I Need 2 Ovens

What I have learned from my cooking and baking the last few days is that I need two ovens.  It is very hard to make elaborate 5-course meals when you can only bake one thing at a time.  But I'm getting ahead of myseld and I have about a billion recipes to share, so let me focus.

Thursday night, I made dinner for me, Mark, Rachael and Alex.  I had minimal supplies and was tired and stressed, so I wanted to see what I could whip up using one lone leek, some pasta, lemons, and bacon.  Strange ingredients, but I actually came up with a recipe for pasta carbonara with leeks and lemon.  Of course, not having more than 1 leek, I had to be a bit creative to add to the vegetable part of the dish, so I threw in some leftover kale, which I think was an excellent decision.  As for the pasta, I was very limited in my choices: I could use orzo, stuffed shells, or lasagna.  None of those were exactly what I wanted (the recipe calls for "short pasta"), so I got creative again and broke the lasagna into pieces.  It ended up working out just fine.  The one thing that was weird is that the sauce is made of lemon zest and juice, parmesan, and two eggs.  You toss it on the pasta and serve it.  With raw eggs!!!  That really freaked me out a little, so I ended up throwing the pot back on the stove for a quick minute to cook the eggs.  I know that's not what the recipe said to do, but I was all about making things up for myself that night.  In the end, the dish was really tasty and got compliments from all three of my dinnermates.  Plus I was rather proud of myself for thinking like a chef and doing weird things to the recipe!

Then yesterday I signed up to bring dinner to a very good family friend.  You know, one of those friends who will be at your house within 8 seconds of your family emergency with a meal from Olive Garden?  That kind of person who works for every single charity that exists, including running around like a crazy lady during my golf tournament?  The lady who will do whatever you need, whenever you do it?  That would be Tammy.  So when her mother died, I immediately sent her a text and offered to  bring over dinner.  Apparently, Susie texted her at the same time, so she took Friday and I took yesterday.  I asked Susie what she brought so I wouldn't repeat, and she said she had made a ziti bake, and then said, "Oh, and did you know there are 12 people?"  Ha!  Well no, I was not aware of that, but hey, I'm not scared of cooking for large amounts of people.  What scared me more was Susie's hint that most of the people are "big hungry men" who might like to eat meat.  Okay... so I am cooking a whole meal for 12 people and making something meaty.... no problem!  I frantically texted Kenzie for advice, and she recommended a ham dinner.  That requires minimal meat-touching and would allow me to focus on the parts that I like best: breads, dessert, and side dishes.  So Kenzie shopped for me and I got started on my menu: spiral ham, twice baked potato casserole, from scratch green bean casserole, honey yeast rolls, and chocolate crinkle cookies!

I made the cookies first, and thanks to some dough rolling help from Kenzie, they were done in no time.  These are honestly my go-to cookies for anything.  Everyone loves them, they are pretty and easy, and the recipe makes a ton.  This is my third time making them and I know it won't be my last.

Then I started my bread dough.  I knew I wanted to make the family some bread, and at first I thought I would make the herbed dinner rolls I made for Easter, but when I saw this recipe for honey yeast rolls from my beloved Annie's Eats, I knew I wanted to try them instead.  They have honey in them, so they are slightly sweet but still savory enough to serve with dinner.  Plus you brush the tops with honey and melted butter; that right there got me! The dough has to rise for 2 hours, which was good because it gave me time to work on the casseroles in between.  When it was ready, I divided the dough into perfect round little balls (I am finally getting good at that!) and put them into a round cake pan to bake.  I am very glad I doubled this recipe and kept some for my family, because they are delicious.  And I even forgot to use bread flour until my last 2 cups, so I was worried that the consistency wouldn't be perfect, but oh, it was.  They are, like I said, slightly sweet, soft and fluffy.  The top is golden brown and buttery and honey-y (is that a word), and it is very very easy to eat more than one in a sitting.  These rolls will be made again.  Soon,

Casseroles, pre-baking

Next it was casserole time.  I started with the potato casserole first.  I made a very similar one back for my family's Easter dinner, but this recipe came from Annie and so I wanted to try it.  Unlike the misleading recipe name implies, these potatoes are not twice baked, or even baked at all until you bake the whole casserole!  They are peeled and boiled, and then mashed with all sorts of delightful goodies like cheddar cheese, sour cream, bacon and scallions.  Can you imagine anything more delicious?  Baked with more cheese and scallions on top for 20 minutes, and voila: twice baked potatoes, minus the skin, minus the re-stuffing!  So easy and so amazing.  I was very glad to have doubled this recipe as well, so we got to keep one of the casseroles.  I am not embarrassed to admit that I just finished off the last tiny remnant of this casserole; it is everything that mashed potatoes in a casserole should be.

my own cream of mushroom soup!

The green bean casserole intrigued me from the minute I saw the recipe (good old Annie's Eats again!).  I have never actually had green bean casserole, actually, but I know what it is: green beans, cream of mushroom soup, topped with fried onions.  It sounds great to me, but my family has just never had it.  When I saw this recipe for the same casserole but with everything from scratch, I had to try it out.  You literally make your own cream of mushroom soup, with mushrooms, half and half,  chicken broth, and, interestingly, soy sauce.  Then you blanch the green beans and put them in the soup, and bake it all together.  Pretty easy, actually.  The not-so-easy part came while the casseroles baked; you have to fry some shallot to sprinkle over the top of the finished dish.  I've never fried anything before, and it was not the bsest experience.  The oil had to be 350 degrees, but how are you supposed to get it to stop once it hits 350? It gets hotter so much faster than, say, caramels.  My candy thermometer was going through the roof, and the oil was starting to burn to the pan.  The second I dropped in my flour-covered shallots, they turned pitch black.  Great.  So I turned the stove to low and waited for it to cool off a little; that worked better.  I guess keeping the unit on high was a bad idea.  I did get some of the shallots to look golden brown and pretty.  And yet, not a one ended up on the casserole.  Do you see where this is going?  Delilah got to eat an entire plate of fried shallots.  So I guess we can ask her how they were, since Tammy's family didn't get to eat a one.  Grrrrr.  And I did not have enough ingredients to make my family one of these casseroles, so I can't tell you how it was, but it looked and smelled amazing, so I have a feeling I will have to try to make this for us soon!

Now, I am not going to waste much time on the ham, since I hate meat, but it made me angry because it had to bake for about 2 hours, at a stupidly low temp of 275 degrees.  This meant nothing could bake at the same time with it, and it took all afternoon, hogging the oven!  This is why I need two ovens.  Hopefully I will never have to deal with giant hunks of meat again, but Tammy and her family were worth it :)

"Seriously?  There is a ham on the floor and it is NOT for us?"

Unfortunately, all this meat-oven-hogging meant that the poor people didn't eat till after 7:00, which to my family is actually rather early to eat, but I have a bad feeling that normal people in normal families eat much earlier than we do.  Let's face it: I am a slow cook.  I am thousands of times faster that I was a year ago (scary thought), but still pretty slow.  Although I would like to blame this slowness on the ham, and the fact that perhaps most people bringing a meal to grieving friends do not make 5 things from scratch.  Ahhhh Tammy, now I see why you go to Olive Garden ;)  With that said, I am really glad that I spent all day running around like a crazy lady in the kitchen for Tammy and her family.  While they might have been close to passing out from hunger by the time I got there, I was told that everything went except a tiny serving of green bean casserole.  What better way to say thank you for all that you have done for us, by doing a little something for that person?  7 hours in the kitchen is nothing compared to what we have gotten from Tammy!  :)

By the way, I recommend all of the recipes I am sharing today.  They were all easy and delicious, so give them a try!

P.S. Mark got the job :)

Recipes:
pasta carbonara with leeks and lemon
chocolate crinkle cookies
honey yeast rolls
twice baked potato casserole
green bean casserole

Thanksgiving INSANITY

WOW.  So I have, in the last 11 months, certainly had lots of days when I claim to have spent all day cooking or baking, or when I say that I have created lots of food.  None of those days can compare to the pre-Thanksgiving craziness of today!  This year is the first year in a very long time that Thanksgiving is not at my house; I have to say that I am relieved.  It let me spend all day today making what I felt like bringing to my family party instead of what we usually do on Thanksgiving Eve, which often involves scrubbing walls and shining the stairs.  You may laugh, but that is really stuff that Mom would have us do.  Anyway, I was assigned a blueberry pie, but other than that, I could be creative.   I decided to bring two kinds of cookies, the pie (more on that later), croquembouche (basically cream puffs stacked up), and an orange almond layer cake.  I was also making a double batch of soup, one for us tonight and one to bring to my friend from work who just gave birth to twins!  So was this day absolutely insane?  Yes.  Did I bake and cook from 10 AM to now, with only a break to hold some amazingle gorgeous day-olds?  Yes.  But it was kind of fun.

I started with the pie crust and filling.  I will assemble and bake the pie tomorrow.  I know that I was assigned a blueberry pie, but really that is kind of boring.  I wanted to spice things up a bit.  I knew I could count on Annie; she had a recipe from cranberry blueberry pie, along with her recipe for dough.  I made the dough in my beloved food processor and put it right into the fride; I will use it up tomorrow.  Then I made the filling on the stove, which is a nice thick juicy mix of blueberries and cranberries.  I loved that it steeps with cinnamon sticks for a while!  I hope it's a bigger hit than blueberry pie (which is kind of a joke because as the host of Thanksgiving for 50 people for the last 10ish years, I can honestly say that most years, the blueberry pie never even gets cut into!  There are a lot of other desserts and it just gets overlooked.... let's see if I can break the pattern!)

Then it was cookie time.  I was going to bring some cookies to my friend tonight with the soup, and her son and husband requested chocolate cookies in particular, so I decided to make the chocolate crinkle cookies that I made back in August.  They were a huge hit then and they still are now.  Here was my mistake: I doubled the recipe.  What I forgot was that the recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies!  I literally spent a ridiculous amount of hours making these cookies today.  I think my hands could roll balls of dough, toss them into some powdered sugar, and put them on a pan in my sleep.  100 chocolate crinkles later (no joke), and I have more than enough to give to a proud new brother, to bring plenty to Thanksgiving, and to have lots left over, since both sisters and my mother ate so many that they felt sick :)  They are very addictive; they taste like brownies but they are in tiny little bites, which makes it feel totally okay to eat a lot of them.  Beware!

More cookies followed; I have wanted to try elephant ear cookies since I saw them on Annie's Eats a couple months ago.  They are fairly easy to make; you roll out puff pastry and top it with chopped roasted pecans, brown and granulated sugar, and cinnamon.  Then you roll it up - and that's as far as I got today.  It is in the freezer for now, waiting for me to slice it and bake the cookies up tomorrow!  I'll let you know how they come out.

Then I made the soup.  It was in my Thanksgiving edition of Food Network Magazine and had white beans, pasta and kale in it, so I knew I would love it.  I figured it would be easy enough to double the recipe and take half to my friends.  Of course, I was forgetting that my To Do list still had 3 things on it, but babies came first today!  The soup came together pretty quickly.  I did not have any fresh thyme, but I used dried and it worked just fine.  I also did not add as much water as the recipe says; since I was doubling it, I would have needed to add 4 cups of chicken broth (which I did) and then 12 cups of water!!!  I added 2, and I think it was more than enough.  The soup had great flavor and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was great, although I could do without the bacon.  I love bacon, but in a soup it just gets wet, and blegh.  But everything else was great!  All my broth has been soaked up by the beans and pasta, so this is not the best soup to reheat, but luckily we ate most of it!

No, I am still not done.  After sneaking out to bring the soup and cookies to Amanda, and spending time snuggling precious babies, it was back to the kitchen for me.  I bought some oranges a week or so ago, and they are delicious, but there have never in the history of oranges been a fruit with so many seeds.  There are honestly 4-6 seeds in each segment.  It makes it not so fun to eat.  So, Mom has been asking me to make an orange cake to use them up.  I figured now would be a good time to do that, since we never eat a whole cake by ourselves in my house.  Of course I can't just choose a quick orange cake recipe; I had to choose a Martha Stewart one that had me folding stiff egg whites into the batter (why does every cake I make lately seem exactly like baked Alaska?!) and grinding almonds to add in,  but that is one less thing to do tomorrow.  I will just have to make the Swiss meringue buttercream and frost it up tomorrow.  I read online that the best way to keep the cakes fresh overnight was to wrap them up tightly with plastic wrap, so I did it; fingers crossed that tomorrow I still have two perfect orange almond cake layers!

Last but certainly not least, the croquembouche.  This was Kenzie's choice.  You make cream puffs, a maple custard filling, and a caramel sauce; then you stack the filled puffs in a pyramid shape and drizzle them with caramel.  I made most of the parts of the recipe today; I made the puffs and the filling.  Tomorrow I will just have to make the caramel, fill the puffs, and set up the whole display.  It was a very different kind of dough, apparently called a choux; you make it on the stovetop, then pipe it into mounds and bake it.  I have lots of gorgeous little puffs in an airtight container in the fridge overnight; here's to hoping they stay perfect.  The filling was similar to making pudding and flavored only by maple syrup.  Mom and Kenzie already stole a puff each and dipped them into the filling; they both say I may have a new family favorite on my hands.  I guess I will know more after I finish them up and bring them over tomorrow.

Okay, that's it.  And forgive the lack of pictures; nothing felt finished yet today, and the things that were took me too long to stop and photograph!  Now I am so exhausted I am falling asleep as I type - I hope I made sense  - and my body is sore!  It is definitely time for bed, because all my work is not yet done!  Luckily tomorrow the only thing I actually have to make is the frosting for the cake and the caramel topping for the cream puffs; everything else juse needs to be assembled, sliced, and/or baked.  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  This year I am thankful that I have found something that I love to do so much, and I am grateful also for anyone who is willing to read my ramblings about my (first) year in the kitchen :)

Recipes:
cranberry blueberry pie
elephant ear cookies
orange almond cake with Swiss meringue buttercream


chocolate crinkle cookies
from Chef in Training

Ingredients:
 2 cups sugar

3/4 cup oil

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

powdered sugar for rolling

 

Instructions:

1.  Comine sugar, oil and cocoa in a large bowl. Beat until well blended.
2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3.  In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to cocoa mixture, beating well.
4. Cover and refrigerate dough until it is firm enough to handle. If you are wanting them to firm up faster, stick the covered dough in the freezer until firm enough to handle.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a cookie sheet.
6.  Roll dough into 1-inch balls then roll them in powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from each other.
7.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.


Pasta, kale and white bean soup
from the November 2012 issue of Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:
3 slices bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
3 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3/4 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup grated parmesan, plus 1 small piece rind (I used far less than this, and no rind)
1  1/2 cups, or about 8 ounces of small pasta (I used tri-color ruffles)
1  15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup chopped kale (the recipe called for frozen but I refused)

Instructions:
1.  Put the bacon in a large pot of Dutch oven over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until crisp, about 4 minutes.  Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

2.  Add the carrots, garlic, tomato paste, thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper; cook until the carrots begin to soften, about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken broth, 6 cups of water (I did not find this much water necessary; taste your soup!), and the parmesan rind.  Increase the heat to high; cover and bring to a boil.

3.  Add the pasta and beans and cook, uncovered, 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium and add the kale.  Simmer uncovered until slightly thickened, about 7 minutes.  Remove the parmesan rind and stir in half the parmesan cheese; season with salt and pepper.  Ladle into bowls and top with remaining cheese.


croquembouche with maple cream

from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications: Holiday Baking 2012

Ingredients:
1 recipe maple cream filling (see below)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
5 eggs
1 teaspoon water
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water

1.  Prepare maple cream filling.  Cover and chill until needed.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line two extra large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.  '

3.  In a large saucepan, combine 1/2 water, milk, butter and salt.  Bring to boiling.  Immediately add flour all at once; stir vigorously.  Cook and stir mixure until it forms a ball.  Remove from heat.  Cool for 10 minutes.

4.  Add four of the eggs, beating well after each addition.

5.  Using a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip, pipe dough into 46 1-inch mounds on prepared baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between mounds. 

6.  In a bowl, beat remaining egg and 1 teaspoon water with a fork.  Brush puffs with egg mixture.  Bake, one sheet at a time, until puffs are golden and firm, about 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets on wire rack.

7.  Spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a small or medium round tip.  Using a skewer, gently poke a hole into the bottom of each puff.  Insert pastry bag tip into holes and fill puffs with filling.

8.  For caramel, in a medium saucepan, stir together sugar and the 1/4 cup water (mixture will be grainy).  Using a soft pastry brush dipped in water, wash down sides of pan to prevent crystallization.  Bring to boiling over medium heat.  Do not stir!  Increase heat to high.  Cook without stirring for 6-8 minutes or until mixture turns an amber color; cool slightly.

9.  On each of two serving plates, arragne 7 puffs in a circle and one puff in the center for a base. Drizzle with caramel.  Continue adding layers of puffs to make a cone shape, drizzling each layer with caramel.  If caramel becomes too thick, transfer to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on 100% power (high) for 10 seconds or until drizzling consistency.  If desired, garnish with sea salt flakes and/or caramel stars.  Serve immediately or chill for up to 4 hours.

Maple cream filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1  1/2 cups whipping cream, 1/2 cup maple syrup, and 3 tablespoons cornstarch.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly (if necessary, use whisk to make smooth).  Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Gradually stir half of the hot mixture into 5 lightly beated egg yolks.  Return egg yolk mixture to saucepan.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat.  Cook and stir for 2 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Pour mixture into bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap.  Chill 1-2 hours.

Caramel stars: Line a baking sheet with foil.  Use a spoon to drizzle some of the caramel in free-form star shapes onto the foil.  Let stand until set and firm.  Gently peel stars off foil.

From Blueberries to Zucchini

There are good parts and bad parts about coming home from vacation.  I miss the care-free days, spending the afternoon on the deck, and walking the Marginal Way.  But on the bright side: it makes me come home "feening for baking," as Mark put it.  Hence the craziness that was today.

My zucchini work station!

Mom and Kenzie went to visit my grandfather at his new nursing home in Holyoke, so they were gone all day.  I had Rachael choose what she wanted to eat from things I have pinned on Pinterest, and I was quite happy when she chose something that I was sure was another one of those things that I want to make that no one else in this house is interested in; something to add to the ranks of strawberry balsaamic pizza, goat cheese quesadillas, chick pea pot pie, mac and cheese pancakes, and mushroom pizza.  But, miracle of miracles: today Rachael wanted to eat stuffed zucchini!

About to go into the oven

This meal was very quick to put together.  You slice a zucchini in half, scoop out the insides and mix them up with feta (it called for tomato basil feta but we have an embarrassing amount of regular feta in the fridge, so I used it!), garlic powder, oregano, and tomato paste.  Then you stuff the mixture in the zucchini boats, sprinkle on some parmesan and parsely, and bake.  That's all it takes.  You're ready to go in no time.  I bought a pretty large zucchini, and Rach and I ended up just splitting one half, so there is another in the fridge for tomorrow.  We both loved our healthy little lunch though; Rach said she liked it and called it "healthfully delicious" although said she might be interested in adding pepperoni.  No thanks!  But I guess that's the beauty of the meal; you can kind of make it whatever kind of "pizza" you want.  Perhaps an addition of goat cheese would be a good idea next time? :)

Next up, I have been wanting to make a cookie that is quite different for me: chocolate crinkle cookies.  I am not really a chocolate person; I never order anything chocolatey when I am at a restaurant or bakery, and I could do without chocolate candies too, but when I found this recipe, I decided that I had to try them.  They are so pretty with their powdered sugar coats and big chocolatey wrinkles all over them.  I like when food comes out pretty without me having to do much decorating!  And these definitely come out pretty, and tasty too.  They taste a lot like brownies, but with the added powdery sugar coating.  They are delicious - and again, I'm not a chocolate lover, but I still ate three!  Rachael and Kenzie each ate 5 cookies, so I am going to assume that they love them :)  Apparently from what I have been reading, these are common Christmas cookies.  Well, it's August, and I think they are just fabulous for any time of year!

I finished up my day-o'-kitchen by making more of the blueberry muffins I made yesterday.  Shockingly by this morning, all 12 of them were gone!  As you know, we never finish the things I bake in this house.  Partly this is because we aren't big sweet eaters, partly because my mom is picky, and partly because we are pretty notorious for "forgetting" about leftover food.  No matter the reason, it's a rather sore subject for me that all my food ends up tossed.  So when I made something that all goes - and in one day - I get excited.  Hence the double batch of delicious muffins that are cooling on the counter at this second. Mom is eating one now and announcing that "these are my kind of muffins!"  Whew! Since they are a repeat recipe, I will be posting it below.  I like making these muffins; it's really fun to mix the egg, sugar, butter and sour cream together.  I'm not sure why that is fun, and I am quite sure it makes me a dork, but it's true.  So if you happen to have a cup and a half of berries, try out this recipe.

Recipes:
stuffed zucchini pizza style
chocolate crinkle cookies


blueberry muffins
from Brown-Eyed Baker, originally adapted from Baking Illustrated


yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1¼ cups sour cream
1½ cups frozen or fresh blueberries

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin (or line with paper liners) and set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl untill combined. Whisk the egg in a separate medium bowl until well-combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar and whisk vigorously until thick, about 30 seconds. Add the melted butter in 2 or 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add the sour cream in 2 additions, whisking just to combine.

3. Add the berries to the dry ingredients and gently toss just to combine. Add the sour cream mixture and fold with a rubber spatula until the batter comes together and the berries are evenly distributed, 25 to 30 seconds. Small spots of flour may remain and the batter will be very thick. Do not overmix.

4. Using a large spoon or a cookie scoop sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, divide the batter amount the muffin cups. Bake until the muffins are light golden brown and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through the baking time. Immediately remove muffins to a wire rack and cool for at least 5 minutes. Serve immediately or at room temperature. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.