Happy Passover!

Today was the first day of Passover and tonight was our congregation's Second night Community Seder. It is a small congregation, but it has a solid can do attitude and we self cater this big event. We make the whole thing, from matzoh ball soup, to two kinds of meat, taters and so on in the synagogue's kitchen while various desserts brought in (I made a rather decadent dark chocolate torte that was inhaled).

So this was the sight that greeted me when I arrived. Salads were being set up in the area next to the main hall. When it was time to settle down for the meal a couple of people from each table would bring them in. I thought it was a beautiful sight and promptly dug out my camera. I think there were 90 salads made and all but three were eaten. As always it was a great meal and a wonderful service. A nice way to start passover.

Chicken Pot Yum

chicken pot yum, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

For a while I have been making chicken pot pies from scratch. I really like that I can take a left over roasted chicken and get at least one more meal out of it, two if I count the soup from the stripped carcass. all it takes is double pie crust, an onion, leftover gravy, chicken, mixed vegetables, and a bit of rosemary. Pretty much everybody likes it.

Yesterday's pie was particularly glorious. I have gotten the crust down to a science and the leftover gravy was particularly good. It does my frugal Yankee soul some good when I can get so much out of one tasty bird.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Our New Years Eve treat is baked brie with fresh baguettes.

The bread was hugely successful while the cheese only appealed to the older half of the family. Jacob had to run back upstairs to stop himself from eating all the brie. Meanwhile, Larry and I keep going back for one more piece. It's a nice change from the usual desserty type thing. The crusty bread, still warm from the oven, is lovely with the honey drizzled and baked brie.

Raspberry Drop

Raspberry, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Last week Jacob was having a little late nigt snack of raspberries when he noticed the water drop on top of the one he was about to eat. He marveled at how the surface tension of the water held it in domed shape. Thenhe showed me the berry with it's water drop and asked me to take a picture.

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. II took three shots and this one (the third) was the best. I used the microwave's door as a backdrop, I knew the black surface would show off the droplet perfectly. A little tweaking of the color and crop that tightened up the photo was all that I did.

Please Explain

Texas brand, but from Wisconsin, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I love Jacob's sense of humor, it's not that far off from mine. We find the same things funny and gleefully point them out to each other. Case in point, the can Jacob noticed on the shelf at Walmart.

Neither of us could get over the fact that the label boldly proclaims "Texas Brand" with smaller letters stating "made in Wisconsin." So many questions, is it Texan or is it Wisconsin. Clearly not from the lone star state, since it it is made in Wisconsin and yet Texas Brand, Thus is it just Texas style? Also why the big deal that it is made in Wisconsin.

We will probably never learn the reasoning behind this label, but it did amuse us and was worthy of a picture.

Cock-a-Leekie-soup

This past week I achieved the hat trick of dinner, three dinners for six people from one chicken.

First up was my basic roast chicken, it was a large bird and we didn't even come close to finishing it. A few days later I stripped off the dark meat and with the leftover gravy I made a chicken pot pie. Today I stripped the remaining white meat and used the carcass to make the stock for cock-a-leekie soup. The meat was added back to the finished stock and thus the bird was completely used up.

The recipe for the soup I got from the book "Ruhlman's Twenty," an excellent book that teaches you 20 basic techniques and has 100 recipes. I requested it when my mom was wondering what to get me and it is just as good as I thought it would be. I highly recommend it for any cook.

I will not post the recipe here and I can't find his version on the web, but I can tell you it is a very simple chicken soup with leeks. Rebecca has been begging for me to make matzo ball soup, however passover is coming up and I told her she'll get her fill soon enough.. This soup filled the bill and used up the last of my roasted chicken. The boys were less than thrilled with soup for dinner, so I mollified them with grilled cheese sandwiches. Sadly there is no picture since it was all gobbled up.

I like it when I can get more than one meal out of a bird.

Soup Weather

matzoh ball soup, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Winter has finally arrived with a vengeance. The 60+ degree weather is over for now. It has been dipping well below freezing and we have had the snow flurries to prove it.

I made this soup Wednesday, Rebecca has pestered me for some time to make matzoh ball soup and I had a couple of picked over roasted chicken carcasses in the freezer. I knew that Wednesday was going to be crazy and dinner would be easy with soup. People could serve themselves at their convenience.

It turned out to be a very good call.

Rebeca's soccer practice was canceled but Jacob had a basketball game to attend with pep band. Meanwhile home network was giving me fits. We switched our phone over to voip and it turned out our router was not up to the job. I spent a long time on my cell phone with a technical specialist to find out why the phone did not work. The oddest part was when I did get the right person on the phone he started our conversation in French.

Huh!?

Somewhere along the line he was told I spoke French. Which I found to be extremely funny. I bagged French after my freshman year in high school and never looked back. I can read very basic French, but that's it. The spoken language is beyond me. Fortunately he spoke perfect English and was able to suss out the likely culprit.

One quick trip to Walmart later I had a brand new router that is able to play nicely with our new phone system.

As for the soup, it came out mighty tasty. I used leeks instead of onions and that turned out to be an excellent idea.

Waffle Crab

Crab Waffle, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

The waffle maker we got Max has proven to be a great success, he loves having fresh, homemade waffles (almost) anytime he wants. The rest of us have been enjoying waffles as well since since Max can only eat so much waffle at one sitting and it would be a shame to waste the batter. Nate and Rebecca have been the main beneficiaries and once in a while I get to eek out one for myself.

This rather crabby looking waffle was the result of my having just enough batter to make half a waffle. As I pulled it out of the maker I noticed that some of the excess batter had spilled onto the other half and they looked a bit like claws. A generous dollop of whip cream and two blueberries later, waffle crab was born.

I think it's the funniest thing I have ever inadvertently created and it will probably never be recreated.

Yorkshire Pudding

yorkshire pudding, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This week I made a glorious yorkie pudding. They always tasted great, but were sadly lacking in the puff factor. This time, however,  I completely nailed it. Instead of all flat and sad looking this one had all the wonderful hills and valleys of a true Yorkshire pudding.

I think I finally got it figured out between the batter, temperature, drippings (with just a bit of butter to pad it out), and rack placement. It was a delicious accompaniment to a lovely bit of beef that Meryl picked up for our midwinter feast (we have a deal that she picks out the meat and I cook it with all the trimmings).

All and all a lovely meal was had by all.

Mmm, Turkey Pot Pie

pie, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

One of the best things about Thanksgiving is the leftovers. I used to be that I was stuck with a boatload of meat and after a couple of days we would all be sick of it.

Then I discovered the joys of the homemade pot pie.

With my scratch crust I have a meal the whole family likes. I had to wait until today to make it, because not everybody has been home for dinner the past couple of days. So there was much happiness among the kids when they saw me making pie crust and chopping up leftover turkey meat.

All that is left of our dear departed turkey are the bones, I think I'll be making soup in the near future.

Ginger

ginger, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Part of the traditional big Thanksgiving  run up for those cooking  is the buying of the ingredients. I try to minimize last minute store runs, but alas there always seems to be that one ingredient. This year it was the acorn squash, I completely forgot about it until the Wednesday before.

Then there is the one thing you can't find. One year it was sage flavored sausage, I had it improvise with plain and load up the stuffing with sage. Another year there was the great pumpkin shortage, fortunately I had a can hidden in my pantry and I was able to make my pumpkin pie. This year it was crystallized ginger, an important ingredient for our cranberry relish.

I went to three different grocery stores, two didn't even carry it and the third was sold out. I could have gone farther afield, but I decided my time was better spent making my own dang ginger. I settled on Alton Brown's recipe and used a pound of fresh ginger. It was pretty straight forward, however it took me twice as long to cook down the ginger syrup mixture than the 20 minutes sited in the recipe. I used my food processor to slice the ginger using my ultra fine blade so as to get consistently thin slices. The end result was well worth the effort, I have a boatload of very flavorful candied ginger that is full of zing. I love the stuff and I can eat it like candy. It's a very nice that I can now make my own.

Oh and I picked up the neatest trick for peeling ginger, use a spoon!

Alimation

Continuing on with NIAFPHFPPW I give you a little eye candy in video form. Alimation from Alexandre DUBOSC on Vimeo.

One Down, One to Go

For Potluckpalooza.

Today was preview night and potluck dinner for Jacob's marching band. The kids have been working hard on the new show for the past two weeks and tonight was the big preview for friends and family. The theme is Little Red Riding Hood and i think it was the best use of color guard that I have seen for our band. The guard is more fully incorporated and no longer look like an afterthought. As for the music, the band sounded great with a very big sound. Which was pretty impressive since they were playing all of today at band camp.

So we were a very happy crowd when we all filed in for the big potluck. There was a ton of food. I made a double size lasagna and one and a half loaves of white bread.  And why the half loaf you ask, well today is the day to drop off entries for the county fair. I decided to kill two birds with one stone. the recipe is for two loaves of bread and I all needed one half for my entry.

Tomorrow I get to do the whole potlucky thing again with out congregation, it's our Friday Food, Fun and Worship. This will be a much smaller crowd so I think I will be making spinach squares, challah, and some sort of dessert.

It's a fair amount of scrambling about to do these potlucks with all the cooking and schlepping of food, but they are well worth the effort.

Project MCP: Red, White, and Blue

Happy Birthday Krispy Kreme, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

And a big happy 75th birthday to Krispy Kreme.

July's second challenge for Proct MCP was "Red, White, and Blue." I wasn't sure how I was goingto do it since I missed both fireworks and my subdivisions little parade held every Fourth of July. I could just stage something, but I was hoping to do better than that.

Meanwhile today was Krispy Kreme's 75th birthday. It celebrate the dough nut shops were offering for every dozen dounghnuts purchased a second dozen of original glazed could be had for 75¢. When I pulled up at 9ish the drive through line was wrapped all the way around the building and even extended out on the street. Doughnut loving Richmond was out in full force.

As I slowly edged into the parking lot a space freed up and I was able to park. The line was no better inside, but at least I was no longer wasting gas while the car's engine endlessly idled. As I waited and waited I called home (with no luck) to see if there were any requests, took a picture of the doughnut production line, and posted said picture on Facebook. Eventually it was my turn and I picked out and assortment of chocolate iced doughnuts, plain, with sprinkles and custard filled. That pretty much covers what ever special request that the kids would have made if they had ever answered the phone.

Anyhoo, as I stared at the case awaiting my turn I noticed the chocolate iced with sprinkles had red, white, and blue sprinkles.

Woot! I had my red, white, and blue picture.

And so it came to be that Krispy Kreme saved my bacon with Project MCP.

Baking With Julia- Lemon Loaf

Lemon Loaf, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This month's second challenge from Baking with Julia was Lemon Loaf. For details on how to bake the cake head on over to Treats (which has a nice modification) and The Beauty of Life that has a very bittersweet post.

I'm so very glad that this cake came after Passover, it made for a very nice post-Pesach treat. Though really, I was just happy neither of the challenges were scheduled then. Yes I could have baked in advance, but it would have felt all wrong to blog about chametz.

Anyhoo, the cake itself is a snap to make. It's nice to make something simple and unfussy. The lemon flvor is mild, but I expect it to deepen over time.My only complaint is that the cake was quite dry. A tall glass of milk is in order with a nice dollop of whipped cream on the slice. Diane had an excellent idea of macerated strawberries as a topping. I might just have to pick up a pint of two of strawberries.

Baking With Julia- Pizza Rustica

Pizza Rustica, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Today's recipe for Baking with Julia was Pizza Rustica. You can get a full run down on how to make it over at Capital Region Dining Blog and The Place They call Home. And of course you should check out Tuesdays with Dorie for the whole story.

I was a little apprehensive over the whole baking thing this month, however it all fell in place. The two Tuesdays selected very nicely bracket Passover. I know I could bake ahead if there had been a conflict, but it would have seem wrong to be promoting some sort of chametz  during Passover.

Pizza Rustica 2, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Pizza Rustica is considered traditional Easter fare in Italy. It did seem similar to some of what I remember Mama Leonardi would make for Easter. She was an amazing cook and we used to go to her house all the time and were considered part of the family. I need to big up some of the family photos we had been included in. With my dark hair I blended in, but my brother with his blond hair stuck out like a beacon.

Anyhoodle, back to the backed good of the day.

 The dish itself is not all what Americans would consider to be pizza, it is much more similar to a sort of dense quiche. The crust is made with sugar to provide a sweet counterpoint to the savory and salty filling. I was not a fan of the sweetness, I would probaly halve the sugar next time I make it. The filling on the other hand was great. I really enjoyed the pie. The only change I might do to the filling is throw in some onions.

I think I will make it again . It was very delicious and I ate far too much of it for lunch. By breakfast, however, I had learned my lesson!

10 Years of IEATAPETA

I can't believe it, but it's the 10th anniversary of International Eat A Tasty Animal For PETA Day. I'm a dedicated omnivore and I happily go along with the whole idea behind IEATAPETA, Meryl has the full run down here.

We started out with sausages for breakfast plus Rebecca and I split a mom mcmuffin- fried egg, cheese, Canadian bacon, all on a toasty buttered English muffin. Lunch was leftover pumpkin pie (eggs, butter, and milk) with a tall glass of milk. I snacked on a few beef raviollis afterwards to pad it out. Dinner was grilled barbeque chicken breasts and beer (hey don't forget the poor little exploited yeast).

So yeah, I think we had it covered. Oh and peta can go stuff it.

What Happened on Tuesday

King Cake, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

For whatever reason I got into the spirit of Fat Tuesday and decided I should make a King Cake. I don't know why I got this notion, but after a bit of searching on the internets I found a likely candidate over at Gourmet Girl. I wasn't in the mood for the more traditional cinnamon type of cake, cream cheese filling was what I wanted. Mind you I have only had King Cake once before and that was about 16 years ago when I was in Louisiana for a field trial. So I'm far from an expert and this is uncharted territory for me. The recipe seemed to be fairly straight forward and I was willing to give it a shot.

It all came together very easily. I had most of the ingredients on hand, the exceptions being the colored sugars. Purple was impossible to find so I had to make my own with a few drops each of blue and red food coloring. The only modification I made was to the icing. I tasted it as I was mixing it up and thought it tasted to strongly of raw sugar. I made an impromptu double boiler with the bowl and a pot of boiling water and threw in a tablespoon or so of butter (everything is better with butter). After 10 minutes it tasted much better and was a breeze to drizzle onto the cooled cake. I sprinkled on the sugars and I was very pleased with the end result. As for taste, it was scrumptious! The lemon was a nice counterpoint to the sugar and the cream cheese. This one is a keeper.

Jambalaya, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Now I couldn't just have King Cake and I decided if I was in for a penny I should be in for a pound. I have always wanted to make jambalaya and this would be as good a time as any. I always thought jambalaya smelled wonderful, but each time I was offered some shrimp/crayfish/prawns were involved and I am horribly allergic to them. S back to the internet, I decided to make one with chicken and andouille sausage.

The jambalaya was little harder to make than the cake. I found the sausage right off the bat, but the seasonings were much harder to come by. In fact I never did find the file powder. Rebecca was a bit concerned about my skipping an ingredient, but I explained to her that this was spicy enough and we wouldn't miss it. Which brings me to the other modifications I made. I like some heat, but I could tell this would blow my socks off. I decided to half the amount of red pepper flakes and entirely omitted the hot sauce. Larry loves spicy food so I gave him the hot sauce on the side. As for the peanut oil, I switched it over to olive because Rebecca and I seem to have a minor peanut allergy.

Turns out toning down the spices was a very good idea. It was at the upper range of what I can tolerate and was beyond Max and Rebecca, Jake was basically okay with it as was Nate, and Larry happily poured on the hot sauce. It was very tasty, smelled wonderful, and will definitely be repeated.

Chocolate Covered Oreo Truffles

oreo truffles, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Last week Rebecca had checked out from the school library The " Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunch-box Set." Inside were numerous recipes that Rebecca wanted to give a try, one of which was Oreo Truffles. I had just done a fair amount of baking and told her we would do it on Thursday and bring them over to the neighbor's house if we all got together the next day. Rebecca tought it was a good idea and was pretty patient all the way to last Wednesday, but I held firm.

I knew to would be too hard to hold off eating them if we made them before Thursday. I did, however, got the ingredients ahead of time to mollify Rebecca.

Thursday after school Rebecca was ready to roll. We had a brief snit over the cream cheese (she got impatient over how long it took to warm up), but that was our only problem. The Oreo truffles are ridiculously easy to make.

One 15 -18 oz bag of Oreos
8 oz of room temperature cream cheese
about a pound of melted dipping chocolate

Either crush the oreos in a plastic bag using a rolling pin or use a food processor, mix in the cream cheese, chill the dough for about an hour, make small (about and inch or less in diameter) balls of the chilled dough and dip them in the meted dipping chocolate. Plate on wax paper and chill until the coating hardens.

Rebecca was able to do most of the work, all I did was scrape out the food processor for her and dip the balls in the chocolate. I forgot the wax paper, but I was able to gently warm the bottom of the plates I put them on and that loosen the truffles enough so that I could remove them from the plate. The truffles themselves are delicious! They were a big hit with the neighbors and our family. We will definitely make these again.

Tiny Food

In honor of the upcoming food centric holiday I give you a video featuring tiny food.