chewy after several days.They would be gone by now but I, as well as my whole family, are trying to avoid butter and sweets so...), and substituting freshly grated ginger instead of the tasteless powder worked wonders for these little guys. Daddy said they were the best gingerbread cookies he had ever had.
The biscotti also turned out beautifully. It is less sweet than the cookies, so the ginger was more of a star than the sugar. The ginger was very pleasantly spicy. I melted some white chocolate, butter and milk, and then dipped the biscotti in. The sweetness of the white chocolate complimented the spicy ginger very well.
Lastly, there were the scones. They came out a little dry, and not very sweet. I made a maple icing to go on top, which was good, but overpowered the ginger flavor. Next time I will us the icing recipe I use for my pumpkin scones. The pumpkin recipe has the same flavor profile, so I would expect it to taste yummy.
In conclusion, I am excited to continue new (even though those recipes don't seem daring at all) experiments with ginger. I used ginger frequently before, but only in savory dishes, such as curries and different Asian dishes. Now, I will know that just because I had a dud latte, doesn't mean all ginger should stay out of the sweet dishes.
What will I make tomorrow?
Well, the Ginger episode was on the other night, and it inspired me. He showed me how to make chrystalized or 'candied' ginger (very simple), homemade ginger ale, ginger snaps, and, of course, gingerbread. I started to get excited about it. I don't eat a lot of ginger, but this past Christmas I had begun to find a new love for gingerbread cookies. I hadn't cared for ginger before, due to a bad experience with Starbucks' Gingerbread Latte (ick!). But now I was thinking differently.
The next morning I traipsed off to New Seasons Market and bought some fresh ginger. I came home, and immediately started planning what I wanted to make. I decided to make some gingerbread chewy cookies, ginger biscotti, and gingerbread scones.
The cookies turned out very well. Nice and chewy (and are still chewy after several days.They would be gone by now but I, as well as my whole family, are trying to avoid butter and sweets so...), and substituting freshly grated ginger instead of the tasteless powder worked wonders for these little guys. Daddy said they were the best gingerbread cookies he had ever had.
The biscotti also turned out beautifully. It is less sweet than the cookies, so the ginger was more of a star than the sugar. The ginger was very pleasantly spicy. I melted some white chocolate, butter and milk, and then dipped the biscotti in. The sweetness of the white chocolate complimented the spicy ginger very well.
Lastly, there were the scones. They came out a little dry, and not very sweet. I made a maple icing to go on top, which was good, but overpowered the ginger flavor. Next time I will us the icing recipe I use for my pumpkin scones. The pumpkin recipe has the same flavor profile, so I would expect it to taste yummy.
In conclusion, I am excited to continue new (even though those recipes don't seem daring at all) experiments with ginger. I used ginger frequently before, but only in savory dishes, such as curries and different Asian dishes. Now, I will know that just because I had a dud latte, doesn't mean all ginger should stay out of the sweet dishes.
What will I make tomorrow?
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