Adventures in Cooking: Ranch Popcorn

My husband and I have two small children, so we don't go out anymore.  On a very rare occasion, we'll get a babysitter or have their grandparents watch them.  Because we on the young children/old people schedule, we like to have an early dinner--6:30 or 7 pm when we go out (the kids eat dinner around 6pm.)  But the kids aren't finished being put to bed until 9 pm or so.  And there is no way we're going to all this trouble to go out and then have to put the children to bed ourselves!  So after dinner, we generally have some time to kill until it's safe to go home.

Lately, our favorite spot to kill time is the bar at the W Hotel.  It's called the Living Room and it has a ton of couches to relax on.  And, you can order their popcorn of the day.  We've had chipotle, parmesan, and salted caramel.  I love it.

One day while surfing the Weight Watchers site, I ran across a recipe for ranch flavored popcorn and got inspired.  Not inspired to do the recipe (which involved several ingredients which I was certain would send me to Central Market, which you know I try to avoid at all costs), but to be creative with some ranch powder.

So here's my recipe for Ranch Popcorn:

One microwave popcorn bag (I recommend a butter flavor because it is stickier)
Olive oil spray
Ranch dip/dressing powder mix (you can buy it in envelopes or in a shaker)

Microwave popcorn (hopefully you have a microwave that has a popcorn setting so you don't have to think too hard about counting the popping, because that's annoying.)  Once done, immediately open bag, pour into a giant bowl and lightly spray with the olive oil spray.  Liberally sprinkle on the ranch powder.  Toss.  Spray with olive oil spray, sprinkle the powder, and toss three more times.

Adventures in Cooking: Cheese Garlic Biscuits (like Red Lobsters)

"There is no one of-woman-born who does not like Red Lobster cheddar biscuits. Anyone who claims otherwise is a liar and a Socialist."   Tina Fey, Bossypants

I was reminded of the awesomeness of the cheddar biscuits by my friend Emily which reminded me that I held the keys of awesomeness in my hand!  Many, many years ago, before I met Husband, I dated this guy for several years, whose mother passed along a secret family recipe titled "Cheese Garlic Biscuit's (like Red Lobster's)".  Okay, it wasn't a secret family recipe, it was a newspaper clipping, which she copied, enlarged, and laminated for me.  I dusted off my cookbook where I wrote down recipes (seriously, I wish I could go back to my 15 year ago self and explain how I would not need to write things down with handwriting ever again) and found the clipping:

Cheese Garlic Biscuits (like Red Lobster's)

I have no idea why there are only 11 on this cookie sheet.
Nope, no idea at all.  

2 c Bisquick
2/3 c milk
1/2 c Cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 c butter
1 tsp. garlic powder

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  Mix baking mix, milk and cheese until a soft dough forms.  Beat vigorously 30 seconds.  Drop dough by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.  Melt butter.  Mix with garlic powder, brushing over warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet.  Serve warm.  Yields 12 biscuits, more or less.

Adventures in Cooking: Peanut Butter Cake balls

YUM

After making cake balls, I decided to try to peanut butter cake balls after having an almost reglious experience while eating Holy Cacao's version.  Theirs are still better, but these don't suck too bad.


Peanut Butter "Cake" Balls

Package of Nutter Butters
8oz bar of cream cheese, softened
Chocolate or candy coating
Lots of free time

Smush the Nutter Butters to smithereens.  I use a mini food processor, but you could put them in a Ziploc and smush them with a hammer or meat tenderizer.  Mix in the cream cheese until smooth-ish.  Pop in the fridge to harden, at least an hour.

Using a cookie scoop or other scooping device, scoop into balls onto a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Put in the freezer to harden, at least 15 min.

While freezing, melt chocolate or candy coating.  Dip balls into chocolate.  Immediately top with sprinkles, or sea salt (which tastes freaking awesome!)  Pop back into freezer to harden candy coating (at least 15 min).  Attempt to share with others and decide you don't actually like any other people enough to share.

Adventures in Cooking: Cake balls

Husband went to a party not too long ago where someone had made cake balls and he wouldn't stop talking about them.  I had eaten some from Holy Cacao that were pretty tasty, so I thought making some would be fun.    We both had a day off (the kids did not get a day off) and so I started whipping up a batch.  I'm making some for the 4th of July now, and thought I would share.

Cake Balls
makes 4 dozen

Bake a cake (I've done this with both a chocolate and a yellow cake -- both were great).  For simplicity sake, I made mine in a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish, because Pyrex is dishwasher safe and I am lazy.

You can get a tub of icing, or whip up someone homemade icing.  I made some from scratch (I'll share the recipe another time), which makes about three cups.  Crumble up the cake and mix in the icing.  Put the resulting goo in the fridge, overnight is preferable.

The next day, get out a cookie scoop or some other scooping device, and scoop out the cake goo into balls.  I rolled the balls in my hands, which was messy, but rounder.  Put on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and pop into the freezer for at least 15 min.

While the balls are freezing, melt some candy or chocolate coating.  You can do this in the microwave or in a double boiler.  I broke down and bought the Wilton Chocolate Pro melting pot, which has a melt and keep warm setting.  It was a ton easier than my first attempt which involved using the microwave.

Put the balls in the chocolate or candy coating, cover them, then place them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  If you want to cover your balls with sprinkles, you should do that right after you get them out of the chocolate and not wait until you have done a few and then try as the cake is frozen and the chocolate will solidify faster.  If you use the Wilton candy coatings, it took about 3 bags to cover all of the cake balls.  (Note that I did three different colors -- red, white and blue for the 4th, of course -- so it might take you less if you use one color.)

Once you have a tray full, put them in the freezer for 15 min to cool and for the chocolate to harden.  Peel off the wax paper and store in the fridge if you don't consume them all immediately.

Adventures in Cooking: Granny's rolls

My Granny passed away this week, and so I thought this was a great time to share with you her recipe for rolls.  One of my favorite memories of Christmas is eating leftover turkey sandwiches on these rolls (my mom's family makes gumbo for Thanksgiving and turkey for Christmas.)

Granny cooked without recipes and so the first time I asked for this recipe, she told me what to do, then went home and realized she forgot a few ingredients and told me to throw the recipe away.  She made it later and actually measured the ingredients so I could have the recipe.  I included her original below, along with some tips.  I had never created any kind of bread before so I referred to Martha's Baking Handbook frequently for some tips.


Granny Rena Chauvin’s Rolls

1 stick margarine [I use butter]
1 cup milk
1 ¼ cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt

2 envelopes Rapid Rise Yeast [sometimes known as instant or fast rising]
2 eggs
6 to 7 cups flour

Warm mixture:
Melt 1 stick of margarine [butter] in large pot on low heat. Add 1 cup milk, 1 ¼ cup water, 1/3
cup sugar, 2 tsp salt. Stir and heat to 125 degrees.

In a large bowl [I put it in the Kitchen Aid mixer bowl] put 3 cups flour & rapid rise yeast. Mix well then add the warm mixture.

Mixing with the mixer add 2 eggs and keep mixing [I use the paddle attachment until it gets to hard to use.]. Gradually add 3 to 4 cups flour [here I switch to the dough hook attachment] until stiff dough is formed. [Yes, I know.  Is it 3 or 4 cups?  I think I've used 3.5 cups to be on the safe side.  Also the dough should be sticky, and not dry.]

Place the dough in a large greased bowl to rise until double in size.

[You want to pick a VERY large bowl -- I would assume that the dough is going to triple in size.  I also cover the bowl with saran wrap, which I also grease.  How will you know when it's done?  Martha recommends that you wait 90 minutes.]

Punch down dough and form into rolls and place in baking dish [I put them on a cookie sheet that I will use to bake them with to rise so there's no having to move them from one thing to another.]   Let them rise again [I just wait 90 minutes again] then bake in 375 degree oven until brown. About 20 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen rolls.

[For holidays, I make them in advance.  I cook them for 15 minutes and store in the freezer.  When Thanksgiving or whatever rolls around -- ha -- I heat them up for 10 to 15 min in a 375 oven.]

Adventures in Cooking: Lemon Meringue Pie

Tomorrow is pi day!  (3.14.  Get it?  Yes, I'm a geek.)  And so I'm making a pie!

My favorite pie is lemon meringue.  My granny made it for me every day on my birthday.  Three years ago, since I wasn't seeing my grandmother I tried to make it myself.  I had asked Granny what she used for the filling, and I swear that her answer was Comstock Lemon Pie Filling.

I searched all over Austin for Comstock Lemon Pie Filling.  We even went to Central Market, which you know I think is the scariest store of all.  I figured it must be a small town thing, like blinking red lights and Dairy Queen.  So, when visiting my Granny the next time in the small town I grew up in, I went to the local supermarket and did not find Comstock Lemon Pie Filling.

Perplexed, I called my Granny from the store.  She told me she uses Jello Lemon Pie filling.  And not the instant kind.  

With 6 lemon pie filling boxes in hand, I went home to make the pie, and ran into another host of problems.   I have my Granny's pie crust recipe but how to incorporate it into the pie was confusing.  Most recipes I found online (and on the Jello box) involved a pre-made crust or a pate brisee, which since it uses butter would be different.

After some experimenting, here's what I did.

Granny's Pie Crust recipe (single crust)
1 1/3 c Flour

It's crumbly.  Trust me it will be fine. 

pinch of Salt
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 Tbsp milk

1.  Mix together all ingredients (I usually use a fork).  Form into a ball
2.  Roll out between two sheets of wax paper
(I can't roll out dough to save my life.  I've tried different rolling pins.  I can't ever get it thin enough.  I get my husband and his man arms to roll out dough.)
3.  Flop it into a pie pan.
(Many people put a decorate edge on the the pie.  I don't know how to do that.  I just buy a fluted pie pan instead.)
4.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 350

For the pie filling, I followed the package instructions and filled the pie.  I overfilled it this time.  You should leave some room for the meringue.

For the meringue, I beat three egg whites in my KitchenAid  Mixer on high.  Once they were foamy, I gradually added in 1/3 c sugar until stiff peaks formed.  (Stiff peaks is when you lift the mixer attachment and the meringue stay pointy and doesn't flop back into the bowl.)

I covered the pie with the meringue, all the way to the edge and put it in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.

Ta da!  Pie!

Adventures in Cooking: Martha Stewart Cookie app for the iPad's Chocolate-Lavender Macarons

Chocolate bar (with lavender)

I've shared with you my love for Martha Stewart and my disdain for the iPad (side note:  I'm not the only one.  I'm so relieved.)  So, imagine my excitement when she came out with an application for the iPad.  Perhaps this would change my opinion of the iPad!  So, I purchased it and I believe it was more like $7 at the time (it's $5 now).  And it is beautiful.  It opens (after an annoying intro from Martha) to a cookie gallery with a scrolling picture display of all the cookies you can choose from.  I bookmarked several favorites, and was most excited about the Macarons.  Husband and I ate at Laudree when we were in Paris years ago and I still remember that I ordered tomato macarons as an appetizer and rose macarons for dessert.  The app has four recipes for macarons, displayed together in a nice array of cookie colors, and I was very excited to try the Chocolate-Lavender macarons since I have enjoyed a milk chocolate and lavender chocolate bar.  This week I finally had the time to kick the app's tires and do a recipe.

First up, as with many Martha recipes, was the ingredient scramble.  Williams-Sonoma had recently starting selling lavender, so that was easy and husband bought it for me for Christmas (thank you Amazon wishlist technology.)  Then off to Central Market, one of the scariest stores in the world to me due to the number of people, crowded aisles to navigate with a shopping cart with kids, and the maze to get to the checkout (when a store has shortcuts, it's not a good sign.)   Despite my concern about the store, it does have hard to find ingredients and I bear it when necessary (I was also off from work this week so got to go on Monday during the day which made it easier.)  I went to the bulk section to get almond flour, which required me asking for help since CM has it labeled as "almond meal."  (The recipe does instruct you how to make your own if you feel like adding more steps, which is thoughtful.)  Also on the hard to find list was superfine sugar.  Which CM didn't have.  Thanks to The Google, while in the sugar aisle I found an article which said that unless you needed it to dissolve quickly, regular sugar is probably fine.

Yum

Making the cookie dough was relatively simple.   It asked that you use a food processor to mix in the lavender with other dry ingredients, and sift twice.  Normally I mock sifting in recipes and don't bother, but I took it seriously this time and then felt sad when I saw a ton of lavender not make it through the sifting process.  However, my cookies were very lavendery, so this wasn't an issue.  And my kitchen smelled great!

You next make a meringue and mix in the dry with the meringue.  The instructions were easy to follow for making the meringue and mixing it together.

And then things got a little confusing.  The instructions said to "pipe rounds about 1 inch in diameter" using a pastry bag and 1/4 inch tip.  I have spent a lot of time cake decorating, but first interpreted the instructions to mean make a spiral.  Which, considering these are chocolate cookies, looked like poo.  I eventually realized what was wrong (and here's what you should do.)  After being walked step by step  through how to make a meringue and then being told things like rotating baking sheets halfway through the cooking time (this ain't my first rodeo, Martha!) I thought this was a pretty big oversight in instruction.

So pretty!

But the cookies came out great and taste great, though do taste a lot like lavender.  I used a lot of filling to combat that and would probably use 3/4 the amount specified.  I also made them bigger than one inch, which is pretty small, and didn't end up with 3 dozen.


My thoughts about the app:

• The app did update itself at the beginning of February to include some Valentine's cookies (including some heart sandwich cookies that I'm planning on trying next).  I wasn't expecting that, and it was a nice touch.
• You can't share any of the recipes (other a special Valentine conversation heart cookie) so I can't share the recipe with you here.  
• You are unable to set more than one timer at a time.  At one point I had three timers going, so the fact the app couldn't handle this was annoying.   

The app didn't do anything that wouldn't have been accomplished by a website or magazine.  So, iPad, still no love for you.  

Adventures in Cooking: Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, Grilled Brie and Apple sandwiches, and Skillet Lasagna

In addition to making pastries, like a normal person, I must eat three meals a day.  I also have two children, which multiply by a factor of 7 when left with just one adult, a job, and we haven't yet discussed the fact that I'm doing Weight Watchers to lose my baby weight.  So I'm always on the lookout for dinners to make that are easy, yummy enough to make me forget that I'm on a diet, and quick.  Husband and I probably try 1-2 new recipes a week.  If they are yummy enough to make me want leftovers, it's a winner.  So, I thought I'd share with you some of the recent dinners we've made.

Weight Watchers has a new iPad app that is a bunch of recipes, and is amazingly, free.  So, we tried two new recipes with it.  On Sunday (this is not a weeknight recipe--too time consuming), I tried Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, which I've tried in a few variations over the years . I love love love roasted garlic.  Love it.  I'm indifferent about chicken.  I don't like dark meat.  Roasting a whole chicken seems complicated to me:  it's huge, you have to carve it which seems like there are rules involved I don't understand, and I have this aversion to touching raw meat (I delegate these tasks to Husband.)  So, this recipe, which is only chicken breasts, was right up my alley.  I only used 3 lbs of chicken breasts, which is still a lot, so you should invite people over for dinner or think about ways you can use cooked chicken all week if you make this.  I also used probably closer to 60 cloves of garlic to make it more awesome. The recipe randomly refers to taking the temperature in the thigh of the chicken, which since you only used chicken breasts, makes no sense.  I overcooked the chicken slightly as a result of trying to take it's temperature and then Googling for the right chicken breast temperature for doneness, when really I should have just cut into the chicken to see if it's done.

Husband thought it was okay.  I thought it was awesome.  I also made this while Husband dropped off our daughter at church school (we're Catholic, church school is at 5pm on Sunday -- yes, I realize that makes no sense), while watching our son alone (the equivalent of 7 children), and I touched raw chicken so my sense of accomplishment was very high.

Two weeks ago, we made Grilled Brie and Apple Sandwiches.  Awesome.  It's a sandwich, so it's fast, with caramelized onions, brie, and apples. I used lower calorie bread, which knocked down the points to 5 points.  It was like a little bit of heaven on bread.  (If you have a mandoline this is a good recipe to use it for.)

And finally, we have made Skillet Lasagna from the The Pampered Chef 29 Minutes to Dinner cookbook a weekday staple.  I love to make it on Monday so we have leftovers (this serves 6-8) throughout the week for lunches or for kid dinners (for times we have something spicy for dinner that little palates don't care for).  I should warn you that this makes a LOT, so if you don't have a large 12 inch skillet, use a pot.  It's a quick moving recipe (they are not kidding about 29 minutes), so be sure to read the whole recipe in advance, as while things are bubbling, it has you preparing other things. The end of the recipe calls for you to use the Pampered Chef Medium Scoop, which is PC code for Cookie Scoop (if you don't have one, which frankly it's not that necessary of a tool in life, you can just spoon in the cheese).  Also, the recipe calls for grating your own cheese.  Buy pre-grated, like a sane person instead.

Adventures in Cooking: Martha Stewart Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Martha's cookies, decorated
and shot by professionals

A few years ago, I saw these cookies in Martha Stewart Living.  Yum!  I thought.  I made them, and they were good.  Very good.  And, very much a pain in the ass.

Unlike the crepe cake, which was not worth the trouble, these cookies are.  Last year I placed in two cookie parties that I attended with these cookies.

As a project manager, I should warn you that this isn't a make the dough, bake it, be on your way recipe.  It's a two or three day affair.  And it's not a child sharing friendly recipe, which is frustrating since I have a four year old sous chef.

So, if you want to be not cool like me and make these cookies, here's my advice.

Day 1:
Following the recipe, make the dough (step 1.)  It's going to be really really sticky and more like sludge, less like a dough.  Martha says make two discs.  I say, make four!  Why?  Because . .

Day 2:  (could also be on day 1 if you have the patience to let your dough get chilled and don't run off and do something else instead):

Roll out the dough (step 2.)  Martha says to roll out the dough on parchment paper, and I agree, and you'll want to make sure that the parchment isn't bigger than your cookie sheet, which is why you need smaller discs.  I also make Husband roll out all dough because he has man arms and can roll it out super thin.  But, instead of cutting out circles, and then transferring them to a cookie sheet (which doesn't work after the super thin sludge dough sticks to the parchment and it breaks or gives you a non-circle shape) I remove the dough pieces between the circles, leaving perfect circles, and toss the parchment on the cookie sheet.  Problem solved!

It also turns out that I don't have a 2 in circle cutter, though I have 175 cookie cutters*.  I make do with a 1.75 inch and everything is fine.

This also seems like the place that your 4 year old could help, but it turns out that making endless circles in a way that doesn't waste a lot of dough is not as cool as picking any shape you want and putting the cookie cutter anywhere you want and they will lose interest.  I guess in theory you could make any shape you want, but that will make Step 3 even more challenging.

Bake the cookies (step 3).  Get bored because this recipe makes like 90 cookies and you are baking 6 sheets of cookies and decide to do the rest tomorrow, which is fine since the cookies keep nicely in an airtight container.

Day 3:

My cookies, decorated by my 4 year old and
shot with an iPhone 3GS

Melt the chocolate using the Pampered Chef Double Boiler you bought a year ago and never used.  Delegate decoration duties to your four year old helper and marvel at the fact that they actually sell pre-crushed peppermint, which Husband purchased.  Dip 80 cookies in white chocolate.  Watch as the helper first mocks the fact that you can't dip as fast as she can decorate, then loses interest around cookie 65 and starts eating the unmelted white chocolate instead.  Burn self on double boiler while talking on the phone, completely forgetting Martha's advice to always have a bowl of ice water nearby.  Be confused as the white chocolate burns in the double boiler, as isn't that the entire point of the double boiler--so it doesn't burn?  Give up on the remaining 10 cookies and allow anyone in the kitchen to eat them uncovered.

The cookies must be stored in the fridge.  I managed to put 4 cookie sheets of 80 cookies in the fridge by stacking two cross wise.  The cookies aren't tall enough for it to be a problem.  

Martha says you must eat all 80 cookies the next day.  Alone.  (Okay, she doesn't say that part.  But if you want to pretend that she did--because these cookies are really THAT AWESOME--I'll back you up.  I ate them for breakfast last year.  Man, they are good!)   They actually keep very well in the fridge, so if you have cookie parties on Tuesday and Thursday (like me!), you can finish them on Monday and still have them good for Thursday.  Also, since this recipe makes 80 cookies, hey, you are done with all of your baking for both parties!

(If you are doing Weight Watchers PointsPlus, I calculated the cookies to be 3 points each.  And worth every freaking point.)

*Sadly, not an exaggeration.

Adventures in Cooking: the Martha Stewart Crepe Cake

Four years ago, I saw this crepe cake in an issue of Martha Stewart Living (the cake issue.)
I thought, this is cool.  I like crepes.  I like chocolate.  I like hazelnuts.  Look how cool the top looks!  However, this recipe calls for 32 crepes.  And that is a lot of freaking crepes.

Yesterday, was Husband's birthday.  And I thought, this is a great time to make this awesome cake!

You can view the recipe on Martha's website.  But really, it's four recipes.  You can also view a video on the site.  I'll save you the time.  It's Martha and Fran Drescher (the Nanny).  Martha says it's a new cake and that they stole the idea from some bakery.  Fran talks about how she has always wanted to do this cake.  Martha repeats that it's new.  They make the crepe batter and make a crepe.  Martha's crepe doesn't take, which is common for the first crepe.  They say Fran's does, though it actually tears.  They talk about David Letterman and how he never hangs out with them, and you'll think it's because it's too busy playing around on his wife.  Then they candy the hazelnuts.  They skip making the filling, assembling the cake, and putting the ganache on.

So, if you were to make this cake, based on my experience, this is what I would do.

Ingredient note:  I could NOT find hazelnut creme, despite Martha's insistence that you could get it at Whole Foods.  I used Hazelnut creamer.  It made the filling a little runny.

Day 1

1. Using the main recipe, make the crepe batter (steps 1 & 2).  You have to let it rest overnight, so if you thought you were just going to do this all in one day, you might as well give up now.
2. Toast and peel the hazelnuts.  You'll need this for the candied hazelnuts recipe.  Martha doesn't tell you how to do this, nor could I find how to do this on her website.  Apparently, this is knowledge you should just be born with.  Thanks to the Google, I can tell you:
1. Put the hazelnuts on a cookie sheet, and put them in the oven at 350 for 10 to 15 min, stirring occasionally
2. Put the nuts in a clean kitchen towel, wrapping tightly for a minute
3. Then rub the nuts together in the towel.  This will remove the skins
4. You should probably immediately remove the towel from the kitchen so you don't try to use the towel five minutes later and spread hazelnut skins all over the kitchen like I did

Day 2

1 down.  31 to go

1. Make the whipped cream for the filling recipe (step 1).  It has to be refrigerated for an hour.  
2. Using the main recipe make the crepes (steps 3 - 4)! 
1. Martha would like you to use butter on the pan.  I've made crepes several times and this has never worked for me.  I suggest using Pam butter flavor cooking spray.
2. I kept the heat med-low.  Med was too high to even heat the pan with.
3. I used a little less than 1/4 cup as a measure for the crepes.
4. I am an excellent crepe flipper, and these crepes didn't flip.  I almost dislocated an arm trying to get it out of the pan.  I used a spoon to fold over the edge, then turned it over with my fingers.  Same to get it out of the pan.
5. In the video, Martha recommends keeping a bowl of ice water nearby for kitchen accidents.  This was a good tip after I kept burning my fingers flipping the crepes and getting them out of the pan.
6. You'll need 32 crepes according to Martha.  I ended up making about 30.  
7. Martha says it takes 30 seconds per side.  It felt like a lot longer for me.  It probably took 2.5 hours to make the crepes.
8. The first crepe is always bad.  But that's okay, because you can just eat it and 
9. The crepes by themselves were AMAZING.  You may completely give up making the cake and just start eating them alone.  You'll be tired.  And you'll only be on like crepe 5 or something.  
10. You can make this a three day project by just doing this on day 2.  You may need a rest at this point anyway.  
3. Finish making the filling.  You need to use it immediately, so if you were planning on taking a nap or something, you'll have to wait.
4. Stack the crepes (main recipe, step 4).  You really do want to stack it on a wire rack, and don't worry, I was able to get it back off.  
5. While the crepes are in the fridge firming up, make the chocolate glaze. 
6.  Put the glaze on the crepes (main recipe, step 5)
1. Martha says, "Spread remaining glaze around sides of cake, coating completely."   Yeah. I just poured the glaze on the top and just moved it down the sides. 

   

   Glazed cake

   
    Afterwards, you may want to eat the remaining glaze that pools under the cake.
7. While that's setting in the fridge, candy the hazelnuts for the top of the cake.  
1. My husband helped with this, which was good since you have to work fast before the caramel gets hard.
2. We actually did this the day before we served the cake, which I wouldn't recommend, as some of the sugar trails broke off.
3. You shouldn't put these in the fridge, as they will melt.  
8. When ready to serve, take it out of the fridge, pry it off of the wire rack, top with the hazelnuts and enjoy!

My final cake:

And what it looks like cut:

It tasted fine.  Our company raved about it, but this isn't a style of dessert I actually like.  I'm not a fan of creamy desserts.  I do like hazelnuts, but there wasn't much hazelnut flavor.  The cake was good, but I'm really exhausted now.  

Adventures in Cooking: Banana Chocolate Oatmeal Bread

Husband has a fascination with banana bread, and insists on making it whenever we have brown bananas -- almost to the point that I believe he buys extra bananas to ensure that we'll have brown ones for banana bread.

I found this recipe on Weightwatchers.com and because oatmeal is a lactogenic food, husband agreed to try it.  The recipe was okay, and then I suggested adding mini chocolate chips and now it's freaking awesome.  However, it's no longer particularly healthy for you.  You can halve the recipe to make one loaf.



2 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 cup unpacked brown sugar
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 tsp canola oil
2 large egg(s), beaten
4 medium egg white(s), beaten
6 large banana(s), ripe
2 cup(s) uncooked old fashioned oats
1 bag mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add oil and eggs; mix thoroughly.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork. Add bananas and oatmeal to batter.

Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray. Pour batter into pans and bake until top of loaf is firm to touch, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip out and cool on a wire rack for another 10 minutes.

Adventures in Cooking: Buttermilk Pound Cake

A few weeks ago, Husband and I went out to dinner and ordered dessert.  To my surprise, he ordered pound cake, which I had no idea he liked or was interested in.  My Granny makes a buttermilk pound cake that is fan freaking tastic.  Inspired, I decided to make the cake for the first time and we bought the ingredients (the ones we didn't normally have on hand being lemon extract and buttermilk) and a pan.

When I poured the buttermilk, it seemed off.  Namely, it was lumpy, smelled bad, and tasted bad.  Husband likes to premeasure everything when he cooks and set it all out nice and neat and then walk around calling it his mis en place after reading Kitchen Confidential.  I tend to measure as I go using as few measuring cups/spoons as possible since I grew up without a dishwasher.  So, I was already well into it when I discovered the buttermilk situation.  Having both chocolate milk and regular milk available, Husband suggested using chocolate milk as a substitute.  Other than the fact that the cake was brown instead of yellow, it turned out pretty awesome.

(Apparently, if you don't have buttermilk, you should use regular milk and lemon juice, which I didn't know and didn't think to Google.)

Some people like to cover pound cake with a sugar glaze, but I'm not one of those people.  I like the edges the best in pound cake, and a glaze ruins that for me.

Aunt Evanna’s Buttermilk Cake

1 cup Crisco

3 cups sugar

6 egg yolks

1 cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon soda (dissolved in buttermilk)

3 cups flour

6 egg whites

4 teaspoons lemon extract

Add ½ cup of sugar from the 3 cups to egg whites and beat until it stands in peaks. Add a pinch of salt.

Cream Crisco & the remaining sugar well. Add egg yolks one at a time and beat well.

Add buttermilk & flour alternately. Fold in beaten egg whites. Add lemon extract.

Bake in tube pan at 325 for 1 ½ hours or until done.