Embracing Breakfast

I am trying to open up my reportoire of cooking to include breakfast foods, as foreign as they are to me, it only makes sense as an early riser that I would actually embrace breakfast foods in all their glory. But I digress, as a child (ask my parents) I pratically refused to eat breakfast foods, (except for toast,  hashbrowns and the occasional biscuit and gravy); however if we were dining out I almost assuredly would order a cheeseburger or maybe even spahgetti, gasp! My dad used to comment "That's Un-American." He would grumble and I would happily eat dinner for breakfast.
Well my tastebuds have actually matured and I won't go as far as to say breakfast is my favourite meal, but I have embraced pretty much all things breakfast, even eggs if they're smothered with cheese, bacon, etc. I like belgian waffles particularly with berries and nuts, omelettes, and pretty much everything breakfasty. So with that said french toast has never been one of the things I even enjoy as a breakfast convert, so I set out to find a recipe that would enable me to enjoy it.
Pain Perdu:  french for lost bread, meaning it would have been thrown out if not for the ultimate save of the french toasting. I got the recipe from one of my favourite sites Allrecipes, and made a few tweaks to make it my own:

Pain Perdu

Ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or orange juice
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 12 thick slices day old french bread, brioche, or challah

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, milk, brandy and orange zest. Beat until thick and foamy. Pour mixture into a shallow pan. Soak bread slices in the mixture for 2-3 minutes on each side until they are thoroughly soaked through.
2. Heat a griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Lightly spray griddle with cooking spray. Cook the bread slices 1 to 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve hot.

I put butter and sifted powdered sugar over the top, syrup might take away from the orangy goodness. The happy french toasting conversion has commenced.

Que' Magnifique!

In Honor of all things Irish. . .

So aside from making corned beef and cabbage to honor and celebrate good ol St. Patrick, I'm going to make an honest attempt to read Joyce again, that is James Joyce. A few years a go I bought Ullyses, along with the Bloom's day guide(which everyone says you need to understand the esoteric language and inside allusions)  but alas. . . .it wasn't meant to be.  I just couldn't get past the first two pages without reading it over and over again, with no comprehension whatsoever. Last summer I decided to finally read Angela's Ashes and thoroughly enjoyed the way McCourt opened up about a childhood of  hardships and utter destitude in Ireland in the early twentieth century. With that mindset, I tried  again to read Ulysses, only to fail yet again.
So,  apparently I'm  a Joyce wimp;  I am going to start with Joyce's  Dubliners, a book of interconnected short stories and then hopefully move onto Portrait of an Artist and then maybe this summer take another stab at the ever elusive Ullyses. I can do this! Do I  sound convincing?

out with the old. . . .

So I changed my blog title; it was all new to me at first and I was just learning how it all works. My old title was too limiting and not at all, all encompassing of my many loves, I mean  baking is just one of many things I love, so in case anyone cares, here's my little spiel, not at all intended to persuade anyone well except maybe, myself.

These five firsts, all seemingly so unrelated yet are all things I so dearly love and rather not breathe as to live without them. They are all the one thing each that started my love of all things related, well except the man, (there's only one,) but it's interesting how very much they are intrinsically so carefully woven together by those I love.

My husband, well self-explanatory, he enables and supports me. . . . why I don't know.

The kitchen aid was one little or big appliance that inspired me to bake(a gift from my mum) and well the rest is history and I have no formal training, but it's a hobby that yields just rewards.

And the one dog, a tiny Pomeranian, who taught me the significance of all living creatures, great and small. She loves me unconditionally and in turn I've devoted myself to help and rescue those in need. She, along with the five more we've since taken in has opened my eyes to a whole new world of animal rights and advocacy for those who have no voice to speak for themselves.

I cannot express how much I love running which extends to pretty much any solitary exercise activity. When I was younger I enjoyed the physical changes in my body that was the result of hard training, but as I age I'm enjoying the beauty of my strength, whether it be through pole dancing or cardio endurance.

The literature class, just the one was not only the beginning of my career as an English teacher and the beginning and end of two English degrees but my love of language and how it enables us so many endless possibilities to communicate on various levels.

These are just a few, (well five) of my most favorite things, makes me feel like breaking out in song.

Hamlet in Rewrite

Since I have little time to bake as grades are due on Thursday and I'm bleary eyed from essays I thought I'd string together a chronology of today's essays greatest hits to create a revisionist writing of Hamlet from various students' perspectives (like a students' Picasso of Hamet, if you will), not mocking, okay just a little, but I have to I was forced to read so much drivel that only more wine or purging out of my own soul, to expel it all, so that I may start anew tomorrow will cure me.

I'll try to keep it semi-chronological, so you may follow:
So this may be less revisionist, because even Hamlet continually shortens the span between his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle Claudius, but what we don't know is that Cladius actually married Gertude the same day as Hamlet Sr.'s death. And he actually had a sibling, (name unclear) but this sibling was not on the same course as Hamlet and apparently less indecisive. The aforemntioned issues with dad's death and mom's quick remarriage led to Hamlet's diagnosis of manic bipolar disorder.
Later we find out that he wasn't mentally sick; Hamlet was just using his fake madness as an escape goat from reality. Hamlet packed all his troubles into a knapsack, jumped on his goat and traversed to a place far, far away.
        Of course, he realized he had to face his problems eventually and returned to find his friend Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus in the closet. Because he's such a great orator and friend to Horatio,  he was able to coax them out and there they remained.
     Much later. . . .we  arrive to a scene on a stage strewn with dead bodies and we find out it is there that Hamlet has murdered Claudius and he's ready to take his own life;  he gives his famous "To be or not to be" speech, contemplating suicide as the poison simultaneously pulses through his veins.  Horatio, since he's now "out" wants to follow Hamlet to his death, but Hamlet doesn't allow it; he must live to retell Hamlet's story, again and again.
      And who, but the dead Laertes returns from the grave to take over as the new King of Denmark, promising to give Hamlet an honorable burial.

And that concludes today's greatest hits and I am purg'ed.

great dates

I bought some dates this weekend at the Farmer's market and have never really baked w/dates but wanted to incorporate them into a breakfast food. As of late, I've been in a baking rut, using the same tired recipes, so I wanted something unique and chocolate-less. The recipe I used was found (Walnut Date muffins)  on Regina Rae's blog to which I made no changes except I made a struesel topping, since I figured w/little sugar the recipe may lack for sweetness.
For me dates have a special meaning  because as a child and young adult at about this time every year my family would make the annual and quite lengthy trek to the Indio Date Festival. A place that was once responsible for much of the nations date crops also became home to a festival honoring and even blessing the date as part of opening ceremonies. Because of the arid climate and a little engenuity on the part of farmers, dates flourished. And even though Indio was once responsible for a larger part of the nations date crop, they've since otherwise been overcome by  large companies like Sunsweet.
The festival features various foods made with dates including and not limited to date cookies and date shakes. The festival boasts and Arabian theme and still features Arabian themed plays like tales of 1001 Arabian nights. As children our favorites were the play and the camel and ostrich races.
The dates and this little recipe took me back to those cherished days gone by spent w/family and food.

Walnut Date Muffins
Ingredients:3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (preferably dark)
heaping 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
scant 1/2 teaspoon all spice
scant 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
scant 1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk (or other alternative or milk)
1/3 cup molasses*
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 free-range eggs
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chopped, pitted dates
few pinches of extra all purpose flour

Streusel Topping:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tbsp. soft butter
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. chopped nuts
*Cool trick for the molasses: to avoid having the molasses stick to the measuring cup, simply grease the inside of the cup with a thin layer of vegetable oil.  Then, measure desired amount of molasses into the cup.  When you pour the molasses into other liquids it will slide right out and leave little-to-no residue in the bottom of the cup.

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease preferred muffin tin.  Because I was making these muffins for dinner (as a side dish, rather than a breakfast-style main dish) I made 16 small muffins.  Alternatively, grease two 6-muffin containers, or one mongo-muffin container and vary the cooking time.
2.  Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a fork to combine.
3.  In a separate bowl, lightly beat egg.  Add soy milk and vegetable oil.  Grease the 1/3 cup with vegetable oil (see above note) and measure molasses.  Whisk with a fork and incorporate into dry ingredients.  Fold in walnuts.  Before folding in chopped dates, because they’re gooey when cut and prone to sticking together, I tumbled the chopped dates in a sprinkling of white flour and then folded them into the batter.  That way the were able to move uniformly throughout the dough and not clump together. Roll dates in flour and fold into batter.
4.  Spoon batter into muffin trays 3/4 full.  If you desire more of a muffin-top (as I did), fill 4/5ths of the way but be sure to grease the top of the pan, too, because the muffins will rise over the top.
5. Mix together struesel ingredients and sprinkle evenly over the top of each muffin.
6.  Depending on the muffin size, the baking time will vary.  For small muffins, mine were set in the middle and clean (from the “knife test”) within 18-20 minutes.  For large muffins, I imagine they’ll need to bake close to 30 minutes.
7.  Once removed from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack so they set.  To remove muffins, carefully take a dull knife and run around the edge of each container (and very carefully under the muffin top, if you filled them a bit higher) and gently pry out.

My husband thought the muffins were not sweet enough, but I found them to be just right w/ that mild sweetness of the dates and the sugary crunch on top.  I think they would probably be amazing w/a little  tangy orange marmalade. Until next time, Au Revoir!

Enveloped in cheesy comfort

So I haven’t baked for a couple weeks, because I’m trying to shed some of my winter weight. Come to think of it I’ve not been cooking much either, so I decided to treat Mikey to a comfort meal.  And although the sun was out here in Socal. today, it’s still been winter in the evenings, hence perfect weather for comforting.

I got the recipe for the Mac n’ cheese  from Allrecipes  and tweaked it to my liking. I really don't like my mac n' cheese creamy (tramatized from Kraft mac n' cheese from childhood-sorry mom.)  I guess I'm a mac n' cheese snob of sorts. So if you like the artificial boxed stuff, this is not the recipe for you.


Classic Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

•  12 ounces of macaroni
• 1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, sliced*
• 1 tablespoon butter melted
• one clove of garlic pressed
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish. Place a quarter of the macaroni in the bottom, followed by an even layer of one-quarter of the cheese slices. Dot with garlic and  butter mix and season with salt and pepper. Repeat layering three times. Pour evaporated milk evenly over the top of all.
3. Cover with baking sprayed aluminum foil  and bake for 45 minutes* and then uncover for additional 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.

* I like to use various types of cheese.  I have tried grating it also, but I prefer the sliced method as it seems to bond better.Today I used half jalapeno jack and half extra sharp cheddar.
Also, I stir the macaroni at 30 min. and 45 min. to blend everything well as the milk has the tendency to sink and sit at the bottom.

To contrast the heaviness of this oh so heavenly comfort food I made a nice Italian salad. I got that recipe from Once Upon a Chef blog.

Big Italian Dinner Salad

Serves 4 as a starter

IngredientsFor the Dressing1 cup loosely packed fresh flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped (about one small bunch)*
10 big leaves fresh basil
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, peeled
¼ cup red wine vinegar, good quality such as Pompeian Gourmet
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil, good quality such as Lucini or Colavita
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 ½ teaspoons honey

For the Salad
1 large (or 2 small) head(s) romaine lettuce, washed, patted dry and cut into large, bite-size pieces
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup chopped hothouse cucumbers
1 large carrot, peeled into ribbons
Handful grape tomatoes, halved or whole
Handful pitted olives
Ricotta Salata* (or Feta for a Greek twist), crumbled to taste

Directions

1. Make the dressing: Combine all dressing ingredients in a food processor and blitz to blend.

2. Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Right before serving, add about half of the dressing and toss well. Add more dressing little by little as necessary; be sure to dress greens very generously, otherwise salad will be bland. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Reserve leftover dressing for another use.

*Ricotta salata is an Italian sheep's milk cheese that has a salty, slightly tangy flavor, almost like a dry Italian feta. It is not the same as the wet ricotta in the tub. You can find it at Whole Foods, gourmet grocers or specialty cheese shops.

*I couldn't find fresh parsley at my local grocer and I was too lazy to go to Trader Joe's , so I had to use dried and it worked out fine. Also, I used feta instead of ricotta slata and it was fine.

The homemade dressing was divine and pretty darn easy to make w/the food processor. I just may make this my go to salad for italian meals.

Until later, Ciao'!

Non-traditional V-day

So lets face it ladies V-day is a girl's holiday and there really is not much in it for the guys and I already spotted the bag of Godiva in our fridge, yes. . . .that makes me giddy, bc I'm such a girl. I like chocolate, flowers, and champagne.
When I asked hubby what he wanted I got the same answer I always get. . . . . .oh, nothing.  So I'm not cooking, bc well it's Vday, but I am of course baking and torturing myself with what I least like to bake, but the DH loves the most and that's carrot cake. I know it's not very valentiney like chocolate covered strawberries or chocolate cupcakes, but it's his favourite and we all should get our favourite things on this day of love, February 14, 2011.

Here's the recipe I got from Allrecipes w/the alterations I made:

4 cups grated carrots

2 cups + 4 T cake flour

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1 cups vegetable oil

1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice

3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Icing:

1 (250 g) package Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

Last time I made this it made a 1/4 sheet plus a small round cake, so I put the excess in a heart pan. I'm also going to double the icing, so I can split the 1/4 sheet and fill it. The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 c oil, which is way too much, so I cut it down and you can even sub. applesauce, which I did for 1/2 the oil last time and it worked out fine.