Sorry About the Absence, and Cake!

So I have been very sick here lately and could not cook, since nobody would eat anything I touched (my family actually followed me around with Purell). First there was a badly infected spider bite on my arm and then something cold-ish and flu-ish. I'm mostly over it. I think. But I'm falling behind in my cooking, so I needed to bake something anyway. The solution? 3-1/2" cake pans! Then I can just eat the entire thing without becoming too large to fit through the door. I'm made three miniature butter cakes today with 1/4 of the recipe, using the same amount of batter for each mini-cake as I would use for one slice of regular cake. Insta-portion-control, which is JUST what I need, as I'm almost too large to fit through the door as is. To jazz up the first cake, I melted some butter in a small saucepan, chopped up a few peach slices and threw them in with some cinnamon, and then crumbled in a bit of brown sugar and melted it to create a caramel sauce. Yummy! I cut the mini-cake into two layers and put some topping in the middle and poured the rest on top. The really great thing was that the caramel sauce was still very hot, so it was thin, and it seeped all the way through the cake to make an incredibly moist, flavorful dessert. So good!!!

Cheddar Biscuits and Apple Cake

Yes, apples. In a cake. I know, it seems profane not to rip into the apples and eat half of them the moment you get home from the grocery store, but I resisted. And had the brains to hide them lest my stepsisters fall upon them as if they hadn't eaten in a month. (Yes, that happens with pretty much any fruit that enters my house.) One of the cool things about German desserts is that EVERYTHING has fruit in it. Danishes? German. Traditional kolaches? German. Black forest cake? You guessed it. German.

So I made a German Apple Cake with a few tweaks of my own, and it came out pretty good... except the frosting. I was going by a recipe and making minor adjustments, and the frosting came out sweet. Like really, really sweet. Like almost inedible sweet. For me anyway; my frosting-loving mom ate it with no problem, but just tasting it made me nauseous. (I'm also the one who can't stomach eating milk chocolate because of the sweetness, so it may just be me.) The only thing I changed with the frosting was adding some cinnamon and nutmeg, and for the cake itself, I used a trio of apples (two Granny Smith, one Golden Delicious and one Red Delicious) instead of the recommended four Granny Smiths. I would recommend just using whatever you like, or whatever happens to be on sale, which is what I did. Four apples for a buck! I also used pecans instead of walnuts... I live in Texas, after all, and pecans are free here as long as you're patient enough to shell the suckers.

German Apple Cake
* 2 large eggs
* 1/2 c vegetable or canola oil
* 2 c granulated sugar
* 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
* 1/2 c cake flour (you could omit this and use another 1/2 c all-purpose instead. This is just to make a more tender cake.)
* 2 t cinnamon
* 1 t baking soda
* 1/2 t salt
* 1 t vanilla extract
* 4 apples, cored and peeled, then grated; get a mix for a variety of flavors
* 1/2 c chopped pecans
* 8 oz low-fat cream cheese
* 4 t unsalted softened butter
* 1 1/2 t vanilla extract
* 1 t cinnamon
* pinch nutmeg
* 2 c confectioners' sugar
1. Beat eggs and oil until creamy and pale yellow. Add in granulated sugar, flours, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and vanilla.
2. Add apples (squeeze out excess moisture first) and nuts. Spread into a buttered and floured 9x13 pan and pop into a 350F oven for 35-40 minutes or until it passes to toothpick test. Turn out onto rack and let cool.
3. Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth and fluffy. Beat in sugar a bit at a time. Ice cake. (I cut my cake into quarters and made two little two-layer cakes.)

I think that next time, I will adjust the sugar to cream cheese ratio so it will not be as sweet. The above is for the sweet icing.

As for the cheddar biscuits, I was trying to think of what I can make with no salt (we have none), and I thought I would try that old Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit recipe that's been all over the internet. You know, the one that uses Bisquick? (Well, I'm a cheapass, so I used Quick Biscuit, but you know.) I won't bother posting it up here, since that's kind of redundant and you can find the recipe on a million different pages, but the only think I changed was that instead of mixing melted butter and garlic powder, I melted the butter in a skillet, threw in a few smashed cloves of garlic, and sauteed the garlic a bit. Then I pulled the garlic out so there wouldn't be big chunks. I also added some Italian seasoning to it. I'm not really sure why, I just thought I would try it. The biscuits disappeared before I could get a picture.

Pao de Queijo... kinda

So I have been wanting to make these little Brazilian bites of cheesy bread called pao de queijo. They serve them at many Brazilian restaurants, and Chuck is absolutely nuts about them. However, it can be difficult to find the tapioca flour that is used, so I figured I'd substitute. When you substitute, you are walking on thin ice. I did some research and found that the tapioca flour is gluten-free, and the lowest protein flour I had on hand was cake flour, so I decided to use that. My bits of bread tasted fine, but the texture wasn't right; the bread is supposed to resemble a popover, and there's supposed to be a big hollow in the middle of the bread. My bread came out in a cylindrical shape, with small hollow spaces here and there but not the BIG space that is supposed to be there. The top was flat or even slightly concave. But I still like them, regardless. Now, I found a Brazilian grocery store on the southwest side of town, so maybe next time I'm in the area, I can pick up some tapioca flour and give this an honest try. Will let everyone know how it turns out.

German

So I've been telling assorted people about my bakery/specialty foods idea, and I've been getting some advice. My dad had a very interesting notion; I have thought about setting up shop in Tomball, a smallish town just northwest of Houston (actually, Houston will grow into it before too long). Now, as a bit of background, Tomball has a large German-American population, and they throw a huge Oktoberfest festival every year, as well as a separate German Heritage festival. My dad pointed out to me that despite the strong German influence, there are no German restaurants in Tomball, and nor are there any shops where one may buy German food, save for the International aisle at Walmart, which is mostly Chinese and Mexican food anyway.

I originally pooh-poohed the idea of serving up German cuisine as a part of my shop, as I am not a huge sausage fan and I absolutely LOATHE sauerkraut. To my knowledge, that, along with some sort of bland potato, was the quintessential German meal. So today, during Ari's nap, I got bored and Wikipedia-ed German food. I was surprised to see that there is a lot of variety in the cuisine, including a huge number of cakes and pastries - something right up my alley. Then I saw something about a noodle called spatzle. Now, spatzle is a pasta made with egg, milk and flour. You mix everything up and form the noodles directly over the pot so they just drop right in. The coolest part is that imperfections are EXPECTED. One of my huge issues with cooking that I need to correct is that while everything tastes fabulous, it almost never looks fabulous. It usually appears to be a heap of something on a plate, and my loaves of bread are always taller or fatter on one side. So seeing that appearances don't matter so much with spatzle made me really want to try it. I couldn't totally do what I wanted because I have a limited amount of ingredients that just so happened to be at my house, so it's not the most traditional recipe.

Sarah's Desperation Spatzle
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 1/6 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 creminis
* 1/2 bunch green onions
* 2 - 2 1/2 Tbsp butter
* 1 tsp chicken bouillon
Combine eggs and milk; add flour, a little at a time, combine thoroughly, and let rest for a few minutes. Boil a huge pot of water, and slice the mushrooms and onions thinly. Melt butter in a skillet and toss in the veggies. When water comes to a rolling boil, add bouillon and dissolve. Next, get out a colander (not a wire mesh one, but a plastic one with holes all in it). Pour the batter in it, holding it over the pot of water. If the batter is thick, press on it with a bowl to get it on through quickly. Almost immediately, the spatzle will rise to the top; when this happens you know they're done, kind of like ravioli. Scoop them out with a spider or slotted spoon and put in serving dish. Pour veggies (and butter) over the top. Salt and pepper.

In the future, I would like to use cheese, but I didn't have any in my fridge. For something whipped up so quickly, though, I thought it was pretty good. This would be a great recipe for when you don't have much in your kitchen; just make the spatzle and saute up any veggies that have been hanging out in your produce bin for too long. If I'd had some, I would have grated some Emmantalier or something over the top.

Just out of curiosity, is anyone out there but me appalled and hurt by the fact that there is a hard and fast rule against garlic in German food? I know I am.

The Next Step

So I've done it. I'd done something crazy, bold, and adventurous. For me, anyway.

I've dropped out of school!

Before everyone starts screaming at me, let me explain. I have been looking into opening a bakery-slash-specialty-foods-store, and I have concluded that it will take me a WHILE to put together a business plan. So this semester, I will learn more about the culinary arts while I work on the business plan and getting a business loan. However, we have no money for culinary school, which is pretty pricey. So, I will rent culinary textbooks from Chegg.com and teach my damn self in my kitchen, while Ari is napping and after she has gone to bed. Also, the local high school is opening their new stadium on August 24, and this year there will be tailgating in the parking lot before the games. So I am going to contact the school and see if I can get permission to set up tables and hawk tailgating food before the games. Hopefully people will like my food and I can put my name out there and drum up some interest in the community, which would certainly help me get a loan, especially if I went to a bank in the town of Waller, where the school in question is. Who knows, maybe I could get hired on to cater a couple of Sweet Sixteens or quinceneras.

Stay tuned to see whether this turns out to be a brilliant move or a disasterous mistake.

SOURDOUGH!!! (and a couple of ravioli recipes)

Yes, at 1:31am, after weeks of failed starters, I now have a respectable loaf of sourdough bread. I am ecstatic. Of course, I'll probably eat the entire thing tomorrow in sandwiches, but now I have a good starter, and that makes me happy. I cheated, yes, but it's worth it to finally have something work. I've read that the "wild" yeasts overtake the store-bought stuff after a couple of weeks, so we'll see if the flavor changes then. I still haven't cut into the loaf, and probably won't until tomorrow, since I'm about to drop from exhaustion (I got into the kitchen at 7:30 this morning... er... yesterday morning... to make ravioli). I had no idea it would take so long to rise, but at least now I know to start proofing first thing in the morning.

At least I was able to knock out some ravioli fillings while I was waiting for the bread to proof and rise and such. I've finished and tested the shrimp ravioli, and they were pretty good. I'm thinking of pairing those with a cream-based sauce, as the shrimp flavor is really strong. Which is great if you're a seafood fanatic, but I'm not. Hopefully everyone else will like it. I adapted the shrimp from someone else's recipe, but the two other fillings I've made tonight are totally my recipes, and the fillings taste AWESOME. The recipes for those fillings follow:

Cremini Mushroom and Spinach Ravioli Filling
* 6 cremini mushrooms, chopped sorta finely
* 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/3 cup or so frozen spinach, thawed and drained well
* butter
* 1/3 cup ricotta
* 1/4 cup Romano, grated
Melt some butter in a skillet and add garlic. When the garlic is golden brown, throw in the mushrooms. If it's looking a little dry, just add more butter. Don't worry, you can diet tomorrow. When the mushrooms are done, take them off the heat and add to spinach. Let cool a bit. Meanwhile, put the cheeses in the food processor. Add the cooled spinach and mushroom mixture and obliterate. Fill up your ravioli with whatever pasta dough (or egg roll skins) you like.

Zucchini Ravioli Filling
Yeah, I know it's tempting to skip over this one, but it's really tasty.
* 2 c diced zucchini
* 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
* 1/4 c red onion, chopped finely
* butter
* Sun-dried tomato bread dipper (Adam's Reserve is what I used, if it's not available in your area, use any bread dipper or Italian seasoning blend. I love the sun-dried tomato bits in this one, though.)
* 1/3 c Romano, grated
* white bread or bread crumbs
Melt butter in skillet. Add onion and cook until translucent. Season to taste with bread dipper and add garlic. After garlic has cooked a minute or two, add zucchini. Adjust seasoning to taste. Cook until zucchini is very tender, and then pour it into a food processor. Let it cool a minute, then add cheese. Combine until smooth, or almost, and then add in bread, a bit at a time, until it has thickened enough to be used as a ravioli filling.

Shrimp Ravioli

So I tried out the first ravioli recipe today. I took a basic egg pasta, rolled it out super-thin, brushed it with water, and then spaced out tiny balls of a shrimp filling on top. I pushed out the air bubbles and cut out the ravioli with a pizza cutter. Then I put them on wax paper, pressed the edges with the tines of a fork, and froze them before transferring them to a plastic baggie. Voila! Frozen, homemade, shrimp ravioli that can be enjoyed at a moment's notice!

For the filling, I sauteed the shrimp with some garlic in olive oil. Then I put the shrimp, some bread crumbs, and some Romano cheese in the food processor and pulverized it. In retrospect, I'm wishing I had added more seasoning to the filling, but when I tried it, I hadn't put any sauce on it. I'm thinking it would be good with a creamy sauce of some sort.

Sourdough, Sandwich Bread and Ravioli... No, not together!!!

So the sourdough experiment continues. It doesn't really seem to do much except right after it's fed, in which case it quickly puffs up, but then when I stir it, it goes back down and stays down until it's fed again. If anyone out there stumbles across this and knows how the heck to make sourdough, will you please tell me if this is supposed to be happening?

Anyway, I've been itching to make ravioli again. I've made ravioli once before, with a cheese and chicken filling, and it tasted great, but looked... not great. So I'm going to try again, but I want to try a variety of fillings, so I'm going to make a bunch of half- or quarter-batches and have friends and family taste-test them. A couple are recipes I got from various places, and a few are things I just thought up. We'll see how it all turns out. Unfortunately, I need bread crumbs, so first I have to bake bread. >.< Isn't that awful? I don't have any bread in my house. I've eaten it all waiting for the sourdough to reach a cookable state. So I'm making some basic vegan white sandwich bread. These loaves are particularly pretty (they're normally oblong, misshapen... things) so I'm wishing I had a camera to post up a picture! I need to start doing that with the stuff I make. Anyway, I'll update later with the ravioli recipes and which ones got crowd-approved.

Sourdough?

For those of you who don't know, I have had a very shaky relationship with sourdough bread. Now, I love sourdough. I worship it. I dream of going to San Francisco so I can taste their sourdough. I love it in sandwiches, I love it grilled, I love it as toast. Hell, I'll just eat a hunk by itself. So, of course, I have to learn how to make it!

So I went on Google and discovered that there are two ways to go about this. You can do it the "real" way, which is to combine flour and water and let it ferment and pray that it grows some yeast on its own, or you can "cheat", where you just throw some store-bought yeast in. Of course, when I first read this, I stuck my nose up in the air and declared I would never "cheat" on sourdough. So I made it the "real" way, and let it sit... and sit... and sit... Now, apparently it is supposed to get all foamy and expand dramatically during this time. I think mine shrank. So I dumped it out, boiled the jar I'd kept it in, and did it again. Same thing happened. Again.

So fine. I cheated. Yesterday, I tried a third time, and I dumped in a packet's worth of yeast. Two cups of flour and two cups of water makes about 2-1/2 cups (I know, I thought it would be more, too), and within fifteen minutes, my quart-size canning jar was overflowing! So I poured half into another canning jar, and twenty minutes later, I had six cups of starter. Naturally, I totally freaked. Either I had stoner-slacker-starter, or I had crazy-psycho-starter trying to take over my house. "Today, Sarah's kitchen, tomorrow.... THE WORLD!!! BWAHAHAAAA!!!" These worries were completely unfounded however, since it suddenly fell and I was able to dump it all back into one jar, where I have just over 2-1/2 cups again. It's started foaming on top and there's hooch, but nothing's really going on down at the bottom again, so I'll wait a couple of days, see if something happens, and then, I guess I'll try again.

I also started a Herman starter, thinking that if I made two starters, I'd double my chances of having SOMETHING work. Herman is similar to sourdough, but it is sweetened and uses milk rather than water. Man, that stuff stinks when you leave it out overnight. It doesn't smell like spoiled milk, though, it smells like really pungent wine. Which I think smells pretty bad. I'm not a fan of the smell of wine. Anyway, it did something similar to what the sourdough did. (You are supposed to add yeast to Herman.) It went from a couple of inches in the bottom of a mixing bowl to standing over the rim of the bowl, even after I'd stirred and beaten it down a couple of times, and by this morning, it was down to half-full.

I'll let you know how the starters pan out, I just figured I'd give an update about what I've been up to the past couple of days.

Roasted Veggie Rice

This is a pretty simple beginning, but I just so happened to make this with my dinner tonight and thought it was fabulous, for a healthy side. I may even throw in some cubed chicken breast next time and make it an entree. This is a great recipe to use when you have a bunch of veggies hanging out in the bottom of the crisper that are about to get... funky. You can use whatever veggies you have on hand, these are just what happened to be doing time in my fridge.

Ingredients

olive oil

4 roma tomatoes

1 onion, chopped

1 jalapeno, halved & seeded (Note :: when working with jalapenos, wear latex gloves that you can just toss in the trash afterward, and for a milder jalapeno, scrape a bit of flesh out of the inside with your fingernails or a grapefruit spoon when you are seeding the pepper)

1 green bell pepper, cored and roughly chopped

1 red bell pepper, cored and roughly chopped

1 zucchini, quartered, then cut in slices

obscene amounts of garlic, chopped

6 c chicken or vegetable stock

3 c long grain rice

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions

1. Toss tomatoes, onion, peppers and zucchini with oil and spread in pans lined with aluminum foil. Sprinkle liberally with garlic, and stir some extra in if you are especially partial to garlic. I am.
2. Roast veggies at 400 until tender and slightly browned. The skin on the tomatoes should have a wrinkled appearance, and the skin on the peppers will be browned a bit. The onions should be translucent. Take them out and let them cool down a bit before chopping the peppers. Chop the jalapeno finely so there can be a tiny piece in every bite! Remove the skin from the bell peppers and tomatoes before you chop them.
3. Start heating the broth to a rolling boil.
4. Heat a bit of oil in a big skillet and saute the dry rice. Saute it just a few minutes, until every grain is coated in oil and the rice has a bit of color to it. Add to the boiling broth, add veggies and rosemary, cover and turn down heat to a simmer. Cook 20 minutes. Fluff rice, mixing veggies back in (they will be in a layer on top), and remove and discard rosemary.

Yummy! Makes about 10 cups.

Hello, Everyone!

I have been interested in cooking since childhood, but only recently became totally obsessed. I started learning to cook when I was fourteen; this was when I went vegetarian in a carnivorous family, and I had to learn to cook as a means of survival. When I started eating meat again six years later, I discovered a whole new world of things to cook, and when I was 21 and started cooking everything from scratch in an effort to control my weight, I entered full-blown food obsession.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my adventures in the culinary world, and to share some insight and recipes when I stumble across something really great. Between cooking for my incredibly picky child (who the heck will eat lemon rinds, raw bell pepper, and Vienna sausages but refuses to touch a carrot stick or green bean???), my sometimes-vegan-sometimes-vegetarian sister, no-bread-products mother, and diabetic boyfriend, I can pretty much make something for everyone to eat, so there should be something for everyone here!