Mom's Garden Cake

I made this one for my mom's birthday party yesterday. She'd never had a party before so we wanted it to be special. The cake was white cake, strawberry moistening syrup, sliced strawberries, meringue disks, buttercream and fondant.

I had a lot of fun making the flowers and could have played with them all day! :) My mom loved it so mission accomplished.

Tortilla Soup

There is nothing like a good, hearty soup for dinner when it's cold out! Tortilla Soup is a favorite in our family. We have tried a few and there was one we fell in love with but when I ran the numbers the calories were frightening! Seriously, it was a heart attack in a bowl! I went over the recipe and tweaked it just enough to slim it down and add some things we like. It's a pretty forgiving soup so if you need to keep tweaking it for your family you should be able to do so without compromising flavor or texture. Enjoy!

Tortilla Soup

1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 cup chopped onion
1 whole garlic clove
1 TBS olive oil
4 (15 oz.) cans fat free chicken broth
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes, drained and rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 ounces taco seasoning
10 (6") corn tortillas, broken into small pieces
15 oz. cooked, diced boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup 1% milk
Shredded Cheese (we like Monterey Jack)
Light Sour Cream
Corn Chips*

Saute carrots, celery, onion and garlic in olive oil; add broth and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes, chicken, taco seasoning and tortilla pieces and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 20 minutes or until tortilla pieces are fully dissolved. Reduce heat, add milk and simmer 10 more minutes.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, corn chips and what ever other toppings your family desires. Without the toppings the recipe has about 100 calories per cup. The first day the soup is very mild; if you prefer it spicier add some cayenne and/or chili powder. We will also top ours with pepper jack instead of Monterey Jack. This keeps it milk for the kids but spicier for the adults. The spiciness increases the longer you refrigerate it.

*Corn Chips: The original recipe calls for cutting flour or corn tortillas into strips and frying them in oil until crispy. This tastes good but I'm lazy so I usually just buy some Fritos. :D Corn tortilla chips are also good. I even like this soup without anything added to it.

Green Smoothies

I promised someone I would get some smoothie ideas up so I figured I'd better do it. My basic green smoothie is fruit, spinach and yogurt but I typically wing it and just toss handfuls into the Vitamix until it tastes good to me. However, I realize that there are some who work better with formulas, at least as a place to start so here is a guideline for you:

Group 1

1 part (1/2 cup to 1 cup) any of the following:
spinach
kale
broccoli (1/2 cup, it's strong!)
cabbage
lettuce
other mild leafy greens that I haven't thought of

Group 2
2 parts (1 cup each) any of the following:
bananas
strawberries
peaches
blueberries
pineapple
pears
apples
grapes
cherries
berries
Basically any fruit you like, in combinations that you like. I like to use frozen fruit so I don't have to add ice. Carrots are sweet and can be added in place of one of the fruits.

Group 3
1 part (1/2 to 1 cup) any of the following:
yogurt
tofu
cottage cheese
milk (start with small amounts until it's the texture you like)

You can add protein powder or other powdered supplements if you like. I like to toss in a handful of almonds to bump up the protein and it gives it a nice creamy texture if well blended.

One combo I really like is Strawberry Banana:
1 whole banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup spinach
1 oz. tofu or plain nonfat yogurt
1/8 cup almonds
Blend until smooth and creamy. If it's really thick you can either blend longer until it begins to melt a bit or you can add water or milk to thin it down.

Pizza!

You know, back when I first started messing around with baking our breads I considered it all a bunch of work. Bread took hours and hours so pizza dough wasn't something I even wanted to consider.

Well, bread still takes hours and hours but now that I know what I'm doing most of those "hours" the bread is just doing it's thing while I do mine. Every few hours I go and gently deflate then reshape for the next rise but that's about all there is to it. I can do it quicker with a few tricks but the flavor is so incredibly good with a slow risen bread that it's just not worth it to rush the process. I have a ball of sourdough in the kitchen right now that is the beginnings of a bread that won't be done for another two days (and this is one of the faster ones!) We live in a gotta have it now, microwave fast society and I think a lot of us have just forgotten that there are things that just can't be rushed. Things we should slow down and enjoy; good bread is one of those things.

But I digress! My family has been patiently waiting for me to make pizza so tonight I finally delivered the goods. Now this being my first attempt in a looooong time there are several things I want to modify the next time. One thing is for certain, I will be making my own sauce in the future! The nasty squeezy bottle stuff I used tonight was nothing more than very salty canned spaghetti sauce! I've already found a recipe I'm going to try. It is kind of involved so I'll make a bunch and can what I don't need for later. (Unless you happen to have a fabulous sauce recipe you're dying to share with me!)

The crust is what I want to talk about right now. I made a sourdough pizza crust that had a really good flavor but I will be tweaking it to try to get it how we like it texture wise. It's a very basic recipe so I'm pretty hopeful it will work out. It was just a bit on the thin side for our tastes as we like a thicker, chewy crust with maybe just a bit of crackle to the outside. Here's the recipe I used tonight and how I did it. When I tweak things I'll update the post with the other instructions. If you like a thinner, crisp bottom but chewy crust you may like this one as is. And if you need some sourdough starter let me know! I have bubbling bowls all over the kitchen! :D

Sourdough Pizza Crust

1 1/2 c mature Sourdough starter
1 T olive oil
1 t Salt
1 1/2 c Flour

I placed all the ingredients in the Bosch Mixer bowl and kneaded for several minutes until dough looked smooth and elastic. If the dough is too wet add some flour, if too dry add more sourdough or water.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once to coat all sides of dough with oil. Cover the bowl with a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap and leave at room temperature. Go to Riteaid and Taekwondo. Okay, so you may want to just let it sit for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours but this is what I did! :)

Preheat a pizza stone in the oven to 450 degrees. Gently deflate dough and divide in half. Allow dough to rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling into about a 12" circle. Make sure you do this on a lightly floured surface! Smooth pizza sauce over dough, add ingredients and transfer* to the oven. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

*I have a fantastic device known as the Superpeel that makes transferring a fully loaded pizza to the oven a snap! If you go to the website and watch the videos rest assured it really is that easy! I got mine Saturday and played with it by picking up a waffle left over from breakfast. I think I did it three or four times and that was it. Today I picked up the pizzas and put them in the oven without a single issue! One of the pizzas was even trying to stick to the countertop and the Superpeel picked it up without tearing it or losing a drop of sauce! I can't wait to use this for Artisan breads! I was chatting with someone I met on Craigslist about it and we ended up going in on our order together so we could get the price break when you buy three. If you want one and know a baker of bread or pizza try to get the deal. The guy who makes them is super nice and how it was invented is a nice little story. (Plus if you order three at a time you get free shipping too! )

End of commercial! It really is a great device though. I don't have pictures of our pizzas because we ate them far to fast to snap any. I do recommend going to the Superpeel site if you want to see that. I could post a photo but you're really missing out if you don't see the videos. You can make a lattice pie crust top on your counter and pick it up with the Superpeel, then place it neatly on the pie without disturbing the crust!

Fancy Pants French Bread and an Experiment

Well, I've got bowls of bubbling brew all over my kitchen since I've been playing with sourdough. I have managaed to start one from just flour and water and keep it alive for over two weeks! This is an amazing feat for me (I can't even keep house plants alive!)

This first bread I found on the internet through someone I met on Craigslist. She linked it for me and I have no clue what the name is. So, being the irreverent individual I am, we're calling it "Fancy Pants French Bread"

I will try to find the recipe online again and post it or at least a link to it. Jessica really likes this one! It's a pretty chewy bread due to how it's baked. I don't have a la cloche (it's a two part clay baker that you put the dough in before putting it into an extremly high heat oven). Instead, I put my dough in a cast iron dutch oven and put the lid on and it worked like a charm. It's supposed to have a nice big open crumb but mine didn't. I know I didn't use the exact flours called for in the recipe as I was out of rye but I think the other issue was that it wasn't wet enough (possibly due to the flour I did use in place of what it called for. Different flours have different hydration rates so if you don't adjust for it your bread will let you know.)

The other thing I've been messing around with is sprouting my wheat before dehydrating it and grinding it into flour. I've just ground some today and haven't yet made bread with it since I have a gazillion and one different kinds of sourdough bread all over the place! However, I did throw some sprouted wheat into the Vitamix and made a loaf of bread with the freshly sprouted stuff.

This one was really tasty and had a nice, chewy crust with a moist crumb. It had pretty good flavor but I need to keep tweaking this recipe. I won't post it until I've got it like I want it.

So there you have it, a whole lot of words and a couple of pictures but nothing really very helpful! :D

Soon, I will post recipes very soon.

Oh, and tomorrow I get to pick up my new Superpeel! I'll tell you all about that once I've played with it awhile.

Pain Aux Noix

Sounds so fancy doesn't it?

It's French for "Walnut Bread" and let me tell you, it is so good we decimated the first loaf before it was even cool enough to handle! I'm actually going to give you the recipe for this one so if you want to try your hand at it you can. There are many variations of this bread online but this one intrigued me because of the way you brown the butter. As always, I toast and cool the walnuts before adding them to the dough.

Pain Aux Noix

1/4 cup butter

3 cups wholemeal wheat flour

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 TBS brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS instant yeast

1 cup lukewarm milk

1 1/2 cups walnut pieces (toasted!)

Place the butter in a small saucepan and heat until melted and starting to turn brown, then set aside to cool.

Mix the flours, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Mix the yeast into the milk and allow to dissolve; add to the center of the flour.

Add the cool, melted butter to the flour mixture (it should still be in a liquid state). Using your hand, mix the liquids together in the bowl and gradually add in small quanitites of flour to make a moist dough.

Knead on a lightly floured surface for 6-8 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat the top and cover with a lightly oiled piece of clear plastic wrap. Leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface and gently knock back. Press or roll out to flatten and then sprinkle the nuts over the dough. Gently press the nuts into the dough, then roll up jelly roll style. Return to the oiled bowl, recover and allow to rise for 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a lightly oiled surface and divide dough in half. Shape each piece into a ball and place on lightly oiled or well seasoned baking sheets. (Baking stones are perfect for these.) Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Using a sharp knife, slash the top of each loaf 3 times. Bake for about 32 minute4s or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack.

~

I will admit that I did this in my Bosch but I typed out the instructions this way in case you don't have a mixer. If you have a Bosch Mixer, knead for 3-5 minutes or until it looks smooth and elastic. If using a Kitchenaid be sure you don't go over speed 2 or you will strip the gears. (Trust me on this one!)

The crust on this loaf was chewy and just a teeny bit crisp but the crumb was so velvety! It made fantastic toast and was awesome with my Tarragon Chicken Salad. I will be making this one again (and again, and again!)

If you don't have access to wholemeal flour I imagine a good quality whole wheat could be used with decent results.

Tomorrow I will have two different sourdough breads to bake, sourdough pancakes and hopefully a sprouted wheat bread will follow shortly. Good thing I have a big freezer!

I gave myself a makeover...

You may have noticed the new look to this blog. I had decided already to do more than just cake here but I decided it needed a new look to go along with the new direction. This blog will reflect whatever I happen to be doing in the area of food.

It could change a lot since I seem to have a two second attention span!

Some of the things I'm dabbling in right now:

Sprouting grains: I've been reading about the nutritional impact sprouted grains can make in your diet. One of the biggest reasons to sprout grain is that it nuetralizes Phytic Acid. Phytic Acid apparently greatly reduces the amount of nutritional value we absorb when we eat grain based foods. Sprouting the grain also converts the grain from a starch to a vegetable and our bodies apparently like that better. (Can I count this toward my veggie servings for the day?) I'm still very new to this whole idea and I'm looking forward to trying some new foods. I have a big bowl of hard white wheat sprouting in my kitchen right now!

Sourdough: I must confess, I am a sourdough killer. I have been given sourdough starts that are already bubbly and active. You would think I'd be able to maintain them and keep them going wouldn't you? Nope. I kill 'em! Apparently you have to feed them regularly or they die. It's along the same lines as houseplants I think. Did you know you are supposed to water your plants or they die too? Who knew! :D

Kids are loud when they haven't been fed. They clamor for something to eat and won't stop until they're chewing. Usually at this time they are shuffling the food around their mouths so they can ask you for a drink of water. Once they've been excused from the table the process starts again.

Immediately and with no break.

Ever!

Well, sourdough doesn't do that so I've decided to utilize my fancy cell phone/pda thingamajiggy and I've set alarms reminding me to feed it. Now I'm really getting into this and I've started the starter myself, from scratch. I was a little unsure about doing this since I've killed so many poor, unsuspecting starters already but I found a great website with lots of beginner info on it.

My starter is about a week old now and it's bubbling happily and will double in size after it's been fed. From what I've read this means it's a happy, thriving starter and ready to use.

Deep breath! Now it's time to actually bake something! Hopefully this afternoon I'll give it a go and see if I can't make a successful sourdough loaf. Oh, the website for the sourdough info is Sourdough Home.

Artisan Breads: My mom gave me a beautiful book on breads from around the world. Not only does it have recipes but it also has a history of bread, lists various flour types, leavening agents, and has gorgeous pictures of bread from all over the world. (I read cookbooks like they're novels.)

I have made a few recipes from the book already but unfortunately did think to take a picture before we devoured them.

The first one I made was Portuguese Cornbread. This was far different than any cornbread I've ever had but it was sooooo good! The whole family loved it. It's a yeasted bread that begins with a sponge then is given a couple of slow rises. The result is a nice outer crust with a melt in your mouth crumb inside. The flavor is very complex and tasty. It probably helps that I mill all my own flour, including things like cornmeal. This bread can easily stand alone for flavor but we also enjoyed it with Ham and Bean soup. (Actually, it was pretty darn good with scrambled eggs too!)

Next I did an Onion Cheesebread that was out of this world good! Mmmmm, you saute the onions first so they are nice and soft. Then you blend them into the dough along with some cheese. After all of the rising and shaping everything is nicely blended together for a very soft, tender bread that is full of flavor. It was perfect with a nice bowl of soup.

Tomorrow I will post the recipe and pictures of Pain Aux Noir, a french walnut bread that I just made. This one was fabulous!

I'm starting to think there are very few breads I don't like! :P

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Since most people know that I love to bake I've become some sort of clearinghouse for their unused/unwanted bakeware type stuff. While cleaning the garage the other day I came across a bundt pan that I didn't know I had. It seems like a nice quality pan, heavy with a nonstick finish and a simple but pretty design.

Funny, I've often thought it would be nice to have one!

Well of course after finding the pan I was dying to bake something in it and this being fall it was a given that it would be something pumpkin. I searched around a little bit and found a recipe but the pan sat on the counter for a few days before I finally got to it.

Since I didn't go to Tae Kwon Do tonight (shin splints, ouch!) I took the opportunity to bake one up and bless my sweet husband. The whole family loved it judging by all the "mmmmmm's" going on around the table. And the bonus was, my house smells great!

Here's the recipe in case you want to give it a try. If you don't have a bundt pan you can do the recipe in a 9x13 but you will need to reduce the baking time quite a bit. I would start checking at about 20-25 minutes depending on how hot your oven runs. The recipe is for a 12 cup bundt pan. A 9x13 pan will hold 14 and a 9x9 pan will hold ten. The other option is two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 loaf pans. They each hold six cups so you will get two loaves.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake
3 large eggs
1 15-oz can pumpkin (not pie filling)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup raisins*
1/2 - 1 cup chopped toasted nuts*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour or spray a Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the 3 eggs,pumpkin, oil and water until smooth.

Add flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Stir in raisins and nuts, if using.

Pour into pan, bake 65 - 75 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, let cool completely.

Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

*Now you know I always toast the nuts before I put them into anything! You don't have to but it's my preference. I skipped the raisins but you may like them. (Another little tip for you; when you're using raisins in a recipe soak them in the egg mixture for about an hour before you mix up your batter. This makes the raisins beautifully soft in your baked item. Once you try this you will never make an oatmeal cookie without soaking the raisins first! )

I actually made a powdered sugar glaze but I stirred in about 1/3 cup melted cinnamon chips. I found it got a bit coagulated because the glaze cooled the cinnamon chips before it could come together. Since I have my handy, dandy Vitamix blender I threw it in there and it was smooth as silk when it was done. I poured it right out of the blender onto the cake. Mmmmmmm....