Baklava!

Baklava

Baklava (BAHK lah vah)pg.28.  A Middle Eastern dessert pastry made of many layers of flaky phyllo dough, chopped nuts,and spices.  It's traditionally cut into diamond-shaped pieces after baking.

OK, so obviously I missed the day in school where we learned what diamond-shaped meant, because for some reason I cut mine into triangles.  Maybe I just like triangles, OK?  While I'm on the subject of foux pas, phyllo dough is not my friend.  I need a lesson in working with delicate pasty, because it kept falling apart on me.  I mean, I know I'm not a little delicate flower or anything, but come on!  So... not all 16 ounces of the dough made it into the recipe.  I had to sacrifice some of it.  OK, a lot of it.  I'm not sure if it made a huge difference in the end result, but I could be wrong.  Again, this is something I've never had before, so I don't have anything to compare it to.  So if anyone has even a little wisdom on the matter, please enlighten me!  I could use all the help I can get!  For starters, it smells incredible!  Each paper thin layer of dough is brushed with melted butter and then between every 15 sheets or so, (or in my case 8 sheets or so) you add a layer of walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  You repeat this 3 times, ending with the layers of dough, and then you bake it for roughly 45 minutes or until golden brown.  I'm guessing that since I was missing a few layers of dough, due to the snobbishness of the pastry, mine started to brown at about 35 minutes.  So, after it cools, you pour a syrup made of water, sugar, and honey over the entire dish and let it set for 24 hours.  So today, when I finally cut into it, and pulled out my little triangle of Mid-Eastern flakiness, I took a bite.  And it was uber sweet!  Like it hurt my teeth sweet.  Is it supposed to be this sweet?  I mean, I get the reason for the syrup, it holds everything together, but maybe it was just too much of it.  I'm thinking I should have not used all of it because of the whole, "I didn't use all the phyllo I was supposed to" thing.  I don't know.  It was good, don't get me wrong.  But for ME to say something is too sweet you know it's sweet.  So again, please give me some suggestions.  And just a side thought...how did a Middle Eastern dish get into a Southern Living Cookbook anyhow?

Sauce of the Gods!

Surf & Turf with Bearnaise Sauce

Bearnaise Sauce (bair NAYZ)pg.36. A classic French sauce made with butter, vinegar, egg yolks, shallots, and tarragon and served with meat, seafood, eggs and vegetables.  

Seriously a sauce of the Gods!  NO joking.  I don't believe I've ever even had this sauce before, and I don't know how I've lived this long without it.  If I have had it, I didn't know what it was and it certainly couldn't have been as amazingly delicious as the the one I made last night.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but holy crap was it good!  I mean really, holy crap!  It was rich, and creamy and oh so dreamy.  Yeah that's right, I rhymed.  I have rekindled my love for tarragon...and butter for that matter.  Watch out Shawn!  Ha ha! J/K.  OK so Southern living suggests it goes well with just about anything, so I decided to make a surf turf accompanied by mash potatoes and greens.  Greens were compliments of Momzy of course.  I give credit where credit is deserved!  I could seriously live off of greens, but that's an entirely differently story or another day.  I did however cheat with the mashed potatoes.  They were instant.  Don't hate, it was really late by the time I started cooking last night.  Soooooo...anyway...I totally overcooked the steak, like always, but who cares when it's drizzled Bearnaise sauce?  Right?  Being that I've never made or had this sauce before, I wasn't sure how thick it was supposed to be and the directions did not specify how long to simmer the sauce or did it give an example of the consistency.  It only said to "stir constantly until smooth and thickened."  I almost took it off the stove too soon, but thankfully I held out a little longer.  After about 20 minutes or so of stirring constantly, it finally started to thicken up to where it wasn't like a runny liquid.  Have I said "Holy Crap" yet?  If it wasn't so rich, and if I didn't know how much butter was actually in it, I'd eat it by the spoon fulls.  I'm totally not kidding.  I'm just imagining all the things I could put this sauce on...Mmmmm...OK, let me stop before I get too crazy.  With slightly more than minimal effort and patience, this will be a "go-to" sauce for years to come. 

Bearnaise Sauce

Artichokes...

Cooked Artichokes

Artichokepg19:  The bud of a plant from the thistle family; (that's a funny word, thistle)  has gray-green petal shaped leaves with soft flesh that can be dipped in a sauce, and an inedible choke cloaking the tender center (heart) that's considered the prize of the artichoke.

My husband Shawn actually introduced me to whole artichokes when we first met.  It was one the first things he ever cooked for me.  I remember when he first made them I'm pretty sure I looked at him like he was crazy.  I think I look at him like that most of the time anyway.  Ha ha.  But I was like, "You want me to eat what?  The leaves?  For real?"  It was obviously a California thing (FYI, he's from California).  So I was surprised to even see them in the Southern Living cookbook.  He cooks them a totally different way then this cookbook says, and his way works really well, it's a little messy of course.  Everything he does in the kitchen is messy.  Delicious, but MESSY!  Aaaaanyway....You boil them in a pot large enough to cover them with water and add a little lemon juice to keep them from browning.  Is this really necessary?  Shawn's never get brown.  He also steams them in the microwave.  Be careful when you take them out.  They are extremely steaming and hot.  You might just give yourself an artichoke facial!  (There's a new one boss lady!  Ha ha!)  So eating them is the fun part!  Shawn wasn't home when I ate mine, so it wasn't as fun. :-(   You pull off the leaves, dip the bottom in a sauce (Shawn always uses butter and mayo.  I know it sounds icky, but it's not, I promise) and then scrape off the flesh with your teeth.  OK, now that I'm hearing myself say that, it sounds a little carnage like.  Hmmm, I don't know how else to describe it though.  Now I haven't quite mastered the art of getting the heart out of the bottom.  I butchered it to be frank.  (Again with the carnage, I must be low on iron or something.  Sheesh).  There's a fuzzy part of the choke that your supposed to cut out.  You really don't want to eat that part, trust me, it's gross!  But I can never cut it out for some stupid reason.  Shawn usually does that for me, and well, I just didn't have him at me disposal this time. So I put my big girl panties on and gave it a go...and...fail.  No artichoke heart for me.  Oh well.  Better luck next time.

Southernism:  A Carolina favorite, "hearty chokes" were popular from 1811 and were cheap enough in those days that only the bottoms were used, never the leaves.  

It's Kinda Like Crack...

Puppy Chow!

...Not that I've ever had crack before, but this stuff is uber addicting!  It's called Puppy Chow, and no, it's not for dogs.  They cannot and certainly should not eat it.  I've been contemplating on changing the name because every time I tell someone what it is, their response is, "like dog food?" and then proceed to wrinkle their nose in disgust, or something  along those lines.  But then, it just wouldn't be the same.  It wouldn't stick even if I did change the name of it.  It's been that for so long.  This recipe is not in the Southern Living cookbook, but in lieu of the upcoming holidays, I made like 3 freaking batches of it and thought it worthy of blogging about.  I had to do one batch at a time because I didn't have a bowl big enough for it all.  I made a big mess too.  I had to wipe down the counters like 6 times!!!  Puppy Chow has been a long time holiday tradition in my family. More like a staple.  Every year someone asks, "Where's the Puppy Chow?"  Momzy taught me how to make this long before she let me start baking.  I mean seriously, I was probably like 3.  When I was little she started me a cookbook, which was only a spiral notebook mind you, but it was still mine.  She had me write down all the recipes we made together and ones to try too.  I still have it to this day!  And Puppy Chow is one of the first recipes in it.  It's the only place I have the recipe written down.  Because it's Christmas and I feel all cheery and giving, I thought I would share it with all of you.  However...I have made a few changes over the years as I have become more adventurous in my baking and candy making, not that I've ever been a chocolatier or anything, but I'm giving you the recipe as is, and fill in where I've made substitutions and additions.  So Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Ho Ho Ho!!!

The original recipe

 Puppy Chow
1 18oz box Honey Grahm Cereal
1 15oz box Golden raisins (I substitute pretzel rods chopped into 1/4in pieces)
1 12oz can mixed nuts
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 12oz jar chunky peanut butter
1 tsp Vanilla
1 lb bag confectioners sugar
1 stick margarine (butter makes it too greasy, trust me on this)
*this year I added cinnamon almonds yum!

In a very large bowl (the biggest one you can find) combine cereal, raisins, and nuts (and pretzels).  In medium sauce pan, melt together chocolate chips, peanut butter, and margarine.  Stir in vanilla and pour over cereal mixture.  Put confectioners sugar in a large, unscented kitchen garbage bag.  Add the mixture, twisting the top closed, and shake up until all is coated. (Use hands for most of the mixing to separate all the pieces).  After mixed, even out into pans to cool completely.  Store in airtight container.  *side note:  store in individual serving sizes so you don't accidentally eat the entire batch all at once.  Don't say I didn't warn you!  :-)

My house smelled like Christmas!

OK so early last week I made some Apple Butter!  I made two different batches.  One from the book, and the other, one of my personal recipes.  I altered the one in the book mainly because of one particular food natzi in my family, well she's more like a sugar natzi, who will remain nameless.  But you know who are.  Ha ha!  So I will blog about that one.  

Oven Baked Apple Butterpg18  In my recipe, I cook mine in slow cooker.  This one, however is baked, which worked pretty well, except for the fact I felt like I had to keep adding liquid to the baking dish.  I feel if I had just left it in the dutch oven I cooked the apples down in, with the lid on, it wouldn't dry out as much.  The only thing I changed in this recipe is I switched out the sugar for Spenda.  It tasted pretty good if you don't mind artificial sweetener.  I did noticed the color of the butter wasn't as dark as I would think it would be had I used the real deal.  Notice the difference in the two jars in the picture?  The one on the right is full of sinful, delicious sugar, and the one on the left is the more figure friendly imposture version.  Both so deliscious, I decided to can them and give them as gifts this year for Christmas.  Oh, and BTW, apple butter is best when served on hot, fresh out the oven biscuits!  Yummy!!!
Canning:pg82  Preserving food by heating jars of food hot enough and long enough, and, with some of food, under enough pressure to keep food from spoiling.                        

I made a big mess in the kitchen

I swear, I hate dredging!!!  I always end up with a counter covered in flour, not mention I'm covered in flour!  I even got a little in my hair.  Ewe.  OK, so tonight's menu...Classic Trout Amandinepg13 (um, OK, first Publix did not have any trout, fresh or frozen for that matter, so I went with tilapia instead) so, I guess really it was Classic Tilapia Amandine which I served with steamed green beans and for dessert, Granny Smith Apple Piepg17

Tilapia Amandine

Amandine (AH mahn deen)  A French term for a dish garnished with Almonds.pg12  Let me start off by saying this dish was pretty tasty.  The fish was amazing, flaky and light and great flavor.  It was lightly dredged in flour and pan fried.  Hence the mess I made in the kitchen.  You would have thought I had got in a fight with the Pillsbury dough boy!  However the sauce, although good, called for 2 sticks of butter!!!  2 Sticks!!!  It's like Paula Dean wrote this recipe and just added an extra stick just because she wanted to.  It was so incredibly rich, that I almost didn't even try the apple pie.  (yeah, right, who are we kidding).  I think I may have browned the butter a little too much anyway.  I will definitely be modifying this recipe.  It certainly doesn't need that much butter.  Really only enough to toast the almonds.

Granny Smith Apple Pie

I think I may have heard little birds sing when I took a bite out of this pie.  OMG  I mean really!  It didn't come out looking like a blue ribbon prize winner but it seriously taste amazing!  Not to shake my own little wooden spoon or anything, but I think this pie here might give my sister-in-law, Jenn's apple pie a run for it's money.  (BTW, she makes a bomb ass apple pie).  The only thing that would make this any tastier is a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
A La Mode (ah la MOHD)  A French term that has been "Americanized" to mean pie topped with ice cream.pg10   Those French are so smart.

  

On my day off...11/29/11.

So yesterday you could have just called me little miss Susie homemaker.  Not only did I make a few things but I also started decorating for Christmas.  My poor little Christmas tree looks a little like Charlie Brown's, but it will have to do, for now anyway.

Something that made me laugh yesterday...Apparently my husband thinks that this cooking endeavour is solely for his enjoyment.  Which in part, he does benefit from.  He is technically my official taster. When I told him I was making a Lemon Angel Cake his response was, "Why are you baking a cake?  You know I don't like cake."  First of all, I don't understand not liking cake.  I mean, really, I don't get it, but whatever, they are in fact his taste buds.  I suppose taste buds are entitled to their own.  And second, he was extremely sincere when he said it.  No smile on his face whatsoever.  Needless to say, he didn't try the cake.

Lemon Angel Cake

Lemon Angel Cakepg15I'm not really sure what went wrong, all I know is wasn't quite right.  It came out kinda, well spongy.  So if you don't know how it's made, it only uses egg whites, not the yolks, that's what makes it so incredibly light and fluffy.  But my cake was not light and fluffy.  And I had a really hard time getting it out of the bunt pan.  The directions said "Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until golden.  Invert pan onto rack; cool completely."  Well mine became "golden" at about  28 minutes.  So I went ahead and took it out, and I let it cool all the way but then the stupid thing wouldn't come out of the pan.  I mean, I was shaking the crap out of it like a crazy person and it wouldn't let loose at all.  So finally I took a knife to the edges and got it out.  Once I finally got it out it looked, well we'll just say it looked "rustic."  So this is definitely a do-over recipe.  Oopsy, my bad.  Turns out it's a good thing my husband doesn't like cake.  I would have hated to disappoint him.  Ha ha.  Which brings  me onto something else he doesn't like...

Ambrosia

 Ambrosiapg13This is a fruit salad made of oranges, pineapple, and coconut, and topped with whipped cream, minus the maraschino cherry, because I don't like them.  They stuck in my teeth and that's just gross.  I thought this was delicious and it's already almost all gone.  I snacked on it all day yesterday and had it for breakfast this morning.  I told Shawn (my husband) he had to try it, even though he doesn't like oranges or coconut for that matter.  His feedback?  "The whipped cream is pretty good!"  Well half of it was a winner with him.  He's such a trooper.  But in reality he probably only tasted the whipped cream and didn't even touch the other stuff.  Either way, he didn't completely poo poo it like the cake.  

I also made for the first time in my entire life (Do you like how I make myself sound oh so wise by saying "my entire life" like I've been around forever and know everything?) Creme Brulee.  I had all those egg yolks left over from the Angel Cake that I didn't want to waste  (it takes 7 egg yolks if you wondering) so I skipped to page 150 of the cookbook to make this oh so amazing creamy wonderfulness of a treat.  My mouth is literally watering thinking about it.  However I haven't taken any pictures of it yet and I'm way too tired to write about it tonight.  Plus it'll give me something to do tomorrow.  :-)  And besides, the jury is still out on how they were.  The jury being my husband.  There's no way he couldn't like it!