Easiest Way to Deal with Extra Walnuts

No matter what interests you may have, the internet is never short on inspiration. I tried to put baking on a bit of a hiatus for a while and concentrate on other things, but when I saw this recipe, I thought it was too simple and intriguing to pass up, so I whipped it up, in literally less than an hour. It's the most unassuming looking cake I've ever made. There's no elaborate frostings, just a smear of jam (I used the plum jam I made a few months ago), and a super simple sweetened sour cream cloud on top. I took one to my parent's house for brunch to find out how it came out and both my parents asked for seconds. The cake was perfectly moist and very flavorful, with the jam adding the sweetness and the topping adding a cool, tangy contrast to the cake. Yum! I had to make it again. This time I took it to work to try out on my co-workers. Success yet again! This is definitely a keeper. Thank you Smitten Kitchen.



I did start another little experiment this weekend. Only a day or so after reading this post about these cute little miniature watermelon looking Mexican gherkins, I found them at a European grocery store next to my parent's house and decided to give them a try. I only bought enough for two jars to see how it would come out. I gave one jar to my parents and the other one I'm holding in my fridge and I should know the results in a few days. In the mean time, I've copied the two recipes for you to try below. Try them and let me know what you think.



Walnut Jam Cake
taken from Smitten Kitchen

Cake
1 1/4 cups walnuts, toasted (in a shallow baking pan at 350°F for 10 minutes) and cooled
2/3 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping
1/2 cup jam or preserves (Almost anything will work, I used plum)
2/3 cup chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan, I used the flour-spiked Pam. Less messy and super easy.
- Pulse cooled walnuts and sugar in a food processor until finely chopped. Add butter and process until combined, then add eggs and vanilla and process until combined. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse just until incorporated. Spread batter in cake pan. See? I told you it was easy.
- Bake until cake is just firm to the touch and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool 15 minutes in pan, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely.
- Spoon jam over cake.
- Beat heavy cream with sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until it holds soft peaks, then spoon over jam.



Basic Pickling Recipe
taken from Tea&Cookies

1 quarts water

1/2 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup canning or pickling salt (I used sea salt, hopefully that was okay)

- In a large enough saucepan, add the ingredients and bring to a strong simmer, stirring until the salt has all dissolved
- Thoroughly wash the gherkins. One of the sites I saw suggested slicing off a tiny sliver from each end of the gherkin, so I did that too. It's up to you if you want to do that as well.
- Place vegetables in an impeccably clean glass container (submerge in a pot of boiling water, or run through a dishwasher and remove hot). Add any garlic or herbs, as desired. I added a 1/4 tsp coriander to each jar along with three large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced. You can add whatever you like to yours.
- Add hot brine until it covers the vegetable entirely. No bit should break the surface of the brine.
- Cover tightly and allow to cool. I waited until the jars were room temp and the lids popped inwards and then I put the jars into fridge. You’ll want to wait a few days for the to flavor develop before eating, so that's what I'm doing now.
- Can be kept in fridge for a few months—so long as no mold, scum, spoiling occurs. Monitor regularly and discard if there is any cause for concern.

Self Medication

I don't like doctors. It's nothing I can exactly put my finger on, but I just don't like going to see one. For anything. When I get sick, which luckily isn't very often, I shuffle my sniffly self to the drug store and stare at the medicine aisle until I find something that seems to cover all my symptoms, I toss in some vitamins, make lots of tea and hope for the best. Oh yeah, I also make what my mom calls "Jewish Tylenol", also known as chicken soup. Now normally, the "make" part of that last sentence involves heating up a can of soup, because who has the energy to cook when they're truly sick? Usually not me. But yesterday I felt too sick to leave the house, so I had to figure something out on my own. Especially since all I had for lunch was a few clementines and an avocado, and soup was all that was on my mind. Don't get me wrong, I love avocado. I don't even need anything on it other then salt and pepper, see?



But that just doesn't cut it when you're sick and you want something hot and comforting. It just so happens that I had a freezer full of chicken soup makin's, and what I didn't have I could figure out a substitution for. I'm not writing this out in a recipe format because I was basically tossing stuff into the pot and hoping for the best. Pre-chopped and frozen celery, carrots, and onions I had left over from a cooking frenzy a while ago, along with two chicken quarters and I had everything I needed. I defrosted the chicken and then browned it on both sides in a large pot with a bit of olive oil. Then I filled the pot with 3/4 full of water, tossed in a tablespoon of minced garlic (it's good for you, right?), about a cup of each veggie, about a teaspoon of salt and some pepper...and then realized that there was too much stuff in the pot and it will boil over. Damn. Okay, I can fix this. I poured off about two cups of the liquid into a bowl and cranked the heat on high. Once the pot started to boil, I lowered the heat to a simmer and left the kitchen. About an hour later I remembered that there was soup on the stove and ran back. A lot of the liquid had cooked off, and the chicken was done, but otherwise everything looked good. I pulled the chicken out and poured back in the liquid I poured off earlier, adjusted the seasoning and let the soup simmer for another half hour, while I de-boned and shredded the chicken.

Chicken soup needs noodles though, right? But looking through the cupboard all I could find were udon noodles and lasagna...hmm. If you just break up the lasagna sheets, that's almost like soup noodles, right? It'll do. I tossed that into the soup and cooked it for another 20 min to make sure the thicker than normal pasta noodles cooked all the way through. I dumped the chicken back in and poured myself a bowl.



Not too bad for my first stab at chicken soup. A little slap-shod in the making, but what do you want? I was sick.

As for the curative properties, it may have been the meds or it may have been the many naps, but I'd like to think it was the soup that cured me in the end.

Yummy Afternoon

There's nothing quite as warming on a cold day as golden bread baking in the oven and this weekend I've had the pleasure to experience this twice. Who needs radiators in this sub-zero weather when the oven never sleeps?

On my way home on Friday I called my friend D, and while we didn't really have plans to meet, we got to talking and the next thing I know she's at my house with a cooler and a recipe. She found this great recipe on Allrecipes.com a while back and has been making it ever since with great results. While we were waiting for the bread to rise I separated a few eggs to age some egg whites for macaroon experimentation tomorrow and made these Turkish Coffee Pots de Creme with the egg yolks.



To be honest, I didn't really like them. The recipe worked like a charm and they baked up nicely into a thick, creamy custard, but I think the cardamom flavor was a bit too strong for my taste. But if you love cardamom, you should really give this a try.

Anyways, back to the fabulous bread! D wrapped up and took the 4 loaves she made home with her when she left around 2 am and I went to sleep, but when I woke up I could still smell the bread and since there was no bread to be found all I could think of is making some for myself. Lucky for me, D forgot her recipe on the counter. I promise, I didn't steal it, hide it or anything....I think. Anyways, it just so happens that I had everything needed on hand and I had just enough time to pop the pretty loaves into the oven when my friend K rang the buzzer. A while ago she and I planned a Frenchie inspired foodie day, but as the day drew closer everyone else dropped out and it was up to K and me to keep the plans alive, so while the bread was baking we popped a bottle of bubbly, the cork narrowly missing my eye and the glass cabinet full of fragile tea cups and glassware, and started on the macaroons. The plan was to make hazelnut macaroons filled with a chocolate honey ganache I had made that morning...but when we got started I realized I had almost no powdered sugar. Woops. Oh, well, we decided. We'll just go with it, anything you make with sugar, hazelnuts, and egg whites has got to be good. And once you fill the hazelnut meringues with ganache (see how I changed the cookie name as if that's what we meant to make all along? you didn't see anything...) they came out great!



But in my opinion the best part, aside from having a good friend over to chat and tinker in the kitchen, was the bread.



K brought some fabulous ham and cheese because originally we were going to make savory crepes, but with the beautiful bread cooling on the counter K suggested making grilled cheese sandwiches instead. Genius! I mean look at this:



Wait,look, another angle to get the full affect of this amazing deliciousness:



I don't mean to get obnoxious here, but that sandwich was fabulous, so I'd recommend that you either scroll back up to the link with the recipe and make it right away...oh what am I saying, don't leave. Stay, I'll even give you the recipe right here:

Braided Egg Bread
from Allrecipes.com

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110F degrees)
2 cups hot milk
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup water
5 eggs
11 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

- Proof yeast and 1/2 cup warm water in a large mixing bowl.
- Combine hot milk, sugar, butter, salt, and 1/2 cup water in a medium bowl. Cool to 110 degrees.
- In small bowl, slightly beat 5 eggs, then add to cooled milk mixture. Add milk mixture to yeast mixture. Add 2 cups flour and beat until smooth. Slowly add remaining flour until it forms a stiff dough. Knead on a floured board for 10 minutes (5 minutes with a bread hook). Place in a large glass or plastic bowl lightly greased. Turn dough over to grease both sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, dark place until doubled in volume, approximately 60 minutes.
- Punch down, cover, and let rise again until double, approximately 30 minutes.
- Punch again, and form into three parts. Form each part into a 20-inch roll. Braid rolls on a large, greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled.
- Lightly beat remaining egg and brush loaf. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 55 minutes until nicely browned. May be made into two regular sized loaves. Reduce baking time slightly.

Enjoy!

Dusting off the sewing machine

I was told to bake less this year, and while I know for a fact that I just can't do that, I thought it might be a good idea to pull out a few of my other, more neglected hobbies. At least until I have some extra cash for a new camera and I drop everything again for a new shiny toy that will surely need pretty pastries to practice with. And so it was, a few weeks before new years, that I found myself digging out my sewing machine from behind a pile of boxes that I tossed amidst a cleaning frenzy. "I should make something!" I thought to myself, and started scouring the web for patterns and ideas. To brush up on my skills a bit I made a cute little blanket for my nephew, which was wrapped up and given as a holiday gift before I even thought of taking a picture. The retro polka dot apron I made for my sister went the same way, as did the tea cozy I made for my mom. I loved the idea of a tea cozy so much that last night I pulled out the leftover fabric from that project and made another one. Don't you think that this is the cutest way to keep your tea warm as you're chatting away with your sisters or girl friends over some pastries? The vintage tea cups deserve no less.



If you're feeling ambitious and would like to whip one up yourself, it's not that hard. I found pretty thorough instructions here, and it's a pretty quick evening project to work on with your favorite show on in the background. Just pick out some pretty fabric, the insulation and a pretty ribbon and you're all set to go.

Moving Forward by Looking Back

Many many years ago, just a few weeks after my little sister finally moved out of our room into her own we got into one of those pointless, nonsensical fights which involve lots of yelling, but lose wind almost immediately and, since it's been many many years since it happened and since no one remembers what it was about anymore, I can finally admit that it was probably my fault. I don't remember what I was doing right after the "slamming of the doors", but I must have been puttering around my room for a while fuming when my sister came in and put a sheet of paper on my desk and walked out.

Today, I am trying to bring a sense of order to my house after a hectic holiday season and while clearing out some shelves in my overstuffed and scary closet I ran across that sheet of paper. The slightly torn paper that I saved because it makes me smile every time I see it and I asked her permission to share the poem that was on that paper with you. On top of the page she wrote "Anna - here have a poem! Critisize it all you like!" I'm going to leave punctuation and spelling exactly as she had it because that makes me smile too...though for probably the same reasons as the ones that caused that long ago fight. So without any further ado, a poem from my little sister to me written in a fit of anger:

What the hell?
Whats that smell?
Oh it just my sister Anna
She smells like a ripe banana
It's not that bad
But she does get mad
When I say that
And give her arm a pat
She wants a cat
A pretty little black one
Light as a feather
Not heavy like a ton
One that you feed buns
But we cant get it
As much as we may beg & hit
Daddy just tells us to sit
Or go try to get fit
Which Anna don't know how to do
Ask anyone, she knows its true
Going to the fitness center rarely
Doing very little excersize - barely
She's still a cool sister
So don't say it's not so mister
She's one of the best
Not like any of the rest


Who ever said that writing things down isn't therapeutic? She started out mad, then got carried away by her need to rhyme, remembered she was mad again, and then decided that she loves me after all. She can't stay mad at me for long even now...and I'm still hoping to try and get the whole exercise thing off the ground this year.


I'm sharing this because it makes me happy and because I ran across it as I was cleaning and I decided to clear a few other things too. I have been baking, shopping, wrapping, crafting just like everyone else these past few weeks and I was planning on cheating and stretching out the pictures I have been taking over the next few days, letting myself get lazy, but still turn out posts. As I was cleaning though, I decided that I want every post that I will write to be "fresh off the presses", and while I didn't really have time to take too many pictures, what with the late nights and all, I am putting the good ones into this post. A few festive sugar cookies, some homemade raspberry marshmallows and these:


Because I made these crispy meringue cookies between my first and second shifts at work, implying that anyone with 5 minutes and an idle oven can do it, I'm sharing the recipe with you.

Cocoa Meringues
Adapted from Death by Chocolate Cake by Marcel Desaulniers

4 egg whites
⅛ tsp cream of tartar
⅛ tsp salt
1¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa; sifted
1 tbsp cornstarch

- Preheat the oven to 225F.
- Place a sheet of parchment paper or a silpat onto a baking sheet.
- Place 4 egg whites, the cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a balloon whip and whisk on high until soft peaks form, about a minute.
- Gradually add 1 cup sugar while continuing to whisk on high until stiff, about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to fold in and thoroughly combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa and the cornstarch.
- Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the cocoa meringue and pipe swirls onto the parchment as small or big as you like, as close as you want making sure that they don't touch.
- Place the meringue in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Lower the oven temperature to 200F and bake for 2 hours and 45 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 45 minutes before handling.
- Enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa, or share with a friend

You can also melt some chocolate and dip these in it if you want, but I was tired. Maybe next time.

I'm going back to cleaning for now, but I hope to have another year full of successful kitchen experiments to share with you.