Christmas feast

We had some folks over for a Christmas feast -- a good day for cooking. In advance we made pumpkin pie and cookies: lemon cloud, chocolate crinkles, and oatmeal chocolate chip.

Experimented making orange jello from scratch for a spiced peach mold (recipe from Betty Crocker).

Probably rosemary oven roasted red potatoes.
On the day we baked Fresh yams baked in orange sauce which were well received, roasted red potatoes with garlic and rosemary, sourdough rolls, and a peach pie.

Better than Store Bought Cookies

Here is a rather detailed account of my adaptation of the "Good as Store Bought Cookie" recipe from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion cookbook that Sharon calls "Better than Store Bought Cookies".

Pork chops and Apple sauce

Now that we have quite a supply of pork chops in the freezer, I suspect there will be a lot of experimenting with pork chops in my future. We had some applesauce that I used in the sauce with a reduction from the juices from cooking the chops.

I used the Easy Pork Chop recipe from The Best Recipe. At least I started with that recipe. To the reduced sauce I added some fresh bread crumbs, which made the sauce too thick. This gave me the idea to add a little hot apple sauce, and then a little more until it seemed about right.

I served the pan sauce on top of the chops and put a little of the hot apple sauce on the side for good measure.

Update: I made these again, but added some steamed mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots) to the sauce. Seemed like a good addition.

Sausage Potato Casserole

I had some pork sausage and some potatoes that I wanted to cook. So after a little googling, I found an interesting looking recipe for Sausage Potato Casserole.

I mostly followed the recipe, except I used cream of potato soup rather than cream of mushroom. And I added some spices: ginger, galangal, grains of paradise, long pepper, and cubebs. I used a little more potato and pork than the recipe called for so it ended up being three layers rather than two. I thought about using a larger dish, but I like the added thickness.

7 Gauge Steel Griddle

Who else could go for some flap jacks? 

I was unhappy with my old non-stick griddle which  wasn't thick enough and I felt like I need to be so delicate with the finish. Not the relationship I wanted to have with my griddle. So I decided to spring for a Chef King Griddle made out of 7 gauge "Unbreakable High Quality Steel". I bought mine at Rose's Restaurant Equipment.

After some initial seasoning I gave some pancakes a whirl.

Turkey soup with potato and apple

We had some family visit that brought us a turkey carcass (i.e., the leftover bits after carving a cooked turkey). It is not everyone that knows us well enough to know that a turkey carcass would make a lovely host gift. It wasn't half an hour before I had some turkey stock simmering away.

The Stock
In a large pot, pour a little olive oil and over medium heat cook until soft

• One onion hacked up

Then add .. 

• Four ribs of celery coarsely chopped

Meanwhile, use a mighty cleaver (or poultry shears) to cut apart the turkey carcass and cut through the bones exposing the yummy marrow bits inside. Reserve any large hunks of meat for use later in the soup.

• Add the turkey bones and cook until some browning has happened

Add enough hot water to cover (about 8 cups), bring to a boil then simmer until it be enough. 

Strain. Pour into mason jars, cool, then refrigerate. 

It made three mason jars of stock.

"Shatterdough" rolls

Don't do

Sourdough rolls

I mentioned before that I wanted to experiment with increasing the humidity in the oven while baking my sourdough rolls. Here is the way not to do that.... Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a pyrex pie pan on the the shelf below your baking shelf. Then add hot (190 degree) water. Observe the pie pan dramatically shatter from the sudden 260 degree differential thermal shock.

OK, plan B.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a metal baking sheet on the the shelf below your baking shelf. Then add hot (190 degree) water. It still doesn't like it, but it seemed to deal with it.

Anyway, it did cook a nice roll. Though the browning was uneven which didn't seem to happen without that addition of the water to the oven.
Next Time: Probably best would be to not bother to preheat the pan but rather place it in an already hot oven, then add the hot water. I should make sure the pans are centered, and I could try turning the pan half way through.

The experiments continue....

Lemon Currant Syrup

For pancakes, waffles, and the like, I like to make quick fruity syrups. One combination that Sharon mentioned she liked was made by combining in a microwave-proof cup

• One dollop of Lemon Curd
• One dollop of Black Currant preserves
• One capful of lemon juice

A dollop probably works out to 2-3 Tbs -- (literally a heaping soupspoon in my case).

Nuke and stir alternately until it was hot and well blended (took a couple three 11-second bursts). 

Apply liberally to your target of choice -- in this case sourdough waffles made like my sourdough pancakes with the addition of 1 Tbs of olive oil. 

Silpat mat

The "old way" with parchment paper

I've mentioned in a couple of posts that I like my Silpat mat.
I have seen friends that use something similar and seemed to like it.
Then I realized that it would save me from using parchment paper of which I was using more and more.

Sourdough Coffee Cake

I started with a recipe I found online for sourdough coffee cake, but used whole wheat pastry flour in place of all purpose flour. I also added a diced apple and a quarter cup of hazelnut meal to the batter. I spiced the batter with nutmeg, galangal, orange extract, a splash of orange juice and a drop of orange oil.
For the topping I used 1 Tbs of butter and 1Tbs of sesame oil, spiced it with fresh ground cinnamon and salsa fina (fine spices), added a quarter cup of almond meal and then completely lost my mind and threw in a quarter cup of dutch process cocoa. I think I will regret that last move. Maybe a Tbs would have been interesting.

Chocolate Crinkles

From The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

I've had pretty good responses from tasters of my Chocolate Crinkles. I mostly follow the recipe (gasp) except I use 1 cup of white whole wheat flower and 1/2 cup of whole wheat pastry flour rather than all purpose.
The last time I made them I made a double batch which worked ok, except I ended up with a lot of left over powdered sugar. Making these makes me want to get some of those little ice cream scoops that you can use for cookie dough.
I bake them on a half sheet with a Silpat mat that I have become quite fond of. It makes cleanup easy and the cookies release nicely. The one hitch is that we haven't figured out how to dry them since they are so floppy.
I tend to cook them on the short end of the time range so they end up almost like individual chewy brownies. If you cook them longer they allegedly crisp up. This might make for a better dunking cookie, though these do fine with a side of milk.

Sourdough Sandwich Rolls

Started another batch of Classic Sourdough Bread to use to make  more sandwich rolls. I actually started the sponge last night with a cup of starter and three cups of white whole wheat flour plus 3 T of wheat gluten and 1 1/2 cup warm water. This morning I added two more cups of flour, 1 T each of sugar, salt, and orange juice. 

After kneading in the stand mixer it is resting. Next I will divide it into eight parts and form them into balls. They get to rise again in the pan on the silicone mat. We'll see if I can remember to slit the tops before they go in the oven this time. 

The photos are from the last batch I made. Since the recipe is for two loaves, I bake until the internal temp is 190 and I have some nice browning.

Fruioatmeal

On a chilly morning I like to make fruioatmeal (pronounced FROHT-meel) which is my name for oatmeal made with fruit and nut meal. 

Sourdough pancakes

I have a sourdough starting going which yields a cup of starter a day. Some days I'm not up for baking, so sourdough pancakes are in order. Today I added 1 cup of starter to 1 cup of my pancake mix, and egg, a splash of orange juice, some cocoa nibs, a half cup of toasted almond meal, and a quarter cup of warm milk. Let the batter sit for half an hour. Then fried them up.

The Jason Cristo

The Jason Cristo is my take on a Monte Cristo: Aged cheddar, salami, turkey, ham, bacon, mustard, provolone, in homemade bread fried like french toast.

The Jason Cristo sandwich is a current favorite among the adventurous.

Why another food blog?

I rarely follow recipes, though I often start with them. My hope is that this blog be a place where I can record a journal of what I've tried and what did or did not work, and thoughts of what I might "want to try next time". I also want to be able to share my notes with other foodies as well as field requests for "could you send me the recipe for that".

My culinary approach:

• Cook what I can from scratch -- at least once
• When presented with options, choose healthful, local, and organic. 
• Tradeoffs happen
• I like to pick one ingredient a month and experiment with it anywhere I think I can get away with

Biases: 

• Not a fan of corn syrup, partial wheat flour, processed stuff
• Big into roasted veggies
• Have a hard time doing something the same way twice

Well enough prose, on to the food poetry...