I have a bunch of things I've been meaning to post, but time gets away so easily. In the meantime, a photo of the sunrise over Lake Michigan on Easter morning (April 8, 2012):

Chicken Chickpea Stew and Escargot

I took the suggestion from squawkfox to see what I could do with a whole roasted organic chicken. I haven't gotten 22 meals from mine, but 1) my chicken was a bit smaller and 2) I ended up freezing about 6 cups of broth and maybe 1/2 lb of cooked chicken meat that I haven't used yet. As I'm just one person, I can only do so much. I would say that I should very easily get 22 meals for one out of this 3-4 lb chicken. I originally roasted it a-la Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking- amazing what a constant basting with butter and olive oil will do for a chicken skin. And then I used the crockpot to make broth. I love my crockpot. I cooked chickpeas and they turned out beautifully, which is great considering that canned chickpeas cost more than dried but cooking dried chickpeas has always been more effort than it's worth. I cooked mine on high heat for about 3-4 hrs and they were perfect (after an overnight soaking, of course).

I then made this delicious stew (or is it more of a soup? hard to tell, but it's not very liquidy, so I'm calling it stew) with some of the leftover chicken. I've been calling it Chicken Chickpea Stew, but there's quite a bit more than just chicken and chickpeas.

I based this roughly on the recipe from squawkfox, but pretty much added whatever I happened to have on hand:

3 small potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 c cooked chickpeas

1 c dried lentils, washed and drained

10 oz package frozen spinach (thawed, but straight from the freezer worked fine too)

1 can tomato sauce

cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper

~1.5 c cooked, shredded chicken

4 c chicken broth

1. pre-cook potatoes in the microwave- about 3 min on high, covered. (I find this prevents the soup from getting too starchy)

2. Saute onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil in large pot on med heat, until onions are cooked through and translucent

3. Add potatoes chickpeas, lentils, spinach, tomato sauce, chicken, and broth. Add spices to taste. Cook for about 30 min, or until lentils are cooked and soft. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

Next time I would amp up the tomatoes, maybe adding chopped fresh tomatoes as in the original recipe. The chicken, chickpeas, and lentils make this for a very hearty meal. I've also been eating it spooned over roasted cauliflower. Why did I not realize how delicious roasted cauliflower was before? I'm really not a fan of raw cauliflower on the veggie trays, but roasting things brings out the lovely caramelization and of couse that's delicious in any vegetable.

I also finished my Escargot hat!! I love this hat, and it makes me slightly sad that the weather here has been unseasonably warm for February so I don't have much excuse to wear it. I did wear it into work on Thursday, and my coworker was like, "you know it's supposed to be 40 F today, right?"

I hold out hopes for continuing to wear this this year, as it's only February and knowing the weather it will snow in late March.

I think if you wanted to be super geeky it would be fairly simple to modify the pattern to have two swirls, one on each side of the hat, to give a pseudo-Princess Leia look. With brown yarn (maybe no contrast). However, I will refrain from such things, not least because my project list is already way too long considering all the 'real' work that I should be doing (operative word is 'should').

Pattern is from the Winter 2011 issue of knitty.

I had vague ideas of entering the amateur cooking contest for baconfest 2012, but again, that involves time to actually develop a dish and test it. I do have some ideas, but no time to do test runs. So, unless some time miraculously falls into my lap, I may have to wait for baconfest 2013. Unless someone takes my brilliant idea, in which case I will need to further brainstorm what one could do with bacon.

petits fours

I've had an urge to make my own petites fours. Why? I keep seeing them for sale on gilt taste, and I can't help but think that while those may be very tasty, I could do that. So I did a little googling, and voila!

I have to say, I'm very pleased. I started with the blog post from bakerella on pound cake and petites fours. Other articles I read said to use a sponge cake, but I think the pound cake was brilliant- it's a very tasty cake in and of itself, and it held up nicely to the cutting. I didn't have any cream cheese so I used a tried-and-true pound cake recipe I had on hand:

Pound cake:
2 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
2 c granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream butter and sugar until smooth, beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla. Slowly beat in flour mixture.

Normally this gets baked in a 10-in bundt pan for over an hour @ 325F. This time I put it in a jelly-roll pan and baked it for about 25 min @ 325F.

I also don't remember where I got this recipe from, or I would give credit where it's due. Normally I add 2 cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen) and some chocolate chips, if I'm feeling like it. And, I don't know how this happened, but last night I completely ran out of granulated sugar. Completely. I made up the difference with brown sugar, it was totally fine. And honestly, probably more flavorful than with white sugar.

Cool the cake, and then cut into 8 sections- I'm rather bad at cutting them into equal-sized portions, but it was ok. Then slice each section in half horizontally. There are some nice pictures on the bakerella blog. She said to apply a small amount of syrup to each piece- I didn't have a spray bottle so I tried just using a spoon. Way, way too much simple syrup. The cake started to fall apart as the liquid soaked through, after I added layers of jam and stacked it. So I skipped the syrup and just layered jam and cake. I used some blueberry rhubarb jam that I made over the summer. I also skipped the marzipan because I didn't have it and also I don't really like it that much.

The jam filling.

I decided to use a chocolate glaze instead of a fondant glaze. 1) because I love chocolate and 2) because I find fondant to be cloyingly sweet. I used a recipe from allrecipes for a shiny chocolate glaze. I doubled the recipe because I didn't want to run out. I think that was for the best, though I probably had a good cup or so of glaze left over. Still trying to decide what to do with that. I melted this over a pot of water on the stove rather than in the microwave, so that I could keep it warm over the water. I just turned off the heat and left the bowl on top of the pot.

I have no photos of the glazing process, because I only have two hands. I ended up with chocolate everywhere, possibly in my hair. But basically, I put the cake piece on a fork, and used a spoon to coat the cake with the glaze. It's pretty thin, making it super easy to pour over while it's hot. I then placed it on the silpat to cool. And then, after all of the cakes were coated, I melted some white chocolate, added some food coloring, and drizzled. :D I need to find a better method to drizzle chocolate (I am currently just using a fork dipped into the chocolate) because it sometimes results in globs of chocolate. And again, chocolate all over the kitchen.

So pretty!

feliz cumpleaños a mi padre

I dunno, I felt like it sounded better in spanish. :)

Vanilla butter sponge cake (a la Julia Child), with an apricot cake filling (I cheated- this was the canned stuff in the baking aisle) and vanilla whipped cream frosting. Wording written with chocolate ganache b/c that's what I had on hand. I topped the cake with the extra apricot filling because (1) it looks pretty and (2) that meant I didn't have to do another layer of frosting to cover the cake crumbs (I should have anyway to cover the sides better, but it was late on Wed and I wanted to go to bed).

I think I may have finally found a good frosting that will set and is not uper sweet. I used this sturdy whipped cream frosting recipe from all recipes, only I used marscapone cheese instead of cream cheese and added about 1/2 packet of unflavored gelatin (dissolved in about 2 tbsp of hot water). This stuff tastes vaguely like the cream filling of tiramisu (it's actually very close, just without the eggs and marsala wine), and I have eaten the leftovers by the spoonful. That's not bad, right? Cream cheese would of course be much more cost-effective than marscapone cheese, but marscapone cheese is actually super easy to make. I would just need (1) time, (2) a store that sells something other than ultrapasturized whipped cream (i.e. not Jewel or Dominicks), and (3) a sieve. When I've made this in the past I've used paper coffee filter rather than the cheesecloth, b/c I found that the cheese mixture just drained right through the cheesecloth and I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. But I always forget to cool it before pouring it into the cheesecloth, so perhaps that's the problem.

baby brioche

It seems it's either drought or downpour here. Third post in two days. :P

So that brioche dough I made yesterday? I made some baby brioches. Katy very nicely sent me a set of 4 mini-loaf pans for my birthday (back in October). This is the first time I'm using them. The pans are super cute and lovely, but I don't bake a lot of things that need a loaf pan (quick breads are not really my thing, regular breads get just the pizza stone from me). Anyway. Instead of the one regular brioche using 1/2 the batch and one chocolate brioche, I made 2 mini regular brioches and 2 mini chocolate brioches. Let me just say, the chocolate brioche is wonderful and I am cutting myself off for tonight. Haven't tried the plain brioche yet, but I have some plans for brioche french toast in the near future...

up close

mmm, chocolate

I still have half the batch of dough left (I made enough dough for two one-pound loaves). I think I may bake it and then freeze the loaves, and make a brioche bread pudding in the future. I miss the brioche bread pudding from Sarah's Patisserie (well, I miss everything from Sarah's Patisserie, I have not found another bakery that does it quite like Tammy).

kitten mittens

Oh, and I almost forgot. Those kitten mittens I made for Nick? He wanted them for a friend, and they totally put them on a cat.

Poor cat.

it's been a while...

It's been a while since I updated here. So, a quick recap:

December involved a lot of cookies. This was my first time with royal icing. They look a lot better from this distance than they did up close.

I tried being creative with the circles.

gingerbread men made of sugar cookies

sandwich cookies with strawberry-blueberry jam

turtle thumbprints- chocolate cookie, chocolate caramel ganache, pecan garnish

January involved Eugenia's baby shower, I made this baby blanket for her little Nathan (who was born in the middle of a blizzard!)

February was Kristin's baby shower, but I didn't actually get this to her until March. As far as I know, baby's not here yet.

For my mom's birthday, I made her a cake from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The cake was delicious, but the icing was a bit too sweet. Sometime, I will find a frosting that is not super sweet. I think I'm just going to have to use a whipped cream frosting (so no butter, less sugar) and add some kind of a stabilizer so it doesn't separate. Dad's birthday is coming up in a few weeks, perfect chance to experiment! ;)

orange sponge cake with orange icing

And February was also a bake-off at church. It was a busy month. I made tiramisu. Kevin says this is cheating, because tiramisu doesn't involve baking, but I will have you know that I made the ladyfingers from scratch. I also baked a biscuit jonde for a shell. Thanks to the daring kitchen for the recipe. I am of course completely remiss as a Daring Baker, and haven't done any of the challenge recipes in months. Somehow it's less motivating to bake when you don't have an audience. And then, their recipes are always so involved... I'm getting lazy.

the biscuit jonde. piped out the chocolate pattern, froze, then spread the cake batter over it. 

tiramisu in the springform pan

unmolded in all its glory

I actually wish I had a picture of this sliced, because it had nice layers (from what I saw). Unfortunately, as it was for the church fellowship time, I only saw one person's slice, and most of it ended up rather mutilated. But, even though several people didn't get to try it, I still managed to win the bake-off. ;) My brother told me that I was a baking bully, because everyone else brought cookies. But I didn't know everyone else was going to bring cookies. Tiramisu is one of my go-to recipes though, it's never anything less than amazing, so if that's cheating then I'm sorry.

Finally, tonight I made some blueberry mochi cake. I managed to forget to add the evaporated milk until after I had added both the rice flour and the blueberries, so my batter was shockingly purple. The baking toned it down considerably, but it's still obviously blueberry. These are delicious. They're mini-muffin sized, but I've still eaten about 10 so far, which means... more than I care to think about. I've been meaning to try this for a while and I will have to make them again (this time adding ingredients in the proper order, :P) I'm pretty sure that the original recipe was in regular-sized muffin tins, so I reduced the bake time, but it was still about 25 min total. I made 72 mini mochi cakes. Roughly half are going to my parent's house this weekend, I have the feeling my dad will really like these (don't tell him that butter went into the recipe! shh!! my dad is always on a diet).

I have a baking extravaganza planned. I just threw together a batch of brioche dough, and I'm hoping to bake it tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed that this brioche recipe works, because I've tried it before and it's been a dismal failure. But I'm using the recipe from Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. This is the first time I'm trying anything that isn't the basic master recipe in the first few pages of the book. :P Not from anything against other kinds of artisan breads, I just love basic french bread (and this one develops a bit of a sourdough flavor as you let it sit in the fridge) and I'm also lazy (as discussed above). Also, I don't really keep ingredients on hand for everything, despite what you might think. I don't know if that makes me a poor excuse for someone who calls herself a baker, but seriously, how many different kinds of flour does one girl need? In my opinion: one. All-purpose. Haha. This is why I'm not a healthy baker. (Wheat flour is also way too dense for me, but I read somewhere that whole wheat pastry flour is much lighter. My only problem is I'm sure it's also more expensive, and I'm trying to keep expenses down these days.)

Anyway. We shall see how the brioche goes. I've made enough for 2 batches, so I'm going to try regular brioche first, then a chocolate brioche. I'm excited!!

a cozy, a scarf, and the cutest little turtles you have ever seen

Been busy knitting lately.

A mug cozy, take 2 for my sister's bridal shower (which is not until next April). The first one I made went to my future brother-in-law, when he and my sister were visiting earlier this month. That one was a ribbed cable (can't remember if I ever posted it here). This is just a ribbed pattern with knits and purls, a little different than your standard knit/purl rib. We'll see what else I come up with, and in what colors (they're a great stash-buster, especially because my "stash" is mostly leftovers from previous projects. I'm definitely not a "ooh, that's pretty yarn let me buy it!!" person, I'm a "how much of this yarn do I need for this project?" person.)

My Wakefield Scarf. I made it much wider than the pattern, and added some fringe to the end. I wanted to use up the entire amount of this yarn I had, and I succeeded. :) It's a lovely wool-silk blend, and it's the first really nice yarn (read: expensive) I've treated myself to. I used the first half of the skein for the swallowtail shawl I finished this summer, but already this scarf has gotten way more use. Simply because- when do I ever wear a shawl around?

Say hello to Sheldon #1. One of the girls at work pointed me to this pattern. I guess it started with one of the guys at work, his girlfriend made him one of these and he brought it into work as a desk decoration. Then my friend made one, she even made a mini version using sock yarn and size 0 needles. The shell comes off. It's adorable. I made these for a friend's baby shower, she's expecting a little girl in January. And since she already has a little girl (age approx 18 mo?), I made two. I could sit and knit these cuties all day.

 Sheldon #2:

Sisters. :)

Current projects: more mug cozies, the tomato sweater from interweave. I finished those kitten mittens (a la "it's always sunny in Philadelphia"), and sent them to Nick. If he sends me a picture of the cats, I will post it, hopefully they aren't too traumatized. Future projects include a blanket for my sister's wedding present, and a few more baby shower gifts...

I would like to sit around and knit all day, except I don't think it would really make me as happy as I would hope. But I'm contemplating opening a store on etsy.com. Except my list of things to knit is already quite long. (People need to stop having babies. And stop getting married. Except, not really, because babies and marriages are wonderful things. I just wish I had the time to knit something for everyone.) And I have the suspicion that knitting is not really my calling in life. Not quite sure what my calling is. If someone tells you, let me know, cause I'm still searching.

I haven't been baking much lately. I made a batch of orange chocolate chip cookies a week or so ago (they were fantastic). And I have plans for a pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving. But it's hard to be motivated to bake a lot because baking is meant to be shared and it's best to share it when it's fresh but that's kind of hard for me to do right now. I don't want to give my friends stale cookies or leftover cake. Again, probably not my calling in life. 

On a light-hearted note, thanks to Becky for this clip that indulges my super nerdy side:

random little knits

Recent adventures in knitting-land:

Fingerless gloves for my brother.

 

Look how excited he is:

 He totally needs a shave and a haircut though.

Baby set of hat, sweater, and booties, for a friend's baby shower:

Kitten mittens for Nick. A la "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". He asked, I had time (and yes, they're a shorter version of the baby booties in the above photo). I only hope the cat doesn't get tortured too much.

a pick-me-up

Caramel. A bit of sugar + heat. And it turns into this ooey-gooey goodness.

Add a little bit of red wine and it becomes this fantastic, complex but sweet mixture. Then add some chocolate and it's like heaven.

I have this recipe for a toffee apple tart that I'd previously improved by adding red wine to the toffee topping. Tonight I made it that much better by stirring some chocolate into the hot caramel sauce. And it was heaven on a plate.

I have about 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce left over. I could have poured it all over the tart, but then I wouldn't have any left to do things like dip the stickies made with the leftover pie crust and pour it over ice cream (another night). Or just spoon the stuff into my mouth.

My November issue of Food & Wine has a recipe for a caramel croissant bread pudding. Nigella Lawson, you are a genius. Stay tuned. I have frozen croissants waiting in the freezer for such a time as this (thank you, Trader Joe's). And I haven't even gotten to all the Thanksgiving recipes yet. I love the November issue.

Baking makes the world a better place. And it makes the apartment smell good. :)

what do you do when you can't find the sweater you want?

Well, if you're me, you knit it.

I have a cute black bolero that I bought a few years ago to wear with a dress to a wedding, and I love it. Even more so because I bought it at a second-hand clothing store so only paid like $6 for it.

I've been looking for another bolero-ish sweater in another color but haven't found anything, so I modified the pattern for a baby bolero in Louisa Harding's book, Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. (By the way, knitted baby clothes are so freaking cute, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a waste of time, because they grow out of them so quickly. I usually knit baby blankets for baby presents, because I can never be sure if the baby will be the right size for a knitted garment at the right time of year.)

Anyway. I added a longer rib to the bottom because I realized it was too short as knit, and I also wanted to give the body a little shaping (I have some curves that babies don't). I also really wanted a sweater with capped sleeves, so I finally looked through the Knitwear Design Workshop that I bought a while ago and used their gathered sleeves. The sleeves are also short, about 3/4 length.

And I have to say, all in all, it turned out pretty well. :D I kept track of the pattern as I knit, and I just typed it up quickly here in case anyone was interested. (Of course, it will only probably be useful if you're about my size. This one was about 34" bust and 13" long. I would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to modify for larger/smaller but I haven't done the math, sorries!) This is my very first sweater of (mostly) my own design, and I'm pretty stoked. Maybe someday I will get to the point of having an idea, making a sketch, and going from there, rather than modifying patterns, but for today I'm rather pleased with myself.

(to be fair, next time I would shorten the length of the shoulders more, maybe 15-20 sts on each shoulder rather than 25. I forgot to consider how much the edge ribbing would add.)

Next project: either a tomato sweater or some cute mug cozies for my sister's bridal shower in April (the mug cozies, not the sweater). And of course I'm still working on that Wakefield scarf...

projects

a (possibly not inclusive) list of my current projects:

• baking bread (I got the book Artisan Breads in Five Minutes A Day recently. Heather had it, I wanted to try it. I love fresh bread.)
• oil painting
• knitting (currently: a sweater. I'm making it up as I go along, kind of. Also, another scarf/shawl thing. Also on the list: mug cozies for party favors for my sister's wedding shower. Her shower isn't until April, there's plenty of time, and I'm not the only one knitting these.)
• studying the New Testament
• reading for Librivox (starting this up again. Next chapter: Section 20 of "The Antiquities of the Jews" by Josephus.)
• reading in general (on my list: "Walking with God", "Experiencing God", "Restoring Joy", "The Pleasures of God", "When I Don't Desire God")

Sometimes, I wish I didn't have to go to work and could just do fun stuff all day.

I have an eggplant in my fridge and a recipe for eggplant parm that I really want to try (will need to get some breadcrumbs). I just got my October issue of Food & Wine, and I really want to try to roast a pork loin. But (1) when do I have time for that, and (2) who would eat my roasted pork? Anyway.

kimchi time

So yesterday I stopped by the Lincoln Square farmer's market, a series of booths in the small parking lot outside the Western Brown Line stop every Thursday night in the summer. And I decided to buy a very large head of cabbage, because I've been wanting to try my hand at making kimchi. My mom makes cabbage kimchi pretty regularly- it's a bit easier/more forgiving than the traditional kind made with napa cabbage, and it lasts longer.

So, I started with this:

Step 1: make some paste. My mom uses glutinous rice flour, but I didn't have any, so I just used all-purpose flour. I'm going to say I used about 1/2 c water and 3 tbsp flour, but who really knows? (and this was WAY more than I actually needed). Set this aside, let it cool.

Step 2: cut up the cabbage into manageable pieces. Salt liberally. Recipes for napa cabbage kimchi tend to say to soak it in saltwater for 6 hrs - overnight, but it isn't really necessary here.

Step 3: assemble the rest of the ingredients. Scallions (green onions- I used 4), garlic (about 5 cloves), ginger (about 1.5 in piece), red pepper powder (the Korean kind, probably about 2 tbsp?), and fish sauce (maybe 3 tbsp?). I cut the scallions into about 1 in pieces, and minced the garlic and the ginger. [So I basically made these proportions up. The recipe I had said to use 1 tsp of garlic and ginger for 1 head of napa cabbage. I didn't think that was possibly enough, so I upped the amounts.]

Step 4: Add the above to the cabbage. I also added maybe 2 tsp of sugar. Mix it all together, adding about 3 tbsp of the paste as you do so. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Voila!

One head of cabbage got about 1 gal of kimchi. I hope it tastes good tomorrow, haha.