Dinner and a Rosette

The world of culinary art has been unkind to me. There is nobody to cook for and those I have cooked for have liked it, and the food has been good, but it just wasn't enough for me. Something is missing and I can't seem to figure out what it is... ummm... maybe it is the fact that I am cooking in other people's kitchens and I don't have one of my own and the fact that my life is being held hostage and I don't have anything that belongs to me. I have been so lonely lately because nobody will let me cook. I wanted to roast a duck for Thanksgiving and make a real fest, but nobody wanted it. I wanted to do the same for Christmas, and my parents want to go out. I have cooked for a few friends and that has been fun, but once again, in their kitchens. There is something unkind about that to me. It seems violating and weird and I am not sure why. I had one disaster. I made lavender rosette teacakes and they tasted like bath oil. They were very cute and pretty, but lord they tasted like I licked someone's foot after an aromatic bath.

I did make a pretty good meal for my friend. He invited me over to cook dinner for him and I made my stuffed chicken with spinach and provolone cheese and added a wonderful mushroom cream sauce to the top, a recipe that was my inner Julia Child. He bought a soft red and I was not happy about it. He said not everything is about me. I found it selfish considering I was a guest for one and two, he isn't a wine drinker. Maybe things are not about me, but the wine should be my choice. I guess he felt that since he paid for it he could buy what he wanted and it wasn't about making me, his guest happy. He did it to prove a point in my opinion. This is the difference between my culture at home and everyone else's. My mom raised me better than that. Say what you want about her, but I have great manners and when I invite someone to my house and have them cook for me, I let them pick the wine and I certainly wouldn't go out and buy a sweet wine knowing they love full bodied. I have broken up with men for much less and I have learned my lesson with that one: Always bring my own wine. I don't deal well with men who do things just be controlling and prove a point and I felt that was his point. It was just rude in my opinion. I drank it and it was fizzy, sweet and did not go with what I cooked, but it did make a great deglaze, considering it was basically cooking wine. At any rate, I am completely miserable without a kitchen. I am at my mother's house, but she never eats. My step dad doesn't care about food and feels it is a waste of money to spend on anything but canned soup. I am so excited for the day when I get all my cooking stuff back and I have my own kitchen and I can listen to my cheesy 60 style French pop music in my cute apron and sing and cook and have people over who enjoy my cooking. I am sure I will find someone someday.

My Pretend Lunch with my Pretend Friends

My recipes kept me awake last night. I couldn't stop thinking about frosting cupcakes and all the different kinds of muffins I wanted to make; about lobster macaroni and cheese, roasted legs of lamb and roasted vegetables in duck fat that I rendered myself. These are thoughts of a fat kid. Pinterest isn't helping my food-insomnia either. Now that dinner is gone in our house, I feel like I have no reason to get up in the morning. The remaining members of this household are not much for dinner as I mentioned and I hate making lunch for myself. I have little motivation to write my blog because there is nobody to cook for. This is literally causing me depression. I get so sad when I have to cook for myself as I am doing now. However, I do plan on pretending someone else is eating this with me today. That is an indicator of insanity. I have an invisible guest coming over for lunch and she and I are going to talk about my great finds from Savers and DI I found yesterday and how her family is doing and how she wishes she had the energy to cook like I do. After lunch she will help with the dishes and tell me how brave I am that I am starting my life over and lucky I am because I get to build a new career and how I should be bragging about my new found freedom. I developed either a Summer Eve commercial or a lifetime movie. I am not sure which one is worse for my scenario here.
Today, she and I are going to have stuffed chicken breast and herb tomatoes with cheese and a glass of red wine, or three.

I took a chicken breast and I butterflied it. I lightly seasoned it with salt and pepper and pan seared it a tiny bit in some olive oil. Then I spread a thin layer (who am I kidding, I loaded it up) with garlic goat cheese and spinach, threw in some rosemary and thyme, broke up a piece of provolone cheese on top of the spinach and closed the breast up with a few skewers to keep it shut. I covered the top in herb butter (soft butter from the butterbell with herbs de province) and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Then I turned on the broiler to really let that butter brown the top of the chicken. Then I sliced up tomatoes from the garden and drizzled them with olive oil. Lightly salted and peppered and chopped up fresh basil and covered them in provolone cheese and put them under the broiler until the cheese bubbled with angry brown bubbles. I dusted them with   parmigiano-reggiano cheese

The Chicks

We have beautiful chickens in the backyard. There are Aracaunas, Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, one Sexlink, one other, I believe. The good news is that they lay big, beautiful eggs, the sad news is they are laying fewer since the days are shorter and it is getting colder. However, there is more good news. The Aracauna chickens are laying eggs and guess what!!?? THEY ARE BLUE! It is so cool! I have never seen blue eggs. I can't say they taste different, I am just so happy they are laying. We average about 8 a day still and I have been actually enjoying making breakfast. I love breakfast, but I hate to make it. I want to enjoy it. I want someone else to make breakfast, but lately, I have been making eggs and it has been fun and delicious. It is really enjoyable to have these chickens and it is so cute to watch the rabbits chase each other in the morning as I stare out the window, drinking my coffee and eating my breakfast. 

Is There Anything Cake Can't Do?

Since I have moved in with the Starks', Eli and I have had our ups and downs. Lately, more downs than ups. His mother is a lot nicer than I am and more tolerate of his awful behavior. As a person who has been in education for over 10 years, I have a different approach to children than a mother would. Not only that, but I am firm, direct, and I will sit there and let you starve if you throw a fit about dinner. It is his choice if he wants to eat or not. And if his choice is to storm off and kick a box very loudly for 45 mins, fine. Wear yourself out! But, I guess I am just mean and it is why I don't have kids. However, Eli and I bonded today.

Eli loves Cake Boss. This is a show I used to watch a lot, too. Not so much anymore. However, I watched it with him last night. He started asking me questions about the history, asking me if I know certain techniques like the Cake Boss uses, etc. It was wonderful. By the end of the night, he was in the chair, sitting with me and we were talking about cake. It was so wonderful.

Today Eli and I decided to make cookies together. He wanted to make Halloween sugar cookies and frost them. He actually paid really close attention and wanted to help. He said, "this is the most funnest day I have ever had!" Every part was his favorite part. Sifting the flours, pouring in the eggs, adding the sugar. He even tried gluten free cake for the first time. 


After we finished our dough for the cookies, we let it set in the freezer and went out to dinner for his brother's birthday. His plan was for us to bake and frost them while the family watched Waking Dead. We are not fans of the show because we think it is gross (second bonding moment of the day!) But, before we went to dinner, we decided to bake a cake since the baking bug had crawled into our brains.

We made a gluten free, pumpkin spice bundt cake with a cream cheese drizzle and a walnut crumble (walnuts I shelled myself from walnuts in the backyard!) It was perfect. He was so helpful and helped me with the dishes. He said he would be the dish drier and went on about how he would never be a dishwasher at a restaurant :) This seven year old boy worked so hard today. The boy who never tries new things tried something new. I got him to shower, wear pants, and clean without being asked. I couldn't believe it. I actually convinced a seven year old boy to take a shower, all because of cake. Is there nothing sweets can't do? 

Eli baked with me all day. We got home from dinner and we got out our dough. It needed to sit out for a little while, so we started on our royal icing. We made orange, green, blue, and yellow. Our cookie shapes were pumpkins and ghosts. He did such a great job frosting all the cookies and said one day he and I would have our own baker. 

After we were done baking, he said it was time for us to go watch Cake Boss so we can learn some more techniques. We crawled into the large chair with me and fell asleep in my lap watching some crazy Italian-American from Jersey frost giant cakes:) I hope his dreams are just as sweet. Tomorrow: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Stay tuned:)

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

·         4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon baking powder

·         1/2 teaspoon salt

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

·         2 cups granulated sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1.     Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

2.     Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten each half into a disk. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

3.     Preheat oven to 325 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough between two pieces of plastic wrap to 1/4 inch thick. Remove top layer of plastic wrap. Cut out cookies with a 4-inch one-piece-shaped cookie cutter. To make an ornament, cut out a hole from the center of the neck about 1/4-inch from the edge using a straw. Transfer cookie dough on plastic wrap to a baking sheet. Transfer baking sheet to freezer, freeze until very firm, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet from freezer and transfer shapes to baking sheets lined with nonstick baking mats. Roll out scraps, and repeat. Repeat with remaining disk of dough.

4.        Bake, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Royal Icing 

Ingredients

·         1/2 cup meringue powder

·         8 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1.         Using a hand mixer with the beater attachments, beat together meringue powder with 1 cup water until peaks form. Add sugar and continue mixing until smooth. If mixture seems too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix until desired consistency is reached. If mixture seems too thin, add confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached

           Ingredients

·         Nonstick cooking spray, for pan

·         4cups Pamela’s gluten free baking flour

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         1 tablespoon ground ginger

·         2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

·         1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

·         1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

·         1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan

·         2 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar

·         4 large eggs

·         1 cup buttermilk

·         1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree

           Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 14-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Dust with flour, and tap out excess.

2.        Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.

3.        Beat butter and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to low. Beat in flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat until just combined. Add pumpkin puree, and beat until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan Bake cake until golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Carefully turn cake onto rack too cool completely.

My drive up the canyon

As I was driving up the canyon today, I forgot where I was for a moment. The winding road and the changing colors of the leaves reminded me of the fall in Vermont when I was in college. With the tires gliding around every curve, my body swaying in a constant, delicate motion, my eyes are forcefully on the road in an attempt not to stare at the trees. The rusted red, burnt orange and lustrous, golden leaves are mesmerizing and still today, a picture is not a beautiful as it being seen with my own eyes. As the car slowly embraces each curve, I am in no rush to reach the top. I am enchanted by the vibrant colors and desperate for a break in the canyon so I can sneak a peek at what is below me. Suddenly there is a change of scenery and I am in a forest of Quaking Aspen. The leaves of the Aspen tremble in the breeze with their tall, white, slender trunks and their large black eyes staring at me as if they loved me and their delicate leaves waving hello, welcoming me. My flash back is over and I come back, leaving behind my nostalgia. This is to no disappointment. As much as I loved Vermont, Utah is my home. I am not a native, but I have chosen Utah and I will forever be grateful for my choice. 

This is the Best Thing I have Ever put in my Mouth

Earlier this week I made a gluten free, lemon blueberry cake. It was the first three layered cake I had ever made. In between the the layers, I put homemade blueberry jam (well, I put blueberries in the food processor, then added sugar and heated it up. Is that technically jam?) The frosting was beautiful. I took 1/4 cup of water and added it to a cup of sugar on the stove and stirred while it heated up. Then once it started boiling I stopped stirring and let it heat up to 238 degrees. Then I put it in my mixer with eggs and butter and slowly poured the hot mixture into the mixture with some lemon zest. This was the most decedent, creamy frosting I had ever had. It was beautiful. Issac (Holly's son) came over this weekend for his birthday and there happened to be one slice left. He was lucky I let him have it. He walked away screaming, "This is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth!" It made my day

Ingredients

Cake

·         2 sticks butter, room temperature

·         2 C granulated sugar

·         2 tsp grated lemon zest

·         1 1/2 tsp lemon extract

·         7 egg whites

·         3 C cake flour

·         4 tsp baking power

·         1/4 tsp salt

·         1 1/4 C whole milk

·         1 13 oz. jar blueberry jam with lemon juice

·          

Frosting

·         1 C granulated sugar

·         1/4 C water

·         2 eggs

·         3 sticks ( 1 1/2 C) butter, room temperature

·         2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

·         1 Tbsp grated lemon zest

·         Instructions

·         Cake

1.         Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.         Grease and flour 3 eight inch cake pans and line bottom with wax paper.

3.         Cream together butter, sugar, lemon zest and lemon extract until fluffy.

4.         Add in the egg whites gradually, a couple at a time. Beat well between additions and scrape down sides of bowl.

5.         Mix together in another bowl the flour, baking powder and salt.

6.         Alternating flour and milk, beat the dry ingredients and milk into the butter mixture. Beat on medium speed for one minute to eliminate any lumps.

7.         Set aside 1 cup of batter in a small bowl.

8.         Divide the remaining batter between the three cake pans, smooth top with spatula.

9.         Add 2 1/2 Tbsp jam to the reserved batter and mix well.

10.       Drizzle by the teaspoon over the batter in the pans.

11.       Use a wooden skewer to swirl the blueberry mixture into the lemon batter without mixing it in.

12.       Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean and cake pulls away from the sides.s

13.       Let cool for 10-15 minutes and remove from pan onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Frosting

1.         In a small pan combine the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stir to dissolve sugar.

2.         Continue boiling without stirring. Use a pastry brush and some water to wash down the sides of the pan to remove sugar on the sides of pan. Heat until syrup reaches the soft ball stage or 238 degrees. Immediately remove from heat.

3.         In a large mixer beat the eggs briefly on medium speed.

4.         Slowly add the hot syrup in a thin stream, pouring it down the sides of the bowl. Do not allow it to hit the beaters or may splash.

5.         After all the syrup has been added raise speed to medium high speed and beat until the mixture is fluffy and cooled to body temperature. About 15-20 minutes.

6.         Reduce speed to medium low and gradually add the softened butter 2 - 3 Tbsp at a time, beat well between additions.

7.         Add in lemon juice and zest.

8.         To assemble cake place one layer on cake stand and spread with half the blueberry jam. Place second layer on top and spread with the remaining blueberry jam. Add third layer and frost the cake on top and the sides with buttercream. Garnish with blueberries and lemon slices

Serve and enjoy.

Splitting Hares

If any of you read my blog, you know I share a residence with 13 chickens and 5 rabbits. One of those rabbits is Lilly. She is the rabbit I have been trying to get used to me so we can have her in the house with Bobo. Well, surprise surprise. It looks as if my sweet Lilly cakes may be Lillyboy. Either Lilly is a boy, or somehow, Chuck, the neighbor bunny impregnated one of our girls. Two nights ago, we found 7 baby bunnies outside. We were wondering why they were digging such a big hole in the backyard. We honestly thought she was just creating a den. We had no idea we had babies cutie pies on our hands:) It took us two days to catch them all. I caught the first one and named her Alice. She is a Lionhead breed, pure white with red eyes. She has the cutest squished nose and looks like a little cotton ball. I love her so much. There are three brown ones like Lilly, 3 white ones, and one little grey one. They are so precious and amazing. Sadly, we have only caught 5 of them. There are two still out there, sad and lonely without their mother. One of the other female rabbits made her way into the hole today. I noticed some blood spots on her white fur. I fear she has killed the other babies. We have not seen them all day. I really hope I am wrong, but I am afraid she they are not with us anymore:( I will keep you readers posted

Coop de Jour

Today was a day of hard labor. We ripped up the old chicken run and cleaned out the coop. I had on my boots with my jeans tucked in and my fleece with a vest zipped over it. I looked like a real Utahan and I felt like a farmer :) I love working with tools and I have a strange love and desire for manual labor. I love to build structures and hard work that requires getting dirty brings me much joy. After clearing out run and digging up my own dirt to fill in holes, I cleaned out the chicken coop and helped build a structure to keep our baby bunnies in so they could play in the yard. After a long, hard day of work in the cool fall air, nothing in this world sounded as good as a simple chicken and rice soup. I chopped up my carrots, onion, celery, and chicken, chopped some lemon basil from the garden and cooked all my veggies on the stove until they were soft. I added my 2 quarts of stocks, one cup of water and brought it to a boil. I salted and peppered my chicken and added it with the rice. Unfortunately, the rice is still not done. It is taking far longer than I want it to, but I have tasted it and it is great. I cannot wait to make a small bowl of warm soup and rest my eyes.

Bitch Fest

The world of culinary art has been unkind to me. There is nobody to cook for and those I have cooked for have liked it, and the food has been good, but it just wasn't enough for me. Something is missing and I can't seem to figure out what it is... ummm... maybe it is the fact that I am cooking in other people's kitchens and I don't have one of my own and the fact that my life is being held hostage and I don't have anything that belongs to me. I have been so lonely lately because nobody will let me cook. I wanted to roast a duck for Thanksgiving and make a real fest, but nobody wanted it. I wanted to do the same for Christmas, and my parents want to go out. I have cooked for a few friends and that has been fun, but once again, in their kitchens. There is something unkind about that to me. It seems violating and weird and I am not sure why. I had one disaster. I made lavender rosette teacakes and they tasted like bath oil. They were very cute and pretty, but lord they tasted like I licked someone's foot after an aromatic bath.

I did make a pretty good meal for my friend. He invited me over to cook dinner for him and I made my stuffed chicken with spinach and provolone cheese and added a wonderful mushroom cream sauce to the top, a recipe that was my inner Julia Child. He bought a soft red and I was not happy about it. He said not everything is about me. I found it selfish considering I was a guest for one and two, he isn't a wine drinker. Maybe things are not about me, but the wine should be my choice. I guess he felt that since he paid for it he could buy what he wanted and it wasn't about making me, his guest happy. He did it to prove a point in my opinion. This is the difference between my culture at home and everyone else's. My mom raised me better than that. Say what you want about her, but I have great manners and when I invite someone to my house and have them cook for me, I let them pick the wine and I certainly wouldn't go out and buy a sweet wine knowing they love full bodied. I have broken up with men for much less and I have learned my lesson with that one: Always bring my own wine. I don't deal well with men who do things just be controlling and prove a point and I felt that was his point. It was just rude in my opinion. I drank it and it was fizzy, sweet and did not go with what I cooked, but it did make a great deglaze, considering it was basically cooking wine. At any rate, I am completely miserable without a kitchen. I am at my mother's house, but she never eats. My step dad doesn't care about food and feels it is a waste of money to spend on anything but canned soup. I am so excited for the day when I get all my cooking stuff back and I have my own kitchen and I can listen to my cheesy 60 style French pop music in my cute apron and sing and cook and have people over who enjoy my cooking. I am sure I will find someone someday.