Bakin'n'Bacon

I wish I had good news...

It is with a heavy heart that I type this post. Yesterday poor little Lazarus took a turn for the worse. He stopped eating, refused to drink, and began to have seizures. I took him to the vet, and she confirmed my worst fears. Laz would never be normal, and his long-term prospects were not good. The vet felt he could survive, but would suffer serious problems throughout his life due to the neurological damage he suffered as a kitten (perhaps even in utero). My husband and I made the difficult decision to put Laz down. I stayed with him until he died.

I suppose some people would say I shouldn't have tried to save him in the first place, but at least he was able to enjoy a short portion of life with plenty of love and attention. He purred many times during those days and that is worth it to me.

Adorable Kitten Photos

Sorry they are blurry - I took them with one hand while snapping my fingers on the other hand to get his attention.

Kitten Update

Thank you all for your inquiries on the status of Lazarus. It's been a week of progress and setback, hardly any sleep, purring and peeing. Overall, he's doing pretty well. It seems that he is not completely blind, but I wouldn't call him Eagle Eye either. He will follow movement, and takes great delight in attacking my toes when I wiggle them.

However, he still doesn't have any sense of using the litterbox, often pooing and peeing while he is sleeping, and it ends up all over him. He goes through little spurts of activity but is still very unsteady on his feet. We will continue to feed him often, pet him a lot, and try to get him as healthy as he can be. Keep your fingers crossed! (Adorable photo to come tonight - I left the camera at home!)

The Reason I'm Not Baking

This is the kitten I referenced in my last post. As he is a special needs kitty, I have to spend most of my time tending to him and don't have a lot of time left for other projects.

Lazarus, as we have decided to call him, is not out of the woods yet. He has a lot of problems - not the least of which is that he is blind. He also doesn't have control over his bowel movements and doesn't groom himself properly (typical guy). That's why there are papers scattered across the floor. What better use for the Wall Street Journal?

We are keeping our fingers crossed that the little guy will make a dramatic turnaround. Right now he just eat, sleeps, and poops. At least he is eating - the vet wasn't sure he would even be able to do that on his own, but he devours the food and cat milk we offer him. The vet said many of his problems could be due to malnutrition and might possibly reverse, even his eyesight. His problems could also be due to disease, trauma, or just genetic. We will just have to take it day by day and try to stimulate him as much as we can, so if he has any brain damage he can rewire his circuits and make improvements. Even if he doesn't make it, he will have a few weeks of pampered living with someone catering to his every whim - and isn't that what cats are all about?

Mini Cupcakes

I made these for a July 4th cookout, although that's probably obvious. I was going to decorate them with adorable little stars and stripes and get patriotic cupcake liners, but as usual I got behind schedule. I didn't even start these until the morning of the party.

I'm trying to perfect an easy, nearly foolproof cupcake recipe. This wasn't it. They were okay, but I screwed up the flavoring. I wanted to make a lemon cupcake with a cream cheese/white chocolate icing that had a hint of lemon. Even though I used lemon zest and lemon extract in the cakes, they didn't taste all that lemony. I haven't had much success with making a real lemony cupcake or layer cake, although I have had some luck with lemon pound cake. I'll need to revisit the pound cake recipe to see what might make these better.

The texture in these was awesome, however, with a smooth, even and small crumb. They were moist, too. I'd give myself a B- on these overall. They were surely better than the grocery store cakes that others brought to the cookout. I probably spent too much time on these considering the crowd that was at this party, but I did receive several compliments. Naturally a few people asked me where I got them (obviously they don't know me very well).

One aspect of these that will remain as I develop the recipe is that they use what is called the "high ratio" method. The name, although it comes from the type of shortening that is used in many commercial bakeries, actually describes the technique. Instead of creaming together the butter and sugar first to create aeration, you mix the butter with the flour and leavening agents. The photo at right shows the crumbs that develop after this step - no dry flour should remain. It looks a little like pastry dough. After that you add most of the liquid (usually eggs and milk), mixing this at high speed for 1 1/2 minutes to develop the gluten a little and provide the aeration. The rest of the liquid is added after the high speed mixing and the entire batter is whipped a little longer. Most high ratio recipes are similar, but I need to determine the reason that only part of the liquid is mixed in at first. If I can get away with it, I'd like to put it all in at once to make the recipe even easier. I guess I will have to do some side by side testing. Someone is going to be happy about that; probably my vet's office.

On a related side note, my husband and I just rescued a kitten yesterday. We weren't sure it was going to make it to the hospital - it was in very bad shape. We found it in our friend's backyard, panting and too weak to move, lying in the full sun. We estimated it didn't have much more than an hour or two left. We rushed it to the animal ER (of course this happened on a weekend), where they tested it for a few nasty diseases (all negative so far, two more tests to go) and put it on an IV drip, flea medicine and antibiotics. Today it is at our regular vet's office, resting and getting hydrated. We may be able to pick it up this evening - keep your fingers crossed! We really don't need another cat (this makes 7, all indoor cats), but we couldn't leave it there, nor could we just drop it off and have it put down if there was a decent chance it would make it. It still displays ataxia at moments, but we are hoping that's a result of malnutrition and will go away once the little bugger is properly hydrated and nourished. We named it Lazarus. Photos will appear soon if he survives, which is looking better with each passing hour.

Back to the cupcakes. When you first add the liquid to the creamed flour/butter, it looks very thin. Then a miracle happens (actually, gluten formation happens). After about a minute, the batter starts to thicken, and by the time you are done mixing it's a proper cake batter. I spooned the batter into the mini muffin tins, filling them about 2/3 to 3/4 full. I like my cupcakes to dome a little over the top of the paper which is why I fill them more than most recipes indicate. However, these didn't dome at all (note for next recipe: more baking soda and/or powder), so some of them ended up with large flat tops that wanted to stick to the pan. I trimmed a few with scissors to make them look better.

One funny thing about cakes is that the smaller the pan, the more leavening you have to use. It seems counter-intuitive, but I guess the smaller pans bake faster so you need the leavening to work faster. If I baked this as a layer cake it probably has enough leavening, but for mini-cupcakes it needs a boost.

Back to the drawing--uh--cutting(?) board.

On Your Marks, Get Set, BAKE!

I bake these modified Mrs. Field's cookies so much that I have the recipe memorized, along with my peanut butter cookie and cinnamon roll recipes. (I'd like to memorize more recipes but I think my brain is full. Now if only I could get rid of some of the detritus floating around in there to make room...)

One night when I was making these for an after-dinner treat, my husband remarked that he thought I could make my cookies faster than someone could unwrap a tube of store-bought cookies and slice them. Of course I'm not quite THAT fast, but it did start me thinking about just how quickly I could throw these puppies together, so I told my husband to time me the next time I made them. I started the timer with absolutely no prep done - no bowls or ingredients were out and the butter was cold. The timing stopped when I had the first pan of cookies in the oven with the door closed. It took me 6 minutes. This included nuking the butter to soften it and whizzing whole oats in a food processor. Of course, the kitchen was a mess when I was done, but nevertheless I was pretty happy with that time. Since most ovens won't even heat up that quickly, it means there is NO EXCUSE for using cookies in a tube or bucket, all full of trans-fats and glycerides but devoid of buttery goodness. Yep, I'm talkin' to you. You probably have all the ingredients on hand, too (except maybe for the chocolate chips, but they keep for a long time. Buy some.).

It's been hot here, and between my job and gardening I've been worn out in the evenings and haven't done much baking. I decided to make these cookies a couple of nights ago because I was going through baking withdrawal, and just for fun decided to time myself again. It was a bad idea - I didn't have any chocolate chips upstairs so I had to run to the basement and fetch up a bag. What I wouldn't give for a pantry! I do have a hall closet I use for kitchen overflow but it's so full I need a secondary storage area in the basement. Maybe I just have too much food. Nah, that's not it - I just need more space.

But I digress. Between running downstairs and being generally disorganized, my time was abysmal. It took me nearly 9 minutes before I got the first pan of cookies in the oven. I was so disappointed. Perhaps I'm too competitive, but it doesn't feel good to be so far off my game. I need to practice more, but for the next month it's going to be difficult since I'm traveling several days for work, and I'm going away for a weekend too. But I do have a 4th of July party for which I plan to make cupcakes, so I'll do those tomorrow night. Keep on me so I don't end up this "out of shape" again!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Inspired by Mrs. Field's
Makes about 24 cookies

1 stick (4 oz.) butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons Kahlua (optional but yummy)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup (4.5 oz.) all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups instant oats (or process whole or quick oats in a food processor until fine) (You'd think I would know the weight of this but I never remember to weigh them. I really should do that.)
6 oz. chocolate chips (or more if you like. I do.)

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together butter and sugars in a mixing bowl by hand or with an electric mixer. Add baking powder, soda, salt and egg, mix well. Add Kahlua and/or vanilla, blend until incorporated. Add flour and oats, mixing until no dry streaks remain. Stir in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Using a #40 disher, small scoop or your hands, shape into balls and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. You should be able to get 12 cookies on a half-sheet (13 x 18) pan.

Bake until golden brown on the edges and light brown in the center (8-10 minutes). Let cool on sheets until you just can't stand it anymore, then eat (or remove to a cooling rack). Don't overbake or they will break your teeth. It's better to under bake and have slightly chewy cookies than to have to visit the dentist.

Cleveland - Foodie Destination?

Early this month, I met up with a group of friends in Cleveland for a foodie weekend getaway. (Note: I don't like the term "foodie" but words like gourmand sound so pretentious.) Why Cleveland? Frankly, until recently I viewed Cleveland as "The Mistake by the Lake." Watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode on Cleveland changed my mind, as did the Food Network's Next Iron Chef where Cleveland Chef Michael Symon beat out all other contestants for the honor. I started reading about great restaurants in the Cleveland area (Chef Symon's Lola and Lolita, The Flying Fig, Fire, Carrie Cerino's), a good brewery (Great Lakes Brewing Co.), and my attitude about the city began to change.

My husband imports motorcycles and the port of entry is Cleveland so he travels there frequently. Before, I never wanted to accompany him on his business trips but now I had a reason. In addition to the restaurants and the Westside Market, there are two Trader Joe's, a new Penzey's, Whole Foods and Sur la Table (none of which we have here). So I've been going with my husband, leaving him to deal with the customs officials and brokers, and going off shopping. I hadn't eaten at any of the above-named restaurants, though, until a group of people on the Cook's Illustrated Bulletin Board decided Cleveland would be the next destination to "meet and eat."

We certainly did eat. Everyone brought goodies for an initial reception (I swear I could live on Marilyn's toffee), and there was a plethora of spreads, dips, charcuterie and pickles. Desserts were not overlooked by this crowd - the swoon-inducing toffee and a variety of cookies were offered (including one of my favorites, speculaas). Yum. It's nice to be able to talk fervently about food with people nearly nonstop and not have them try to commit you to a nice, quiet hospital.

We ate dinners at Lola and The Flying Fig. The picture at the top is of the Tempura Green Beans appetizer at The Flying Fig, which Michael Ruhlman recommended when he spoke to our group. Yep, Mr. Charcuterie himself spoke to our small group after we had been cooking together all morning at The Viking Store in Cleveland's swanky Legacy Village shopping center. If I had a kitchen like the one at the Viking store I might finally have enough room. It is bigger than the apartment I used to live in! I have included a few photos below of our group cooking together.

Most of the other food photos I took didn't turn out very well. (I even forgot my camera for the Lola dinner. Doh!) I tried sweetbreads for the first time and thought they were pretty good, but I probably won't try to make them myself. I also had duck at Lola (excellent), but I must say I was a tad disappointed with dessert. I had the 6 a.m. special, which was French toast and maple-bacon ice cream. The ice cream was okay but not outstanding, and the rest of the dish was not memorable at all. Perhaps my expectations were too high because I make a lot of desserts myself, but I just wasn't impressed.

The Flying Fig dessert was better (fig and thyme crisp with lemon ice cream that was excellent), but the rest of the meal, while very good, wasn't quite up to the meal at Lola. I had a small plate sampler with Ohio lamb meatballs (fair), a local goat cheese served with candied pecans, toast slices and a strawberry preserve (excellent), and a scallop stuffed with short ribs (very good). The tempura green beans were tasty, although the dipping sauces were a bit strange. One was a sweet maple sauce and the other a mustard. I might try to make the beans at home sometime - everything is better deep fried!

 

 

 

New Cookbookitis

Every time I get a coupon for a bookstore, I am compelled to visit and browse the cookbook collection. Since I have a Borders Rewards card and a store right across the street from my office, this happens quite frequently.

Last year I swore off new cookbooks since I had a plethora of books from which I hadn't made a single recipe. This resolution, like most resolutions, didn't last very long. My husband says the perfect number of motorcycles to own is one more than you already have, and I guess that applies to my cookbook collection too. Of course my collection takes up a lot less room than his.

I have more cookbooks than he has cycles, but not many more. (I think last count was 18 motorcycles, not counting a few that friends have stored at our place). So anyway, I had another coupon and wandered across the street to browse the (very limited) selection at the Borders Express. How many freakin "cookbooks" does Sandra Lee have? And why does the Borders Express carry those but not Bouchon by Thomas Keller? (That is a purely rhetorical question.)

I didn't find anything I really had to have, so I wandered over to the "bargain" section. Normally I won't buy any of those cookbooks since they are often "can of this" type books or look like something a publisher threw together to grab a few bucks. But there was one called Baking: A Common Sense Guide that had beautiful photographs. It was printed in Australia and therefore had a few unusual recipes. The book is one of those publisher compilations, so there isn't a sole author. I am skeptical of most books like this, but it was only $5.99 so I decided to take a chance.

It was only after I really looked at it that I discovered it was published by the anti-Christ's company (Fox Media). OK, maybe that's an exaggeration; it's just a subsidiary. I leafed through the book and marked a few recipes to try. The first one was a Cardamom Cookie. Well, if all the recipes are like this, the photographs are definitely the best part of the book. I do have to give kudos to the publisher, though, for including weight measurements in both ounces and grams, in addition to volume measurements. It's tough to find an American cookbook with weights.

The cardamom cookie was on the greasy side, and the honey called for was such a miniscule amount that the flavor didn't come through at all. The cardamom flavor was fair, but the texture was pretty disappointing due to the greasiness. I'll try a couple more recipes before I damn the book, but I am not holding out much hope. Next time I'll restrain myself to a cookbook from an author I trust.

PS: everyone at worked liked the cookies (but no one loved them).

You Scream, I Scream for Sour Cream Ice Cream

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I took this past week off to catch up on some neglected chores around the house. I managed to get a few of them done - now I need to go back to work to get some rest.

Before I started my cleaning/fixing frenzy, we had a cookout. We made pulled pork, ribs, and all the sides. For dessert I whipped out my Cuisinart ice cream maker and the pizzelle iron I received for Christmas and made sour cream ice cream and vanilla waffle cones.

The waffle cone maker produces cones that are thinner and more delicate than you'll find at Dairy Queen. Their cones seem Flintstone-like after eating these. Of course they tasted a lot better too - the cones at DQ have crunch but little else. 

Shaping the cones proved to be tougher than I imagined because a) those suckers are HOT and b) even with the cone form I had a hard time making a point that didn't have a gaping hole in the bottom for the ice cream to drip out of. I think the idea of using a little chocolate plug in the bottom has merit. I may try that next time.

Since the cones weren't working so well, I turned to making waffle bowls. They were much easier to shape - I just draped them over an upside-down plastic tumbler.

The ice cream itself was a big hit. The tangy kick from the sour cream was unexpected but delicious. I took liberties with the recipe (an Emeril recipe from the Food Network), and my reworked version is below. The original recipe called for six egg yolks, which I have found makes ice cream taste way too eggy for me.

Most people were too stuffed to eat much ice cream so there were leftovers. Normally I am not a big fan of leftovers but I made an exception in this case. The next day I made a quick chocolate sauce and served the ice cream with pretzels. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I love pretzels and ice cream. The salty crunch of the pretzel is a great foil to the creamy smoothness of the ice cream. I am thinking of way to develop a pretzel cookie that could be used for ice cream sandwiches - or maybe just putting a layer of pretzels inside a regular sandwich. I don't want the pretzels to get soggy and that could be difficult.

Sour Cream Ice Cream
Adapted from a recipe by Emeril Lagasse
 
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 of a large vanilla bean
3 egg yolks
2 cups natural sour cream

In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the cream and sugar. Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the pan. Throw in the remainder of the bean (just remember to fish it out later). Bring to a near boil (190 degrees or so) over medium heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. 

Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Whisk 1 cup of the hot cream into the egg yolks. Gradually add the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream, to the hot cream, whisking constantly. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (170 degrees F).

Remove from the heat and whisk in the sour cream, about 1/2 cup at a time. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a clean container (optional, because some of the vanilla bean seeds may get strained out as well. If you don't strain, be sure to remove the vanilla bean pod). Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down against the surface to keep a skin from forming. Refrigerate until well chilled (40 degrees or colder), at least 2 hours.

Remove from the refrigerator and pour into the bowl of an ice cream machine. Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

Chocolate for Breakfast

Almost any time I can incorporate chocolate into a meal, I will do so. While I was looking for the soured milk chocolate cake recipe that I posted about a couple of weeks ago, I rediscovered this chocolate waffle recipe. I suppose it is intended to be used as a dessert base rather than as a breakfast waffle, but I decided to read the word with a literal interpretation, taking a cue from my dad's Biblical philosophy. (Thank goodness my dad doesn't read my blog. I love him dearly but we can no longer discuss religion. Or politics. Heck, we can hardly agree on the weather.)

The recipe is quite easy and the waffles crisp, light and not too sweet. It too is made with sour milk, but you don't have to wait for your milk to turn - using a bit of vinegar in regular milk will suffice. You can also substitute cultured buttermilk as it will lend the tang that pairs so well with rich chocolate. (Coming soon to a blog near you: Chocolate Buttermilk Tart). Served with lightly sweetened whipped cream and a drizzle of Kahlua (I also eagerly incorporate booze into any meal), it was a tasty if not healthy breakfast. If you want the recipe, send me an email.

What would make these even better is to top them with strawberries fresh from my garden. I've been fighting with the moles, birds and slugs over the precious berries, which we have been eating as a dessert with nothing more than a sprinkle of muscovado sugar. These berries are so sweet, tender and ruby-colored throughout that to do anything other than to enjoy them in their natural state would be bordering on criminal. I rhapsodized about the strawberries we got straight from the farm in March, but these strawberries make even those red beauties seem like plastic food suitable for a child's playroom. I imagine that the majority of Americans don't really know what a truly ripe heirloom strawberry tastes like. Even at the height of strawberry season, the varieties of strawberries that are sturdy enough for shipping don't have the perfumed sweetness of an heirloom breed. I don't have a large strawberry patch, only a square of earth 4 feet by 4 feet, but we will get a couple quarts of berries over the few weeks these June-bearers are producing. 

Since strawberries here in Zone 6 stay green year round, they make an excellent ground cover. If you have a bare garden bed, use strawberries and you'll have a tasty ground cover that doesn't require too much effort, although you'll get more berries if you pinch off most of the "daughter" plants. If I had more space I'd grow more berries and make strawberry preserves to remind me in the dark of winter what I can look forward to in the late spring.