a hot dish

Sweetcorn Fritters

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:02:53 -0500

Sweetcorn season is one of my favorite times of the year. It truly is my number one food. The best way to cook sweet corn is to fill a huge pot with water and place the corn in the pot with several tablespoons of sugar. I usually put a plate over the ears to keep them submerged. Bring the pot to a boil and then cover and remove from the heat. Let sit for 20 minutes and you will have perfect sweetcorn every single time. Put several ears of corn on a plate, slather with butter and sprinkle with salt. Take the plate outdoors, relax in the summer heat, grab a cob and start gnawing away. Let the butter stream down your arms to your elbows. It is life at its best.

Now last week I read yet another article about grilling corn. I have experimented with this over and over. It is fine, but, not great. I grilled this guy’s “tried and true” recipe for the best corn EVAH and it was okay. My way is the best. Period.

But, on occasion I do like to try different ways of preparing corn, especially when we have an abundance. Since my sweetcorn is not ripe yet, we have been buying it at our local farm stand. It has been an exceptional year for sweetcorn. Now our lovely neighbors have a huge garden at a different location and they have been bringing us dozens and dozens of cukes. Don’t get me wrong I love a crisp cucumber, but, after awhile, if they are not pickling cukes, there is not much you can do with them. Well, that sounds stupid, because there are dozens of things you can do with cukes, but, after a bit I tire of them. Never sweet corn. So lo and behold, what did we find on our front stoop yesterday??? SWEET CORN! YAAAAY.

Now I mentioned Happy Bill on my post about sandwiches. This guy is just a treasure. I find myself smiling all through his program. If I could have him as my dad and Ina as my mom, well, that would be paradise. Anyway, Bill made corn fritters with an avocado salsa that piqued my interest. I hated to “waste” sweet corn, but it was Bill’s recipe and I love me some Bill. I gave the recipe a go.

The Recipe:

Sweetcorn Fritters with Avocado Salsa adapted from Bill Granger’s program: Bill’s Food

3 1/2 cups fresh corn kernels cut from 5-6 large corn cobs
1 small red onion chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (I used basil)
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
vegetable oil for frying
avocado salsa to serve (see below)

Preheat the oven to 250°
Place 2 cups of the corn kernels and the onion, eggs, cilantro, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a food processor and process until combined.

Here is the combined ingredients, I added a tad of hot sauce just to liven things up a bit.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat.
When the oil is hot, drop 2 heaped tablespoons of mixture per sweetcorn cake into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes per side.

Drain on paper towels and keep warm in the oven while you are making the rest of the cakes. Serve with the avocado salsa.

Avocado salsa
2 ripe avocados stones removed and diced
1/2 cup cilantro (I left it out)
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions scallions
1 tomato quartered, seeded and finely sliced
1 dash tabasco sauce, optional
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir very gently to combine.

Final Thoughts:

Hmmmmm. What to say here? While I love sunny Bill, I am not so sure about these fritters. They were more like pancakes, which is not a bad thing, if you were expecting pancakes. Don’t get me wrong, these were good, but, I actually think if I had poured maple syrup over them, it would have been better.

Having said that, how bad can avocado salsa, aka guacamole, and sweetcorn fritters be? Not bad at all. Still, if I had my choice I would make corn pudding over this with guacamole on the side. Or best of all, I would have sweet corn with butter oozing down to my elbows...

How to build a sandwich

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:15:25 -0500

Can anyone tell me where a cookbook could hide? I lost a cookbook. I have no idea where it went. My house is not that big so there are not dozens of rooms to go through. Granted, there are piles of books and magazines everywhere, precisely because my house is not that big. I have looked everywhere and this book has disappeared. Now years and years ago, I actually had a family member steal a cookbook from me. Yup, she did. Can you believe that? Anyway, the thing is, there has been no family member or friend who has been in my house who would steal anything. If anyone wanted to use this cookbook, all they would have had to do is ask. I would have said no, of course.

The cookbook in question is: ‘wichcraft by Tom Colicchio. Because we have had several days of heat and humidity up here in the tundra, I thought sandwiches would be in order. That is what spurred the search for the missing book. So the quest has been going on for over a week now with no results. Fortunately, along came Bill. The happiest man on the planet. If you don’t know who Bill is, it is time to meet him. As the one reader of this blog knows, I am addicted to the Food Network. Not to all the shows, but to a lot of them. And now we have the Cooking Channel. Most of the programming is rerunning old shows from the Food Network, but, there are a few gems tucked in here and there. Like Bill. I love Bill. An adorable Aussie who never ever stops smiling. And, NO, it is not annoying, it is extremely pleasant.

There are two programs starring Bill. One is “Bill’s Holiday” and the other is “Bill’s Food.” Apparently, Bill is the egg making champion or some such thing of Australia. Well, that may not be quite true, but, he is known for making eggs. I followed his advice on making scrambled eggs, which defies all convention, and they were the best scrambled eggs I have ever had. Kye and I have been watching his shows faithfully and Kye, who may be the fussiest eater on the planet, wants to try everything he sees. Or just about everything he sees. Kye watches the show because Bill shows areas of Australia and I watch for the recipes. But, of course, Kye ends up liking the recipes and I love seeing bits of Australia. A win win situation.

The other day Bill made a steak sandwich. Both Kye and I thought this is something that must be made and pronto. When Paul saw the sandwich, of course he wanted it, but, Paul wants absolutely everything he sees on TV. If there is a new sandwich at Wendy’s he has to have it, or some god awful concoction at Kentucky Fried. If you ever wondered who those fast food commercials are aiming at, it is simple: Paul. Anything that he sees for .99 cents, he will not let it go until he is satisfied. I never and I repeat never eat fast food and ignore or fast forward through all commercials, Paul on the other hand, loves any commercial for fast food. He is their target audience.

So all three of us were in agreement on this sandwich, it was a must have.

It was very simple and easy enough for anyone to accomplish. You doctor mayo, fry onions, grill a sirloin, add arugula and tomatoes and you are good to go. You have just achieved sandwich nirvana.

Mix a half cup or so of mayonnaise with a bit of chopped garlic and a teaspoon or so of balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
Slice two onions and saute in a bit of olive oil until nicely browned but not burnt and add a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.
Bill suggested using sirloin, so of course we followed Bill’s advice. Because our sirloin was so thick we sliced it lengthwise into three portions. (following Bill’s directions of course) Coat the meat with oil and season liberally with salt and lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Grill on medium high heat until medium rare. *note* After doing this, Paul and I thought we could just grill the steak whole and then slice it thinly.
We found these small ciabatta loaves at Costco and they were perfect for this sandwich, but, you can use any hearty bread. Spread the mayo mixture on the top and bottom of the bread.
Add the rocket or arugula. Now it depends on where you live whether you call it rocket or arugula. You can use any lettuce that you please, but, I am telling you it is worth finding arugula. It is my new favorite green. We grow it in our salad table and it is always a treat to walk by and snap off a few leaves for a snack while working in the garden.
Add your grilled and thinly sliced steak.
Top with sliced tomatoes.
Finish with the delectable balsamic onions.
And here you have a sandwich that is fit for a king or Paul. He added potato chips. Of course, the thin person would! Enjoy!

Julia, Marcel and plums

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:24:54 -0500

As the two readers of this blog must know by now, I am addicted to cooking shows. With the recently added new Cooking Channel, there are even more shows to watch. Granted, the Cooking Channel is just running old programs, but, many are new to me. There are several that I really like. There is a show called Rachel Allen: Bake! that I enjoy and another about French cooking, but, my favorites are the old The French Chef and Cooking with Julia. I am absolutely delighted to watch Julia Child cook and interact with her guest chefs.

A recent show had chef Marcel Desaulniers as Julia’s guest. I own two of his cookbooks and I love them both, “Death by Chocolate” and “Chocolate Cakes.” This time Marcel made a plum cake with chocolate sauce. I was intrigued. I love plums, but, I find I barely use them when baking. I don’t actually know why that is. So when I saw Marcel and Julia make these little plum cakes I knew that this was something I was going to bake.

We happened to be at the co-op buying spices, which if you have access to a co-op this is where you should be buying your herbs and spices, (the prices are incredibly low and I have found that their quality is superior), when I saw some organic plums. They really looked good so I picked up four eggplant colored ripe plums. Yum.
Now the recipe is for a plum cake with a chocolate sauce. For me, I just didn’t see the need for chocolate sauce. But, Paul felt that the plum cake could use ice cream, so we followed his advice and it was a perfect pairing. As an aside, Paul thinks everything could use ice cream!

The Recipe:
Plum Cake adapted from Marcel Desaulniers Baking With Julia

1/4 lb butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar plus additional for sprinkling
2 eggs
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup buttermilk
4 ripe but firm plums

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter and white and brown sugars until sugars are dissolved, at least 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down bowl.

At eggs, one at a time and beat for 30 seconds after each addition. Add orange zest and vanilla and then add flour and beat for another minute. Pour in butter milk and baking soda and beat for 30 seconds. Remove bowl and continue to incorporate with a rubber spatula until smooth.

Spoon two tablespoons of batter into small souffle dishes or custard cups. Cut, plums in half removing seed. Push plums into batter, cut side up. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of the plums and bake for 24 - 26 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

At this point if you can run a knife around the edges and remove the cakes from the souffle dish. I used a small off set spatula, which worked fabulous. Or you can just put a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream right into the bowl, either way, it will be delicious.

Final Thoughts:

Wow, it is difficult to believe that this extremely simple recipe can pack such a powerful punch of flavor. This is so easy that it is ridiculous. We all loved this. I have to say I am not sure if I would add chocolate to this recipe. I didn’t think it needed it and when I don’t think there should be chocolate than perhaps it doesn’t. Yet, who am I to argue with Marcel Desaulniers? If he thinks that chocolate should be part of this dessert than perhaps I should heed his recipe.

Next time I will try the chocolate sauce, but, I have a feeling I will enjoy it much better sans the sauce. I, also, think that you could try other fruit, perhaps peaches or nectarines. This simple and homey, yet elegant dessert would be great for family and friends or special guests. Enjoy!

quiche

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:06:05 -0500

I am obsessed with Throwdown with Bobby Flay as I have said before in the chicken tikka masala post. Over time my attitude has definitely changed regarding this show. Originally, I never ever wanted Flay to win. I have always thought Flay a bit cocky and actually a bit condescending. But, you know, whenever he does win, he is super gracious to the loser and it appears genuine. So now, when I watch the program and I can tell that his recipe does look better, I am not too disappointed anymore.

And often he does present a superior recipe. I took particular notice to the quiche throwdown. Both recipes looked spectacular. And guess what? If you can believe it, both recipes were on the entirely awful Food Network website.

As an aside, do you know what one of my pet peeves is? When a person rates a recipe that one, they haven’t even tried yet, but, what really bugs me, is when a person rates a recipe and they have substituted half the ingredients, so the recipe is so far from the original that it isn’t even the same thing anymore.

So without further ado, I made Bobby Flay’s recipe to a tee, except I changed the crust recipe to my own, the one with vodka that you can find here. Then I did not have chorizo, so I used bacon, I did not have fontina cheese, so I substituted gruyere. I did not have cotija cheese, I thought parmesan would work well. No green onions in the house, so a nice fresh onion from the garden was used. Oops, I only had nine eggs instead of ten, so I had to make due.

A roasted jalapeno pesto was to accompany the quiche, but, I didn’t have jalapenos in the pantry nor was I going to use cilantro which the recipe called for, so I made a basic basil pesto, except, pine nuts are a no no at the moment and I used pistachio nuts as a replacement. But, otherwise than that I followed the recipe EXACTLY. I rate the recipe in “final thoughts.”

The Recipe:

Chorizo and Goat Cheese Quiche adapted from Bobby Flay at Food Network, but, seriously, folks this is my own recipe

Tart Shell:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 sticks cold butter, cut into cubes
5 tablespoons cold lard, cut into cubes
2/3 cup ice water

I used my own crust recipe which you can find here. It is a superior recipe that has never failed me.

Roasted Jalapeno Pesto:
6 jalapenos, roasted and seeded (do not remove blistered skin)
1 1/2 cups tightly packed cilantro leaves
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tablespoons pine nuts
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

I made basil pesto and since pine nuts are no where to be found I substituted pistachio nuts and it was great. In fact, you don’t even have to use any sort of pesto, but, it does add a nice dimension. I have a feeling this jalapeno pesto is dynamite sans the cilantro.

Tart Filling:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 pound Mexican chorizo, casings removed
1 1/2 cups grated fontina cheese
1/4 cup finely grated Cotija cheese
2 to 3 green onions, (dark and pale green part) thinly sliced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
10 large eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
4 ounces soft goat cheese, frozen for 10 minutes and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

I used bacon instead of choizo, I used gruyere instead of fontina and parmesan for the cotija. I used a white onion from the garden for the green onion and I only had nine eggs.

Directions
Combine the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Scatter the butter and lard over the top of the flour and pulse until the mixture forms large crumbs. Add the water, a few tablespoons at a time, and pulse until the dough just comes together. Divide into 2 equal pieces, flatten each half into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until chilled through, at least 1 hour.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 of the disks into a 16-inch round. Fit the dough into a 2-inch deep-dish tart pan with a removable bottom, gently pressing it into the sides. Okay, I just want to editorialize for a moment here. Who seriously has a tart pan with 2 inch sides? I have a regular tart pan and a spring form pan. But a 2 inch tart pan? No way, Jose. So I just used two regular old pie plates. Worked fine. Using a sharp knife, trim the dough evenly with the edge of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap; and chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Put the tart pan on a baking sheet, line the dough with parchment and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until lightly golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the weights and paper and continue baking until golden brown, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool slightly (not all the way) on a baking rack.

Put the jalapenos, cilantro, garlic, pine nuts and oil in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until the mixture has a pesto-like consistency; you want a bit of texture. Add the cheese and salt and pepper, to taste, and pulse a few times to distribute the cheese.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat until it begins to shimmer. Add the chorizo and cook until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels. Let cool slightly.

Scatter the fontina, Cotija, green onions, chorizo and thyme over the warm tart shell. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.
Add the milk and cream and whisk until smooth. Pour into the shell and evenly distribute the goat cheese over the top. Bake until the crust is deep golden brown and the center is almost set (still slightly jiggles) but the sides are set, about 40 to 50 minutes. I put foil around the outside of the crust, I was afraid of burning, I am glad I did. Let sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before serving. Cut into wedges and drizzle jalapeno pesto over the top.

Final Thoughts:

Since I feel I can comment with accuracy on this recipe, I shall!!! LOLOL Obviously, I can’t make any comment on Bobby Flay’s recipe because I didn’t follow it to a tee. I made too many substitutions. But, it is basically the same sort of recipe and my quiche was a 10 out of 10. It was brilliant. I think the thing that is so cool about quiche, is you can do what ever you want. You can leave meat out altogether, you can add more veggies if you want, you can substitute whatever cheese you have in the fridge and it will all taste great.

Having said that, there are some classic combos that you might want to stick with, and I wouldn’t overload with ingredients, either. I think that roasted peppers would be an excellent choice as would sun dried tomatoes. Putting in sauted mushrooms would definitely be a winner as would green pepper, leeks and even sweet corn, which as you know is my favorite food ever. Love sweet corn. Love it.

The cheeses I used worked superbly. Don’t skip the goat cheese, that was a special treat. Biting into the creamy smoothness of the goat cheese made this recipe. I would definitely not skip this part.

Would I recommend this recipe? Without question. Once the crust is done, the rest is really easy. If you don’t have confidence to make your own crust buy a premade one. But, seriously, folks, it is time for you to master a home made pie crust. If I can do it, anyone can. Enjoy!

Postcrossing recipe

Tue, 6 Jul 2010 15:29:57 -0500

I never considered myself a nerd. Being a cheerleader back in the day and all. But, I believe all of us have some inner nerd and I think that is a very good thing. So my nerdy side belongs to Postcrossing. At the postcrossing website you register, tell a bit about yourself and then you request addresses. You receive addresses from all over the world and you send out a postcard. But, the cool thing is you receive postcards from all over the world as well. It really is super cool. A book club friend of mine turned me on to this. It makes going to the mailbox an event. I love receiving mail that is something other than junk. Paul and Kye always wait to see what new cards I get. We pass them around and comment on the fact that every single card we receive has a message written in English. I am impressed.

I had a private swap with a woman from Germany. She wanted wolf postcards and being from the land of timberwolves (we won’t even talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves) there were plenty of postcards to send to her. In return, she sent me several random postcards, one with a recipe for Schokoladenparfait. Yup. WEll, obviously, I wasn’t going to be able to follow the recipe, since my German is nonexistent. Fortunately, she was kind enough to translate the recipe into English. Except, that her English translation was sorta rough. Listen, I am NOT criticizing her in the least, just think she is able to attempt a translation from her native language into English. I couldn’t even attempt such a thing. So I had to do the google and see if I could combine her translated recipe into one that I thought was fairly close and amazingly I did.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:45:10 -0500

I have, unfortunately, become addicted to “Throwdown With Bobby Flay.” I now tape all the episodes, even the ones I have seen before. Yes, I know it is nuts. But, the thing is, I have found some super recipes. And because of my waning memory, I have to retape shows I have already seen, because I can’t remember them!

The thing that pisses me off though, is often times, the lame Food Network website doesn’t post the recipes. And more often than not, the chef being challenged wants to keep their recipe super secret! Geez. I seriously doubt they will go out of business if they reveal their super double secret recipe! So when I wanted to make the chicken tikka masala dish, I couldn’t get the recipe from the Food TV site. Blah.

Being the owner of many cookbooks, I headed to “660 Curries” to find a tikka masala recipe. I found one, but, it was so different from the one that Bobby Flay made, I needed do a google. Ten million recipes later, I found several that were pretty close to what I wanted. So I rewatched the program several times and grabbed three recipes and made my own. Now, I have to admit, I had a wee problem. I have never had chicken tikka masala, so I didn’t have anything to go on. I tasted as I went, but, I didn’t know if I was on the correct path or not. When I came to a fork in the road, I was lost. Plus, I was serving this to friends before we were heading to the Kathy Griffin concert. Which I ended up not going to. I can’t talk about it.

Fortunately, Michael, had lived in the U.K. and was familiar with the dish and when he arrived, he said it was spot on. Whew! As you may or may not know, chicken tikka masala is the national dish of Britain. I bet most of you thought it was fish and chips. Nope. You would be wrong.

Any time I make an “Indian” dish (this was conceived in Britain) a trip to the Indian market is a must. Oh, the sacrifices I make for cooking! I love the Indian market. I love all ethnic markets. There are so may wonderful aromas wafting through the air. I pick up package after package and sniff. I wish I knew what to do with all the herbs and spices I find.

Anyway, the following is my version of what I think chicken tikka masala should be. I added a bit of what Bobby Flay did, and I took this and that from a bunch of different recipes. Regardless, if this isn’t anything like a “true” tikka masala should taste like, it is pretty darn good!

The Recipe:

Chicken Tikka Masala adapted from Cooks Illustrated and Throwdown with Bobby Flay and others

CHICKEN TIKKA

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

MASALA SAUCE

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, diced fine (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 3 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 1 fresh serrano chili, ribs and seeds removed, flesh minced
• 2 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 3 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 1 cup cream

This dish is best when prepared with whole-milk yogurt, but low-fat yogurt can be substituted. For a spicier dish, do not remove the ribs and seeds from the chile. If you prefer, substitute 2 teaspoons ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper for the garam masala. The sauce can be made ahead, refrigerated for up to 4 days in an airtight container, and gently reheated before adding the hot chicken. Serve with basmati rice.
FOR THE CHICKEN: In a large bowl, whisk together yogurt, cumin, coriander, cayenne, salt, oil, turmeric, garlic and ginger. Add chicken and coat the chicken pieces thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

FOR THE SAUCE: Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring frequently, until light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, chile, tomato paste, and garam masala; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Add crushed tomatoes, sugar, and salt; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cream and return to simmer. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm.

While sauce simmers, heat grill to medium high. Cook chicken until thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 160 degrees. (chicken should be coated with thick layer of yogurt).

Let chicken rest 5 minutes, then cut into 1-inch chunks and stir into warm sauce (do not simmer chicken in sauce). Stir in cilantro and smoked paprika Adjust seasoning with salt, and serve.

Final Thoughts:

Okay, this may or may not be authentic chicken tikka masala, but, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. It was good enough to be its own dish. I absolutely loved this. And if the second helpings were any indication, my guests loved it, too. I know that this is going to be on regular rotation in our household. I guarantee it will in your house, too, if you give it a try. Enjoy!

Iced tea

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:59:00 -0500

I drink tea everyday. All year round I drink hot tea. Either black or green. When I was a child, I would spend many weekends at my French grandparents and every morning they would have their tea. My grandmother always drank green tea and my grandfather drank black. They would ask me which I preferred and of course, when I was young, I felt if I picked one tea over the other, it would show favoritism, so I always had two cups of tea, one black and one green.

My grandmother would put the loose leaves in the china cup and they would let it steep for a few minutes, then my grandfather would pour the brewed tea into the saucer, leaving the leaves behind and drink his tea directly from the saucer without cream or sugar. My grandmother would then pick up the teacup and proceed to “read” the tea leaves. I loved it! This is one of my favorite memories from my childhood.

Even though I don’t quite prepare my tea in the mode of my grandparents, I do have my own ritual. In the summer, I love to make iced tea. I have had many kinds of iced tea, some good and some, well, not so good. Over the years, I have perfected what I like. I realize that my iced tea is not to everyone’s liking, but, it is what I love.

Before I explain my iced tea ritual, I must forewarn you to NOT make sun tea. First of all, it doesn’t make the best tea, but, secondly and more importantly, you can brew some nasty bacteria doing this. So, DON’T DO IT!

Let’s talk about what kind of tea to use. I use the cheapest stuff. Lipton tea bags. Yup, that is what I use. I have had herbal iced tea and I have tried some of my pricier tea leaves, and they are very good, but, my all time favorite is plain old Lipton that you can buy at Costco! How convenient for me!

The key to iced tea tasting terrific is not brewing the tea for ever. You don’t brew it any longer than you would for a cup of hot tea. Usually, anywhere from 3-4 minutes. Any longer and you get really tannic tea. It becomes bitter and almost undrinkable. The thing you want to do is use a lot of tea. That is why I like inexpensive tea, because you use a lot of it. For my beehouse iced tea pot, I use seven tea bags and steep it for four minutes. Now, it is a tad too strong, but, the ice cubes waters it down to perfection.

Since the one other crop I can grow besides, raspberries, rabbits and weeds is mint. I love mint in my tea and I also think that you must have lemon. Now I do not care for sweet tea per se, but, I like just a little bit of sweetener to take the “edge” off. I always make a simple syrup for my tea. For an entire pot of iced tea, I use about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of simple syrup. I find it perfect!

One other thing, make sure you have a pitcher that can take boiling water, otherwise you can have a cracked pitcher and your piping hot tea flowing all over the counter and on to the floor, soaking your rugs and making a huge mess. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Okay, this is what I do:

Put the kettle on to boil your water. I take the tea bags and tie the ends together. I stuff the diffuser with mint and lemon slices. I hang the tea bags over the cover and let dangle into the pot. Once the water boils I hit the timer to four minutes and pour the boiling water over the lemon and mint and into the pot. While it is steeping, I take 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water and nuke in the microwave for one minute, stir the solution and nuke for one more minute.

When the four minutes is up, I remove the diffuser with the mint and lemon and pull out the tea bags. Then I pour as much simple syrup as I want and stir the tea to blend in the sugar water. Refrigerate your tea until cold. Serve over ice with extra fresh mint and lemon slices for garnish. Perfection!

Road Trip

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:06:54 -0500

In April, we had a birthday for Julia. She turned three. Julia is the granddaughter of my dearest friend, Eunice. Both Julia and “GramE” are beautiful, fun people to be around. At the birthday celebration, I was pointing out to Eunice’s sister, Jean, where I wanted my wood burning oven to be. I have been waiting for over for 15 years and frankly my patience is wearing thin. I want to bake my bread and make exquisitely designer pizza in this non existent oven. Jean said there was this little place in Lund, Wisconsin that made wood fired pizza on Tuesday nights. ONLY on Tuesday. She said it was great pizza and that it was loads of fun. All you get is pizza when you go, you have to bring everything else with you. Your wine, if you choose, your table and chairs, plates, glasses and you have to haul all your rubbish out with you. So we decided then and there that we were going on a road trip to Lund for pizza.

Finally, our day arrived. Jean and her family live in Wisconsin and Eunice’s son, also, lives in Wisconsin, so they were going to meet us there. Our party of four took off around 3 in the afternoon in drizzle. It has been raining here in Minnesota for 40 days and 40 nights. A slight exaggeration, but, it has been raining for days and days and days. I can tell you that along with growing a plethora of rabbits and weeds, I can now add mushrooms to the list. They are everywhere and the thing is, you can’t eat them, or can you??? Anyway, because it is so wet outside, you can’t take a step without squishing mushrooms. Well, we set out in the mist and Eunice got a call from her son, Scott, telling us there were tornado warnings not far from our destination. I was not happy.

After winding our way along country roads we arrive in a drizzle to A to Z Pizza. It is not what I imagined it would be. It was better. This is not a fancy place, far from it, but, it is quaint and charming. As we made our way to the chalkboard where the menu was, it started to really pour outside. Now remember this is an outdoors place. But, we were able to go into the greenhouse and eat. There were other outbuildings that they opened to let the diners have a sit down meal. I noticed other people just drive up, order their pie and head back home. But, we were staying, no matter what the weather and I am so glad we did. Because half way through our meal, the rain stopped, the sun came out brilliantly and it was the most magical evening.

Here is a handy dandy slideshow of our road trip to A to Z Pizza in Lund, Wisconsin:

egg whites and birthdays

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 17:08:08 -0500

We celebrated my very beautiful and talented sister-in-law’s birthday with a family party. It was a wonderful day, even though it rained off and on. But, we all managed by huddling under the coolaroo. I asked Vida, what kind of cake she wanted and she picked angel food cake. Yaaaaay! It is one of my all time favorite cakes. In a recent post, I talked about buying a cake cookbook, because I make two cakes a year, I was super delighted to try Dorie Greenspan’s recipe. It had been years and years since I last made an angel food cake, so I was excited to give this one a try.

Now, I do remember that the last time I made this cake, I used a dozen egg whites. This new recipe called for 16. You need two cups of egg whites and I achieved this with only 14 eggs. But, I actually used 16, because in two of the eggs, the yolks broke and YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ANY YOLK IN YOUR WHITES IF YOU WANT YOUR EGGS TO WHIP!!!!!! Did you get that? Discard your egg, or save for scrambled eggs, if you get any yolk in the whites. To make sure you don’t accidentally get yolk, break your eggs into a separate bowl, then transfer the white to the mixing bowl. If you don’t do this, you will surely be sorry. Don’t ask me how I know this.

This is not a difficult cake to make, the most timely task is separating the whites from the yolks. I know many of you think you can just buy a cake mix or just pick up a pre-made angel food cake at the market, but, trust me, it is not the same. Baking your own cake is worth the time and effort. You will need an angel food cake pan, though. I have never made this cake without one, and frankly, I think it is an absolute must. If you don’t have one, ask and older friend, mother, neighbor, aunt or anyone who has been on this earth at least 50 years and I bet they will have this pan and they can lend it to you.

The Recipe:

Angel Food Cake adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s The Cake Bible.

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
3/4 cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 large egg whites at room temperature (2 cups)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
4 tsp vanilla extract
1 or 2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Split and scrape the seeds from the vanilla beans into half the sugar, pour into a food processor. Add the flour and salt and process to blend well. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk beater, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. With the mixer off add the cream of tartar and lemon juice, raise the speed to medium high until soft peaks form. Gradually, beat in the remaining sugar until very stiff peaks form. Beat in the vanilla until combined.

Lightly sprinkle the flour mixture over the beaten whites, 1/4 cup at a time. With a large balloon whisk, fold in the flour mixture, quickly, but, gently. It is not necessary to incorporate every speck of flour until the last addition. Pour the batter into the angel food cake pan. Run a knife through the batter to prevent air pockets and smooth the surface.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, or until golden brown. Test with a long skewer or toothpick to see if cake is done or cake springs back when lightly touched. Cake will sink when done and surface will have large cracks. This is fine.

Invert the pan over the neck of a bottle. Cool completely. Loosen cake by running a knife around the cake and remove cake from the pan. Remove the center core from the pan. Serve with fruit and whipped topping.

Final Thoughts:

What is there to say? This is truly an aptly named cake. It is heaven. It is white, light and fluffy, fit for angels. It is such a delicate tasting cake. Sweet, but, not too sweet. It pairs perfectly with fruit. Any fruit. We used strawberries, but, I cannot think of a fruit that would be wrong.

I love this cake and in fact, Paul is bugging me to make another one. And for once I speak the truth about calories, this is one low calorie dessert. If you left off the whipped cream topping, and just had cake and fruit, this would fit nicely into anyone’s diet. But, the wonderful thing is, you don’t feel as if you are being deprived when you eat this. Surprisingly, it is a rather filling cake.

Please give this recipe a try, you won’t be disappointed. Cheers.

Babies

Wed, 2 Jun 2010 08:06:13 -0500

I abhor varmints. Particularly mice. And voles. And moles. And birds in the house. Birds are terrific when they stay outside. I am not a bird hater. Just to be clear. I don’t like bats when they get in the house. Undomesticated animals should live outside, where mother nature said they should be. That includes insects as well, you know who you are mosquitoes and flies. Stay outside.

My daughter Britta moved out a year and a half ago. I had great plans for her room. Great plans. A year and a half ago. I was going to turn it into a craft type room. Or a computer room. But, a little problem happened. A mouse. And so for a year and a half the room has become a catch all room for everything. There is crap everywhere and it is dirty. So sad, too bad. I refuse to go in there, even though Paul had captured the mouse a long time ago. Still...

See, I believe with all my being that if there is one mouse, there are more. They travel in packs. They belong to gangs. I am positive they have names like the Bloods or the Crips or the Satans. They are dressed in gang colors and are covered in prison tats.

For some reason, the mice that get into our house, are supersized and armed and dangerous. I know that any moment they will attack me, because they smell fear. And AND I am sure they have rabies. And other deadly diseases. I am positive they will attack me in my sleep. Now Paul has this stupid idea that the mice are more afraid of me than I am of them. Really? REALLY? Because I am so afraid, I fear I will die. And I don’t see any of those mice dying on their own.

Which brings me to the babies. When Kitty passed a couple of months ago, we had decided not to get anymore cats. Our daughter-in-law is allergic to cats and since we love and adore her, we felt that we couldn’t bring a cat into our house. Now, if we hated Robin, of course, I would fill the house with cats. But, fortunately, Robin is the best daughter-in-law we could have ever hoped for.

As much as I love Robin, the fear of a varmint in the house is paralyzing. When my dear friend told me there were kittens on her sister’s farm, the wheels started spinning. This is already a long story, so I will just say, not only did we adopt one kitten, we adopted two. Now those critters can live in fear of being murdered by cats. Farm cats. I don’t even feel bad for them. Stay outside and we can coexist in peace.

Now I can sleep better and breathe easier and perhaps since I have lost my mouse excuse, I can tackle that bedroom. Maybe.

So dear readers, meet Bunk and Lola. Two of the most adorable kittens ever to be born!

The very handsome Bunk.

The exquistely beautiful Lola, the cutest cat north of Havana!

Look at the size of her feet! She is a polydactyl.

Fast asleep in their crate. Aren’t they just adorable?

Before you ask, they are from the same litter. Our daughter adopted another kitten from the same litter and she is a polydactyl calico, named Leni Lou. Stayed tuned for more adventures of Bunk and Lola!