Grandma's Kitchen Table

BBA Challenge: Artos: Greek Celebration Breads

      The second Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge (from the book by the same name authored by Peter Reinhart) was Artos:  Greek Celebration Bread, found on pages 111-114. 

      There are three varieties of the Artos in the book, and we were encouraged to bake whichever one we wanted.  Compulsive that I am, I made all three. 

      Each one was slightly different. 

      The overall spicing for the base recipe is the same for all three varieties, so the Artos boule was the basic recipe with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, lemon/orange zest, and almond flavorings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      This was great for eating out of hand, toasting, and for turkey sandwiches.

 

 

 

 

      The Christopsomos (Christmas bread) was the basic boule plus add-ins of raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried figs, and toasted walnuts. 

 

 

 

 

 

      The bread was shaped as a boule, reserving a third of the dough to make a cross shape with curls at the base to fit over the boule, which I thought resembled an octopus hugging itself.  The curls were supposed to hang tighter to the bread, so that needs some work yet. 

      The Lambropsomo, the Easter bread version, was a braid with dyed red eggs intertwined and the add-ins for that were golden raisins, dried apricots, and almonds.  I can't braid...let's face it, I have boys here, and I never learned how to braid, so this is the best I can do on the braiding deal, needs more work obviously.

       Nancy had some trouble with the red dye bleeding into her bread, so acting on her suggestion, I baked the bread with white boiled eggs, and replaced them with the bright red dyed ones after the baking process.  Worked great, no red dye on the finished product.

       The Christopsomos and the Lambropsomo have a sweet honey glaze on them, so they were good just eaten out of hand, and also both of those made great French Toast. 

       I was happy to have had the experience of shaping the dough, and while it was my first attempt and could use additional experience and work, I was happy with the results and the guys enjoyed the taste of the bread.  This would not be an every week type of bread, but something, as it says, for a celebration and festive occasion.  The loaves are quite large so would be good to have additional people around to help eat the bread. 

      While the main group of 200 bakers are baking weekly, the Slow & Steady group consisting of Nancy, Cathy, Audrey, Jessica, Melissa, and I are baking and posting every other week to better fit into our schedules.  If you would like to see their Artos breads, click on their names and visit their sites, or you can visit the main group and marvel how they are all already on brioche.  We'll get there...Slow and Steady.  Our next challenge:  Bagels.  These will be posted in two weeks. 

Fridays Favorites Fare

READING:  The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World (1788-1800) by Jay Winik.  Sharing this book with Mark simultaneously, so also reading monthly city magazines that come our way to see what exactly I wish to do in June around here. 

LISTENING TO:  Bizet

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking), this week's assignment is Longe de Porc aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork Loin with Prunes) and Mousseline de Celeri Rave (Creamed Celery Root Puree), pages 122-123; Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan), this week's recipe is Cinnamon Squares, and can be found on page 210-211; The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart), this week's recipe is Greek Artos (Celebration) Bread, and can be found on pages 111-114.  You can cook/bake along, too!

FAV NEW FIND:  My new digital scale for weighing flour and yeast and all sorts of things!  Very nice.

FAV THING TODAY:  It's sunny, it's beautiful outside, last day of school for CHS, it's summer! Almost.

GOING TO:  Graduations parties!  Other bits...all of it fun.

PRAYING FOR:  All the 2009 High School Graduates...May your lives be filled with productivity and magical times!  Please join me.   

Whisk Wednesdays: Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sautéed Chicken Livers)

      The recipe prepared for this week's assignment for Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 25, Menu 2:  Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sautéed Chicken Livers).  It can be found in the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu at Home on pages 306-307.

      Doesn't this look delicious?  Believe me, it was! 

      Okay, I confess, it's not chicken liver at all, it's chicken breast tenders.  If I would have made it with chicken livers, no one would have eaten it, including me.  Why waste a perfectly good recipe when all you need to do is sub in another chicken part that you do like? 

      I subbed two things this week, the chicken breast for the chicken livers, and a white wine for the port as I thought the white wine would go better with the breasts.  And I had white wine on hand.

      The recipe goes together quickly, and again, the layering of the flavors is what makes it so outstanding.  Rich, yes, but I am only making French food once a week, so I don't sub the cream and butter as that gives so much flavor that it would be pointless to make a French dish and sub those ingredients. 

      The salad greens are washed and dried, dressed with a simple dressing of sherry vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, chopped fresh chervil and chives.  Oh, is it ever nice to have my herbs back in place on the deck so that I can just snip away anytime I need fresh herbs...luxury! 

     

Shallots are lightly sauteed in a little butter, chicken cooks quickly in that, followed by the wine for flavor and deglazing, and then the creme fraiche to bring it together...I boiled the creme fraiche to get it to reduce to a nice thick consistency, which it did in a very short amount of time. 

     The chicken was placed on the dressed greens, a little sauce dribbled over the chicken, some chervil sprinkled on top, and the fork was employed immediately. 

      Buy the book, make this recipe, use the livers if you like, the breasts if you don't, it is absolutely the most wonderful combination of flavors.  It was my lunch...plenty filling, very satisfying, and I will make this again. The flavors are fantastic together, nothing overwhelming, just nice subtle combinations making an enjoyable depth of flavor.  

      While we are on the menu section, and we were hoping to get all three dishes accomplished in one sitting, I knew that was not going to be happening here.  I cook throughout the day in bits and pieces due to running here and there and it all comes together somehow at mealtime.  In order for me to do all three of the French dishes in this menu, I would need to devote a whole afternoon to just that...not happening here soon.  So, my dishes this menu will be coming to you one at a time, which is very workable. 

If you would  like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class, click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us!  Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there. 

Next Week's Assignment:

The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 25: Menu #2 (Make in one session, if you can, between May 19 and May 26)
• Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sautéed Chicken Livers) pages 306-307 (Post Wednesday, May 27, 2009)
• Longe de Porc aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork Loin with Prunes) and Mousseline de Céleri Rave (Creamed Celery Root Purée) pages 122-123 (Post Wednesday, June 3, 2009)
• Savarin aux Kiwis et aux Fraises (Rum Savarin with Kiwis and Strawberries) pages 409-410 (Post Wednesday, June 10, 2009)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chipster-Topped Brownies

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Chipster-Topped Brownies, can be found on pages 94-95, and was chosen by Beth of Supplicious.  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Beth's site above and she will have it posted today. 

The recipe this week is a sort of "twofer" as you get two desserts all in one, three if you put ice cream on it!  The bottom layer is a chocolately brownie and the top layer is a chocolate chip cookie. 

 

 

 

 

 

       First you assemble the brownie mixture  and place it in the pan, wash up all the mixer parts, make the chocolate chip cookie dough and spread it over the brownie layer, and then put the entire pan in the oven for a little less than an hour and out comes a nicely browned chocolate chip cookie topping over a moist and chewy brownie layer. 

      Very easy actually.  The "wow" impact from the guys was well worth the effort and stress of worrying if both layers would be done at the same time, etc.  They were, so I am counting this recipe as a definite keeper. 

   

     

 

      Where usually I have one tester, sometimes, two, maybe three very occasionally, today there are FIVE of them.  Alex, Jacob, Adam, Matt and Colin (front then back)  16 year old boys and their friends are more than willing to test anything that has the words "chocolate cookie/brownie" in it. 

     Unanimously, it was a hit, hands down, 100% approval. The only surprising voice in the entire crowd was Mark's, whose comment was "This is very very rich, I think I can only have one piece of this at a time."  The man who loves desserts limited himself to just one piece.  You heard it here.  

      Next week's recipe was chosen by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures is Cinnamon Squares, and can be found on pages 210-211. 

 Click here

and then on individual baker's blog at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways in which different people interpreted their quest.  It is not too late to join us.  If you would like to bake along, simply go to the TWD site and send an email through the link listed there.  You can join in the weekly fun.  See you there!

The Doubling Line

      When I joined the new bread baking blog along, Bread Baker's Apprentice, I joined because I wanted to learn how to bake bread and also because a few of my fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers were joining and encouraging me to do so also.  

      I have "met" any number of fun people through the cooking/baking blog alongs.  We all bake/cook with the same people each week, and we all have a lot of fun and giggles when things don't turn out, and celebrate with each other when they do work out, etc.   We have learned about each other, each other's families and jobs, etc. and we all love to feed our families and loved ones! 

      And, then...entered a dangerous thing.  Twitter.  You all know about Twitter?  Twitter is a chit chat group on the internet where members can relay short bits of conversation, sort of like a phone call, only you type it in 140 characters or less.  It's free. 

      Turns out this is very helpful when one is cooking/baking and has questions about a technique, ingredient, subbed ingredient, etc., so I signed up for Twitter (the Whisk Chicks are always up-to-date on these types of things and it is really hard to say "no" when they have a mission).   The dangerous part comes because Clarice (my computer) sits on the counter during the day and as I pass by, I can answer emails, write posts, and chit chat on Twitter about the recipes, etc. A few of us are even timing our baking so that we can chat as we bake together in our own kitchens.  I have limited my following to fellow bakers/cooks who are doing the same recipes that I am doing, so that lessens the dangers of it becoming too time consuming. 

      Last week we were discussing the upcoming bagels for BBA and a few days later, Nancy from Atlanta, sent me a little surprise in the mail...malt powder for the recipe as she knew I wouldn't possibly have a clue what it was, let alone have it on hand.   Very kind and thoughtful of her. 

      This week, Wendy, after a discussion that we were all having about bread rising buckets, again, I was perfectly clueless what that might be and why one might need that, packaged up an extra one that she had, filled it with goodies from TJ's (her "favorite snacks" as she called them) and sent it to me from California.  The bread rising bucket (pictured above) is nice deal...you put your dough in the bucket, which has straight sides and lines for measuring on it, and then you can tell when your dough has "doubled" when it reaches the doubling line.  Takes all the guessing out of the procedure as you can actually see it has doubled in volume.  Judging from the snacks she sent, Wendy likes things HOT! 

     Cathy and I are exchanging things in a very creative and fun way celebrating holidays, like Victoria Day, and National Devil's Food Cake Day, etc., those in the know will giggle about this, those that don't will just think Cathy is an extremely generous person, and she is. 

     Thank you Nancy, Wendy, and Cathy, for being such thoughtful and kind baking buddies.  Friendship, camaraderie, and now gifts...who knew?

 

Friday's Favorites Fare

READING:  The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World (1788-1800) by Jay Winik.  Ooh, la la, Mark brought this home and said, "You are going to love this book."  He bought it for himself, I think, but right away offered to share it with me, as in I'm encouraged to read it simultaneously while he is at work, etc., as he probably deduced I would steal it one way or another anyway.  America, France, Russia, the Age of Enlightenment, etc., what's not to love here?  Starts after the Revolutionary War, encompasses the embracing of the ideas/ideals of such and how they led the way for the storming of the Bastile and the revolution in France, the uprisings in Russia, etc.  Washington and all the usual players in America, Louis XVI and all the usual revolutionaries in France, Catherine the Great (and her son Paul after her death in 1796), and all the usual suspects in Russia...oh, I am a happy camper!  Everything else around here can wait.  Just kidding, but this book is excellent.  Steamships and canals...again, on hold.  Just not enough time in a day. 

LISTENING TO:  Mozart's Requiem...Totally depressing for May, I know...I am blaming Nancy E...she started it.

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking), this week's assignment is Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sauteed Chicken Livers), pages 306-307; Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan), this week's recipe is Chipster-Topped Brownies, and can be found on page 94-95; The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart), this week's recipe is Greek Artos (Celebration) Bread, and can be found on pages 111-114.  You can cook/bake along, too!

FAV NEW FIND:  Brotforms...am getting ready to learn how to make baguettes.

FAV THING TODAY:  Early morning swim:  Let the summer begin!

GOING TO:  This is easy:  stay home as much as possible...it is Indy 500 Weekend here and no one in their right mind thinks getting around the city in this amount of traffic and craziness is using the better part of reason.  A time to get the yard/gardens in shape, swim, watch movies, cook out, and let people make their way here if so desired, but staying put is my idea of a lovely lovely Memorial Day Weekend.  I am not a race fan, can you tell?  Now, the Final Four here next year is a different matter altogether.

PRAYING FOR:  Safe travel for all the travelers this weekend, please join me.   

Whisk Wednesdays: Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur)

      The recipe prepared for this week's assignment for Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 24, Part 1:  Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur).  It can be found in the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu at Home on page 376.  

      A dessert course this week, sort of a change from what we have been working on lately. 

  

      The recipe called for mango and figs, both of which I happen to like...since it is not fig season, I had to rely on Mission Figs, but I will try the recipe again during fig season and use the fresh ones. 

      The Le Cordon Bleu at Home book is a gem.  I can't say enough about how well written this cookbook is and how easy it is to follow the steps and come out with a very nice dish.  This recipe was so easy and yet when I finished, it felt like I had accomplished something very fancy and definitely a step up from the norm. 

      I made half of the recipe for the sauce and used a third of the fruit combination, I think...it's hard to tell with mango as this was a large one, so I might have had a full half of the fruit also.  I wasn't sure if we would like it, and it would be just Mark and I eating it as the liqueur in it wasn't something for the younger guys.  It's a good thing I only made half.  It's a good thing I told Mark it was available, or I might, just might, have eaten the whole thing!  Seriously.  Nothing boring after two bites with this dessert, nothing at all. 

      The fruit is marinated in 2 teaspoons of cherry liqueur (sub had to happen as cherry liqueur in the green glass bottle with the red bits and straw around it is $40 for a small bottle, and if one is not certain they are even going to enjoy a recipe, probably not happening here, so I subbed Chambord, raspberry liqueur, instead as I already had it...for future reference however, I would splurge on the cherry just to see what that is like because I can see making this again, and again, and again...but only if there are plenty of others who guarantee they will be around to help eat it...I can't be trusted with this alone!). 

      I wasn't certain if the mission figs were going to work out, but they did, the soaking brought out a nice flavor and it was enjoyable. 

      The sabayon sauce goes together easily, this was a sweetened version with powdered sugar, egg yolk, more of the Chambord, and some white wine, beaten until frothy and thick over a simmering pot of water.  Walking on the edge with that bit, but no scrambled egg in sight at the end, so I was very happy. 

      Sauce draped over the fruit, fruit and sauce under the broiler (don't take your eyes off it for a minute as it browns quickly), and into the mouth...OMW is this stuff great!  I love fruit, so the combination of fruit and sauce was ideal. 

      I know I say this all the time, but buy the book and start cooking!  This recipe alone is worth the price of the book (I know, I say that almost every week, too).

If you would  like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class, click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us!  Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there. 

Next Week's Assignment:

The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 25: Menu #2 (Make in one session, if you can, between May 19 and May 26)
• Salade de Foies de Volailles Tiedes (Salad of Warm Sautéed Chicken Livers) pages 306-307 (Post Wednesday, May 27, 2009)
• Longe de Porc aux Pruneaux (Roast Pork Loin with Prunes) and Mousseline de Céleri Rave (Creamed Celery Root Purée) pages 122-123 (Post Wednesday, June 3, 2009)
• Savarin aux Kiwis et aux Fraises (Rum Savarin with Kiwis and Strawberries) pages 409-410 (Post Wednesday, June 10, 2009)
 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Fresh Mango Bread

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Fresh Mango Bread, can be found on page 45, and was chosen by Kelly of Baking with the Boys. Always love checking in on Kelly's blog each week...she is bravely pursuing this baking goal with little boys underfoot!  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Kelly's site above and she will have it posted today. 

      Fresh Mango Bread is really tasty, especially if you like mango as much as I do.  It was a nice change this week to have a quick bread recipe for the TWD assignment.  Quick bread always goes over well here and has the added advantage of being easily portable for guys walking out the door with breakfast in hand in the morning.  I know, I know, there is always the vision of Wally and Beaver sitting down at the breakfast table with June and Ward and having a lovely breakfast, but that just doesn't happen here.  I believe the first morning after making the bread, Matt exited with four pieces on his way to the swimming pool at 4:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m. being another reason why June doesn't bother making a lovely breakfast each morning). Nothing like a good carb breakfast before swimming for a couple of hours! 

      The recipe went together easily and quickly and the only thing that I would change is that at most one regular size mango (the kind most often at the market here) nets only one cup of diced mango, so instead of buying one on your shopping trip, you should definitely buy two.  After all, mango is what this recipe is all about, so you want enough mango in it to be able to say, "Oh, yum, Mango!" 

      I also used a 9x5 pan rather than 8 inch one Dorie suggests as I had read many comments about the bread flowing over in the oven as it baked...not my idea of a good time, so the added space in the slightly larger pan did the trick and mine turned out nicely filled and shaped with no flowing outside the pan.  Good move on my part and thankyouverymuch to all the TWD bakers who indicated such might be a good move.  It was. 

      When I was slicing the bread I thought that one whole slice might be a bit much, so I sliced that in half and that size portion would be more in keeping with something that is filling, and not too guilt-ridden.  Of course, the guys were onto that trick in no time and just helped themselves to two of the pieces per serving. 

      The bread is moist and very tasty with spices, golden raisins, mango, lime zest, etc.  As with all mango recipes, you need to keep in mind that mango contains a certain "stringy" quality, which can be offsetting to people who don't care for this.  In the bread, it looks like little bits of hair poking out, so warning picky eaters of the experience is probably wise. 

      We often toast slices of quick bread, which is another reason I cut these in halves, i.e. to discourage that, and I don't recommend toasting this in the toaster because of it's moistness and because the little bits of fruit inside tend to fall out, and that would gunk up your toaster.  I did toast a piece cut in half with cream cheese in the middle on the griddle for breakfast, and that was quite lovely, the cream cheese all melty and nice.  The cream cheese tastes wonderful with the flavors in the bread. 

      And, last but not least, my easiest sell in the photograph-of-someone-actually-eating-my-food-each-week (for if you don't see it, how do you know it happens, right?), Matthew having a snack out on the deck chatting with Mark while he is grilling dinner.  A great recipe, and a big hit around here with everyone. 

      Next week's recipe was chosen by Beth of Supplicious, is Chipster-Topped Brownies, and can be found on page 94-95.

     Click here and then on individual baker's blog at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways in which different people interpreted their quest.  It is not too late to join us.  If you would like to bake along, simply go to the TWD site and send an email through the link listed there.  You can join in the weekly fun.  See you there!

 

BBA Challenge: Anadama Bread

      Some of my favorite fellow Tuesdays with Dorie bakers found a new bake along blog just starting up with the intention of baking through The Bread Baker's Apprentice cookbook by Peter Reinhart with the idea that they would begin at page 1 and proceed page by page until the end, making every recipe in the book (I think there are 42-43).  The recipes are alphabetical, not beginning with ease and increasing in difficulty as the book progresses, so I may very well be in beyond my capabilities very shortly.  The enrollment was limited to 200 bakers, and the posting requirements were minimal...there are two groups, one baking/posting each week, and a sub-group of us who are baking/posting every other week, on Mondays.  (I figure this slower pace gives me a chance to make, and possibly remake if I don't get it exactly right.)  It didn't take me long to agree to join them, so that is how I arrived at yet another bake/cook along blog...it is rather fun to bake/cook along with others.  

      The first assignment was Anadama Bread which has molasses in it, giving it a nice caramel color and taste.  I made two loaves first and that was gone in the blink of an eye...I had one slice.  So, I made it again so that I could try it with making rolls instead of loaves and that went over just as well.  (As you can see from the photo, one must act quickly with the camera around here as Nancy had said she was eager to see my photos of the rolls, which I had forgotten to take, so I hurried into the kitchen, arriving just in time as one roll was being whisked away and before any more of them disappeared!) 

      The guys really liked the bread...toasting it, making sandwiches, and just eating it out of hand.  Mark wanted to pack it for lunch, so I fashioned him one with cheddar, turkey, cranberry chutney, thin slices of Granny Smith apple, and a swipe of stone ground mustard (thank you Catherine at White Apple for the suggestion). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      The bread was good with soup, BLT sandwiches, toasted with jelly and/or peanut butter...they were eating it in all sorts of combinations. 

         We aren't posting the recipes, so buy the book and bake along with us!  Next assignment:  Artos (Greek Celebration Bread)

 

 

 

 

Friday's Favorites Fare

READING:  The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.  Another cooking/baking blog along...just couldn't help myself.  Some of my favorite TWD bakers found out about this group (BBA) that was just starting (limit 200 bakers), and I was encouraged to join in and learn how to bake all kinds of bread.  With Yeast.  And all sorts of varieties requiring all sorts of new techniques.  So, on every other Monday I will post the bread I made for the class.  Shelley's doing it, too.   

LISTENING TO:  The Grass Roots...remember them?  OMW...found them, dusted them off, and now am wondering how time could have gone so fast...feels like I am still the girl in high school listening to them while I am doing my homework. 

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking), this week's assignment is Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur), page 376; Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan), this week's recipe is Fresh Mango Bread, and can be found on page 45; The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart), this week's recipe is Anadama Bread, and can be found on pages 108-109.  You can cook/bake along, too!

FAV NEW FIND:  All the blooming flowers around here!  Above is a photo of the Siberian Iris bed down by the pool...and YES, the pool is finally OPEN!  Not swimming yet, too rainy, but it is just there waiting.  Thank you, Bill!

FAV THING TODAY:  Well, okay, this was yesterday: lunch with Margaret.  You might remember that Margaret and I are eating our way through the alphabet for lunch, originally intended for a once a week or every other week occurrence, (in order) according to restaurant names as her husband Rex started this with his co-workers and we thought it would be fun.  I think Rex and his co-workers have made it through the whole alphabet, in order, at least twice.  Margaret and I are on "D" and we have been at this for 17 months...as you can see, we haven't been very diligent.  We went to Dooley's here in Carmel and had, in honor of Cathy who recently made these for her Derby party and I had not a clue what they were, a Hot Brown sandwich.  (The cholesterol poster child's nightmare, but very tasty and worth a splurge just to see what all the fuss was about.)  It came with chips but Margaret and I replaced those with steamed broccoli to ease our guilt at eating cheese sauce over turkey, ham, bacon, and tomato, all on an open face bun. This Hot Brown business is really really good...no more than once a year, but maybe on Derby Day each year.... Favorite part of lunch, however, was learning that Kate has received a full ride scholarship for tuition, fees, expenses, etc. to college for four years.  We are so proud of you, Kate!  And, to Margaret and Rex:  great job homeschooling that girl all these years...she is a gem!

GOING TO:  Well, it's a swim weekend...prelim/finals sessions together, so that means Matt swims Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning only...no evening sessions, which is a good thing as he has some lifeguard thing Saturday afternoon, followed by an IYC concert Saturday evening, and on Sunday afternoon he has an IYC rehearsal.  I could not keep this boy's schedule.  We will be the parents, following the child about this weekend, and also have a few other things going on of our own, so no doubt the weekend will pass quickly.      

PRAYING FOR:  Seniors...taking their final exams, getting ready for graduation, looking toward their futures...as I was subbing up at Guerin today, I could feel it in the air...they are getting ready for flight, and come next fall, I will be missing them dreadfully...praying for all the seniors, please join me.

Whisk Wednesdays: Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms)

      The recipe prepared for this week's assignment for Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 24, Part 1: Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms).  It can be found in the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu at Home on pages 18-19. 

      This is part of the Menu section of classes, so I made it last week with the eggplant. 

      I bought actual veal, despite my feelings of such.  It was expensive and I had to visit a specialty butcher shop, but the butcher gave me a very nice deal (2-1/2 pounds of veal shanks for the price of 1-1/2 pounds...he now has a new customer). 

      It was okay.  I think (know) we prefer the beef version better.  There is something about veal that I just can't get past, so I ate a bite or two and called it a day.  I tried to eat a piece for lunch a few days later, and let's just say the Tibbies, Pippin and Vash, were very happy that I cannot enjoy veal. 

      The recipe was fairly simple...lots of steps, several pans, and fairly common ingredients (pearl onions and mushrooms) to go along with the veal.  The veal was cooked a fair amount of time, the veggies cooked separately, and then it all brought together at the end.  The sauce was the liquid the meat cooked in and egg yolk whisked in at the very last to give it a creamy consistency.  

      Since it cooked until it just fell off the bones (shanks), it was very tender to taste.  If only it wasn't veal. 

      Suffice it to say, from here on out, veal and I are parting ways.  If people want to eat veal, they are going to have to score it in the restaurants or on the streets, because it is definitely not happening in my kitchen again.  I think I will try this recipe with beef shanks and see how that goes...no sense in wasting a good recipe.   

      If you would  like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class,  click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us!  Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there. 

Next Week's Assignment:

The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 24: Menu #1 (Make in one session, if you can, between April 29 and May 6)
• Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant) pages 255-256 (Post Wednesday, May 6, 2009)
• Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms) pages 18-19 (Post Wednesday, May 13, 2009)
• Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur) page 376 (Post Wednesday, May 20, 2009)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Tartest Lemon Tart

     This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Tartest Lemon Tart, can be found on pages 266-268, and was chosen by Babette of Babette Feasts.  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Babette's site above and she will have it posted today.

      What a great pick for Mother's Day...lemon!  A few weeks ago, I did a rewind of The French Lemon Cream Tart which everyone had made before I joined the group, for my birthday.  (It really wasn't right that I should have to make chocolate on my birthday week, right?  That's what I thought, too!)  So, I was certainly surprised to see Babette's pick...surprised and happy! Two lemon desserts within a month, how lucky was this. 

      The tart crust was made with Dorie's Sweet Tart Crust recipe, except that she had us sub ground almonds for part of the flour.  Very tasty. 

      The tart filling is very lemony, I will say that.  I am a big fan of lemon, and I liked the tartness. 

      In the recipe, we were instructed to use one and a half lemons, minus the seeds.  Yep, rind, pith, fruit, all of it.  I was skeptical and polled several friends about the pith part, had decided not to use the pith, and at the last moment, I just decided to trust Dorie and give it a whirl as written. 

      It was excellent.  Very rich.  The great thing about this tart is that you could make it for guests, and one tart would serve 16 rather than 8 as you would not want to serve more than a thin slice at a time. 

      The whipped cream finishes it off nicely and smoothes out some of the tartness.  For those who don't like it quite so tart. 

      Like maybe Matthew, pictured here trying his piece.  (I just hand them a piece of dessert each week, someone agrees to be photographed, and I snap away while they eat so that I can just pick a good shot out of about 20.)  These shots of Matt are just exactly what happened when he tasted the tart.  He hasn't been back for seconds.  I would say that was one very tarty lemon tart!

      The rest of us all enjoyed it, thought it was refreshing, had great flavor, and agreed that it would be made again in the future. 

     

Next week's recipe was chosen by Kelly of Baking with the Boys, is Fresh Mango Bread, and can be found on page 45. 

 

      Click here  and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest.  It is too late to join the online TWD baking blog, but you can always join us in spirit as the recipes for upcoming weeks are posted on the site and you can bake along in your own kitchen.  See you there!

Friday's Favorites Fare

READING:  Undaunted Courage:  Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose.  Still reading this as I keep getting distracted, if you don't understand this, you should try reading this book without stopping and doing a quick search for all the areas described on the maps, all the birds/animals mentioned that were newly discovered (plover/avocet, etc. etc. etc.), let alone all the plants (redberry, serviceberry, snowberry), etc., all the different Indian tribes (Snake Indians are actually Shoshone), boat/canoe shapes (pirogue), etc. etc. etc.  Every single chapter has dozens of familiar yet unfamiliar terms.  I would just be sleepless each night wondering what it all was if I didn't look it all up...so be patient...I think Lewis will be back in Washington by the end of the weekend and I will be able to move on.  I think. 

LISTENING TO:  Peter Gabriel.  Blame Shelley...she started it with his tune called Book of Love, so I dusted off Peter and now I'm even sorta starting to be happy Shelley got that tune playing over and over in my mind.  Sorta.  More importantly, I have been enjoying his cache of music for the past three days.  Usually I am bored long before three days.  Shelley's other play for the week was The Carpenters...there is no trusting Shelley's musical taste...just when I think we can ride down the road in the same vehicle flipping through the stations with glee, she comes up with something like "Oh, please stop...'Close to You' is one of my favorites!"  WHAT????????  Out...out of this car, right now, Shell!  LOL.  Enough giving Shelley grief...we can always listen to Def together for any ride anywhere anytime.  Right, Shelley?

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking), this week's assignment is Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms), pages 18-19; Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan), this week's recipe is Tartest Lemon Tart, and can be found on page 336.  You can cook/bake along, too!

FAV NEW FIND:  Lovely photos with flowers and trees and many things blue; restaurants and menus; photos full of history and things of mystery...always love the photos, etc.  (Photo today is of our dwarf lilac bushes ready to burst into full bloom.  So pretty...and so many of them!)

FAV THING TODAY:  Well, pizza night.  We have decided that Friday night is going to be pizza night as Alex loves pizza and it seems like a fine family outing before everyone goes their separate ways on Friday nights.  6:00 be there, different place each week, so you will need to check weekly location if you are joining us.

GOING TO:  Mark's whole family is assembling this weekend for Mother's Day, so we will be making the hour trip back and forth to assemble also.  I like that they live so close, easy access and you can come and go at will.    

PRAYING FOR:  Mothers, those present and those no longer with us, please join me.

Whisk Wednesdays: Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant)

      The recipe prepared for this week's assignment for Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 24, Part 1: Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant).  It can be found in the cookbook Le Cordon Bleu at Home on pages 255-256.  

      Lots of steps this week, lots of pans, but you end up with lots of flavor! 

      The recipe calls for simple ingredients, easily located at the local market, front and center being the eggplants, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, Gruyere cheese, salt, pepper, tomato paste, butter, and basil.  I could not locate the smaller eggplants, so I just worked with what I had available. 

      We were instructed to wash, stem, halve the eggplants, score them, salt them, turn them upside down on paper towels to draw out some of the liquid.    We then baked the eggplant for 15 minutes, I turned up my nose at how they looked coming out of the oven (not pretty) and made certain that boys didn't see this particular part or there would be no chance of getting them to try it at all.  

      Next I scraped out the eggplant and cooked it in pan until dry. 

      In a separate pan we needed to peel, seed, dice the tomatoes, cook them with shallots, tomato paste, and garlic until dry, reserving two thirds to puree for sauce to spoon over the eggplants at the end before serving  (oh, this sauce was so nice and fresh tasting and very good).  

      Next we combined basil, eggplant, and remaining tomato mixture to then stuff into eggplant boat shells.  Topped each with three thin slices of tomato, the Gruyere cheese, and a half teaspoon of butter dots, and it was ready to bake for another ten minutes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Not too difficult...everything comes together in the end and is definitely worth all the steps, pans, and time. 

      My family isn't too big on eggplant, and while I like it just fine, I am not ever too big on mixing lots of ingredients to end up with a lot of food touching together on a plate.  I know...I'm still six years old at times. 

      Anyway, I was a little skeptical of all of this, but figured I would give it a go and keep an open mind.  Happy that I did so, as this is absolutely wonderful. 

      Well, I thought so anyway...Mark ate it, said he really didn't care if I made it again, and the boys refused to even put any on their plates.  I think that it is just the idea that it was eggplant and they already made up their minds they weren't really going to like it.  Some things are like that.  Don't let that sway your opinion, this is a very good recipe.   

      If you would  like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class,  click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us!  Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there. 

Next Week's Assignment:

The next few assignments are Menus, so we are going to make the menu for one meal (hopefully), but then post each dish separately in its own week as posting it all at once seemed a bit much, following the schedule below.
Class 24: Menu #1 (Make in one session, if you can, between April 29 and May 6)
• Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant) pages 255-256 (Post Wednesday, May 6, 2009)
• Rouelles de Veau Bourgeoise (Veal Shanks with Pearl Onions and Mushrooms) pages 18-19 (Post Wednesday, May 13, 2009)
• Gratin de Fruits au Marasquin (Fruit Gratin with Maraschino Liqueur) page 376 (Post Wednesday, May 20, 2009)

Tuesdays with Dorie: Tiramisu Cake

      This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, from the cookbook Baking:  From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan is Tiramisu Cake, can be found on pages 266-268, and was chosen by Megan of My Baking Adventures.  If you would like to try the recipe before buying the book, click on Megan's site above and she will have it posted today.  

      Pretty fancy, huh?  Not my usual style by a long shot.  Actually, although this recipe had lots of steps, it was all very easy...one step at a time. 

      Make the cake, bake the cake, cool the cake, make the espresso, make the espresso syrup, make the frosting...assemble the cake in like ten easy steps. 

  

 

 

 

  

      Refrigerate the cake, and give bowls, beaters, spatulas, etc. to boy to lick before washing.  Listen to Alex "oh and ah" over the frosting, declaring he "cannot wait to cut into that cake!" 

 

 

     I followed the recipe almost exactly, except that I left out the liquor as the younger guys were going to be eating it and I figured there was no sense giving them a taste for all of that at this age.  We had the option of using shaved chocolate or mini chocolate chips...I went with the minis, adding half again as much on the filling between the layers because my guys love chocolate.  I left off the dusting of cocoa powder on top as that never goes over very well here, I knew they would prefer the extra minis instead.

      Apparently, it was very fine without the liqueur/liquor and the guys enjoyed eating it to the point of almost, almost, licking their plates clean. 

      A big hit...I would make it again for them as it is rather an enjoyable time and very relaxing just to make things, assemble them, and have it all look fairly good when it is finished.  So once again, it's another big hit, Dorie.  

      Next week's recipe was chosen by Babette of Babette Feasts, is Tartest Lemon Tart, and can be found on page 336.

Click here  and then click on individual bakers' blogs at the site if you would like to see more of this week's recipe and the various ways people interpreted their quest.  It is too late to join the online TWD baking blog, but you can always join us in spirit as the recipes for upcoming weeks are posted on the site and you can bake along in your own kitchen.  See you there!

   

 

 

A Few Lines About This and A Few About That

      Photo:  My lilac bush with blooming lilacs for CP as I can't seem to get it to load where it was actually supposed to end up...See, Caitlin, lilacs just for you! 

      All day Saturday Matt had an gig up at CHS where all the Olympic Training Center swimmers from Indiana got together to train a little, get all their forms turned in, meet one another, meet the coach going along (happens to be the CSC head coach: Chris, so that's nice), etc.  It started at 9:00 with dryland training an hour before.  

      Matt called home at 8:20 and said, "You both need to come up here as soon as possible."  Panic.  "Why?"  "Because apparently neither of you can read directions on how to fill out all these forms and you have to redo them.  Now." 

      He was a bit mortified that amongst all 54 swimmers, his were the only parents who had to be summoned to the practice because of faulty form-filling-out abilities.  The forms were to be filled out in black ink...we used a lovely shade of blue ink on ours.  Not acceptable.  We both looked at the instructions and somehow missed in BIG BOLD WRITING the words:  FILL OUT FORMS IN BLACK INK ONLY.  Oops.  16 year old boys are not amused by things of this nature.  At all.   

      We spent the weekend cleaning (still not done with spring cleaning the upstairs and at this rate, it could become summer cleaning, too many distractions), doing yard work (the guys handled this), cooking for Whisk and TWD (that would be me, of course), and generally just going from this to that. 

      Pool is not open...to protect the not-so-innocent, I will just say that it is rescheduled for next week. 

      Oh, Alex cleaned his room...dusted, vacuumed, straightened, cleaned, brought down six loads of laundry that he "just found laying around," and two bags of "stuff I don't need."  Wow.  I haven't seen his actual carpet in probably three years.  That was one of the battles I just chose not to pick and resigned myself to the fact that his room did have a door that closed to keep it all contained and out of my sight.  Looking good in there.  Who knew?

      Matt had an IYC concert in Columbus, Indiana today.  While they give the singers detail sheets and driving directions, Cassie and Danielle forgot to look at them, couldn't find them, or whatever, and drove to Columbus, OHIO instead (about 3-4 hours away instead of 1 hour away), not realizing they were in the wrong state, let alone wrong city, until they called home to figure out where the concert venue was located in "downtown Columbus."  You really need to know Cassie and Danielle to understand how such a thing could even happen...there is no end to the entertainment value those two have inadvertently provided in ICC/IYC over the years. 

      And, so I leave you on this quiet Sunday evening (okay, not so quiet as we are forced to mow the lawn on a Sunday due to all the rain we have had and are going to have), and wish you a very lovely week ahead. 

 

Working the Line

      Our friends Laurie and Ali always give Buddy (husband/father) very interesting birthday gifts. 

      Last year, for instance, they gave him a suite at the Indians' baseball game.  Buddy and at least a dozen of his friends had a wonderful evening.  To top it all off, they had arranged for him to throw out the first pitch of the game. 

      This year they gave him a sushi making class with a chef at a sushi restaurant here in Indy. 

      At the CSC Swim Banquet Brunch on Sunday, we got to hear all about the experience, and Buddy sent a few photos to me. 

      The entire experience sounded like such fun, I thought I would share the photos with you just in case anyone is searching for an interesting and unique gift for a loved one.  Sushi making class looks like a lot of fun judging from the smiles on their faces and just look...they made all those and more!  Buddy is holding a plate of sushi designed to look like a dragon.

      This is such a great photo of both Buddy and Laurie..."MFEO" as they say in the movie Sleepless in Seattle...Made For Each Other.  A very fun birthday!

 

Friday's Favorites Fare

 

PHOTO:  Seeing is believing:  Matt on a college tour at PURDUE (I knew you all would not believe it unless there was actual proof).  We are trying to remain impartial.  Trying.  Trying very hard.  Mark's brother Al is grinning large.  Too early to say.

READING:  Undaunted Courage:  Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose.  I am still reading this as I keep getting distracted with certain topics mentioned in the book and then start reading up on this and that, and then back to the book...this could take a considerable amount of time if I don't restrain myself from being sidetracked.

LISTENING TO:  Guns N Roses...it all started with a rainy day and me pulling out the November Rain piano piece and playing that for about an hour, moving on to Patience, and then Sweet Child of Mine...what can I say, Cathy (TWD and Twitter) suggested looking up the videos on YouTube and well, it's been just such a day.

COOKING THROUGH:  Le Cordon Bleu at Home (Le Cordon Bleu School of Cooking), this week's assignment is Aubergines Bayildi (Gratin of Stuffed Eggplant), pages 255-256; Baking:  From My Home to Yours (Dorie Greenspan), this week's recipe is Tiramisu Cake, and can be found on pages 266-268.  You can cook/bake along, too!

FAV NEW FIND:  Oysters!  So good!

FAV THING TODAY:  Lunch with Cindy O.

GOING TO:  We have a long list of odds and ends that we just want to get accomplished over the weekend...hopefully Bill will be here Saturday to open the pool (actually just got the phone call confirming such)...hoping to get my list of plantings finalized.  Hoping to get the Whisk menu and the Tiramisu Cake in hand by weekend's close as next week's schedule is already very busy.  Matt has an IYC concert on Sunday an hour or so away and an all-day swimming training camp on Saturday.  

PRAYING FOR:  So many people struggling with financial losses...please join me.