meringue clouds

This is the best baking cookbook I own, with the clearest directions.  Every step is carefully measured and most are fully explained and I’ve learned so, so much from it.  And one of the main things that I’ve learned is that certain directions in baking exist for a reason, and they shouldn’t be cut.

Which is why it was really dumb of me to try to cut corners and which is why I fully deserved these dud meringues.  Sad though they made me.

The instructions said to carefully fold in the sugar with a spatula.  That seemed like a lot of extra effort when I already had the electric mixer hooked up.  The result?  Overmixed meringues that are flat and raw in the middle and made me a sad panda.

Next time I’ll follow the directions.  I promise.

meringue clouds, from Flour, pg 126

 

buttermilk waffles

Another day, another waffle recipe.  These were really good, a little bit crispy but also light and fluffy.  I’ll definitely be making these again.

buttermilk waffles, from New Basics, pg 452

quick tomato sauce

I had a bunch of tomatoes on the turn, and a few meatballs left in the freezer, and half an hour before the kids needed dinner, so I happened upon this recipe for “quick tomato sauce.”  However, the authoresses have a slightly different definition of “quick,” so dinner was pretty late.

I did sort of burn it, but it still tasted good.  Not, like, the most amazing sauce ever, but that probably had more to do with the quality of the tomatoes.  Half rotten tomatoes in February are not the best.

Good thing it made quite a bit, so I have a big jar in the fridge to use when in a hurry.

quick tomato sauce, from Silver Pg. 343.

Lemon-Raspberry Cake

This may have taken all day to make, required two trips to the grocery store (with 3 children in tow… not an easy or simple feat), and caused undo stress trying to keep my middle child from poking holes in the entire thing as he tried to eat the icing as I was decorating it… but it was worth it.

The cake itself was a little heavy: I whipped the egg whites in the stand mixer, as the directions instructed, and about 10 minutes later I called it a day.  I should have used the hand mixer.  But it was still delicious, and the icing was amazing.

If you do make this? Make sure you have enough eggs on hand.  It requires a full 14.  You can knock out some by using store-bought lemon curd, but the homemade lemon curd was so rich and delicious and not at all hard to make, so I do recommend making it.

Happy birthday to B, the most wonderful husband ever!

Lemon-Raspberry Cake, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 172

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

This is what B really wanted for his birthday.  He loves bread pudding and he loves chocolate, and he’s been begging for this recipe since the cookbook arrived.  After our dinner of cake, bread pudding with whipped cream and chocolate sauce made the perfect late night snack.

The recipe takes some planning, as it has o soak for 8-24 hours, but it was delicious.  Light and fluffy chocolate, with chunks of banana make a great contrast.  I’m sure I’ll be making this again.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 254

chocolate fudge sauce

I was told that I had promised to serve my chocolate banana bread pudding with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  Funny, I remember making no such promises.  However, it was easy enough to make: chocolate chips, butter, vanilla, and cream over a double boiler.

Chocolate fudge sauce, from The New Basics Cookbook.  Pg 662.

pizza dough made with whey

I have a whole lot of whey left over from the Ricotta I made yesterday, and this pizza dough was one of the recipe suggestions in the booklet.  It was super simple (mix flour, yeast, whey, and oil; knead; let rise 10 minutes; roll out) and really good.  I just used jarred pizza sauce and pre-shredded mozzarella.  Both kids even asked for seconds!

I have a lot more whey in the freezer, so I’ll definitely be making this again.

Pizza dough made with whey, from Ricki’s Mozzarella and Ricotta Kit.

Harvard Beets

Another recipe that is apparently a “real thing” that I’ve never heard of, as Harvard Beets seem to appear in an awful lot of my cookbooks.  I love beets, so I figured I’d give this a shot.

I think I didn’t use enough beets.  Either that, or I used too much vinegar.  I’m on a vinegar/pickled foods kick, but this was really overdoing it.  I’m intrigued by where this recipe was going (a gelatinous ruby red side dish), but it wasn’t quite there.  I’ll definitely be making this recipe again, from another cookbook, and then compare.

Harvard Beets, from From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, by Phyllis Pellman Good and Rachel Thomas Pellman.  Pg. 137

Spinach with Dressing

Another Amish recipe with a bit too much vinegar.  This time I know I followed the directions, but it was just… not good.  I don’t really like mayonnaise, either, so that was a bit much.  There are better ways to cook spinach.

Spinach with Dressing, from From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens, by Phyllis Pellman Good and Rachel Thomas Pellman.  Pg. 134

Premium macaroons

There’s junk food so bad it’s good, and there’s junk food so bad that it gets thrown away.  Seriously, even Bobs refused to eat these things.  Actually, that’s not true: he ate one, grimacing and wincing with each bite.  Then he’d stare at it, and take another bite.

We ended up throwing them away.  Seriously gross.  Too bad: it had potential as being the first kind of junk food.

Premium Macaroons, from the back of the Saltines box.

traditional baking powder biscuits

I think we’ve all noticed my biscuit love by now, and a request to my mother for her copy of this book resulted in her sending me my very own.  Hooray!  Thanks, Mom.  A whole book of biscuits.

The baking powder ones seemed a simple way to start, and boy were they amazing.  Just look at the rise on those babies.  They poofed straight up, and were as flaky and buttery and delicious as biscuits could possibly be.

I did substitute butter for the shortening.  Hello, Mr. Villas: it’s 2011.  I don’t even own shortening.  I’m sure that changed the texture, but these were so good it’s hard to see how they could be improved.

Traditional baking powder biscuits, from Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes, by James Villas.  Pg 10.

Mussel Chowder

Trader Joe’s had some canned mussels, and, without a clue as to what you do with canned mussels, I bought them.  There they sat in my cabinet for a few months, when I was going through this cookbook and found mussel chowder.  What an interesting idea.

This soup was really, really, really good.  It’s a milk based chowder (and I had a lot of extra milk, so I upped the milk), that obviously features mussels, as well as the usual chowder mainstays of potatoes and onions.  But the recipe also called for some carrots and leeks and a pepper, and these additions made it very interesting tasting.  The mussels themselves were rich and buttery and melted in your mouth.

Superb soup, and I’ll definitely make again.  So long as TJ’s keeps canned mussels on the shelves.

Mussel Chowder, from The New England Clam Shack Cookbook, by Brooke Dojny.  Pg 54.

banana donuts

My trusty donut maker, which is basically a waffle iron that makes donuts, is always handy when I want a quick junk food snack.  And I had some near-gone bananas, so I was quite happy to see this recipe in the recipe pamphlet that accompanied donut maker.

These were every bit as good as they looked.  The banana was an interesting flavor for a donut, but it worked very well.  I decided it needed a little extra oomph, so I coated them with some melted chocolate chips.

Banana Donuts, from the Russell Hobbs Donut Bites “Instructions and Warranty” booklet.  Pg. 12.

buttermilk waffles

Our meals were all off today, and B cooked the kids a huge hot lunch and then went out to a work networking event, so I wanted something nice and simple for dinner.  Usually when we have dinner for lunch, I make lunch for dinner: sandwiches and all that.  But then I decided, why not breakfast?

This is easily the easiest waffle recipe I’ve come across: no yeast, no rising time, no separating eggs.  And they were very, very good.  This will probably be my main waffle recipe that I use in the future.

Buttermilk Waffles, from Williams Sonoma Breakfast.  Pg. 21.

whole wheat corn bread

A very heavy cornbread that was perfect for the stew that we had it with.  It would probably hold up well if you poured a stew or some veggies in a thick sauce or something like that over it: I always like mixing bread and soup.  This recipe is exactly what it says: whole wheat and cornmeal are the only two flours in it.  It’s a bit too heavy to be my go-to cornbread recipe, but it definitely has its place.

Whole-wheat-corn-bread, from Ken Haedrich’s Country Baking.  Pg 45.

honey-glazed buttermilk ebelskivers

Snow days call for a special warm afternoon snack, and these sounded perfect.  They’re a bit heavier than the ebelskiver recipes I’ve tried before, which I think would have actually made them a better side dish than main dish.  It was all kind of a bit much.  I could see serving these as a side to a chilled berry soup.  Sans the honey glaze, which was very simple to do and added a light touch of crunchy goo to the exterior, they would be excellent for a savory hot soup.

Which is to say that they were very good, but they didn’t quite hit the mark as a stand-alone late afternoon snack.  At least for me, because I prefer my late afternoon snacks light.  The filled ebelskivers that I usually make are better for that.

Honey-glazed buttermilk ebelskivers.  From Ebelskivers: Filled Pancakes and Other Mouthwatering Miniatures, by Kevin Crafts.  Pg 30.

breakfast porridge

It has recently come to my attention that the instant oatmeal we buy which does not taste like crap is $5 a box.  And each child eats between 1 and 4 packages a morning.  I spend about $10 a week on instant oatmeal, which isn’t even very good for you.  So I started looking through oatmeal recipes, and this one was the least labor intensive.  No crockpot, no cooking for 40 minutes… just soak the oatmeal overnight with a little bit of buttermilk and then cook for 5 minutes in the morning.

I admit, I have a tiny bit of the so-called “traditional foods” woo.  Despite being a vegetarian.  I think that some, not all, of the theory behind it makes sense.  I read this cookbook for fun, but this is the first recipe I’ve ever cooked from it.  There’s some nachrel reason why you have to soak it overnight (sprouted grains are best and it dissolves some sort of acid that you can’t digest and maybe something about fermented too.  I dunno.  All I know is that this was the easiest recipe.

And it was really good, too.  Better than instant.  Creamy and thick, but no lumps even though no stirring was required.  I served it mixed with some golden raisins, a small pat of butter, and a little bit of maple sugar.  It was so good, I had two servings, and Bobs had four.  Seriously.  Bibs, on the other hand, wouldn’t touch it.  She freaked out and insisted on oatmeal.  It’s gonna be tough for her when we finally run out of the current boxes we have.  No way am I continuing to spend $5 a box when this is healthier, only takes about 4 minutes longer, and actually tastes better.

Then I made sure to put undershirts on both kids (the baby’s always wearing a onesie under her clothes, so that amounts to the same thing) and I felt like a proper old-fashioned mama.

Breakfast porridge, from Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The Diet Dictocrats, by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig.  pg 455

Potato-Carrot-Spinach Soup

A deliciously creamy soup with a deep and interesting flavor.  B even loved it, though of course the kids didn’t touch much.  I ate the whole bowl without even noticing, and I’m looking forward to the leftovers tomorrow.

Very, very easy to make, too.  Boil potatoes and carrots in water, add sauteed onions, blend.  Add spinach leaves, serve.  I tried to increase the chances that small people would actually eat it by blending the spinach leaves, too.  I think it worked better: who wants to eat giant spinach leaves in your soup?

Potato-Carrot-Spinach Soup, from the Beyond the Moon Cookbook, by Ginny Callan.  Pg 91

Buttermilk Biscuits

A good, solid buttermilk biscuit recipe, with nice fluffy and flaky results.  You may have noticed that I have a thing for biscuits, and am constantly looking for the perfect recipe.  My mother has a whole cookbook about biscuits, and I think I need to steal it next time I visit her!

This is just a basic buttermilk biscuit recipe, but really what more do you need?  I’ve made it before and I’ll definitely be making it again.  It’s a very good recipe indeed.

Buttermilk Biscuits, from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.  Pg 32

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Maybe shortening is the answer.

First off, let me say that the dough for these cookies was amazing.  What a strange thing to review, but I could.not.stop.nibbling at it.  It was like eating a ball of chewy butter and brown sugar.  But when baked: eh.  I’m someome who firmly believes that oatmeal raisin cookies should be as chewy as humanly possible.  But all the butter in these made them sorta crispy.

Which is fine if you like crispy oatmeal raisin cookies.  I just don’t particularly.

I feel bad giving this recipe a “meh,” because this is still my very favorite baking cookbook in the universe, and it feels traitorous to say something even a little bit negative, considering that I want to have babies with this cookbook.  But I gotta be honest.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, by Joanne Chang.  Pg 112