life of seven

Cream Puff Fail

See those popovers in the top picture? I've made several patches lately, like, every weekend for breakfast, and they've come out perfectly. Each time, I've worried and fretted upon placing them in the oven, certain they weren't going to puff this time, and then upon gazing into the oven through the little window, discovered, to my utter joy, that no, they actually did puff!

Last week I got the notion to make cream puffs, glorious delicious cream puffs. I found a random recipe online and while I nervously watched them the same way I did the popovers, they puffed perfectly and I began to grow confident.

I checked out Comfort Foods by Jamie Oliver at the library. Remember my reading goals? Well if there's one thing I enjoy reading, it's a well written cookbook. Nigella Lawson's are my favorites. She can make anything sound delicious, even beets and carrot salads. She makes me wish I liked raisins. And, she's British. What's not to love? Jamie Oliver is fun too, though his foods are often a little strange sounding to me. Come to think of it, before this week, I don't know that I've ever cooked any of his recipes, though I've read several of his cookbooks I've gotten at the library. Comfort foods, that sounds great. British comfort foods: yes, just labeling them "British" automatically elevates the comfort level a notch.

So, I tried out his recipe for cream puffs. I made a double recipe because I was planning to print them to little afternoon tea party we were having with some friends. I pulled the batch out of the oven, and sadly, they had.not.puffed. My confidence in my ability to make puffy egg pastries waned a bit and I grew suspicious, but didn't know what to be suspicious of yet. Obviously, I had made a perfect batch last week, so what could have gone wrong this time? Maybe it was the double batch I had made. Maybe I had added an extra cup of flour in when doubling. Maybe it was the recipe...Unfortunately I hadn't followed the recipe to the letter- that could have been my problem. I have trouble following recipes to the letter. I had used water instead of the called for milk, because I had never seen a recipe for choux pastry dough before that called for milk. Well, I decided to give it another try, this time a single batch, and obey Jamie Oliver: just make a single recipe, use milk, and bake it at the suggested oven temperature, even though other recipes I'd looked at suggested a higher temp.

This time the little pastries began to puff a bit, though not as high as I would have liked, and then, when I took them out of the oven, they deflated depressingly within a minute. I tried to fill the little puffs with whipped cream still, but they would have none of it. There was nowhere for the whipped cream to go because they didn't have a big air filled cavity. Dejectedly, I realized I would have no beautiful cream puffs to take to the tea. And I still don't know what/who to blame. I'm sure another minute or two in the oven would have helped, or should I have gone with the higher temperature I've seen other chefs recommend, Alton Brown being one of them? Is it the mile above sea level that wreaked havoc on my recipe?

Instead of a photo of beautiful cream puffs, I'll leave you a picture of Pepper, instead. If ever it were possible for a dog to absorb and learn to appreciate classical music, it is she. I'm curious what it sounds like to her ears. Random noises? Is she as relieved as the rest of us when Gideon begins to learns something new on the piano?

 

French Onion Soup, a breakdown

French Onion Soup from last night. So. Good. It's one of my favorite things on earth. It has the added benefit of being made with homemade beef stock, which I fed to a happy Clemmie. For her first foods I've been giving her homemade stock, a new, or possibly old, fangled- take your pick- idea that you start babies off with these days, as opposed to grains and fruit. Hey, I'm open to new ideas, if only to stay on top of trends, because that's how I roll (snort). I like to stay ahead of the pack, ya know? (cracking up over here)

Anyway, theoretically the soup is simple: first, boil lots and lots of beef bones. Two meals worth of leftover beef ribs taken from out of the freezer for such a time as this, simmered for hours with the addition of carrots and celery for Clementine to consume later, minus the salt since she's not supposed to have that yet (and you know me- I like to make sure I do everything by the book...now my real life friends reading this are snorting right along with me: you can stop laughing, guys).

Whatever. Anyway, once you remove a small quantity of broth for Baby (or you may skip that step if everyone in the house is old enough to consume salt), then salt to taste. Or, cheat, like I did, because despite the fact that I boiled close to 20 beef rib bones, the broth was still a little bland for my taste. I added almost a whole jar of beef bouillon stock or whatever that black pasty stuff is called. Real appetizing, right? But trust me, it will beef up that beef broth flavor in a big way. 

Strain the broth. I have a really cool strainer that I think is supposed to be used when making jellies and jams? I think that's what my mom told me it was, but I use it for broth. Oh, it saves a world of trouble. Really. I used to avoid making homemade broth all the time and I couldn't ever remember why until I got to this step: there was just no easy way to strain all the weird little bits of gross stuff in the broth and then it would settle to the bottom of the jar and look wholly unappetizing. Or I would be a good girl and line the strainer with cheesecloth and attempt to pour the huge pot of scalding hot broth through the strainer and cheesecloth and into the clean pan. Then I would remember why I avoided homemade stock. Stock/broth, whatever, I'm not a technical cook. So, that special strainer thingie- I should figure out what it's called so you can find one, too. Life saver.

After straining the broth, you need to saute the onions. Actually, you can do this whenever, that is, whenever you have a good block of time. Because you need to take plenty of time with this. I sliced 7 red onions for mine. I'm weird, and so is Cate, in that we secretly snack on the caramelized red onions out of the pan and so they slowly disappear and I never have as much as I thought when I started. Plus, they reduce quite a bit even if you don't sneak the onions out of the pan. But it's like candy, Man!

Onions: a full stick of butter is about right. Sprinkle on 1/4 cup brown sugar, and stir and stir over low heat. An hour or so will do.

Now, add onions to the broth, grate plenty of gruyere, swiss, and Jarlsberg cheese, in any combination, toast slices of buttered french bread in the 550 degree oven, and....yeah...um...

This is the part that I remember why I don't make this every week. Aarrrgh. Somehow, find enough oven proof bowls for the whole family, except that some of the family doesn't like the soggy bread/crouton. Fill their bowls separately. Pour soup into the bowls that are going into the oven. Quickly place bread on top of soup and try to not slosh the soup over the sides. Sprinkle lots and lots of cheese on top. Great. Half of the expensive European cheese has fallen off the bowl and some has fallen in the soup bowl and the bread that had been heaping with cheese now looks almost naked. Place bowl into the oven that feels like the fiery furnace and make sure that all toddlers in the kitchen are shooed far, far away. Repeat times 1,2,3,4, or 5, or however many are eating your soup. Thank God that you didn't invite company over for dinner that night.

Now for the part that fills your soul with dread and fear: get the biggest, puffiest oven mitts that you own, pull open the oven door: great, there are 4 scalding bowls of soup on the rack, three of them are burning where the bread didn't get sufficiently covered with cheese, and as you pull the rack, the bowls get jostled and drip to the oven floor, sending up smoke and splashing on your, hopefully sufficiently thick, oven mitt. Place on a hot pad at the table.

Turn off the fire alarm, open the windows, and repeat ad. nauseum with remaining bowls of soup.

Call family to the table, remember who wants which soup toppings and shriek with terror when the three year old reaches to grab hold of the searing hot handle of his soup bowl.

Wait for 30-45 minutes until soup has cooled enough to actually eat without burning every tastebud in your mouth, and then, thoroughly enjoy the best tasting soup known to man.

 

On making bread

Years and years ago, when Cate was a baby, before I learned about nice yarn to knit with, and when sewing and I didn't get along- oh wait, that's still the case- I had lots of empty hours to fill my days with, and since I have always been a hands on-what can we make today? kind of girl, I decided to try to make bread. Not the typical loaf of homemade bread I had grown up making every week with my mom: the crumbly, dry, poorly textured bread that was only good fresh from the oven or toasted. No, REAL bread, with big holes, a chewy crust, an amazing smell and texture. And crackly crispy sound when taken out of the oven.

I got dozens of library books on it before I finally happened upon Breads from LaBrea Bakery, where Nancy Silverton explained that the key was using a natural sourdough starter, rather than following the common path of dumping all the ingredients in a bowl, kneading them, letting it rise, placing it in a bread pan, letting it rise again, and baking.It's in the slow rise. This set me on the right track and I began to make some semi successful loaves of bread, but ultimately my oven was my main cause of failure. It was just impossible to get it hot enough, and full of steam. This was frustrating, but at least I learned a lot about bread. I think I could give an hour long lecture about it, and I'm pretty rusty on the details right now because somewhere down the road I stopped making bread. Besides the holiday cinnamon rolls, I pretty much quit. Oh, I remember why. I began to knit.

Recently I've begun to dip my toe in the bread-y waters again. The starter idea has served me well, though I don't have an ongoing one in the fridge I replenish. No, the night before, I mix three cups of flour with two cups of water and add 1/8 a teaspoon of yeast. In the morning, it's light and bubbly and then I make up the bread with it. It works a charm every time, and isn't the least bit finicky, which for me, the sourdough starter always was.

Now I'm no longer a purist and add the occasional eggs, or butter, or extra yeast, and bake it in a regular oven in a regular pan so the bread always turns out, rather than trying, and failing, to make a genuine baguette.

I love bread, but more than that, I love real, living, bouncy, bubbly bread dough. I can feel it in my fingertips and see it in the dough when I do it right. It's not an inanimate object; it's full of life.

I'm grateful none of us over here have gluten sensitivities. Because I think I want to go make some more bread.

Peppermint bark

The past two nights Gideon and I have made Peppermint Bark, with a capital P and B. Because it is that good. We sort of followed this recipe from Orangette. I think Molly is such a good writer. And her recipe for oatmeal pancakes I have made at least weekly for about four years now. Yes, I'm serious. And do you want to know the funny thing? I have never printed the recipe out and most times I have to still look it up on her blog. Yes, I go to google and type in "Orangette oatmeal pancakes" and the link to the site comes up purple because I was just at it last week trying to remember yet again just how much baking soda and salt it uses- and does it call for baking powder? Isn't that funny. Apparently I don't have a very good memory. I usually double the recipe.

Anyway: the peppermint bark. I tripled the recipe, more or less. And then I made it again the following night I tripled the recipe again. You know how she says to use good chocolate, the very best? Well, I so didn't do that. I didn't even use real, actual, white chocolate. I used nestle chips, that do not even claim on the bag to be chocolate. No, instead it says "white morsels" on the bag. White morsels. Yep, I melted down white morsels, whatever in the world those are, and made peppermint bark with it. For the dark chocolate I just used Nestle chocolate chips as well. So, all you people that know me, and get a jar of peppermint bark from us on Friday or Sunday, now you know the secret. However, despite the fake ingredients consisting of who knows what, this is pretty great peppermint bark. It's the somewhat creamy chocolate ganache in the center that does it, as well as looking pretty impressive with the three layers, which were surprisingly easy and fun to make. Thus, the two nights in a row of making. Gideon and I had a great time. He has been begging me for a month to make it and we finally did it. I'm so glad we did.

Do I really need to give a caption for the top photos? Of course not! It's just Darling, Darling Clementine (pronounced Clemen-teen of course, not like the song I just sort of sang on here) looking charming as usual.

Speaking of sort of singing on my blog (good transition, no?), last week Jude asked me if my iphone Siri could sing. I told him no.

Truman asked, "Can her whistle?" I'm guesing no to that as well.

Royal Tea Party

 I'm pleased to say that Saturday's royal tea party was quite the success, even though I do say so myself. It certainly wasn't due to my efforts alone. I had lots of help cleaning, decorating, and baking. As is often the case at these sort of functions, I sadly did not take enough pictures, once all the food was laid out and posters hung. It was  surprisingly easy and cheap to throw together. Amazon, I've discovered, is a great resource for posters, banners, party napkins, and the like. A quick trip to the thrift store in the morning, where we picked up some British themed books and magazine (as well as that granny square quilt you see on the couch!) and we were all set decoration wise. I printed out some quotes about drinking tea and placed one with each tea cup. I made scones and a Victoria Sponge cake as well as tea, of course. The cake has, as you may be able to tell, crystallized rose petals on top. That was a very fun fancy little decoration to throw in, for sure. I set out some chocolates as well that Ben picked up for me when he was at Heathrow Airport for a nine hour layover. Once in a while, having a husband who is away on business trips All. The. Time. can have its advantages. My sister made cream cheese lemon bars and finger sandwiches. I added crackers and cheese and salami so there would be plenty to eat, and to hopefully balance out all the desserts and I think it worked out well, foodwise. I wanted to dress up over the top for the party, but unfortunately ran out of time so it was all I could do to throw on a skirt- my Liberty print one, that I still need to show you!! 

Next tiem I do this- I really do believe there will be a next time- I will invite the boys as well, I think! Gideon looked longingly at the food and tea as he left and I heard some other comments about guys thinking it sounded like fun! The invitation will have to say, "Well behaved gentlemen included." Hee.

 

Fall is here, along with a recipe for you

 

That Clementine, such a little darling, loved by all...

We are getting a taste of fall here, or perhaps winter, since snow is forecast tonight. It is chilly out...I love how the children got on gloves and hats and nothing else to go check out the dead snake in the road. Soon enough those coats will be a necessity, however, I will still have to remind them to clothe themsleves properly for the cold weather, including shoes. I have known these children to go out into the snow barefoot.

The cool weather reminded me of one of my favorite things- just a simple lit candle. It makes the home so much warmer. Go on, get your candles out now and enjoy them! Don't you just love the fall? Yes, I know there is still a week or two to go, but once I feel the change in the air, there's no going back for me, mentally: fall is here!

Yes, I know fall is here, but there is still plenty of vegetables in the garden- last night, I made this corn salad/salsa. At first I called it salsa, but do you eat salsa by the spoonful, no the plateful? Wouldn't that put it more in the salad category? This was amazing. I sorta-kinda followed a recipe I found on the internet, but had no poblanos, so I used jalapenos, and I had no cilantro or green onion. Or red onion. And I didn't use a grill. Fine, I'm just calling this recipe my own creation.

Basically, just cook up about 6 ears of corn (or use leftover ears,  it's a great use for those!). Cut the corn off the cob, place it in a bowl. Saute 2-3  chopped onions in olive oil till brown and sweet, and place two jalapenos in a pan and roast till skin is blackened.

Peel and seed jalapenos, and chop. Add to bowl, along with onions. Add a little salt. Trust me on this, it's goooood!

 

What We've Been Eating

Since I seem to have nothing to talk about besides zucchini recipes (that, and "When will the baby come???") I figured I won't break with tradition today and tell you what else I have been doing with all that zucchini.

Naturally, zucchini bread recipes are a dime a dozen, and zucchini bread is an obvious choice to use up all the extra. However, I think you will really appreciate this recipe since I think it is the best one of its kind that I have ever tried. The recipe calls itself Zucchini Cake, actually, though it is baked in a loaf pan, and since it is chocolate chocolate chip, I suppose that is an accurate  description. My sceptical family, who each individually told me that Banana Bread was much better than Zucchini Bread, seemed to change their tune once they tasted this. Um, it is pretty amazing. It is closer to a cake than bread, though all quick breads taste like cake to me. But, I guess if we are going to have dessert, this is a healthier version.

The best part? Oh, the best part is all the zucchini you can cram into this recipe. I actually used 5 small zucchini when making it. Granted, I ended up with over the 2 packed cups called for, however, I don't think it made a difference at all, in fact, the texture came out perfect. One trick I used was chopping up the zucchini in the food processer, rather than grating it. It is so much faster, and makes the pieces finer. I think it is a good trick in recipes that call for grated zucchini. I strained the zucchini after chopping it for about 15 minutes to get some excess liquid out of it. Anyway, all that to say, this a great recipe in its own right, regardless of whether you don't want your freshly grown zucchini to go to waste, or whether you need to pick up a few at the store to make it: Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake (I copy and pasted the recipe here for you, though it isn't mine, because I want to have it handy from now on)

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cakes

Adapted from Food Network

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 packed cups grated zucchini (don’t peel it)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven at 350 F. Spray two 9×5 inch pans with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Add the oil and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients along with the zucchini and chocolate chips. Stir just until combined, and divide between the loaf pans.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until the tops are cracked and springy to the touch. Makes 2 cakes.

The other thing we have been doing is making zucchini noodles. At my husband's insistence, I ordered a "zoodler" off of Amazon. Basically, it's a contraption that with the turn of a crank, turns just about any firm vegetable into spiral noodles. The kids and I have had a great time with this. Some of the noodles come out amazingly long.

Aside from being slightly watery, zucchini noodles are pretty good with the appropriate sauce. We did pesto (basil freshly picked, of course...) with Italian sausage. Though you can eat the noodles raw, I simply sauteed them in olive oil for a few minutes and then drained the excess water off the best I could. With this  meal I also served more green beans with bacon and onions, so we really did have quite the meal fresh from the garden. It was delicious, but it is amazing how much work growing and cooking your own food is. I suppose that is obvious to everyone who gardens every year, however, this is our first really big garden and it is quite a big chore every day. Well there you have it: your "What We've Been Eating From the Garden" update!

Our Garden

Well, my birthday yesterday didn't bring along a baby with it, unfortunately, though I did have a terrific day, starting with picking out pastries from Whole Foods (about the best bakery in Fort Collins, but what I miss most about Europe are all the amazing pastry shops on EVERY.SINGLE.CORNER.) and then a nice long leisurely walk to the river to wade, a stop at a park, and a visit to the (teeny) farmer's market around the corner. Apparently the farmer's market is incredibly informal and you can just pay $10 to set up a table Sunday morning (if you make any money there, that is...) and sell what you have. It is literally about three houses down the street from us, so we most definitely plan to do this with our many, many vegetables we have. 

Which brings me to the garden. It's doing amazing. It is turning into quite the jungle of vegetables and everything coming out of it is SO GOOD. I even found a zucchini recipe I love, which consists of basically browning onions and garlic in a pan in olive oil, then pouring them into a roasting pan with sliced zucchini, mushrooms, and red and yellow peppers. Season with salt and pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. I think I could eat this at every meal for quite some time, which is definitely a good thing, since Cate informed me this morning that she picked another ELEVEN zucchini. 

I will make zucchini bread this afternoon, maybe a triple batch. It will be good to have around when the baby arrives, if it ever does decide to arrive. I was really counting on having a baby yesterday, or today would be fine, too...but so far, not much sign that the baby realizes its time inside me is drawing to a close. I never thought I would go this long this time (though why, I don't really know- my due date isn't until Wednesday, after all...) but here I am almost at forty weeks. I know I need to make the most of these last few days. I won't ever again feel a little one kick inside me, or have the chance to daydream about who exactly this baby is, or what it'll look like. Of course I'd much rather know the baby on the outside but I am trying hard to appreciate my last few days of mystery and anticipation.

So long, then, until next time...

Zucchini Harvest

I love, love, love the early morning sun in the summer- particularly when I go out to the garden and it's glinting through the trees in the neighbor's field. The air is fairly cool, with the promise of intense heat to come, but for now everything is still and perfect. On the occasion that I wake up early enough to enjoy this time (around 5:30 or so), it is like being given a gift.

Everyone was up pretty early today weeding- it has been getting pretty close to a hundred the past few days and it is just too intense to do much gardening during the day- or anything, for that matter, that doesn't involve getting wet. Otherwise, inside is about the only place to be.

We have been getting a ton of zucchini. Just my luck, that is the vegetable that has really taken off- though I should have known- doesn't every gardener complain about too much zucchini? Grace told me, "It's not too bad when it's cooked and you dip it in ranch dressing- then it almost tastes like a cucumber!" Right. So, why did we just not grow only cucumbers???

However, I did find a pretty decent recipe for stuffed zucchini that everyone liked, and some really liked.

Basically, I just sauteed Italian sausage, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil, scooped out the seedy zucchini flesh and chopped it, and added it to the pan, drained the extra water, then combined this with a bit of marinara sauce. I stuffed the zucchini and sprinkled on fresh chopped basil (from the garden) and real parmesan cheese (I just can't bear the stuff in the jar- the real thing is just SO MUCH better). Bake at 375 for about twenty minutes till hot and cheese is melted.

Tomato-sausage Soup

We have had a few days here recently that hit 90 degrees. Now, let me just say that this has been the nicest and coolest June that I can remember- here it is the beginning of July and I don't feel like I am about to wilt and perish from the heat, and that is definitely saying something. However, after those couple of 90 degree days, when I heard it was suppossed to be cooler today, I thought, perfect! Soup it is! 80 feels like fall now, so I made soup, in anticipation of cooler days. Haha, not sure if that's quite how it works.

Anyway, this is one of our family's favorite soup recipes. Everyone eats it, most of us love it. I also really like to make this soup for company, because it is just so easy to make, and simple to serve to company. I love to have warm bread and butter with it. Pretty simple, pretty perfect.

Two 34 oz. jars of diced fire roasted tomatoes

4 T. tomato paste

12 cups of homemade chicken broth, OR 1 1/2 jars Better than Bouillon + 12 cups water

4 pounds italian sausage (hot, mild, or a combination of both)

8 cloves  garlic, minced

2 T. olive oil

Italian sasoning to taste (I forgot to add it this time and it still came out great)

Saute sausage and garlic in olive oil till garlic is browned and sausage is cooked through. Transfer to a soup pot, add the cans of tomatoes and tomato paste and chicken broth. Add italian seasoning. Heat through, or let simmer a few hours.

That's it. Yep, pretty easy meal there. I think you'll love it. This serves a family my size for at least a couple of meals. It also freezes very well. Hope you like it!