Little bits of life...

It has been entirely too long since I have blogged about food! It is high time I post some new stuff here for you to drool over. :)

This past weekend my husband and I went to stay at the family cabin for a few days, without the kids. It was a relaxing trip for us both - he did fix-it-up projects around the cabin and I helped with projects and cooked up a storm of yummy food that we normally wouldn't be able to have with the kids around.

My normal every-day cooking is good enough - my kids eat it without complaint (for the most part), my husband enjoys it and compliments it and me (as every good husband should), and it doesn't (usually) take too much time and concentration from me (which is a high priority around here with my 3 little ones). But the way I love to cook takes more time and effort than I can give it during my regular days, and often includes ingredients that my kids aren't excited to try. In a quick dish, I don't mind using stuff the kids aren't thrilled about, but when I spend a long time on a meal, the last thing I want to hear is "I don't LIKE this" or "this tastes FUNNY" or any number of other comments about why I didn't make spaghetti or pizza. So this cabin trip was the perfect time for me to make a few dishes that I have wanted to try for a while but haven't been able to find a good time or reason.

The first night we had leftover chili that I brought from home, and it's a good thing I brought it because it was almost midnight before we were finally able to eat. But from then on, food was a whole different story.

For breakfast Saturday morning, we had Lil' Citrus Muffins - a Pampered Chef recipe (and you can't go wrong using one of their recipes). Instead of making mini muffins, I made these regular sized. We've had them at home before (as mini muffins) and they were great (the kids loved them too) but I didn't have a mini muffin pan at the cabin so I modified the recipe a bit. Basically the only changes I had to make were less butter/sugar for the topping, and to cook them longer (obviously) since they were bigger. I also used light sour cream instead of the regular stuff. Instead of making 24 mini muffins it made 8 regular sized muffins. I baked them at 425 for 8 minutes then at 375 for another 20 minutes or so. I used a silicone muffin pan sprayed with cooking spray and they came right out after sitting for about 3 minutes in the pan to cool slightly.

For lunch on Saturday, it was Monte Cristo Sandwiches. We've had these at home before too, but the kids are unfortunately not fans. Kimball specifically requested we eat these up at the cabin, and I was happy to make them. They're easy and really, really good. I used mozzarella cheese and strawberry jam instead of the provolone and raspberry called for in the recipe. I've also found that, imho, 3 eggs is too many for making 4 sandwiches, and consequently to make 2 sandwiches, I only used 1 egg. That was perfect. I didn't have dry mustard so I just put some regular mustard in the egg mixture. I'm sure I also didn't use anywhere near as much meat as it calls for. It says to use "hearty bread" and I always use French or Italian bread for these - makes for some really great sandwiches!

So for dinner on Saturday, we had Florentine Stuffed Chicken Breasts. This is another Pampered Chef recipe, from their "Stoneware Inspirations" cookbook. I've been wanting to try this one for a long time, but given the reasons I've already explained, this was the first time since I got the cookbook years ago that I've felt like it was worth the time. 

They were absolutely wonderful, and I'd recommend them to anyone who likes chicken! The cheeses are the secret in these stuffed beauties, and add the perfect flavor to the filling as well as the crust.

Kimball was kind enough to cook the veggies for me (but not really over the fire....)

I don't have the small bar pan so I used the mini oval baker (which I just tried to find a link for and it's not there - maybe they've stopped selling this product!) and they fit perfectly, though because they were touching each other and the sides of the pan, the crust didn't brown on the sides. Still fabulous though, and very pretty to look at.

Sunday morning was omelets. Fillings included sausage, cheddar cheese, onions, red peppers, and mushrooms. I've recently learned to make omelets properly and have since been very pleased with them. Turns out they're not as hard as I thought, and the secret is in the pan. I get cooking emails from The Prepared Pantry and somewhere in there, I received instructions for making the perfect omelet. I looked on their site to try and find the instructions, but I can't for the life of me figure out where I found them the first time, so I'm just copying them here from my file. FYI - when I make an omelette, I usually use 2 eggs and cook it in my eight-inch pan - perfect size.

How to Make the Perfect Omelet

   1. Choose the right size of pan.  A three-egg omelet requires an eight-inch pan.  The pan should be nonstick.

   2. Whisk the eggs together in a bowl.

   3. Put a pat of butter in your nonstick pan.  Place it on medium-high heat.  On our stovetop, a high BTU gas burner, that’s 6 out of ten.  Heat the butter to just short of brown and swirl it around the pan.

   4. Pour the eggs into the hot pan.  Salt and pepper the eggs.

   5. Scramble the eggs with a soft silicone spatula scraping the bottom and sides of the pan.  The eggs will cook quickly and curds will form.

   6. When the eggs approach the consistency of cottage cheese with mostly solids but some liquid egg, stop stirring.  Use the spatula as a paddle to pat the eggs down into an even layer.  Let the eggs continue cooking until the liquids are set and the top of the omelet is cooked.

   7. Place the fillings in a row across the omelet just off to one side.  For most fillings, you will want them pre-cooked.

   8. The omelet should slip around in the pan without a hint of sticking.  Move the pan to a plate, tip the pan on angle over the plate, and gently shake the omelet onto the plate filling side first.

   9. When the omelet is about half onto the plate, twist the pan with your wrist folding the remaining omelet over that on the plate.  The omelet should be folded over with the bottom edge protruding about one-half inch. 

Your omelet should be golden brown and puffy with the interior set and any cheese melted.  A three egg omelet should cook in five minutes or less.  For larger omelets, use larger pans.

Sunday for lunch we had Hot Cheesy Spinach Dip. This is a recipe I have on a card that I got from I unfortunately can't remember where. I suspect it was one of those packages of recipe cards that come in the mail from time to time. It does say "Party Favorites" in the corner of each card, so maybe that will give you a clue if you want to go find them. This was a great recipe and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I did use fresh spinach and wilted it before adding to the recipe (place in microwave safe bowl and cook on high for 3 or 4 minutes or until wilted). I left out the water chestnuts as I'm not a fan of those. Also, I never buy half-and-half and so instead I used 50% whipping cream and 50% milk as a substitute. I'm sure it's not exact but it works. I halved the recipe, and also sliced up about 3/4 of a (store purchased - gasp) baguette and toasted the slices by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking for 5 minutes at 350. I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be an appetizer (the recipe serves 8, and I halved it so we had 4 servings) but we ate it as a meal. I loved it!

Sunday dinner was sandwiches in the car on the way home. But as a treat, I had brought some of the Whole-Wheat Brownies that I made a few weeks ago and froze as an experiment to see if they would still taste good after having been frozen. The answer? YES. VERY YES. In fact, I'd say they tasted better after being frozen than they did before freezing, even after letting them sit for 24 hours after baking as the recipe suggests. I love these brownies, and wish I could eat them all when I make them. I do deviate from the recipe a touch: slightly less butter (probably about 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup), 3 eggs instead of 4, hot chocolate powder instead of espresso powder (I'm not a coffee drinker), and regular cocoa + 3/8 tsp baking soda instead of Dutch process cocoa.

So there you have it - my meals for the few days we were at the cabin. I'm impressed I was able to cook these things bringing only a few of my specialty tools up to the cabin (lemon zester, garlic press, oval baker, non-stick 8" frying pan, and meat tenderizer). Turns out the kitchen there is nearly as full as mine here at home! Ok - maybe not really, but it was full enough for my purposes. :)

For Christmas each year, I like to make something (usually food) (ok I mean always food) and give it to my neighbors and friends. This year I went blackberry picking with my sister and her husband, and so during the summer I made blackberry jam. So as Christmas approached I thought it would be fun to make some small loaves of bread to give with the jam. Since I've been practicing my breads, I thought I'd try a few new shapes (the dough was a transitional (meaning half wheat, half white) sandwich loaf bread). My favorite was the braid, as seen below.

It's been so long since I made them and I've made so many things since, that I can't remember how long I baked them. It seems like it wasn't very long, though - maybe 20 minutes, tops?

I received so many compliments on these little braids that I think I'll probably have to make them again to give away. They're just so pretty, and really very very simple to make. As bread shaping goes, I'd say this is a moderate difficulty, but certainly on the easier side of moderate.

My first attempt at batards (little torpedos) was a great success! While I think I should have slashed a little deeper when I scored the loaves, overall the results were fantastic. I hadn't been brave enough to try a steam bath, or hearth bread, or batards until today for a whole host of reasons. But I grit my teeth and off I went, with results I'm very proud of. I used my cast iron pan as the steam pan (putting it under the stoneware pan as I didn't think it'd fit on top) and used my peel (which I have decided I love) to put the loaves (and the parchment paper I proofed them on) onto the baking stone after the oven and pans had preheated for the better part of 40 minutes.

I did end up cooking the loaves for about 5 minutes less than the minimum time suggested in the formula.

Here's a super-cute project that, while time consuming, is very fun and relatively easy to make. I used a cake mix (from the box) but changed it, as per the instructions in the back of the Hello, Cupcake! book this recipe comes from. In spite of the warning in the book about not using a mix with pudding, that's what I used because it was all I had on hand. Also, I used whole milk and lemon juice instead of buttermilk, again because it was what I had on hand. The cupcakes domed nicely and were very sturdy. One box made enough cupcakes to have 12 large and 24 mini owls.

Many thanks to Kimball, who split the eyes for me. I'd suggest actually buying Oreos instead of a knockoff (which is, unfortunately, what I did). The mini Oreos came apart very easily, but the large cookies weren't Oreos and they were a pain in the neck to separate!

We ran out of our stumpy loaves of whole wheat bread last week, so I made some more. It went fairly well, though I'm still not ready to call it great.

I did make a few modifications from my previous attempt:

1) More water. This was mostly by accident. I added probably an extra 2-3 oz of water. Then, because I didn't want to grind more flour, I didn't add any extra flour to offset the extra water. This meant the dough was rather more wet than I would have liked, but I figured this bread was a work in progress and I could stand to have an over-wet loaf to see how it would perform.

2) Less rising time. This time I didn't let it rise forever. Instead, I put it in when the dough was ready to bake, which did work out to be about 90 minutes after shaping.

3) I made one large loaf in my big pan and 1 small loaf in my mini loaf pan. The mini loaf weighed about 6 1/2 oz when I portioned it. I was shooting for 9 oz, but figured that was close enough.

I still wasn't terribly happy about the height of the loaf, though it was certainly better than last time. I'm still not convinced my loaf pan is 1.5 lb and I may try the whole recipe in the pan next time, just to see if I can get it nice and high like I want. My pan does have rather wide and sloped sides so it is spreading out quite a bit. Also, I think that since the dough was so wet it looked like it may have spread a little more than I liked. That's a terrible description of what I actually saw but I can't figure out how to describe what it did. It was almost like the top around the edges was bubbly or something. :)

So anyway - we'll eat this loaf and I'll try again. It still tastes great, in spite of the visual problems. As always, a work in progress.

I gave the whole wheat bread recipe in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart another shot yesterday. My previous attempt while visiting my sister was mediocre, but I thought I'd give it another shot because I really want to find a great wheat bread recipe and I was sure I could improve on my past experience by making a few important changes.

The last time I made this loaf it turned out dense and small, though with a decent flavor. I have since spent a lot of time looking at the recipe and thinking about what I might have done incorrectly. I came up with three mistakes that I wanted to correct: 1) the recipe calls for some coarsely ground whole wheat flour, and we used finely ground whole wheat flour in its place; 2) the recipe calls for instant yeast and we were using active dry yeast, so we increased the amount of yeast by 25% but neglected to activate the yeast before adding it; and 3) as we were kneading we added extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to our hands.

On Friday the last of the most previous loaf of Light Wheat Bread (also from the Reinhart book) was finished up, so I whipped out my wheat grinder and ground up the required amount of wheat for the Whole Wheat Bread recipe, using my kitchen scale to accurately measure the wheat. I ground some on what my grinder says is "coarse" (it looked about the same to me, but I didn't inspect it terribly closely) and the rest as finely as my grinder will grind. I made the soaker and poolish, remembering to activate my yeast before adding it to the poolish, and let them rest overnight. The next day I mixed up the rest of the ingredients, again activating the yeast before adding it. I added no extra flour, and in fact added a little more water while kneading. Instead of flouring my hands and my kneading surface, I used wet hands (this is an amazing trick (thanks, Hans) - the dough won't stick to your hands if they are wet which I never would have thought of). The dough easily and quickly passed the windowpane test, and so I let it rise. After it had risen I divided the dough into 2 equal parts (each roughly 18 oz) and formed them into loaves, placing them in my pans.

This is where things started to go south.

The recipe says it makes two 1-lb loaves, and so I dutifully placed each of my formed loaves in its own loaf pan. What I didn't know was that my loaf pans are NOT 1-lb loaf pans. Apparently they are more like 1.5 lb loaf pans, or possibly 2 lb (though my bread mentor says most likely they are 1.5 lb pans). I followed the instructions in the recipe, waiting for my bread to "crest above the lip of the pan". I waited the specified 90 minutes without the loaf rising nearly this high, figured it must just be extra cold in my house, and kept on waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Unfortunately, I waited so long that by the time I finally gave up and put the loaves in the oven, they were so over-proofed that they fell while baking. The picture below was taken just before putting them in the oven:

Flat topped bread is not very pretty to look at.

Fortunately for me, the loaves, while flat on top from falling and rather wide and stumpy from being in the wrong sized pan, still tasted wonderful. They were not dense, nor were they jaw-tiring to chew. The flavor was excellent (notice I say was - we've already polished off the first loaf) and my children and husband all enjoy the bread thoroughly. I'll be making this again, probably this week. But this time I'll be portioning the dough a bit differently. I think I'll make one loaf using about 3/4 of the dough and put it in my regular loaf pan and then use the remaining dough to make mini loaves (or one loaf, depending on how much dough is left). And I'll be going off the dough response instead of the height of the rise to know when to bake it.

Stay tuned. :)

These were ok, but not wonderful. They gave me a touch of heartburn which is always a bummer. Isaac ate his and Erica ate most of hers, but Cambria only picked at her plate. Kimball said it was pretty good, especially the corn tortillas which he says he normally doesn't like. Unfortunately (because this means I'll be eating enchiladas every day for a week), even though I didn't make the full recipe, we still have a ton of leftovers. The fresh corn on the cob was the saving grace of the meal. :)

Modifications to the enchilada recipe: I used ten 6.5" corn tortillas instead of twelve 8" (because my new tortilla press is 6.5" not 8"), and I halved the rest of the ingredients. I may have had a touch more chicken than a cup, but it was pretty close. As always, I used low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream instead of the regular stuff. I baked at 350 instead of the 325 it calls for only because I didn't notice it said 325. :)

The corn tortilla recipe was wonderful, especially the instructions. (You can read about my tortilla making experience here.) I probably added close to 1/2 cup extra hot water.

After visiting my sister and learning how to make a tart, I was inspired to buy my own tart pan. In fact, I bought a regular sized tart pan and then 6 mini tart pans so I could make individual tarts. I made a yummy tart for Family Home Evening treats this past Monday, and they were a hit. Not as beautiful as I would have liked, since my berries were a little smashed (they were leftovers from when we had blackberry crepes so they had seen the back side of a serving spoon) and the apple slices were re-hydrated from the dried apple slices I have in my food storage. Also, the recipe called for apple jelly which I didn't have, so I used strawberry jelly instead. It colored everything red (imagine that) and also had chunks of strawberries in it. But really, it tasted great anyway, even with the less than pleasing presentation. And they weren't bad looking, just not catering-worthy by any stretch. This recipe came from my Betty Crocker cookbook, and I did modify it a bit by using low-fat cream cheese and low-fat sour cream. I also put only 1/4 cup of jelly on instead of the 1/3 cup it called for.

My oldest child ate all hers and had the leftover tart for a snack the next day. My middle child ate most of the filling from his and part of the shell (he's really not a sweets kid though), and the baby ate all hers and probably would have shared the leftover one, had she been awake.