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Puddin’: The Brit Invasion

Posted by – May 3, 2010

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Puddin’ by zylllah

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Now I live in a smallish town. It is true that I can travel down to Nashvegas for exotic ingredients but I rarely go down there unless I can make a day of it and hit a bunch of places at once. Since I’ve had Elke that has become much more difficult. I did not want to skip this month though because I skipped both the baking and cooking challenge last month.  Even though I so rarely get time to do my hobbies these days I had decided that cooking and by that I mean good cooking was the one thing I would keep up even more so than knitting. Love knitting but cooking is much more of an instant gratification thing. Well more instant than the 6 months it can take me to finish a project.

Anyway I started looking at the links provided to find a recipe that fit the challenge and that I thought would actually get eaten since I am married to the most picky eater on the planet and I’m currently *trying* to diet. Eventually I found one that sounded pretty good to me from The Pudding Club:

Ingredients:

120g Unsalted Butter
120g Caster Sugar (I just food processed regular sugar)
120g Self-rising flour (I substituted AP with salt and baking soda)
30g Cocoa Powder (I used Valrhona)
2 Eggs
60g Chocolate Chips

Steps:

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cocoa together and add with the egg, a little at a time, to the creamed mixture, beating well between each addition. Finally, stir in half the chocolate chips. Place a covering of the remaining chocolate chips over the base of a greased 1.1 litre pudding before adding the mixture. Steam for 1 ½ hours.

Puddin'

Puddin"

Review:

This is the second time I have used this particular cocoa powder and I’m just not loving it as much as I should for what it costs. I find it tastes slightly over roasted almost.  The first time was for Keller’s brownie recipe and I thought maybe it just was the recipe but no this time also it tasted too roasted. Also I think I might have overcooked it a bit. The toppings I slathered on it were tasty but overall…meh. It wasn’t quite mindblowing enough for me to make again. This is totally my fault though and not the fault of the Host. I am quite glad to have the steaming idea firmly in hand, I can see using it for other cakes. It would be interesting to try a sort of cheesecake cooked that way since it’s not that different than a water bath.


Something witty this way comes…

Posted by – April 22, 2010

Right so when last I wrote I was had finished the socks, and was hoping to have finished one of the sweaters the next week. HAHAHAHAH nooo way. I was much helped by the fact that I fell in love with a new audiobook series. However although there are 8 books in the series only the first four have been made into audiobooks.  If you like historical fiction about the tudor period than you’d probably like the series so check out Fiona Buckley if you are so inclined. I think my next audio delight will probably be either Sandman Slim or the new Jim Butcher book. I actually already read the new Butcher book but I like listening to it get read by Spike.

I ended up working diligently on the simple style cardi but….things take longer than you want to think they will although I can see the end as a very distant point on the horizon.  I have finished the body up to where you join the sleeves to knit the yoke. I ended up adding a few inches since 18″ seemed a tad bit short to me. I think mine will end up being about 22″ long. So right now I’m well into my trip to sleeve island, I have knit the cuff for both and am almost done with the increases on one side. Once I knit the increases on the other side I’ll put them on the same needle so I can be sure they end up the same length. So far the yarn really is nice to work with. I’m rather surprised since I remember hearing horror stories about Cashmerino way back when. Assuming this one even bares a slight relation to fitting it’s working out to be my second favorite of the sweaters I’ve made. The first of course is my beloved Thermal.  So hopefully soon an FO pic.

In other crafting news…So for Christmas every year I add up all the gift checks and try and buy myself something large. A couple of years ago I bought my DSLR, last year I got an Ipod touch (I was trying to avoid getting the phone but I ended up with the phone anyway so now I have an unused touch laying around). This year however I decided that I would get a sewing machine. It’s not like I have time for the hobbies I already have however I would like to learn to sew. I remember when I first started knitting how when I got decent yarn and needles it was like finding a totally different hobby. So I added up my Christmas loot and and started to look. I narrowed it down to not singer and not brother basically. On fleabay I ran into a fantastic deal on a Pfaff. It’s not the latest and greatest but there are still a few places selling them new. I figured either I’ll love sewing and thus have made a wise investment or I’ll decide I hate sewing and be able to perhaps make a few bucks on it. Although I’m a bit worried that the machine will get about as much use as my wheel. I love spinning but it’s such a PITA to have to put it away so the cats don’t chew on my drive band. I’ve gone through 4 of them I think since I owned it and it’s not like I use it even every month.  So far I love the machine but all I’ve really done is test out stitches to get a feel for her. This weekend though I’m going to go to the fabric store and find a nice simple skirt pattern and some decent fabric and try to get the crafting started.

FO: Worsted Garter Rib Sox and a knitting update

Posted by – April 10, 2010

So my stress level lately has been through the roof. Oddly since it coincided with a cold I was unable to use my usual stress relief (cleaning/cooking) and I turned back to my knitting. So I set myself a goal which was to work furiously on my WIPS. I gave myself a week to finish the socks and I did. Well for the most part I did fall asleep a few rows short and had to finish it up the next day.  However I am now down to 3 wips. I even have tentative plans for my next project when theses are finished. Anyway without further ado…

Pattern: Garter Rib Sox
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Gothic Rose
Needles: KP Options sz 4
Size: Me
Pattern Notes: This was a quick knit. Even though I did make the cuff longer than I usually do. I really like the garter heel for house sox. It goes much more quickly than picking up the wraps with a usual short row heel. The sox are thick and comfy and hopefully won’t wear out too fast. Also since this is my 2nd FO out of the same yarn…what can I say but I love it.  However I will be looking forward to working with actual sock weight next time around.
Would I knit it again? Yes of course but as I’ve knit 3 0r 4 of this particular stitch pattern I think perhaps I should broaden my horizons.

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Garter Rib

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Garter Rib

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Garter Rib

Now I still have 3 wips left. I have the strangling vine scarf, the knitscene garter yoke cardi, and the simple style cardi. I have not made much progress on the scarf since it requires actual concentration. Elke keeps varying her wake up time so its hard for me to get up early enough to wake up enough to work on it before she desires my attention. It is about half done though. I preblocked it to see and I think it’s about halfway there.  The simple style cardi is an inch or two away from being divided for front and back. The pattern seems to come out really short so I’m adding a couple of inches to make sure I get enough length. So far the cashmerino is holding up really well but we’ll see what sort of pillfest I end up with after I wear it for a while. The garter yoke cardi was what I was working on before I went on my sockfest. It’s getting there. I enjoy the yarn but I’m terrified I’ll run short since garter takes up a freaking ton of yarn so I actually bought a few lightly used balls off someone as insurance. So hopefully I’ll in a week or so I’ll have another FO to talk about!

Daring Cooks Feb 2010 Challenge: Risotto

Posted by – March 18, 2010

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

You can get the recipe here.

A full photoset of my adventure is here.

Unfortunately although this is late I don’t have the time to really do the challenge justice. My mom is visiting and she’s recovering from what appears to be a stroke. Long long long story. Anyway the point of the challenge was to make stock which I do make fairly often. Then you were supposed to make risotto with that stock.

So I made stock. I used my standard method of what do I have that is left over or about to go off. I buy whole or rotisserie chickens every so often and freeze the carcasses for stock. I throw in some parsley and garlic and peppercorns along with a bay leaf or two for flavor. The whole point is to extract goodness i.e gelatin from the bones.  Just after Christmas I extracted so much from one batch that it set up like a tasty meat jello in the fridge. I usually let it go for a couple of hours though I did let one cook for about a day when I was doing turkey. I’ve found that less time is fine depending on how much I want to concentrate the flavors.

Anyway so I made stock.  I had chosen to do a mushroom risotto since it went well
with the chicken I was planning on serving with it.  When I make it again I want to
save some of the mushrooms and roast them for additional flavor.

Daring Bakers Feb ’10 Challenge-Tiramisu

Posted by – February 28, 2010

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. Here is the recipe if you would like it.

Here is the full photo set.

Now Tiramisu is not new to me, I make it several times a year since it’s Justin’s favorite dessert. However I had not tried that particular version of it, nor had I ever made my own marscapone so that was interesting to me. I usually use Kahlua in mine for flavor but this called for Marsala. So I decided to go with the Marsala and also to make a hazelnut flavored one since that is another of Justin’s favorite add-ons to coffee and chocolate. I had actually meant to start earlier in the week but my stupid overpriced dishwasher decided to break itself so I was dealing with that (it’s still not fixed).  Anyway Friday I started with the marscpone.  It was an easy process and reminded me quite a bit of making ricotta except for the change in fat levels of the dairy and acid.  From milk to cream and from vinegar to lemon juice.

Marscapone

Heating the Cream

marscapone

After adding the Lemon Juice.

So anyway it went for a long night of rest in the fridge but I stupidly forgot to take a picture after its naptime.

Another element to Tiramisu are lady fingers. I’ve made them before but as my piping skills weren’t quite up to the task since then I’ve done the insides in cake pans and just bought some for the outside. After the last one I made I decided in the future I was going to make enough filling to use it essentially as a frosting since the store bought ones are not nearly as good. This recipe did differ in the order egg whites to yolk folding but I think it yields an easier batter to work with so I will be using it in the future. I also chose to make smaller rounded shapes since I thought it would be easier to use them in parfaits with the leftovers.  Also in the last photo you can really see a difference in the ones I baked first and the ones I baked last.

Ladyfingers

Folded Batter

Ladyfingers

Ready for Baking

Ladyfingers

Done!

The recipe called for adding a vanilla pastry cream and a zabaglione. Since I was doing two different flavors I had to make two different zabagliones.  All three recipes called for lemon zest so I dutifully microplaned some. Maybe I’m overly sensitive to the flavor but I couldn’t taste anything but lemon. It’s more than possible I added too much since I was unsure exactly how packed it was supposed to be.  I decided to use it as an accent when plating rather than adding it to the marscapone.  To be all food snobby I was hoping for a pleasing brightness but I ended up with oh my god it’s lemonaid.

zabaglione and pastry Cream

The pastry cream is the top left and the marsala zabaglione is also behind. In front is the Frangelico zabaglione.

So for the filling I portioned out my marscapone since I had just made double of everything and I whipped my cream. I ended up frankensteining the method I normally use and this recipe. Normally I mix everything into the marscapone and add my cream and whip it all together. I add the sugar last since I like to adjust the sweetness down a bit. This time I whipped the cream with the sugar and the vanilla.  It actually made for a lighter and less grainy texture. I also used the whisk attachment to my hand blender rather than the stand mixer. I thought it made for finer control and I will continue to do that in the future.

Whipped Cream

Whipped Cream

Putting it all together couldn’t have been easier. I made the two different dipping syrups by using instant espresso powder, warm water, some sugar and the liquor. I did add more liquor since I liked it to be a tad bit more strongly flavored. So I lined some of my mini bread pans with plastic and did my layers. The only difference between them was I had ground up some hazelnuts to add to the cocoa powder layer. With the leftovers I made some parfaits. I actually still have quite a few ladyfingers and syrup and marscapone in the freezer. I’ll probably make a casserole of it for Justin to take to work. Now the one thing I do not have is a beautifully plated finished dessert to show you since we’re having it for dinner tonight.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu

Feb 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge

Posted by – February 19, 2010

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid. If you would like the recipes you can find them here.

I’m just warning you this will be a picture heavy post….(here is the full set from the feast since there is no way I’ll use all of them)

So I was really excited by this challenge. I love hummus and pita and I had been meaning to get around to making hummus from scratch.  Making the pita just gave me a +1 to my cooking skill.  So those were the two required elements and then whatever you wanted to add to the feast was up to you. I did this last Sunday so I could have help with the baby minding while I cooked. Sometimes Elke doesn’t quite get that something needs to be done right then.  One day though she’ll love the fact that I cook, I hope. Although I can see her deciding to never cook because she resented the cooking I did or something. Anyway I ended up making:

The Feast

The Feast

Pita

This came out amazingly good. I think I let it rise too long because it wasn’t exactly pita-like in its consistency. However they were quite tasty and I’ll never buy pita again. The only changes I made were that I baked them on foil since I wanted to be able to quickly change them out and I hate baking things directly on my pizza stone. Also I was out of parchment paper. This exercise also highlighted the fact that I really do need more practice in my rolling out skills since they ended up rather amoeba shaped.

Pita Dough

Pita Dough ready to rise

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Pita waiting to be baked

Hummus & Dill Hummus

Now when I say I did this from scratch, I mean from scratch. No canned beans here. However I’ll probably try canned beans next time to see if there is any appreciable difference other than bragging rights. I soaked the beans for about twenty-four hours, before I started to cook them.  I had never actually cooked beans before so I was a bit amazed at how long they took. Also I’ve got to say what a horrid smell. So once they were cooked I processed them with the other ingredients. I thought it ended up slightly stiff  and my garlic was a bit strong but in the end it beat the pants off any bought hummus I’ve had. I also did a batch of dill since that and roasted red pepper are my favorite of the flavored varieties that I’ve bought. Assuming the canned version is as good I’d totally make this again. I am not sure I will make it that frequently if I have to cook the beans myself.

Soaking Beans

Soaking Beans

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Hummus

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Dill Hummus

Roasted Garlic

I wrapped it all up in foil and roasted it for quite a long time. The problem was this was unusually strong garlic so I didn’t quite get that garlic candy I was hoping for.

Roasted Garlic

Oh so strong roasted garlic

Yogurt Dill Dip

I made this up as I went frankensteining a couple of different recipes. I used plain full fat yogurt, cumin, fresh parsley, dill, some garlic and lemon juice.I was finishing up though I realized it was ‘off’ in some way so I looked up a few more. One of them on Allrecipes.com (which I remembered using before) suggested adding mayo. Once I added a decent sized glop of it, the dip/sauce was perfect. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise since I’m sort of an improvisational cook most of the time.

Yougurt/Dill Dipping Sauce

Yogurt/Dill Dipping Sauce

Falafel

Right so I was especially happy to try this from scratch. I love falafel. The mix though is usually a bit well dry and not quite as good as I’ve had in restaurants. I should have been more vigiliant though when I measured the cilantro because it really tasted like soap. It was fine once you dipped it in the yogurt sauce but ugh. However the texture was fantastic and Justin already wants me to make them again. Since I tasted them before I fried them I knew they were off so fortunately I had a package of the mix in the pantry. It was funny because even though those didn’t taste too cilantro-y hands down we reached for the from scratch ones.

Falafel

Falafel Pre Chop

Falafel

You can sort of see which is which in this picture

Grilled Chicken

My last dish was some grilled chicken because Justin just won’t eat a meal without meat of some kind. I did a variation of the marinade I use for chicken tikka masala but with more of a middle eastern slant. It’s yogurt with various spices, some lemon, ginger and garlic. Then I grilled them off. They were fantastic just a bit hot with lots of flavor. We loved them.

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Chicken swimming in its yogurt spice bath

Chicken

Tasty Grill marks

Final Thoughts

Enjoyable and tasty! Will definitely make again. Particularly next time I have people over.

The State of the Knitting….or should I say lack of Knitting.

Posted by – February 13, 2010

Current Mood:Happy emoticon Happy

First off let me apologize for the signs of construction here. My old theme wasn’t really working well with the new version of wordpress so I’m in the process of searching out a theme to modify. I’m fairly pleased with this one beyond some of the color choices so we’ll see. I am way too lazy these days to deal with doing it from scratch.  I have a good excuse because who could resist this face…

Elke's first Bubble Bath

Elke's first Bubble Bath

Knitting has been sparse since we decided to build a house and I became consumed with finding flooring and paint and what not. So you’d think the problem would be solved once we moved right? Oh no because then Justin went off for a year and here I was in a house we’d just moved into with 90% of our things in the garage. I told the movers to leave most of the boxes in the garage so I wouldn’t have to look at them as I was unpacking. What I didn’t realize was that out of sight= out of mind and also that less than a month later I would find out I was eating for two. So for me anyway with pregnancy came exhaustion. Of course my under-performing thyroid didn’t help matters. Sure I take synthroid but between the two of them any excess energy I had went into getting the house into a state you could live in. Since I sure as hell knew I wouldn’t have time after she was born. Anyway I think I managed to finish a clap and a scarf I had started months earlier. It was just so much easier to read. Then after Elke was born I was going to the NICU to visit her 2x a day and well yet again it was much easier to read or stare at a dumb show on TV. Now I did make her a couple of hats and a pair of socks back then. Now that Justin is home and she’s a little older I’m managing to carve out some knitting and spinning time. I love to spin and knit but by the time I’ve made dinner and cleaned up, it’s like 9 pm and I’m tired. Also Star Trek Online came out and I am a supergeek so…. So unless I get up before she does it just doesn’t happen. So my current projects are:

1. Spinning this green Corriedale I bought from a local-ish dyer at a fesitval. It’s really easy to spin and it’s very relaxing, however I feel like I’m almost relearning how to spin. Which is more than fine I just seem to need that mental break every day.

Green Singles

Thick N Thin since I am out of practice

2. Garter Yoke Cardigan (Rav Link)

I started this a couple of weeks ago and so far I like it I think. I’m using Classic Elite’s waterlily which is sort of their response to the semi sold craze.  I have too many sweater amounts of Worsted so I’m trying to get through them by making tons of different cardigans that I can wear in the house or under a coat where they won’t really show.

Garter Yoke

You'd think it would go quicker with just garter...

3.  16 Button Cardigan (Rav Link)

Yet another worsted cardigan. I’m modifying the pattern though so the ribs on the bottom are all of equal height. I just didn’t want to bother keeping that much track….plus I thought it looked kind of goofy. The yarn is Cashmerino, we’ll see how it wears. It will probably turn into pill central. However the yarn is nice to work with.

16 Button Cardi

Started this Months ago...

4. Strangling Vine Scarf (Rav Link)

Oh Boy I started this like a year and a half ago but I’m finally getting serious about it. I think it’s incredibly lovely in this yarn. The yarn is Knitting notions in aubergine. I bought it as sock yarn but it was that really thin henry’s attic sock yarn that for me is just *too* thin. Like I’d have to knit it on a 0 or a 000 since I like a tightly knit sock. Anyway I saw this pattern and put the two together. I went down a needle size to compensate for the ultra thinness of the yarn. I’m about half way done maybe it kind of depends on how it blocks so I’ll probably do a soak and a pin out soon so I can judge how much more to do.

Strangling Vine

I love the colors in this yarn

5. Garter Rib Socks (Rav Link)

I always seem to come back to these. I like plenty of other sock patterns but for some reason these really work for me. I love lace socks but I’m always worried I’ll lose my place or whatever. These are in some leftover DIC worsted in gothic rose. I actually finished sock #1 last week but I haven’t starIted sock #2 yet. It’s been a busy week….

Garter Rib Sox

This is such fantastic yarn. Not too many other companies manage to make yarn that doesn't Pool

6.  Log Cabin Scrap Blanket

No rav link because although I’m using the mason dixon blanket as inspiration it’s really just a way to use up scraps leftover from various sweater projects. Also even when I’m super tired I can manage garter…

Log Cabin

Who doesn't want an almost totally mindless project that will eventually get destroyed by the house felines?

Daring Bakers January 2010 Challenge

Posted by – January 29, 2010

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca

So for the first month of belonging to the Daring Bakers, this was my challenge.  Interestingly enough I actually had made non gluten-free graham crackers from that recipe a few weeks ago and had them sitting in my freezer since I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Initially they were going to be dipped in chocolate for my grandfather but I had problems with the recipe. It was quite possibly the hardest dough I have ever worked with. It was so soft and it stuck to everything. I also sort of misread the instructions. However although they were sort of ugly and overdone they did taste right so I sort of figured at some point I’d use them in a crust. When I read the challenge I had every intention of making the recipe again and conquering it.  Although I dismissed the idea of gluten free since I don’t know anyone who avoids gluten and the pocket book is a little lean this month to be buying all sorts of flours I probably wouldn’t use again. That’s assuming I could even find them without going to nashvegas. Anyway then I realized I had mistaken the dates of the daring cooks and bakers reveal dates. So suddenly I had a day to get it all done and I have an eight month old so…..I decided that since I had already tried the recipe and had to results I would just reuse them. It was appealing since soon I’m going back to my more usual lower carb dieting and it would get them out of my freezer. So into the food processor they went…

Homemade Graham Cracker Crumbs

Crumbs that I wish I had left bigger

Then I added them to the butter and cocoa. I used a mixture of nestle I’m trying to use up because somehow I ended up with 3 tins of the stuff and the Valrohna I got on my last trip to whole foods.  Except of course Elke was awake and I got a bit distracted so somehow I forgot to add the egg. So I started over and decided to just make a double batch.

Butter and Cocoa oh My

Now when I read the recipe I realized I would have to change the bottom layer. I can’t stand coconut. I don’t coconut milk in a thai curry but actual coconut no thanks. Also I’m not a huge fan of peanuts so I decided to just use the crackers. Now I should have gone with a bigger crumb on the crackers if I was going to do that but they were tasty anyway.

The first layer

The First Layer

Now at this point we have to cover a few steps without pics because I made them over the course of the day when I could snatch a few minutes and I sort of forgot to take any more pics. I read about the middle layer and realized it was essentially oreo filing so I decided we’d had enough of that since I made those a couple of times over the holidays. Now I love mint and so does my husband so since I had finally managed to track down peppermint extract (seriously ever store in town was completely out for like a month over the holidays) I decided to go with that and since I wanted to make sure people knew it was mint I tinted it green. Then I proceded to the top layer. I didn’t have quite enough semi-sweet to cover I used the rest of the milk chocolate I’d bought to dip my graham crackers into. It made a really nice ganache layer…not too sweet but not bitter.

Choco Mint Nanaimo Bars

Choco Mint Nanaimo Bars

I really liked the end result however they were so incredibly rich if I make them again I’m going to find a way to stiffen the middle layer without using quite as much sugar.

Food Blogging

Posted by – January 26, 2010

So I’ve been a wee bit stressed lately, and when I’m stressed I cook. My mom can’t eat when she’s upset and I have the opposite problem. Also since Justin was gone for so long I went into cooking for one mode which is sear a meat and make a veg. Not really interesting at all. So since his return coincided with the holidays I used it as an excuse to go on a recipe FRENZY.  Since Thanksgiving I’ve probably tried 12 or more recipes. Some I caught on film and some I didn’t since they had to be tasted right away. However I did add a list with links to the side panel if any of these make you want to try them.

First and most importantly I have a photo of the Birthday cake I made for myself last week. Inside was a pretty awesome carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s the Cooks Illustrated recipe and I have to say I thought the flavor, texture and moistness of the cake was spot on. However I always make a less sweet frosting . I just don’t care for so sweet my teeth ache, but because I cut back on the sugar the texture of the frosting was a little loose.

It looks so much better under a 50mm lens...

It looks so much better under a 50mm lens...

Next up we have some pizza I made using a different and much better dough recipe. I also used some leftover amatriciana sauce I had from the night before. It was super tasty I thought. I loved the texture of the dough but next time I’m going to add a bit more salt I think. Or let it rise longer since I felt it needed to develop a bit more flavor. Also I did modify it to use some olive oil in the dough.

Justins Pizza

Justin's Pizza

I have also been experimenting with cooking via Sous Vide. It’s essentially boil in a bag cooking but you don’t boil it. You cook the food at the temp you want it to be at the end. This prohibits over cooking, and you don’t get that sort of bullseye effect in meat. There is a big fancy small appliance for it now that I covet but it is a bit pricey so I’ve been using a more uhh ghetto arrangement. It does however work and the experiment was some of the best steak I’ve ever had.

See no ring of grey!

See no ring of grey!

For Christmas my Inlaws were kind enough to get me this awesome Ice Cream maker.

Lovely maker of deliciousness.

Lovely maker of deliciousness.

I’ve only made two recipes though so far one of which is Vanilla and the other was a candied bacon ice cream. Both of them were from David Lebovitz and were  fantastic. On the vanilla one although I did double the recipe I did not double the amount of eggs but it was sill good just not quite as custardy as it would have been but that was totally my fault since I ran out of eggs.  The candied bacon was shockingly good, although I did not expect that candying the bacon would be quite so messy. Next up is Coffee since I don’t like it and I need to start my post holiday diet.

Look at those flecks...

Look at those flecks...

My final photo is of Challah. I finally found a good recipe. However even though it was good I felt it needed a touch more sugar or honey. Next time I’ll try that. There are only few food things I want to conquer from my jewish heritage and pass on to Elke and this is one of them.

Best bread ever.

Best bread ever.

The Year in Review

Posted by – January 16, 2010

I know I know I should have gotten this done on or around January first right? However….my birthday is January fifteenth so I sort of wait till that date rolls around to start any diets, resolutions or reflecting. So the year in review….last year was weird. It was a really hard year. Justin was gone till November in Afghanistan and I was pregnant. Not only that but I did not have an easy pregnancy and Elke was born 2 months early at 2.5 lbs. However….She was born completely healthy and I am unspeakably grateful for that. I know its a total cliche but she has changed my life in so many wonderful ways. She’s happy and seeing her take such delight in things I don’t even think twice about like standing up reminds me that life doesn’t have to be complicated.

Once I was able to bring her home crafting sort of went by the wayside. Now that she’s a little older and Justin is back I’ve been able to add some back in but really at this point cooking is more of a frontrunner than knitting. I *have* to eat and it doesn’t take that much more time to make something good…

A whole lot of good things happened this past year so I should perhaps make a list so I can look back and remember it.

1. Elke: She rocks and is the joy of my life. Having Elke dissolved any lingering weirdness between me and my dad. I will always be grateful for how he dropped everything when I had her and how much help he was when she was in NICU. Also having Elke made me really feel like Justin and I were a family.

2. Reconnecting with my best friend. We had lost touch many years ago but through the wonder of facebook we found each other. It’s awesome having her back in my life.

3. Justin came home safe and sound.

Now for the year ahead..

1. Keep managing to carve out a bit of ‘me’ time so I stay balanced.

2. Lose the holiday and last of the baby weight.

3. Blog more.

And since I know that it’s not a blog post without a photo….

The first bubble bath.

The first bubble bath.