Around the time it first started to (finally) get warm, I decided it was time to grill something from the cookbook, and I decided Memorial Day weekend would be the perfect opportunity. I narrowed down the choices to a salmon recipe and Jame's Coffee-Marinated Skirt Steak (p. 52) and went to the store, figuring I would pick up whichever was more reasonably priced.
The salmon was not on sale and I couldn't find any skirt steak at the first store I visited, so I went home, recouped, and went back out to another. There the salmon was even more expensive and still no skirt steak! Rather than pay the extra money for salmon, I decided to drive back to the first store, and, once there... found the skirt steak! I was so excited to have found that darn cut of meat that I immediately bought it even though it was the only steak not on sale for the holiday. Also, using what I learned previously about shallots (in that I now know what they are), I successfully purchased some without hassle. I'll call this a tie, Supermarkets!
This recipe results in an impressive dish, and doesn't require too much work. First you whisk together most of the ingredients, pour half over your skirt steak, and retain the other half for basting. Then you set the steak on the counter top (covered to protect it from your cat) for the next half hour while you either set to work making more food (as I did), or play with the kids (as my husband did). Afterwards, I handed the steak over to my husband to grill while I finished the rest of the dinner.
On a whim I had decided to make Howard's Apple-Strawberry-Peanut Salad (p. 12), initially thinking that by "salad" he meant a lettuce-based salad. I was wrong; this is a salad of apples, strawberries, celery and peanuts, all held together with a mayonnaise based dressing. In what appears to be a miracle, honey and mayonnaise is combined into a dressing that is translucent and not reminiscent of mayonnaise at all. I was delighted but still hesitated in pouring it all over the apples and strawberries. What if I was ruining all that fruit for my son and me (like me, he likes his fruit raw and unadorned)?
I needn't have worried. Not only did my son love it, so did my daughter, me, and my friend who came over for dinner! My husband didn't try it (sorry, Howard, he saw me take a jar of mayonnaise to it, which he does not like, plus fruit doesn't tempt him at all). I couldn't believe that my daughter ate as much of it as she did. Of course she also loved the steak, along with me, my friend, and my husband. My frugivore son ate the steak begrudgingly only so that he could get more Apple-Strawberry-Peanut Salad.
It was a very good dinner, and a great way to kick off the summer. Thanks for the recipes, James and Howard!
Saturday, June 21, 2014
A Banana Bread Farewell
Now that summer is truly upon us, I am having a lot of difficulty A) cooking things and B) taking the time to write about it. Having just finished a yoga session celebrating the first day of summer, at the beginning of which I felt stressed by my sudden thought that I haven't written about Toni's Banana Bread, I decided to use the zen feeling I created to have a few quiet moments of composition.
The reason for my worry over not having written this post is that I made Toni's Banana Bread (p. 79) for her on her last day of work... in April. I had made Chad's Cranberry Oat Chip Cookies after his departure, so I wanted to make Toni's recipe before she left us as well. By lucky coincidence, I had 6 overripe bananas in my possession, which was extremely rare at the time because my daughter had been in the throes of a banana addiction rivaled only by her current applesauce addiction. Even luckier was the fact that I had all of the other ingredients I needed in my house.
I rushed home and mixed up the batter as quickly as I could, put them in the oven, and ran downstairs to exercise for the 50-60 minutes of baking time. I assumed I would hear the oven timer, or, worst-case, I only elliptical for 55 minutes. Well, it turns out I was wrong about being able to hear the oven timer, and also failed to calculate the 5-10 minutes I spent getting ready before starting my workout! Fortunately the banana bread wasn't completely cooked when I realized my mistake, although I think it could have benefited from being covered in foil for those last 15 minutes because the top got a little browner than I normally like.
Nonetheless, the banana bread was a hit with the coworkers (who, admittedly, will eat anything that looks remotely like food). The banana bread was even a surprise to Toni, who forgot she had submitted it and wasn't entirely sure why she had put in that recipe! I thought it was good, but I'll have to go on record that my recipe for banana bread (or rather, Southern Living's recipe for Cream Cheese Banana Bread) is much better! Chock that up to my foolish pride. Still, I wouldn't snub this recipe in a lineup of sweet breads - it was pretty tasty and had a good strong banana taste, which I love.
Thanks for the recipe, Toni, and we wish you luck in your new position!
The reason for my worry over not having written this post is that I made Toni's Banana Bread (p. 79) for her on her last day of work... in April. I had made Chad's Cranberry Oat Chip Cookies after his departure, so I wanted to make Toni's recipe before she left us as well. By lucky coincidence, I had 6 overripe bananas in my possession, which was extremely rare at the time because my daughter had been in the throes of a banana addiction rivaled only by her current applesauce addiction. Even luckier was the fact that I had all of the other ingredients I needed in my house.
I rushed home and mixed up the batter as quickly as I could, put them in the oven, and ran downstairs to exercise for the 50-60 minutes of baking time. I assumed I would hear the oven timer, or, worst-case, I only elliptical for 55 minutes. Well, it turns out I was wrong about being able to hear the oven timer, and also failed to calculate the 5-10 minutes I spent getting ready before starting my workout! Fortunately the banana bread wasn't completely cooked when I realized my mistake, although I think it could have benefited from being covered in foil for those last 15 minutes because the top got a little browner than I normally like.
Nonetheless, the banana bread was a hit with the coworkers (who, admittedly, will eat anything that looks remotely like food). The banana bread was even a surprise to Toni, who forgot she had submitted it and wasn't entirely sure why she had put in that recipe! I thought it was good, but I'll have to go on record that my recipe for banana bread (or rather, Southern Living's recipe for Cream Cheese Banana Bread) is much better! Chock that up to my foolish pride. Still, I wouldn't snub this recipe in a lineup of sweet breads - it was pretty tasty and had a good strong banana taste, which I love.
Thanks for the recipe, Toni, and we wish you luck in your new position!
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Celebrating the Battle of Puebla with Tres Leches Cake!
Each year on May 5th, we have a Cinco de Mayo potluck lunch at work. This year I decided to make something from the cookbook that counted as "Mexican enough". I posed the question to one of our Power Team members and she decided I should make Janet's Tres Leches Cake (p. 116). It didn't quite occur to me until I was making the cake that it contains a fair amount of rum. I always assume that rum in any recipe mostly bakes or cooks
out... but something to know about this cake is that the rum is blended
into the sauce, which is added to the cake after baking and before
storing cold.
I guess you could say it is fairly alcoholic, as cakes go.
The cake itself went together quite easily, with its base of yellow cake mix with pudding. The smell of rum was quite heady as it was blended into condensed milk and evaporated milk, and then pored over the hot cake perforated with many fork holes. The topping is whipped cream, chopped macadamia nuts, and toasted coconut. I reserved the topping for just prior to the Cinco De Mayo festivities because I was concerned the whipped cream would get runny. Now, if you've ever had a Tres Leches Cake, you will know that that was ridiculous. The cake itself is so soggy one would never notice if the topping were a little runny.
The hardest part of this recipe, for me, was the toasted coconut. My friend Google let me know that I could toast the coconut on a cookie sheet in my oven, and warned me that I should check it often and make sure I didn't burn it. I promptly burned by first batch. For my second, I watched the oven like a hawk and it turned out ok (perhaps a little more done than I intended, but good enough).
Everyone loved the cake, except for my coworker who can't handle soggy bread. This was absolutely one of the worst things she has ever had the misfortune to witness. As I was leaving the party I thought I had better try a bite for blog purposes and was shocked by how rum-filled it was. I'm not saying my coworkers like to drink but...no wonder everyone loved it!
I guess you could say it is fairly alcoholic, as cakes go.
The cake itself went together quite easily, with its base of yellow cake mix with pudding. The smell of rum was quite heady as it was blended into condensed milk and evaporated milk, and then pored over the hot cake perforated with many fork holes. The topping is whipped cream, chopped macadamia nuts, and toasted coconut. I reserved the topping for just prior to the Cinco De Mayo festivities because I was concerned the whipped cream would get runny. Now, if you've ever had a Tres Leches Cake, you will know that that was ridiculous. The cake itself is so soggy one would never notice if the topping were a little runny.
The hardest part of this recipe, for me, was the toasted coconut. My friend Google let me know that I could toast the coconut on a cookie sheet in my oven, and warned me that I should check it often and make sure I didn't burn it. I promptly burned by first batch. For my second, I watched the oven like a hawk and it turned out ok (perhaps a little more done than I intended, but good enough).
Everyone loved the cake, except for my coworker who can't handle soggy bread. This was absolutely one of the worst things she has ever had the misfortune to witness. As I was leaving the party I thought I had better try a bite for blog purposes and was shocked by how rum-filled it was. I'm not saying my coworkers like to drink but...no wonder everyone loved it!
Salmon Terrine, or an Exercise in Errors
The weekend after Phil's birthday I thought it was about time to make another entree, after devoting so much time to cookies and dessert. Furthermore, since it had been a long time since I did a recipe from outside the United States, I chose to make Marie-Christine's Salmon Terrine (p. 69).
There are multiple Salmon Terrines (or, rather, there are other Terrine de Saumon, which I am guessing is the same thing, I suppose time will tell) from Lyon in the cookbook. I had no idea what a Salmon Terrine was or what it should look like, so I headed to Google Images and discovered Salmon Terrine is basically a loaf of salmon, which varies in fanciness depending on how many hours you put into the preparation or how much money you spend at the restaurant. This Salmon Terrine calls for canned salmon, which Google indicated is a common way to make a "quick" Salmon Terrine.
The first problem I encountered was that I incorrectly assumed that shallots are the same thing as green onions. Apparently I'm not the only one (based on further investigation and interviews) but the internet also assures me that the Salmon Terrine I made with green onions rather than shallots was almost certainly not even remotely close to the intended recipe.
Nonetheless, it was time to start cooking or we would not be eating! The first step was to remove the skin and bones from the canned salmon. Let's not mince words here - this process was revolting and tedious. Luckily, after the half hour of removing tiny bones and gross skin bits from my canned salmon, the remaining steps were quite easy. I poured the mixture into a baking dish and put it in the oven at what I thought was a surprising temperature - 200°. I checked the temperature twice just to be sure.
About a half hour later, I checked the Salmon Terrine. It was still quite liquidy in the center, so I left it in for another 5 minutes... 10 minutes... 15 minutes...
Until finally it hit me - the recipe calls for a temperature of 200°C and my American oven was set at 200°F! I increased the temperature to the required 390°F, and the terrine finished cooking in about ten minutes, whereupon I doused it with lemon juice per the recipe. I served the Salmon Terrine with slices of french bread (I cheated and bought it) and the most delicious brussels sprouts ever (found by googling "French recipe for Brussels Sprouts").
Here is a picture of the Salmon Terrine:
My son and husband were not too enthused by this dish, but then they aren't big seafood eaters and suddenly I was asking them to eat it in loaf form. I thought it was pretty good, but I can't help but wonder... would it have been great had I used shallots?
Happy Birthday, Phil!
It sure has been awhile since I posted! I have a litany of excuses, but I also have a lot of recipes to talk about, so let's get right to it!
My husband's birthday was almost two months ago now, so a great place to start is with his cake. As soon as I saw Jennifer's Oreo Cookie Cake (p. 106) when I first got the cookbook, I knew I would make it for my husband's birthday. I baked the cake portion (box mix, following the directions on the box) the night before so that it would be nice and cool and ready to ice after work the following day.
The icing is made of cream cheese, sugar, cool whip, and crushed oreos. You simply mix all of those together and put it in the middle of the two cakes you made from the box cake. Then you apply some dark chocolate fudge frosting to the top. I will admit I was a little disappointed (I like my baked goods complicated)... until I sliced it and realized that this clever oreo cake is designed to look like a GIANT Oreo cookie:
Here is a picture of the slice:
The cake was delicious, although I think I made a little too much of inside icing (the recipe called for a small container of cool whip and I'm wondering if there is a smaller size than what I used - or if I just wasn't supposed to use the entire amount of icing I prepared).
Thanks, Jennifer, for such a clever recipe!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Semifinals Game #2: Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies vs. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
My Thursday was terrible. I started the day exhausted. It then became apparent that I have disappointed everyone in the world by doing an altogether horrible job. I was in a terrible mood. I announced before I left that I would not make cookies as previously planned, because I hated everything in the world.
Because cookie days seem to make everyone happier, though, I decided to make up the cookies for the second Semifinal game between Kristy's Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 121) and Navika's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 127). I am glad I did, too, since baking tends to put me in a better mood, and by the end of baking I felt quite a lot more content.
First I mixed together the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I almost didn't remember to double the recipe several times, but I managed to get all the ingredients in there in the correct quantities in the end. Again, when it came to mixing in the absurd number of chocolate chips, my arms got an excellent workout (a good thing, too, since I hadn't exercised since Monday night). I chilled the dough in a separate bowl, and cleaned up all my bowls and measuring implements so that I'd be ready to mix up the second batch.
Once I got rolling on baking the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I started to put together the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. This time I had the correct size of instant pudding mix, so no math was necessary for this batch. Also, I had Diamond brand chopped walnuts, and I'll have to take back all of the disparaging things I said last time about the nut industry - they were chopped into small enough pieces that I could just add them into the mix. Again I got a good arm workout as I mixed all of the chocolate chips and walnuts into the dough. By this time my husband was fully asleep on the couch, and the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies were finished baking.
I rolled all of the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie balls so that I could start washing the dished while they baked. The recipe, as stated, makes about 6 dozen cookies so I had a fair amount of time while they baked in order to set the kitchen back to rights. Still, I only finished by about the time I was three oven-fulls from being finished. I woke up my husband and asked him to bake the last trays while I got a shower (not cheating since I've made these before!).
Although we've seen these before, I think I did a better job baking the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies this time, so here is a picture (Award Winning Cookies are on the left, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are on the right):
Everyone enjoyed tasting both of these cookies again. I truly didn't know which one would be the winner since both cookies had an ingredient which may dissuade some voters - Walnuts in the Award Winning cookies and Oatmeal in the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. When the votes were tallied, the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies were the victor - the final score was 13 to 3.
Next week we'll have our finals, with Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies competing against Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies. I know everyone is looking forward to seeing these two epic cookie recipes face off!
Because cookie days seem to make everyone happier, though, I decided to make up the cookies for the second Semifinal game between Kristy's Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 121) and Navika's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 127). I am glad I did, too, since baking tends to put me in a better mood, and by the end of baking I felt quite a lot more content.
First I mixed together the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I almost didn't remember to double the recipe several times, but I managed to get all the ingredients in there in the correct quantities in the end. Again, when it came to mixing in the absurd number of chocolate chips, my arms got an excellent workout (a good thing, too, since I hadn't exercised since Monday night). I chilled the dough in a separate bowl, and cleaned up all my bowls and measuring implements so that I'd be ready to mix up the second batch.
Once I got rolling on baking the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, I started to put together the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. This time I had the correct size of instant pudding mix, so no math was necessary for this batch. Also, I had Diamond brand chopped walnuts, and I'll have to take back all of the disparaging things I said last time about the nut industry - they were chopped into small enough pieces that I could just add them into the mix. Again I got a good arm workout as I mixed all of the chocolate chips and walnuts into the dough. By this time my husband was fully asleep on the couch, and the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies were finished baking.
I rolled all of the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie balls so that I could start washing the dished while they baked. The recipe, as stated, makes about 6 dozen cookies so I had a fair amount of time while they baked in order to set the kitchen back to rights. Still, I only finished by about the time I was three oven-fulls from being finished. I woke up my husband and asked him to bake the last trays while I got a shower (not cheating since I've made these before!).
Although we've seen these before, I think I did a better job baking the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies this time, so here is a picture (Award Winning Cookies are on the left, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are on the right):
Everyone enjoyed tasting both of these cookies again. I truly didn't know which one would be the winner since both cookies had an ingredient which may dissuade some voters - Walnuts in the Award Winning cookies and Oatmeal in the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. When the votes were tallied, the Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies were the victor - the final score was 13 to 3.
Next week we'll have our finals, with Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies competing against Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies. I know everyone is looking forward to seeing these two epic cookie recipes face off!
Semifinals Game #1: Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies vs. Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies
Last Monday brought us to our first semifinal match up, between the Number 2 seed, Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies and the Number 3 seed, Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies. Sunday, after arriving home from the quilt retreat, I sprang into action... by taking a long bath. But then - then, I started baking cookies.
First I tackled Joni's Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 132), which mixed up and baked very similarly to the first time I made them. I felt less stressed this time, perhaps because I had done this all before, or perhaps just because of the aforementioned long bath. Both children helped unwrap Dove Chocolates for me, and restrained themselves reasonably well from eating them as they did so.
Before I knew it we were finished with those and it was on to baking Todd's Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies (p. 130). Readers may recall that I felt the first time I made these was sort of a disaster, and I was shocked when they still won despite being a bit burnt. On Sunday night, I had started to mix up the cookies when I realized I had no sea salt in my house (recall I made these at my sister's house previously). What I had thought was sea salt was actually Kosher Coarse Salt. Google searches revealed that you can substitute sea salt for kosher salt in "most" recipes, although it appears that no one on the internet wants to know or share whether the reverse is true. My husband volunteered to run out to the store for some while I got the kids to bed, which allowed me some time to allow the mixture to cool before adding the toffee bits. During the previous batch, I had rushed this step and suspected that the toffee bits were meant to stay intact and not melt. This time, the benefits of slowing down showed - most toffee bits stayed intact. Since I was at home, I also had the benefit of using parchment paper, which worked so much better than wax paper that I wanted to sing. These were not the burnt, steamy cookies of last time! These actually looked like they could be tasty!
Here is a picture of both cookies. Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies were labeled as Cookie A and are on the right, Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies were labeled as Cookie B and are on the left:
Indeed, everyone seemed to love both cookies, and it seemed to be a difficult decision for most. Were the Turtle Fudges too sweet? Were the Salted Chocolate Cookies too odd? In the end, the Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies took the win, 12 to 7 over the Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies. Congratulations to Joni for moving on to the finals!
First I tackled Joni's Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies (p. 132), which mixed up and baked very similarly to the first time I made them. I felt less stressed this time, perhaps because I had done this all before, or perhaps just because of the aforementioned long bath. Both children helped unwrap Dove Chocolates for me, and restrained themselves reasonably well from eating them as they did so.
Before I knew it we were finished with those and it was on to baking Todd's Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies (p. 130). Readers may recall that I felt the first time I made these was sort of a disaster, and I was shocked when they still won despite being a bit burnt. On Sunday night, I had started to mix up the cookies when I realized I had no sea salt in my house (recall I made these at my sister's house previously). What I had thought was sea salt was actually Kosher Coarse Salt. Google searches revealed that you can substitute sea salt for kosher salt in "most" recipes, although it appears that no one on the internet wants to know or share whether the reverse is true. My husband volunteered to run out to the store for some while I got the kids to bed, which allowed me some time to allow the mixture to cool before adding the toffee bits. During the previous batch, I had rushed this step and suspected that the toffee bits were meant to stay intact and not melt. This time, the benefits of slowing down showed - most toffee bits stayed intact. Since I was at home, I also had the benefit of using parchment paper, which worked so much better than wax paper that I wanted to sing. These were not the burnt, steamy cookies of last time! These actually looked like they could be tasty!
Here is a picture of both cookies. Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies were labeled as Cookie A and are on the right, Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies were labeled as Cookie B and are on the left:
Indeed, everyone seemed to love both cookies, and it seemed to be a difficult decision for most. Were the Turtle Fudges too sweet? Were the Salted Chocolate Cookies too odd? In the end, the Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookies took the win, 12 to 7 over the Salted Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies. Congratulations to Joni for moving on to the finals!
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