Turnips!

Hello, my neglected blog! I have been making delicious food and have not been archiving it for posterity. Check out the giant head-sized turnip my mom grew in her garden:



For some reason, Mom hates turnips. They survive the freeze, grow really well in her garden, cook up nicely, and still she does not like them. More for me. I brought back a good pile of them from my trip up to the annual bonfire last weekend and will soon be cooking them into tasty things.

I have learned from two farmer-family co-workers and a farmer-family almost-in-law that turnips are best after the first freeze of the season (like strawberries). This batch is mild and delicious even raw. They will become a variety of things, the first of which will be another batch of balsamic vinegar turnips and (optionally) sweet potatoes.

Turnips with Balsamic Vinegar
fresh turnips, peeled and chopped
sweet potatoes, chopped
bit of water
some balsamic vinegar (1/4 to 1/3 cup)
some brown sugar (about 1/4 cup, to taste)

spices:
pinch of cardamom, ground
pinch of cinnamon, ground
pinch of pepper, freshly ground
very small pinch of cayenne pepper, ground

Directions:
Put pile of chopped turnips and sweet potatoes in pan with a bit of water with any spices you like and bring water to boil. Reduce heat to very low, simmer covered about 45 minutes to 1 hour to tenderise.

Bring water back to a boil and simmer uncovered to boil off water.

Add balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and any other spices you forgot. Probably reduce heat to medium-low again. Stir well while simmering to make sure sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low, simmer covered about 30 minutes.

Uncover, simmer some more until the sauce is the consistency you like.

Eat!

I also brewed up some home-made glögg that vanished the night of the bonfire. Recipe and ideas for future recipes coming soon.

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Halloween 2010

Brains, witch broom cookies, chocolate spiders, and Halloween Pie!


This is my Halloween Decorations Table -- Jack, Creepy Tree, Eyeball, Coffin, and Fuzzy Bat get to enjoy the living room once a year.




All of these pictures are out of focus because I accidentally had the camera set on macro the entire weekend. Why I didn't think to check the setting after having significant trouble getting it to auto-focus, I don't know.



While shopping for something entirely different, I bought a brain mould. The first brain I made was marshmallow -- definitely the sturdier of the two. The second, gelatin like the mould's box suggested. In a regular climate, the gelatin brain would have survived longer. Both brains looked gross and awesome!



Halloween Pie was an orange-dyed milktart with a variety of candy and chocolate shapes. I bought a LOT of chocolate and candy moulds for Halloween, and only got to use a few. I did discover semi-sweet chocolate does not set the same way as candy melts or white chocolate, and cracked a mould getting one dark skull out.



Chocolate spiders started vanishing quickly:



I also tried to make bones out of meringue. As with all of my previous meringue experiments, they pretty much failed. The brain-bite cupcakes were a decent success, I think. I made half of them dirty pink and the other half greenish for zombie brains.



The bones didn't look too bad stacked up in a pile, but they were very difficult to pull off the parchment paper and most were gooey, not stiff. On the bottom right, the corner of the pretzels that became witch broom cookies. On the top left, brain mould box.



I also made pumpkin chili, which was delicious!



Happy Hauntings!
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Mischief the Fuzzbutt

Mischief the Fuzzbutt, a ferret memorial


A friend of mine lost one of her ferrets shortly after a move. I quickly located and purchased an awesome pattern for an amigurimi ferret from Planet June: Ferret Pattern. Eyelash yarn, or fuzzy yarn, is not as easy to find these days in all the colors of the rainbow (specifically, tan), so I acquired the body color from her mom in regular acrylic. After figuring out how to modify the pattern to look more like Mischief, I got to crocheting. Longer face, slightly longer body, and mostly blue eyes. My reference was my memory and one picture from Facebook. For my first amigurimi animal ever, I think Mischief turned out rather well =)

I have since discovered there is a brushing technique to get acrylic to look kind-of fuzzy. Might look into this in the near future.

Happy Fall!
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Angel Crochet, take two

More presents!

My boss's favorite color is purple. For her birthdate present, I made another angel crochet, starched it, sprayed it with a lighter coating of shellac, and tied a purple wired ribbon around it in a pretty design.

Here's the two angels together:


The one with the bow on it is noticeably whiter and less stiff, which means less waterproof. These have been good practice for what I anticipate making for this year's holiday gifts -- orange and green themed starched snowflake ornaments. Perhaps I should get started on those.
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Independence Day Treats

Happy 4th of July!

The above picture is fondant-covered brownie (all 9 x 13 of it). I made spice brownies by putting a couple pinches of cayenne pepper powder into a batch of dark chocolate brownies. The fondant is leftover from a friend of mine's cupcake-making extravaganza. I have a tile counter top and no rolling pin, so I forwent making cool cut-out shapes. Instead, I used the fondant like stretchy clay, dying clumps at a time, elongating them, and flattening them in my hands until I had what looked like an American flag. No stars on this one, but the colors exist. I have discovered that lining the glass pan with aluminum foil makes the brownies easier to lift out. It also reduces cook time, or temperature, or both.

For the most part, people took the fondant off and piled it in a corner of the aluminum foil. Good to know.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes!

These gloriously fuzzy photos were taken with my cell phone camera. Not too bad. The cupcakes are Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes, linked to me by another culinary friend. The recipe can be found here: Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes. The photos on the original site are much better, but here are mine anyway.

Cupcakes:


The Belgian dark chocolate I used to make the ganache and the Guiness Extra Stout I used to make the cupcakes:


Cupcakes, cored and ready to be filled:


Dark chocolate whiskey ganache, just after mixing:


I used 2 (perhaps 3) tablespoons of whiskey in the ganache and only later discovered the recipe had called for teaspoons. Whoopsies. Turned out delicious, just needed some extra cooling time.

Ganache after cooling in the fridge:


Filled cupcakes:


I had a terrible time trying to use parchment paper to pipe the ganache. I finally zipped off to the grocery store to pick up a re-usable plastic piping bag and finished the cupcake filling and icing.

Blue buttercream icing with Bailey's:


The Irish cream slightly dulled the blue color, but the taste is worth it.

Beating in the Bailey's:


And tada, some iced cupcakes:


Bonus picture: part of the mess I made in the kitchen beating powdered sugar into butter to make icing:


The cupcakes flew off the tray once enough people discovered how tasty and alcoholic they are. A surprising amount of brownies vanished as well. This was the third batch of brownies I made using cayenne pepper powder and I think I got the amount just right on them. The first batch came out way too spicy -- half a teaspoon of pepper powder. The second batch was a bit too spicy -- two big pinches. This batch got two little pinches -- delicious!

Next batch of brownies will have, as suggested by two of the 4th of July partygoers, melty chip of some kind -- chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, etc. -- and pecans instead of walnuts.
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Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

My digital camera has ceased to function. These tasties vanished so quickly I was unable to acquire a photo through other means. Here is an artistic rendering of these delicious treats. By "artistic rendering" I mean "mediocre sketch thrown together in a few minutes in GIMP."


Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Fruit Preserves Cheesecake Bars recipe

Cheesecake Bars Instructions:

1 – Make about half a recipe of cookie dough OR a bunch of crumb crust and bake according to directions. Cool.
2 – Spread 3/4 c. fruit preserves* evenly onto top of cooled crust.** Let it sit there a while and soak into the crust. A few hours should do it, more if storing in the fridge.
3 – Make Cheesecake Bar Filling and pour / spread evenly over jam-covered crust.
Bake at 335 degrees for 40 minutes. The middle will be a bit jiggly. If it looks too jiggly, bake ~10 minutes more. Cool.
4 – Make Sour Cream Fruit topping and pour / spread evenly over cooled cheesecake.
Bake whole thing again at 350 degrees for 7 minutes. Cool.

Refrigerate until set (overnight, at least 8 hours). Refrigerate some more so the preserves and cheesecake soak into the crust. Make a day or so in advance, or have a springform 9 x 13 and ignore this part.
Try to cut into bars. Expect about 1/4 of them to come out wonky and in need of immediate consumption. The nice ones will indeed look very nice.

* You don't have to make your own fruit preserves. Just make sure to use fruit preserves and not jelly.

** Optional: instead of spreading fruit preserves onto crust, beat them into the cheesecake bar filling.

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Cookie Dough:

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- cream all together
1 c. flour
3/4 c. chocolate chips
-- add, mix well

Press dough into greased 9 x 13 pan evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 to 20 minutes. Let cool.


Crumb crust:

1 c. flour
1 c. finely chopped nuts
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp. salt
-- mix all together well
1/3 c. butter, melted
-- add, mix well with fork

Once crumb crust is evenly moistened by melted butter, press evenly into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for ~15 minutes. Let cool.

-------------------------------
Fruit Preserves:

1 quart fruit
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
2 to 3 tblsps lemon, lime, or pineapple juice

Put fruit and sugar in a stove-top safe stainless steel pot, mix up, and let sit about 4 to 8 hours. The sugar keeps it from spoiling -- don't fret.
After 4 to 8 hours, mix up again and slowly bring the sugar-fruit mixture to a boil. Make sure all sugar is dissolving.
Once boiling and sugar is dissolved, add lemon, lime, or pineapple juice. Boil until 220 degrees F (about 15 minutes, until translucent and thick).
Remove from heat and cool in a shallow pan for about a day.
Store in fridge or jar/can.

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Cheesecake Bar Filling:

2 packages 8 oz. cream cheese (16 oz. total), softened
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-- beat all together with electric mixer, ~2 minutes
3 eggs
-- beat on low until well-blended

Note: this is one more egg than typical cheesecake recipe of this ratio, because bars need to be more firm to hold up to cutting.

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Sour Cream Fruit topping:

version 1:
1 c. sour cream (8 oz.)
1 yogurt, fruit-flavored (about 4 oz.)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

version 2:
1 1/2 c. sour cream (12 oz.)
1/4 c. fruit preserves (not jelly)
1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Mix all ingredients together util well blended.
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Strawberry Crepes

Crepes with Nutella and strawberry sauce.


First, mix up the crepe batter. It needs to sit out for about twenty minutes to become room temperature. While it sits, I cut up the strawberries and set them to simmer on low heat with honey.


Changed pans, added pure cacao nibs for crunch.


Whisk up the batter again and start heating the pan with a small amount of butter/oil. I set my electric stove to just below 4 (it goes to 10).


Start making crepes. I use a 1/4 c. measuring cup to pour the batter in the center of the pan, then swirl it around by tilting the pan.


Crispy edges, time to flip the crepe. This usually takes about 1-2 minutes.


Crepe is ready. This takes another minute or so, depending on crepe thickness.

Once the crepe is ready, set it flat on a plate. Pour another 1/4 cup crepe batter into the pan and let cook while spreading Nutella inside the cooked crepe and rolling it up.


Nutella-filled, strawberry sauce-topped crepes.


Delicious!

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Crepe Recipe
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. water
1/2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tblsp oil, or melted butter
1-2 tblsp sugar (optional)

Protein modification:
replace 1/4 c. milk with 1/4 c. water (or keep milk and add a couple tblsps water -- this is mostly to dissolve the protein powder)
replace 1/2 c. flour with 1/4 c. flour, 1/2 c. protein powder
-- these tend to be more sticky than regular crepes, so be sure to butter the pan and cook slightly longer.

Mix all ingredients together with a fork or whisk until smooth; let sit 20 mins or so (fold some laundry, do some dishes, make some fruit compote). Heat a little butter or oil in pan on almost-medium heat, pour 1/4 cup at a time in center and rotate pan to spread into flat crepe shape. Cook 1-2 minutes, flip, cook 1-2 minutes more. Makes 4 crepes (double or triple recipe for more crepes).

Evil Bitch-Monster of Death's Fruit compote (can be made while letting crepe batter sit):

take out some cream cheese to soften, 2-3 oz. (optional)
frozen or fresh fruit (1/3 to 1/2 cup is plenty to fill 4 crepes)
honey or granulated sugar (2-3 tblsps, more if you like it really sweet or are using bitter fruit like raspberries)

Boil fruit and sugar/honey on medium heat in a pan, reduce to simmer for about 10 mins, stirring and mushing so nothing sticks to the pan. Pour into bowl, beat in optional cream cheese with fork or something, fridge to chill. (Clean pan, cook crepes).
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