Category Archives: Foods

Different Food Types

How Would You Like to be Queen for a…

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Double birthday celebration tonight!! Esther and Ilayne are just a day apart and as tonight was Book Club night it was a perfect time to celebrate both. In keeping with the theme of the event (no woman considers herself less than a princess) I thought a tiara on a pillow cake would be perfect.


First the tiara as it takes a couple of days to make. I found an online tutorial which showed how to make the tiara. I found a pattern that I liked, copied it and enhanced and printed it.I wrapped it around a plastic Tupperware type bowl and covered it with waxed paper, piped Royal Icing (appropriate, I think) using a #1 tip to follow the lines. Letting it dry for at least 2 hours I added a second layer being sure all the contact points were well connected. If you don’t do that the tiara will be to fragile to move. When the second coat is complete, leave it on the bowl for at least a day to dry completely. Carefully remove it and airbrush it with a silver edible paint. When that is dry I added the rubies by painting the areas with red gel food coloring. When everything was dry I dusted it with some silver to make it sparkle.Make two 9″x2″ cakes and bind them together with some chocolate ganache.Freeze the cake overnight. To sculpt the cake place tooth picks in the center of each side, about one inch from the edge and cut a smooth curve from each corner, through the toothpick to the next corner. When completed, shave some of the cake away from the edges to make the rounded pillow look. Use some buttercream frosting to crumb coat the cake then put it back in the fridge to set. After a few hours I like to smooth it off with my gloved hands so the cake will have a very satiny finish.

Knead coloring into a large piece of fondant (about the size of your fist.) Roll the fondant until it is very thin and drape around the cake. Overlap the bottom to be sure it holds together and trim the rest. I used the remainder to cover the small 6″ crumb coated cake I used as the base. I airbrushed some pearl dusting to give the fondant a satin finish.

Let this sit for a while to dry, then using some more butter cream frosting (dyed pink this time) I piped the seams and tassels of the pillow. Finally with white butter cream I piped the names of my two royal princesses, Esther and Ilayne.

From what I heard it was well received. They seemed to love that they could eat the tiara… go figure!

Tropical Get-a-way Dinner

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Neil is here for a visit!! We live in a resort area and sometimes we drive down A1A through Ft. Lauderdale beach, just to remind ourselves of this fact. The Bahamas are just about the same distance from us as Orlando. Did I mention that Neil is here? We invited the Fink and her Folks over for dinner to welcome Neil home (he is here for a visit) and I decided to make it a Tropical Bogandanza!! One of the fruits found throughout the tropics are mangoes so it seemed like a good idea to make a mango themed dinner.

We started with baked brie and mango chutney wraps appetizers, followed by a 100% home grown garden salad and the main course of: mango steak; my famous rosemary roasted potatoes; tomato-pepper-green bean (home grown) casserole (I have to hide the green vegetable so Fran will eat them) and personalized chocolate souffle’s for dessert. (PS, Neil is home for a visit.)

The baked brie and mango chutney is very easy, once you have some chutney. Wait… you don’t BUY chutney, do you? No, I didn’t think so. Winners never cheat and cheaters never win. Fist make the mango chutney:

MANGO CHUTNEY

INGREDIENTS:  (makes about 2 cups)

  • 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 small red hot chile peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/8 large onions, chopped
  • 1/8 clove garlic, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons golden raisins
  • 2 teaspoons raisins
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger root, chopped
  • 2/3 cup sliced, semi-ripe mangoes

DIRECTIONS:

  1. In a large saucepan combine vinegar, white sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, chile peppers and salt. Bring to a boil; boil covered for 1/2 hour.
  2. Stir in onions, garlic, golden raisins, raisins and ginger and boil covered for another 1/2 hour.
  3. Stir in mangoes, keep heat high enough to reduce some of the liquid (about another 1/2 hour.)

BAKED BRIE
INGREDIENTS  (makes about 20 pieces)

  • phyllo dough, thawed
  • melted butter
  • 1 (8 ounce) round Brie cheese
  • 1/4 cup mango chutney

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Cut the phyllo dough into about 3″ squares and stack 5 sheets, coating with a thin layer of butter
  2. place equal amounts (about 1/4 tsp) of brie and chutney in the center
  3. wet the edges with water and fold into an interesting shape. (I like making them look like turkish taffy candies)
  4. broil on low until the tops are brown. (4 minutes in my oven…don’t burn the brie!)

MANGO STEAK
I made a marinade from mangoes, apples, honeydew and spices. The steak (I used a nice sirloin, but most any good cut would work fine) was marinaded for 3 hours before grilling. When finished it was cut into strips, the width of each determining the serving size, but assume a 6-8oz portion for each person. The steak was placed cut side (red side) up between two rows of honeydew, veggie casserole and roasted potatoes to the side. Neil is here for a visit!!

INGREDIENTS (this amount serves six)

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup minced apple
  • 1/2 cup diced honeydew
  • 1/2 cup diced mango
  • 1 tablespoon garlic salt
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 3 pounds boneless steaks (again, I used sirloin)

DIRECTIONS 

  1. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the oil, apple, honeydew, mango, garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce, kosher salt, hot pepper sauce to taste and ground black pepper.
  2. Heat for about 5 minutes to get warm. Place the steak in a shallow nonporous dish. Cover with the marinade and refrigerate, covered, for at least 3 hours. Flip steak over halfway through marinating.
  3. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat and lightly oil grate.
  4. Grill steak for 10 minutes per side, dousing with remaining marinade, if desired. Steak is done when internal temperature reaches at least 145 degrees F (63 degrees C).

TOMATO-PEPPER-GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
In a small skillet heat a couple of tbsp of EVO, add skinned, cubed tomatoes, slided and diced peppers. Add garlic, salt and pepper to taste. After the tomatoes cook and reduce add the green beans and simmer for 15- 20 min, until the beans are tender.

FAMOUS ROASTED ROSEMARY POTATOES
Cut wedges of red potatoes and put in a plastic bag. Add some EVO (enough to coat the amount of potatoes, fresh rosemary (from my garden) some fresh chives (from my garden, hehehehehe) and salt and pepper to taste. I use Kosher or sea salt here. I don’t know why except I like the big grains of salt. Roast at 350 deg for 20 min and if necessary to brown nicely broil for 3 minutes at the end.

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE
see previous posting at Except Parfaits, perhaps the bestest dessert there is

Neil is here for a visit!!

Once upon a midnight dreary…

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Poetic license here, it was 12:00pm (noon) not midnight. It was sunny and warm, nor dreary. Otherwise the title was spot on. I saw this recipe for Chicken Pasta Primavera and thought it would make a nice, easy dinner. As is often the case, I was only mostly right. I made a couple of baguettes over the weekend and thought they would be good for garlic toast. We has a frozen chicken breast left over from a dinner last week and we had some peppers (some from my garden)… perfect!

(Not my photo)

The chicken was neither boneless or skinless, but that was easily rectified. I also butterflied it to reduce the time required to cook it in the skillet.

Baguettes are easy to make with or without a bread machine. I use our machine for ease and consistency. Set the menu to dough so it does the work of kneading and the first rise. When it finishes its cycles remove it from the machine, punch it down, divide it into two balls and put on a slightly greased cookie sheet, covered with a kitchen towel and placed in the oven with the light on. This makes a nice, warm, draft free place to let the dough rise again. After it doubles roll each ball into a rope as long as your baguette pan, dust with corn meal and let rise again until doubled. When ready place in pre-heated oven at 375 degrees for 20 – 25 min. Spray with water, brush with egg white or as I did, but a pan of water in the oven will make the bread nice and crusty.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F.)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 3 teaspoons Instant Active Dry Yeast
  • Cornmeal (optional)

Chicken Pasta Primavera recipe

Ingredients

  • 1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes
  • 1 pound angel hair pasta
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cut into bite size pieces
  • dried basil
  • dried rosemary
  • dried thyme
  • garlic powder
  • grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

  1. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook red and green bell peppers in 2 tablespoons olive oil with garlic until just tender. Stir in diced tomatoes, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 10 minutes. Reduce heat to keep sauce warm.
  2. 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.
  3. While pasta is cooking, heat 2 tablespoons oil and butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Cook chicken in butter mixture until juices run clear, 5 to 10 minutes. Place cooked chicken over tomato sauce and sprinkle with basil, rosemary, thyme, garlic powder and Parmesan. Serve with cooked pasta.

Brinnnnggg… Brinnnnggg… Brinnnnggg… No wait!

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It was a bee-dup, not a brinnnngggg, yeah thats right bee-dup. Hold on, it wasn’t a bee-dup either it was definitely a deedle-deee, yes that’s it, a deedle-dee. Marc send me an email not a phone call or text, requesting a cake for his mom’s 80th birthday party. He wanted one cake shaped like an eight and the other like a zero. After some serious investigative questioning of the client I discoverer his mom likes hazelnut and black and white. So the plan was set. One chocolate cake shaped like an eight with hazelnut butter-cream frosting, and one round white cake for the zero with white hazelnut cake and butter-cream frosting. Through various devious and nefarious means I also discovered the cake would need to feed about 45-50 ravenous 80 year-olds.

Now that the cake(s) were designed, the logistics needed to be planned. I decided one two layer 12″ cake for the zero and two 8″ two (I love numbers) layer cakes with the bottoms of each cut off and the flat sides set together to make the eight.

The 12″ cakes should take about 90 minutes to make and bake, then another 30-45 min to cool. (Wrapped in the heavy duty plastic wrap I use it will stay fresh for at least a week.)  The chocolate cake is pretty easy, but as I only have three 8″ cake pans I knew I would have to make 2 batches. If I had one set of cakes made and cooled, I could frost/decorate it while the other cakes cooled. Make one cake Thursday, one Friday and frost/decorate Saturday, no problem.

I made the hazelnut cake Thursday night after work in one single LARGE batch. Friday night I made two of the four chocolate cakes before dinner and the final two after. Saturday morning I leveled the first of the two 12″ and would you believe it the *#&%#@ of the  12″ cake wasn’t cooked at all. *#&%#@ !!. It’s Saturday morning and now I have to make two more *#&%#@ 12″ cakes, cool them, frost and decorate before 5:30 when its time for our traditional New Year’s pizza and a movie. I decided to make the hazelnut cakes one at a time, it takes longer but is safer and I didn’t have time for any more *#&%#@ errors. *#&%#@. While the first cake was baking I made a double recipe of butter cream frosting, crumb coated and cut the chocolate cakes, putting them in the fridge to set. I baked the second set of hazelnut cakes at a lower temperature for a longer time, covering the cakes with aluminum foil to keep them from over-browning. (While the first cake was cooling and the second was baking, Fran and I went and upgraded our iPhone 3’s to iPhone 4s’s, a good move at a great price. The new phones are much faster and we probably wont complain about the speed for a month or two.)

After lunch (note Wendy’s cup in one picture) I frosted the two now cooled hazelnut cakes which were baked perfectly. The white cakes did not need a crumb coat (thankfully) so I could frost and decorate them fairly quickly. My piping is definitely improving, but as I can barely read my own handwriting I do not hold out much hope for my lettering. The ribbons and flowers really set the cake off nicely.

Now, for the mechanics: White Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients (for one 12″ round cake)

  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 1-1/2 cups butter
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of hazelnuts. (I used a blender on “food processor”) level and beat the *#&%#@ out of them, then sifted the lees through a strainer leaving essentially hazelnut flour)
  • 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 cups milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12 inch round cake pan. Fran bought these exceptionally cool silicone liners which i cut to fit the bottom of the cake pan, parchment paper will also work and both make the cake release from the pan very easily.
  2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. (Be sure they are well creamed, 7-8 min at level 2 on my KitchenAid mixer. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, alternately add these dry ingredient and milk to the creamed mixture starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 60 minutes, covered with aluminum foil, in the preheated oven.  To keep the bottom from over browning try setting the cake pan in an inch of water as it bakes. I did not try this, but will next time.

Chocolate Cake and Butter Cream Frosting

Both are described elsewhere in abatteredoldsuitcase so I won’t re-iterate here. I did substitute 3 oz of Frangelica for the vanilla to give the frosting the hazelnut flavor.

Red Pepper Cream Sauce Chicken

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I know it looks like chicken parmigiana, but its not so get off my case! Our market likes to sell chicken breasts in packages of three. Often we will have them split a package as one is really enough for both of us. This week we decided to buy all three, use one and freeze the others. Great plan, worked well, except I froze the two extra in one freezer bag so I had to thaw both of them to use them. We had chicken parm earlier this week so wanted something a little different, hence the red pepper cream sauce chicken. As you know, i like spicy and this was spicy. Fran could eat it, but just. Its quick to make and easy. Spray a baking dish and place chicken in the center. Place 2 strips of bacon on the chicken. Layer the top with mozzarella cheese and top with 2 more bacon strips.

Meanwhile as we did not have an red pepper tomato sauce, I used plain marinara sauce and added some crushed red pepper, roasted garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Add some cream (about 1/2 as much as the marinara sauce) and mix. Pour this mixture over the top of the chicken/bacon/mozzarella and bake. I used the convection oven at 350 deg for 35 min.

Thanksgiving 2011

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Our first Thanksgiving with Frances and Kathy and what a great time it was! It was interesting integrating their Thanksgiving traditions with ours. For instance we had to have Mexican Rice. It is something that Frances associates with Thanksgiving because that is what her family does. Luckily I was able to talk Kathy into making it for us. I made it before, and while it was very good, it wasn’t quite right, and Kathy’s definitely was.

Fran is, has been, and always will be the Thanksgiving Day Dinner maven. It takes a special woman to make a perfect bird. We don’t need no stinkin pop-ups! My part of the dinner was the easy part. I only had soup and some sides to do. Nothing could be nicer or easier! The problem is I never ever, ever do nothing nice and easy! I always do it nice and rough!

Chipolte Pumpkin Soup is easy to make and a great way to spice up a nice start for your Thanksgiving Dinner. (This is NOT my picture. With guests there I couldn’t take the time to photograph everything.)

Pumpkin Chipotle Soup
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Ready In: 30 Minutes
Servings: 8

“This wonderful, quick soup works as a main dish with a compliment of cornbread, or as a great accent dish with your Mexican favorites!”
INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 4 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
  • 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, minced
  • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
  • 2 tablespoons sofrito
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • DIRECTIONS:
  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook until the flour has turned golden brown, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil over high heat. Whisk in the pumpkin puree until no lumps remain, then add the chipotle peppers, half-and-half cream, sofrito, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and paprika. Return to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low, and cook for 8 minutes until thickened and hot.

Now, to make it rougher lets make two of the ingredients from scratch. Adobo sauce is a common Mexican sauce used as a marinade for steaks or fish, or as an additive to foods prior to cooking to add flavor.

Basic Adobo Sauce Recipe 

Servings:1 1/2 cups
Ingredients

  • 3 ounces guajillo chiles, (12), wiped clean, stemmed, slit open, seeded, and deveined
  • 3/4 cup water for blending, or more if necessary
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine salt, or 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 rounded teaspoon ground cumin

Directions: 

  • Heat a comal, griddle, or heavy skillet over medium-low heat, and toast the chiles 2 or 3 at a time, turning them over and pressing down on them with tongs frequently, until they’re fragrant and their insides have changed color slightly, about 1 minute per batch.
  • Soak the chiles in enough cold water to cover until they’re soft, about 30 minutes. Drain and discard the soaking water.
  • Put the 3/4 cup of fresh water in the blender jar with the chiles and the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth, at least 3 minutes, adding a little more water if necessary to puree. If you’d like a silky texture, strain the adobo through a medium-mesh sieve. (I did not strain the adobo sauce. It stayed an nice thick dark brown consistency.)

This adobo keeps in the refrigerator for up to five days or in the freezer for up to one month. 

The other ingredient is sofrito which is a fragrant additive to rice, pasta sauce, black beans and even pumpkin soup. The adobo is on the right, sofrito on the left.

Sofrito

Ingredients

  • 2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 1 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
  • 10 ajies dulces peppers, tops removed
  • 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
  • 4 onions, cut into large chunks
  • 3 medium heads garlic, peeled
  • 25 cilantro leaves with stems
  • 25 leaves recao, or culantro
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon black pepper

Directions

In a food processor, combine green peppers, red peppers ajies dulces, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Add cilantro, recao, salt, and pepper. Process to the consistency of semi-chunky salsa (not watery). Place in a ziplock freezer bag, and use as needed, or freeze in portions.
Recao is a popular Caribbean herb with many aliases. Among them, Culantro, long coriander, ngo-gai, and Mexican coriander. It may possibly be found in Latin grocery stores, or substitute with cilantro.
Aji Dulce is a common ingredient in Puerto Rican recipes. It is a small, sweet red pepper. If you can’t find it, use red bell pepper (which is what I did).


How Does My Garden Grow?

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Overall the garden is progressing well. Most of the pants are healthy and presumably happy. I wish the pepper would go into a growth spurt like the tomatoes did. (Damn kids, just can’t rely on them.) I staked the tomatoes with tripods made from bamboo. It was much cheaper than buying something prefab like I did with the cucumbers and pole beans. Old cut up sheets made good ties.

 

I am still having some problems with some critter liking my cucumber leaves. I tried spraying soapy water on the leaves and when that didn’t work i coated them with Nem. I gave that 3 weeks, I sprinked crushed egg shells around their bases, and yesterday brought in the big, non organic guns, Ortho critter spray. I have to do something to save these plants. But I am pleased that the cucumbers are such tenacious climbers. I may need to support some of the larger fruit but at present the vines themselves are doing just fine.

I have 4 cucumbers so far and one will be ready to harvest next week. The herbs are doing great as is the lettuce. We may be using them for Thanksgiving.

 

 

I Just Heard That People Use Maple Syrup on Pancakes Too!!

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Thanksgiving is right around the corner (mornings are in the low 70’s now, can’t you feel Jack Frost in the air? ) and we wanted to do something different with the squash this year. What better way of remembering growing up in New England than to add some nice crunchy fresh harvest apples and maple syrup!

Making this was easy and takes just over an hour. Here is what I did. Wash the squash and cut it in half crosswise. then cut it into 3/4″ thick slices and cut those into the semi circles you can see in the picture. Place the squash in an aluminum foil lined cookie sheet (I used a jelly roll pan, it has higher edges.) Combine 2 oz of authentic Vermont Grade A Fancy maple syrup with a teaspoon of margarine. (Nuke it for 20 sec but be careful the syrup doesn’t boil over. Spread about 1/2 of the syrup mixture over the squash and place in a preheated 350 deg oven.

Wash a couple of apples and cut them into slices about 1/4 – 1/2″ thick. Remove any seeds and core. Place on top of the squash after it has baked for 45 min and add the remainder of the syrup mixture. Continue baking for the additional 15 min.

When you remove it from the oven add a sprinkle of brown sugar to each “squapple” slice and brown it with a torch. The shell of the squash is tender enough to eat, but can also be cut away if desired.

I am not on the (white velvet) ropes yet!

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I received a very nice comment on the white velvet cake I made as part of Daniel and Frances’ wedding cake. She wanted the recipe, the nicest form of flattery.The cake here is another one using the same recipe

Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 round 8 inch pans. Sift the flour and salt together and set aside.
  • Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk. Alternately add flour and buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour into two 8-inch pans.
  • Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for about 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing.

 

How Green is My Garden…

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Anyone can stop by the market on the way home and for pennies (nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars) pick up veggies for dinner. Some people prefer to grow their own… veggies. This is a much more un-economical method of providing for your family. It requires work and luck and a bit of skill. Needless to say, (then why say it!) I started a garden this year. I planted 2 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, pole beans, cucumbers, carrots, scallions and two varieties of lettuce. I researched online about square foot, or intensive gardening and was able to fit this entire crop into a raised bed garden measuring 3 feet by 8 feet. I started many of the plants from seeds, but replaced several that did not take well with established plantlings.

Someone has been eating my pole beans!! Time to plant some natural pest repellents, marigolds, can you spell marigolds? Or maybe some crysanthomums, can you spell crysanthomums? (I can’t.) These flowers are supposed to keep most of the little blighters from my garden. We shall see… we shall see.