slow and steady wins the race...right?

progress report on the blanket i started shamefully long ago for my daughter... it's been far too long since i worked on it consistently, but now i'm back. inspired the recent knitting exploits of a pal-o-mine. it's about 33 inches long so far. i forget how wide it is (doesn't matter much given that ain't gonna change, lol). i just did some research and i might as well fess up - i started this thing sometime in 2010... while im not super fast (or even kinda fast, lol) by any means, the delay has really been due to long stretches of not working on it at all. not cool. so i need to commit to working on it consistently. i did some math and in theory i could have it done in about 3 months if i average an hour a day. i could be a punk and just make the goal Christmas, but i don't think i will. what's today's date? 10  august 2012. the goal is 10 november 2012. i will finish this blanket on or before the 10th of november. this is possible. this can be done. it must be done. it wiiiiilll be done. 

Operation Baby Food: Take 1

I finally got started on the DIY baby food. First attempts went relatively well. Minor snaffoo in the steamer, but it was easily cleaned up and can be avoided by using more water. And because all text is just a drag to read, especially online...especially this day and age w/ our shrinking attention spans... here's the photo journey...

Tools & Ingredients: rice cooker/steamer, blender, carrots (organic tho only b/c they were cheaper) a sweet potato. 

 Sweet Potatoes diced and ready to go. I looked at the steaming instructions, but while it listed several veggies and H2O amts and times, nada for sweet potatoes so i had to wing it. They were cooked fine... 

not cooked

cooked

... but there was a bit of a problem. Not enough water so it boiled out and left me a sticky sweet potatoey mess, but thankfully it cleaned up easily.            

ummm 'carmelized sw potato liquid' lol

Into the blender we go with ultimately not enough liquid. At first the blades wouldn't even spin very long. But some more water and some stirring and finally we got pureed sweet potatoes. kinda thick. But I was assured that if I'm freezing them, once they thaw they'll be a li'l thinner. That night tho I did give some to the boy and he didn't seem to mind. So all in all, me thinks me did ok. 

all mushed up and ready to freeze

Next, carrots. Pretty much more of the same from a steaming standpoint, errors and all. Because it was a different veg and diff quantity (roughly), I did try to use a different amount of water... But still not enough. More charred pan (again easily cleaned up). The carrots, however, were fine. I did add more water to the blender this time and voila, uber smooth yummy carrots for baby boy.

I do need more lil'l freezable containers tho. I didn't get to the apple, peach & pear I had on the agenda. I did try some ground turkey - the kid was NOT a fan. Not mad at him, lol. Only used that b/c it was available at the time - big sis had requested tacos for her bday dinner... Anyway - primary lesson here? More water. More water. More water!

Bound to Be Bad Brownies - NOT! :)

America's Test Kitchen rocks. Basically before they present a recipe on the show they've done all this research and experimentation to find THE perfect recipe for whatever it is. They explain why melted better works better than softened for a certain recipe; why bone in is better than boneless; why flour plus baking soda/powder is better than cake flour; and on and on and on. They also do taste and product testing and share the results. Again - it rocks. That being said, you gotta figure that if you have an America's Test Kitchen cook book - which I do - you need do nothing other than follow the directions to a tee and you've got a perfect whatever... and if you deviate...well do so at your own risk. As much as I LOVE ATK (and I do LOVE ATK), I also believe that a recipe is really just a suggestion. And with THAT being said, here we are at what happened when I decided to make their Chewy, Fudgy Brownies (the true recipe is at the end of the post.) Long story short? - They were DELICIOUS in spite of the deviations!!!

So when I decided to make brownies, I took inventory and had just about everything I needed...I did have three different chocolates, but not the right three. I had choc syrup, semisweet chips, and cocoa powder.

<<<<< Then there's my wannabe double boiler... Sometimes the tools matter... This time? Worked fiiiine. Pot, water, bowl - voila!

Once it was all meltilicious, I added the cocoa. Since I actually did this back in October and didn't note it, I don't quiiiite recall when I added the chocolate syrup. But hey it doesn't likely matter - clearly.        >>>>>


And there you have it. Don't get me wrong, I still love ATK and trust them. Maybe I lucked out b/c all I changed was chocolates, who knows. I do intend to try it again "right"... But hey, if it's a choice between making something with slightly off ingredients and seeing what happens, and going w/out brownies... I'll try the variation every time.This time, it worked. Yum!

---

From The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cook Book 2001 - 2010. It's ok to share as long as I give credit right...? Hope so...

Chewy, Fudgy Brownies
Why This Recipe Works: Classic Brownies boast a balance of cakey and chewy. We wanted a brownie that was distinctly chewy - a moist, dark, luscious brownie with a firm, smooth, velvety texture. It must pack an intense chocolate punch and have deep, resonant chocolate flavor, but it must fall just short of overwhelming the palate.

To develop a rich, deep chocolate flavor, we ultimately found it necessary to use three types of chocolate. Unsweetened chocolate laid a solid, intense foundation; semisweet chocolate provided a mellow, even somewhat sweet, flavor; cocoa powder smoothed out any rough edges introduced by the unsweetened chocolate (which can contribute a sour, acrid flavor) and added complexity to what can be the bland flavor of semisweet chocolate. We focused on flour, butter and eggs to arrive at the chewy texture we wanted. Too little flour and the batter was goopy; too much made the brownies dry and muted the chocolate flavor. We melted the butter instead of creaming softened butter with the sugar and eggs; as with our Classic Brownies, the melted butter produced a more dense and fudgy texture.

Makes 64 small brownies
To melt the chocolate in a microwave, heat them with the butter at 50 percent power for 2 minutes; stir the chocolate and continue heating until melted, stirring once every additional minute. Either Dutch-processed or natural cocoa powder works well in this recipe. These brownies are very rich, so we prefer to cut them into very small squares for serving.

5 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (see note)
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (5 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour

1. Adjust anoven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with [two pieces of] foil (see page 481 [book provides a method of lining the pan so that you can just lift the foil out of the pan to get the brownies out]) and spray with vegetable oil spray.

2. Melt the chocolates and butter in a medium heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, unto smooth. Whisk in the cocoa powder until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt together in a medium bowl until combined, about 15 seconds. Whisk the wamr chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Using a wooden spoon. stir in the flour until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan; using a spatula, spread the batter into the corners and smooth the surface. Bake until slightly puffed and a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 35 o 40 minutes. Cool the brownies on a wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours;p loosen the edges with a paring knife and lift the brownies from the pain using the foil extensions. Cut the brownies into 1-inch squares and serve. (Do not cut the brownies until ready to serve; the brownies can e wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 5 days.)

stuffed chicken a la me

a while back the daughter and i made chicken fingers. she's been asking to make them again, and last week... the week before? i forget, i decided we could. unfortunately for her (bad mommy) i got it in my head that it'd actually be stuffed chicken fingers and the day i REALLY decided to do it, it was too late in the evening for her to help... so we'll have to do the regular ones another time... perhaps tomorrow, being her bday and all...but i digress. So, here it is...

Bread Crumbs. What do you do when you've got various near (or already) stale bread and some croutons lying around? Make breadcrumbs of course! This is 1 and a half italian rolls, a slice and a heel of rye bread, some croutons (cheese & garlic I think) and a couple tablespoons (or so) of grated parmesan cheese. Throw it all in the processor. I pulsed for a bit, got impatient and just hit...grate perhaps.

Cheese Filling. Can't really recall exactly how or why I decided to go with a mixture, but it really didn't have to be anything more than knowing that I had all these different cheeses available. I wish I knew enough about the science to say something about how the different forms would work together, but I don't. Ah well - it just does. Knowing that it works for lasagna probably played a part in me bothering to give it a try. Grated parm, ricotta, shredded 6 cheese italian blend. I also added minced garlic here. if I hadn't had any I probably would have added garlic powder to the breadcrumbs or used it to season the meat. The consistency was less moist than with lasagna, but spreadable.

Veggies. I was discussing my endeavor with coworkers earlier that day and contemplating adding something else to the filling. A coworker suggested spinach or broccoli. I was thinking bacon but I kept that to myself, lol. I did, however, have plum tomatoes and an onion and figured they'd work nicely. And it did. Though I think it could use more. But in this case I used all that would fit. More in a minute..





Chicken. A lb or so of... ok I know it was boneless, skinless chicken breast, but it was already relatively thin when I started. So, whatever that was. I did pound it out to make it even flatter and ideally better for rolling, coulda been flatter. I must confess, at first I forgot the top layer of wax paper. Amazing how much better it went once I remembered. And no, I didn't ROLL it... I repurposed my rolling pin as a meat tenderizer. Oh yeah, the meat somehow. Pepper and more salt than necessary. Wah. It wasn't inedible, make no mistake. But I did use more salt than I'd intended given all that cheese.

Fill. I managed to have exactly enough of the cheese mixture for the 4 pieces of chicken. Or so I thought. In the end what I had was way more cheese mixture than necessary, lol. Aint it purdy. I was tempted to just bake it like that, but I resisted. I rolled as intended....

Roll. Given the amount of filling, 'rolling' ended up little more than an almost tri-fold. Flatter meat and less cheese should help with that going forward. You can see the tomatoes and onions that had to be sacrificed. String of some kind would have helped, but all I had was toothpicks. They did ok.

Bread. I have previously scoffed at  the notion of buying a 3 piece breading set... However, I've since added it to my wish list. I planned to bake them vs fry them. Can I say it's because it's healthier (marginally, given all. that. cheese)? Sure, but that would kinda be a lie. That is just a pleasant bi product. I just didn't feel like it.

Bake. 20min at 375. Probably could have done a few minutes less.

  

Voila. Chickenny cheesy goodness! So, aside from using less cheese to allow for more veggies, I considered adding a layer of tomato paste on top of the cheese. While it could be partly for flavor purposes, the idea was really inspired for a need for more color. As yummy as it was, it does look rather bland. The red of the tomato barely comes through. Could also do something with herbs for some greenness...Starting to sound like Christmas... Point being, it could use more color. We'll see what happens when I try it again. All anything aside (too much salt, too much cheese, not enough color...blah blah blah). IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! Can't wait to do it again. 

slow and... well... slow

soooooo, here's that blanket i'm working on for my daughter... progress has been made, yes. i thought for a minute there it'd be done in time for the offspring's birthday (two weeks from today) but...yeah not likely. i think we're back to hopefully finishing it by the time she graduates from high school... tho maybe, if i really apply myself, i can get it done in time for her 8th grade graduate instead... in 5 years... tho the optimist buried DEEEP inside me says if i really and TRULY apply myself, she could have it for Christmas... we shall see...

right edge is the bottom of the blanket

bbq _____________

- no picture... no clever title... so lame *hangs head in shame* yet so tasty!

it's been some time since i made bbq sauce from scratch. a shamefully long time really, so last week, or was it two weeks ago?  eh, who knows *shrug*. i made sure (or so i thought) i had everything when i went to the grocery store and that saturday, went to town. the daughter wanted to help, sure thing li'l lady. she was all excited. love it!

if you've been paying attention, you know by now that if you expect quantities you'll be disappointed... I tried and tried to come up with some approximations, but it just wasn't working. the general method to the madness goes like this:

1. start w/ enough ketchup to make the amt of sauce you want
2. add flavors that you like in quantities you think you'll like them
3. stir
4. taste
5. adjust

the beauty of the lack of measurement is that hey you can make it what you want, as sweet or as tangy or as whatever, just by tasting it and adding a li'l more this or that as you see fit. the beauty of this 'recipe' is that if you don't have all of them, no worries, the sauce will just have a different sort of vibe. the last time i made it, i didn't have onions or worcestershire, but it's still delish.

sauce ingredients

• ketchup 
• spicy mustard 
• soy sauce 
• lemon juice (fresh is ideal of course, but real lemon does the trick as well)
• garlic (either powder, minced (jar or fresh), they all work)
• onion (either powder, or fresh)
• worcestershire sauce
• honey
• brown sugar (light or dark works taste wise, dark will give you a darker color of course)
• apple cider vinegar

mix it all up

i typically make it on the stove on med/low heat. if you're going to end up cooking the meat in the sauce, you wouldn't necessarily need to. If you're going to end up just putting it as is on something cooked, I'd recommend it, just to make sure the sugar's all dissolved and all the various liquids come together. i'm no super culinarian so I don't actually KNOW that the heat is necessary to make that happen, but i'm ok w/ the logic and hey, it can't hurt it.

on the meat 

lately i only season the meat itself w/ salt and pepper and then don't put it in the sauce. also, this go around i also added mccormick smokehouse maple grill mate to the meat itself. added a smokey maple-y-ness to the final product. necessary? not at all, they didn't always make those, ya know. and this is a long standing 'recipe'  *grin*

And that's about it. use it in a pan... in a pot... on a grill... in a crock... whatever you're pleasure. when i made the bbq chicken, i cooked the chicken and then added the sauce and let it simmer in the sauce for a li'l bit before dinner. when i made ribs just yesterday, i added a li'l bit just to cover the meat when i put it in the crock (2 racks, maybe abt 2 lbs or so, hi for abt 4.5 hrs). then when they were done, i took them out of the crock, put them in  a cake pan, covered them w/ the rest of the sauce. I SHOULD have cut the ribs first THEN  poured the sauce over it, but it all worked out anyway. DEEE ELISH!

secret ingredient: GINGER - alle cuisine!

A few weeks ago I thought - hmmm I need to make the 1-2-3-4 cake again (the one that i didn't realize was to make 3 layers until too late...) and go ahead and make the 3 layers. Hmmm, what to fill it with... so mulled over that now and again, hadn't come up with anything... Untiiilll dinner at Buddakhan for my anniversary...in...July... yeah this post was a long time coming, lol. One of their desserts has "ginger cream cheese". Eureka! Ginger. I typically make cream cheese frosting so there ya go. So was birthed the notion of making a cake that involved ginger. What follows is the story of that notion come reality...

I decided that because I was (uh am) still obsessed w/ chocolate ganache, I'd make a ginger infused choc ganache for the filling. For this I wanted fresh ginger. I aimed for a root that was lengthy because I got it in my head that lengthy strips of ginger might be cool.





I peeled and julienned some ginger. Oh about...that much. I didn't measure it. I'm bad that way... I should probably work on that... I can tell you that it was a cup of heavy cream tho (but only b/c that's what the ganache recipe I used said). I also need to work on my julienning skills. They could have been thinner I think. I didn't want a dice or shred b/c I just wanted to flavor the ganache. I didn't actually want to have pieces of ginger in the filling.

I put some of the ginger in the cream. Looked at it. Thought about it for a minute and then added some more. And let it heat up.

I didn't think it was quite gingery enough by the time it was ready to add the chocolate so I opted to leave it in there once I added the chocolate. Whisk...whisk...whisk... ymmm yumm yumm...

Eventually, it tasted gingery enough and given that I didn't want chunks of ginger in the filling, I now had to take all that ginger out. I had the bright idea that perhaps I could use it as a garnish on the cake, so I actually painstakingly took out each piece and laid it on a piece of parchment, uh I mean wax paper (the amateur foodie's parchment). Hadn't seemed like THAT much ginger when I was dumping it in by the handful... But there it is. Chocolate Covered Ginger. Sounds delish doesn't it? It did to me, so I had a taste. the first few bites were great...then it hit me that really I hadn't heated it for but so long and even tho there was a decent bit of it's flavor still in the pan this was still all but raw ginger. WHEW! Tasty? Yes. Strong? DEFinitely. At which point it was determined that this would not go all over the top of the cake. If I were to do it again, I think I'd have to make more of an effort to kill more of the gingeryness to make it more palatable to the average palate.

We now interrupt the more interesting sections of this entry to say that in spite of my willingness to go 3 layers, I just put the cake batter into 2 cake pans...whiiich we'll see later, may have been my uh... well not a good idea... Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Icing time. We start with a basic (I guess) cream cheese frosting recipe (I'd love to put a link but I can't remember where it was, I think I find a new one every time. It involved cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla if that helps...) I added 1 tbsp of minced ginger to start. Tasted it and then added another. What? She measured something!?!? She did. You can see the jar, I needed to get it out w/ something, a measuring spoon was the best fit. 

And now to assemble this madness! Aww don't the cakes look purdy?? And high, right? Right. Since  my cakes almost always have that lovely bump on top, I already had a plan for that. (I guess the lesson in that 'always' is - don't put so much darn batter in the pan, lady! ok ok, next time...) So, I go to turn cake number 1 out of the pan and... and... it doesn't move. This has NEVER EVER happened to me before. EVER. I greased & floured like you're sposta and everytying. Ok took a butter knife around the edge... Still no motion.. WAH!!!!!

Ok ok, just get the darn thing out of the pan... and so I did. It ain't pretty but it's out. Got it out however it would come, then got the rest out... so sad my cake. But OH SO YUMMY!!! 

Ok, recall me saying I'd had a contingency plan for the bump on the cakes? I was already planning to use what I sliced off the top to level it in some sort of crumb 'topping' for the sides of the cake. Soooo... I still ended up with cake to crumble, just via a different method. I shall spare you the ugly details of the second layer, but suffice it to say - more of the same. *hangs head* I'm so ashamed. But anyway... onward.

Add the ganache to layer 1. So mad that I forgot to take a picture. And topped it with the second layer. Yes it looks like the lower layer is smaller. We'll just pretend I was intentionally making a topsy turvy cake... Ok not really, just still part of the former removal from pan debacle. But again the cake is DARN TASTY! 

Ok, so while the icing is still setting up some in the fridge, I start working on the crumb stuff that's supposed to go around sides of the cake. Mind you at this point I really just know that that's where I want it. I considered how I was going to get it on there but figured I wouldn't stress about it until the time actually came... To the food processor! We have cake crumbs, of course, and then... more ginger - this time ground. (You know better than to ask how much right? Good. *grin*) Even tho there's sugar in the cake, I felt that I needed to add some sugar to the mixture. I considered powdered at first, but then opted for granulated for some texture and crunch. I remembered that I had a few squares of baking chocolate in the fridge, and thought hmmm, so far, there's only chocolate in the filling, I should bring that back in for the outside. Pulsed it up some... Then spotted the few oz of semi-sweet chips I hadn't used in the ganache and figured, why not? I tossed that in there as well. 

Time to finish up this project. Out comes the icing and I ice away. Then it's time to add the lovely mixture in the processor. Hmmm... It's kinda warm in the kitchen...icing's kinda soft... uhhh how bout I just put it on the TOP of the cake. Great idea. But once I did that it looked a li'l odd especially since some of it sorta ending up on the sides was unavoidable. 

I added more but aimed more for the side from above...kinda? I don't know but I ended up getting a nice li'l some on the sides and then around the bottom edge. (and all over the table... but that was just bonus.)

Time to dig in. If I had been thinking, I would NOT have taken a picture that would remind us of the imperfections in the cake itself...but imperfections...something something about character? Yeah, let's go with that... And you'll see that I did end up throwing in some of the choc covered ginger (which incidentally had been put in the refrigerator to cool and harden). Some might say I need to work on presentation/plating... And so I shall. 

And here we can see just how much of the bottom layer uh ended up in the topping... (or in our bellies, cuz trust there was a LOT of snacking on the cake 'scraps') during this process.

And there ends the story of the very yummy Ginger 3 Ways (working title) cake. Not sure I like it as a name but it'll work for now. It was tres yummerlicious - If I do say so myself. The rest of the household enjoyed it so that's gonna count for something. 

But wait... there's more...

There was a decent amount of icing and topping left over that I had to find something to do with... So I made some quick and dirty cupcakes ("quick and dirty" here meaning "from a box" - I know I know, perish the thought...). I only have a hand mixer so I can' only make real cakes but so often cuz it's terribly trying with the whole add this then that then this w/ nowhere to put down the mixer and trying to hold and scape the bowl... aaaa oh how I need a stand mixer... But I digress. So, I made the cupcakes, adding some ground ginger to the filling (coulda added more actually). And when they were done I iced them w/ my icing and added the topping. Again - delicious. Believe it or not there was STILL some topping left...in fact... well umm yeah there was still some left, but figure hey next time hopefully I won't have so much available (read: cakes will come out of pans in tact. And there is hope, I got a handy dandy tip: line the bottom of the pan with parchment or brown paper. Will do, will do.)