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An image from a past tea at my home (summer time requires lemonade too!)
I attended a tea yesterday for a fellow grad student’s birthday at a local tea house. It was a lovely lovely afternoon– child free, women only, lots of talking and tea drinking. I usually go to tea for my birthday, but somehow this year it hasn’t happened, so it was nice to revisit that wonderful afternoon ritual for another’s birthday.
The ambiance of the tea house was very nice, and the service impeccable, but the food, honestly, was disappointing (then again, perhaps I am never satisfied with anything less than homemade). My auntie has schooled me in throwing our own very satisfying teas over the years (I was lucky enough to have her throw my baby showers and my wedding shower teas) and so it is very very hard to meet my expectations for tea food. Thinking on that on the way home, I thought I might share a couple of my favorite tea party recipes (I’ll post them at the end).
One of my favorite sandwich recipes that is a little outside the norm is Cucumber and Roquefort Cheese Sandwiches from a book titled Afternoon Tea Serenade (These are the top sandwich in the 1st picture). The original recipe was collected from The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, which I can say from personal experience, does one of the best afternoon teas in the San Francisco area– truly worth doing if you are in the area and feel so inclined (my other favorite tea place in the San Francisco is Lovejoy’s– less refined, more eclectic, but delicious food and welcoming environment).
The thing that was missing from today’s tea experience was a hot scone. To me the scone is the anchor of a good tea, and the quality of the scone speaks to the quality of the tea. No scone? It is just luncheon with hot tea. I have made a variety of scones, but my favorite are a quick and easy biscuit-like Orange-Cherry Scone. This recipe came to me from my Auntie, but she told me it was originally from The Honor Mansion B & B in Healdsburg (a stone’s throw from where I live). I like these as much for their flavor, as for their ease– particularly because they can be prepped and placed in the fridge, then popped in the oven when your guests arrive, so that you may serve hot scones!
And last, a tea is really not a tea with out a little sweetness. The highlight of all the teas my auntie has thrown are her Chocolate Dipped Shortbread. She varies the shape of the cookie cutter to fit the theme of the tea, so for my sister’s baby shower which had a little prince theme for my nephew, she made little crowns. She has done these in dark chocolate, but in the last few years she has moved to white chocolate and they are as delicious as ever.
With these recipes, a couple egg salad sandwiches (try these with a little curry powder in them), and perhaps some fresh fruit and a pound cake or box of chocolates you are ready to serve tea. The only thing left is to ask, “One lump or two.”
Ritz Cucumber Sandwiches (My simplified version)
10 slices Tea Sandwich Bread (you can use cocktail bread or any other thinly sliced bread– I think Orowheat makes some thin sliced– or just your favorite bread. These are open faced so the thinness is not as important is with some breads– you do want to make sure it is sturdy enough to stand up to spreading, some breads will tear.
2 small cucumbers, peeled and cut into thin slices (or one English cucumber peeled and sliced) You can trim the cucumbers to the size of your bread and slice lengthwise, or just slice as you normally would.
8 oz Roguefort cheese
8 oz cream cheese at room temp
4 TBSP butter at room temp
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted (you can of course use the nut of your choice, pecans would probably substitute well)
Blend cheeses and butter together in blender or food processor until smooth. Spread a layer over each piece of bread (toast your bread if you like before hand). Place overlapping slices of cucumber on the toast. Trim off bread crusts (absolutely required for a tea sandwich– crusts are unsightly at the tea table), and cut into triangles. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Serve.
Orange-Cherry (or Cranberry) Scones
6 Tbsp cold butter
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely grated orange rind
3/4 cup dried cherries ( I chop them into smaller pieces when them come whole– you can also substitute dried cranberries, etc)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease baking sheet. In a large bowl, cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until misture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in orange rind and dried cherries. Add egg and milk; mix until mixture clings together and forms soft dough.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently about 15 times. Divide dough into fourths and pat into squares about 1/2 inch thick. Cut each square diagonally twice to form 4 triangles. Place on baking sheet. (The scones can also be frozen after being cut, or place on sheet and refrigerate covered overnight).
Bake abt 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm with butter, lemon curd, jam, or Devonshire cream.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Hearts
2 cups unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans)
2 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Preheat oven to 325. In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add extract and dash salt; beat well. Add flour, beat just until well mixed. Stire in nuts. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes (cookies should not brown). Cool on rack.
Cook and stir white chocolate and/or semi-sweet chocolate and 2 tsp shortening over low heat (in seperate pans if doing both) until melted, stirring frequently. Dip half of each cookie into a chocolate mixture, or half and half. Let stand until chocolate is set.
For my Grandmother’s 80th birthday we all wanted to make it special for her. In the divying up of food duties somehow I ended up with the charge of baking a chocolate dessert to go with a the summer fruit shortcakes my auntie was making, and the black bottom cheese cake my cousin was making. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that the chocolate dessert also needed to be a cake. I found myself then seeking a chocolate cake recipe that would be special in every way. I’ve made many a chocolate cake, chocolate being the favorite of most of the family (except one cousin who inexplicably prefers vanilla in cake and ice cream– I fear she has received some recessive genes), but I wanted this cake to rise above the others in honor of Grandma and her special love of chocolate. Now if I could of made a cake from See’s candy that would of been ideal. I also thought of making her the cake that she always makes for our birthdays when we are visiting, a strawberry cake with chocolate ganache frosting, but decided to try something new instead. I’ve made a few times the Devil’s Food White-Out Cake from Dorie’s Baking book (I make just the cake part and frost with chocolate frosting), and always as a standby you can’t beat the Hershey’s cake recipe from their tin, but this time I wanted something a little different. So I hauled out my Tartine cookbook.
Now while I have had good luck with everything I’ve baked from their cookbook, I always feel a little anxiety everytime I contemplate baking from this book because of my experience not with their recipes, but at their actual bakery. I live in a very rich “foodie” area and it is only about an hour from my house to this bakery. About two years ago I decided we should take advantage of this great eating area we live in (as much as our budget will allow) and we made a day trip to the city, culminating in a visit to Tartine Bakery in the afternoon. All was going well as we parked, and proceeded to a nearby upscale grocery to grab some sandwiches before getting the chocolate cake and cookies that were swimming in my imagination. After lunch we got in line at the bakery and started looking at our choices. It all looked so good, but I especially had been wanting to try their chocolate cake I had read about. When I reached the counter I found that I could only buy the cake whole as they had run out of pieces. I was crestfallen, but decided to be adventurous and try a passionfruit cake (a flavor I had never had). We settled down outside at a sidewalk table, the kids happy with their cookies and hot chocolate, and I cut my first bite of cake. I had waited all day to make it here and my expectations were very high. I took my first mouthful and discovered I do not like passionfruit. In the midst of my dissappointment I looked up and saw our car being attached to a tow truck. What ensued was far from what we had imagined as our last stop for the day! We had to grab a taxi and track our van down at the impound lot and a couple bedraggled hours later finally loaded ourselves in the van for the now very long sounding hour drive home.
My associations with Tartine are now fraught with anxiety and disaapointement, but I decided to forge through these and give their chocolate cake a try for Grandma.
The baking went better than the visit, but I did, for some unknown reason, turn the oven to 325 instead of 350. This resulted in a longer baking time for the cake and, I think, in a much dryer cake than I was expecting. The flavor though was very nice. This cake also has a carmel filling and ganache throughout. It is exceptionally rich; a true chocolate lovers delight. In the future I would double the caramel filing amount– no one could tell there was caramel in it.
Since my first visit to Tartine I have been back, but I have yet to try their version of this cake. Although my second visit was not quite as dramatic, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps sometimes the best way to visit a famous eating place may indeed be through their cookbook. Hence my very large (and always growing) cookbook collection, and very infrequent day trips.
School is creeping up on us. My children are chock full of excitement this year, with little worries bubbling over here and there. Each day I glance at our calendar I see the very clearly written: First Day of School. As a teaching grad student, this means my summer is ending soon too, and I must mentally prepare myself to reenter this other world away from my children and their concerns.
So today we escaped to the beach.
Absolutely lovely. We packed up around lunchtime, eating a small bit before we left and packing more (and more) for the beach. We grabbed pails, books for me, some sunscreen. It’s a little trek for us, but a nice drive, and we stopped on the way to pick up some local plums and apples (the Gravensteins are in!) to add to our basket. I wasn’t sure if it would be as sunny there as it was at our house (and had packed layers in case), but it was perfect. A little breeze. Sunshine. Happy kids.
Mrs. Miniver- Perfect Beach Read
While they played in the waves, being chased and chasing them, digging holes (there really is no substitue for digging and filling a hole at the beach), I kept one eye on them, and one eye on my reading.
One of the books I brought to peruse was Nature in a Nutshell for Kids by Jean Potter, which I saw recommended at Soulemama (I think). I’ve persused A LOT of nature and science books for children, and done a good amount of projects with preschool groups, but I’m always looking for new ideas. Usually I find a few scattered projects in a book, but this one is overflowing with great small scale experiments and exploration, and has wonderful explanations that can easily be explained to children. While this book would definietly be appropriate for preschool age children (3+), it would also work for up to 8 years, at least. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that it divides the projects based on season, which is exactly how I like to introduce science concepts to children.
For example: it is summer, so I go to the pictorial coded summer section. I want to do a project with my children about the ocean, or beach to follow up on our outing today and some of our talk on the way home about how much water is in the world, and how many oceans there are. In 5 minutes I am able to locate at least 5 different quick projects. A couple of my favorites (that we will probably try tomorrow) are: Dense Dip: Why is it easier to float in the ocean than in a swimming pool? and Wind Waves: How are waves made?.
Which brings me to two other wonderuful things about this book! The projects are based out of questions that children ask (that I usually can’t answer– like today’s question from my daughter: “Where did water come from?”), and the projects are done using mostly things you can find on a nature walk or nature exursion, or around your house. For the two projects I mentioned I will need: a large cake pan, water, drinking straw, 2 bowls, food coloring, salt, spoon, and two eggs. I should also only need about 20 minutes to complete both explorations/explantions with my children.
Which is a lot shorter than it will take me to explain where water came from, so consider this my diversion tactic until I can get a handle on that one.
I suppose I should know better by now, but sometimes I don’t slow down enough to listen to myself. Clothing and patterns just aren’t made for me, and especially not clothing patterns for women in a Japanese craft book!
When I visited my dear friend Anna in Seattle (Anna, are you checking up on me here yet?) we reconnected over sewing and blogs. She has been making some of those lovely bibs from Angry Chicken’s book, Bend the Rules Sewing, as well as working on a quilt (a sewing feat I have steered clear of so far). Talking of how I happened into this world of blogging I told her the story of my friend with the Japanese craft books and then the links that followed via email. Sweet friend that she is, upon learning my love of those books (if you’re not familiar with them, check out these blog postings for more pics and info: mollychicken, weewonderfuls, or angrychicken) drove me (our kids in tow) across town to the Kinokuniya Book Store, where Japanese craft books galore were to be had. And have I did. As it was my birthday week when I was visiting I bought myself a couple that day. And then, yes, the truth must be told… I returned with my husband the following day on our way out of town for another stop and a couple more books. I know I overloaded, but I have promised myself no more until I sew from each of the ones I brought home.
Cover of the book
Feeling that sewing pressure, and anxious to crack open a book I decided to try an adult pattern from Dress made of My Favorite Cloth by Machiko Kayaki. I have sewn in the past a few outfits for my daughter (boy clothes books are not as inspiring, but i”m working on it) but I had never sewn from one for myself. I especially liked the look of this dress (okay, the sleeves were really what got me) and decided to give it a try.
the dress!
First I measured myself, and then try to align that with their measurement table to determine my size. That the sizing runs on the petit side cannot be stressed enough. But I estimated, adjusted, and began cutting. Most important for me is usually length. At 6′ 1″ most patterns don’t fit me, but I added about 3-4 inches of length to each piece thinking it would be enough. It was not.
As I didn’t have any of “my favorite cloth” I was using some nubby fabric I had bought a while back (probably with some project in mind at the time, long forgotten) and was attempting to try out my serger a bit more with this project. What I ended up with looks okay, but does not fit. The bust area is darted well above where it needs to, and the whole piece is much, much too short– the line that is supposed to fall below my bust, cuts it almost in half. In my serging I also lost some of the gathering, and it has rather a flat look. On the bright side it went together rather quickly. On the downside— I have already begun cutting it apart (it is lying in pieces as I type)– trying to salvage it but knowing that it may not be possible.
I do, however, still love the sleeves.
You will probably note a flurry of sewing in the next couple weeks. My semester starts the last week of August and I can feel my sewing time dwindling and so many unfinished projects still staring me down. I decided that I would dedicate this afternoon to finishing the lunch mats for my children. The decision to focus on the lunch mats was strenghened when I came across a picture of some lunch mats in one of my newest Japanese craft books:All Your Kids Need
I like the one on the top right
These are a slightly different set up than mine, and give me something to try another time. I see lots and lots of embroidery work here, as well as all over the blogs I’ve been reading, and perhaps I will give it a whirl one day. My favorite from the book is the one with the embroidered spoon and chopsticks to show where they go.
With that inspriation I began my work this afternoon. It was quick and easy sewing and I have finished them all! Five for each of my children, so that we may make it through the weeks with clean mats and napkins for their lunches. Hopefully I won’t fall behind on laundry this year!
Hers
His
It was in fact such an easy project that I decided to let my daughter sew one for herself. She received a sewing machine for her 7th birthday last January, but we have just carved out the time for sewing lessons starting this week. We had a basic lesson a couple days ago, and today we dived right into her first project. I helped her as I’m a bit nervous still to let her go at, but she did stupendously and will be on her own soon enough. Today I handled the iron, but I do need to give her a chance to try that soon.
My proud girl!
As I was sewing the rest of them I began playing around a bit- trying pinking shears on some for finishing, my serger on others (I’m still using the serger in it’s most basic way as I haven’t had time to explore it more yet). I tried out a snap and a tie on my son’s, but after having him try to undo and then redo them, I’ve decided that no clasp or closure will work better. Sometimes, simplest is the best.
Pinking Shears
serger action
Sticky buns! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Even I, very selective in the sweet breakfast foods I love (I’m not a donut in the morning kind of gal), love them! So…. having successfully baked the basic bread recipe from Artisan Baking (who by the way have their own site) I thought I should give their sticky buns made with challah bread a whirl.
They actually write their recipe to be made with either the brioche or the challah, but when I was mixing up the dough I only had enough eggs to make the challah, so challah it was. It really did mix up in minutes, then I left it on my counter while I wandered off to check email and read for a bit. Unfortunately, I had mixed this up rather late in the evening, and I found my self dozing off before the 2 hour rest time was up. Fortunately, even though I stuck it in the fridge after about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, it finished rising and doing its thing in my fridge! My kind of dough. I need a little forgiveness and flexibility in my live now and again.
Major drawback to this recipe–time. After your dough is ready (it can be used directly after the 2 hour rest period, or the next day, or the next… until 5 days later [and then, if you really can't get to it, you can freeze it]) it still takes approximately 2 hours before the sticky buns are ready to eat. That put a cramp in my plan to make these for breakfast for the kids, because, of course, when they wake up they want to eat within a half hour- tops– and I was not waking up 2 hours before them just to serve them hot sticky buns. I love them, but I also love my sleep. So a couple days later I relinquished my dream of sticky buns and tea with my children in the morning, and revised it into, sticky buns and tea after lunch.
Please don't count my pecans!
Why the two hours? After you make up the sugar coating for the bottom of the pan and sprinkle precisely 30 pecan halves (who is going to count that out? I did two handfuls of pecan pieces with no adverse affects–more forgiveness and flexibility), roll your dough out (to what size rectangle, by the way, was not noted and slightly irked my perfectionist side– it’s subtle but it does exist) and sprinkle the sugary, nutty goodness into it, and then roll and cut it into the rolls, the buns must still sit for 1 hour in the pan. Then they bake for about 40 minutes (mine took about 45). If I was an early riser and was puttering around the house anyway, this wouldn’t matter much, because the hands on time is not long (rolling the dough etc took about 15 minutes), but with two kids those type of mornings are few and far between. However, I could see a recipe like this being used quite nicely, on say, Christmas morning.
Whatever my reservations about this recipe, it was delicious, and well worth the hours of wait time. Yummy, scrummy sugary goodness, all washed down with a cold glass of milk— for lunch. But don’t tell my kids– I’m making them wait until after.
Broken in!
I had been reading the buzz around a new book on baking bread. It had cropped up a couple times in my blog readings, and so– intrigued– I requested a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day from our local library. Of course, I was a little behind the curve, and was placed in line behind many others–aproximately 25 others, which, with only 4 copies in our county, could take months to get through before my turn. This has happened before. Often by the time it is my turn I’ve forgotten I’ve even requested– not as terrible as it sounds– kind of like a suprise, a gift, when you least expect it.
But as it turns out I didn’t have to wait months. I arrived home one day to a package on my doorstep. I hadn’t ordered anything. But yes! It was for me. My friend had sent me a copy for my birthday just weeks after requesting it. A gift indeed!
Before I had a chance to try out the book, I got a chance on my vacation to see the recipes in action while visiting said friend. They were delicious! Now back at home it was my turn in the kitchen. Well, at least for 5 minuntes.
My dough just after mixing it.
It is in fact a very straightforward process and as quick and easy as it is described, although it does have some equipment requirements that seem slightly daunting. I found though that my pizza stone worked well for the baking (they show a large baking stone), and a wooden cutting board stood in for the required pizza peel that I don’t have (nor have the budget for this month). I had a tupperware large enough for the dough storage, and as it did seem to have a good seal (not recommended), I merely left one corner cracked.
A finished loaf!
Verdict? The process was easy. The bread delicious. In fact, the two initial loaves I baked have disappeared, but luckily we have more dough in the fridge. I started with their first recipe, a boule, but I’m anxious to give some of the whole wheat recipes a whirl, as that is what we eat more of.
I found one blog posting at Alexandra Cooks that does a nice job of breaking down the cost benefits of baking bread this way. Perhaps with my bread savings I can start saving for the pizza peel!
mmmmm!
Summer fruit waiting to be transformed
Technically I am not fulfilling the TWD rules this week, so it will not count towards my participation this month (which means I will do next weeks recipe as well), but I had all the ingredients and had wanted to make this one anyway. And so I did. At least it is still summer, and therefore fitting for the Summer Gallette recipe chosen for this week.
I bought some nectarines, peaches and plums at our CSA yesterday when we went to get our box of farm goodness (oh! the glorious summer tomatoes and basil in there!). And finally this afternoon I found a little space of time to put this together. Wonderfully it really did not take long, but it did take a bit of forethought because the butter for the dough needed to be frozen, and then the dough itself needed to be chilled. Other than that it basically made itself in no time.
I have to say, I’m always a bit afraid of pastry. My friend is a whiz at it, but I find it troubling and usually avoid it. I’ve had some luck, but more frustration, ripped crusts, and mishaps than I care to list here. It was a lovely suprise to have this crust come together so quickly and easily in the food processor (brilliant!). Even better, it tasted devine! Light and buttery. Dare I say…flakey?
My leaky lucious gallette
I love making this kind of pastry over a pie in a dish– the free form crust suits my non-perfectionist style much better and saves time , as well as dishes to be washed! I have made similar desserts, mainly working from Ina Garten’s (Barefoot Contessa) recipe for Apple Crostata in her Parties! cookbook. (Here is another of her crostata recipes I was able to find online) This cookbook is one of the most stained and tabbed books in my collection, precisely for these types of simple, flavorful recipes. Her crostata differs from Dorie’s gallette mainly in the topping. Dorie used the custard, Ina a light crumb topping. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the custard enough to warrant the extra step– I could taste the fruit and the crust and that was enough for me with a great big glass of milk– but… I was eating it quite warm in order to be able to post this evening. Perhaps the custard comes into its own in cooling; I should know at breakfast tomorrow!
One last note about this recipe. I’m not sure if I just had extra juicy fruit, or used too much but my gallette leaked all over. In fact there was so much juice I had a hard time telling if the custard had set. Really I don’t mind, the juice made it luscious to eat, but it did make the bottom a little less crisp than would be ideal. I wonder if the the leaking would have been worse without the crumbs and jam?
I will leave the experimentation for another day.
Find the recipe for the Gallette posted here.
Photo from my vacation!
We are home again! And while when I am here too long I can only think about traveling, when I am away too long, I can only think about home. Our full trip was almost two weeks and it was nice to come home, check on my garden (still growing), my to do list (still growing), and think of fun summer things to do in our area where my bed is (blackberry picking is high on our list this week). I was also anxious to get back to my posting here. We came back a bit too late to get my TWD up today (check tomorrow– I did get all the ingredients today and they await me in the morning) but not too late to get up another post about baking with children– one of my favorite topics.
My Baking Boy a couple years back
In my last post about Baking with Children I mentioned one of my favorite cookbooks for children, the well-known classic, Pretend Soup. And my favorite recipe in that book? Popovers. Hands down one of the most satisfying baking you can do with young children. I’ve made this recipe now multiple times not only with my children, but in their preschool classrooms where it never fails to be a hit.
The great thing about this recipe is that it is broken in to steps making even the prep work managable for the kids. The children get to “paint” the muffin tins with the melter butter, and just as Katzen promises, some children “love” this and will do this for quite a while, making for some very buttered tins!
The format of the cookbook is a bit lengthy with grown-up hints, the recipe itself, and then simplified pictorial directions for the children to follow. I can’t obviously recreate that here, so I will do my best to give enhanced directions. The best bet is to check out the book itself, at the library or at a bookstore.
Popovers
adapted from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen & Ann Henderson
best eaten slightly warm, with jam
This recipe will work in a toaster oven and in mini muffin tins.
Ingredients:
2 TBSP butter, melted (to “paint” with)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Have the children paint the insides of the muffin cups with the melted butter (you may need more than the 2 TBSP depending on how much they enjoy this part– don’t rush them! Focusing on the process instead of the product is very important for young children)
When they are ready, break the eggs into the mixing bowl (try my trick for the small bowl for each or Katzen’s listed “break them on the bottom of a big bowl and let the egg run out into the bowl”). Once you have all the shells out of the egg, add the milk and beat well. Add flour and salt and whisk until blended.
Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. You can put the batter in a small pyrex measure cup to let the children help fill them on their own. Bake for 30 minutes without opening the oven (if using mini muffins it will be less– you will need to watch them, but this is part of the fun of popovers!)
Remove from pan and prick with a fork to let steam escape (truth be told I don’t think I usually remove them from the muffin pans– lazy, I guess). Katzen suggests having your child wear an oven mitt when they prick the muffins to protect them from the steam.
Eat one. And another. Add a little jam to the next. Maybe time for a glass of milk, or a mug of tea. Now one more.
Now get them young'uns in the kitchen!
I’ll be camping and traveling to see friends, but I don’t go far without a book in my hand (that’s my daughter above reading at our quick beach trip in June. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree). Here’s a list of books I’m hoping to get through while I’m gone. This reading will only be possible with quiet children in the car, a husband who wants to drive, and lots of down time while we’re gone. It may be entirely wishful, but it’s the hope that keeps me going.
Divisadero It’s been on my list for quite a while. I’ve loved other books by this author, hoping for a similar reaction.
Toast by Nigel Slater I’ve been wanting to read this ever since looking through his wonderful cookbookish book, Kitchen Diaries last year.
Three Cups of Tea Recommended to me by a good friend and fellow reader. Looking forward to reading this and sharing my reactions upon my return!
A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies Can’t remember why this ended up in my pile (was in NY Times book review that mentioned… yes I think it was this one about another book on my “to read” list!), but my australian e-pal says he’s a good aussie author and I trust her opinion infinitely.
The Biographer’s Tale Picked this up at the local Friends of the Library bookstore for a dollar (can’t beat their prices). I haven’t read anything else by Byatt since I read Posession, but sounded right up my alley.
Here’s to my summer reading! I hope it really happens.
I love baking. I love sharing things I love with my children. Not too far a leap to loving baking with my children. One recent afternoon my son had a friend over and we headed to the kitchen to do those things I love. My son loves chocolate. That lead us to this recipe from Linda Collister’s, Cooking with Kids for Double Chocolate Muffins. The recipe was from her aptly named section in the book, “baking afternoon”.
I got the boys suited up into aprons and away we went, mixing, stirring, cracking… and of course spilling. We made it through with only the barest of messes (one egg did miss the bowl completely but a quick swipe, a new egg, and we were back in business. 30 minutes later- cooling muffins. The interesting thing is that I think they enjoyed the process of baking more than those muffins. By the time they had come out of the oven they were onto another activity— but momma enjoyed them!
Here are a few tips when baking with children. The thing to always keep in mind is that baking with children will be a little bit messy. But there are some things you can do to minimize the mess and mishaps.
1. Have them crack eggs in a small separate bowl so if shell goes in with it all is not lost! I picked up this little trick from one of my favorite children’s cookbooks, Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson.
2. Use nice large bowls. It helps when they pour in too quickly (slosh), too much at one time (large puff of flour in the air), or stir with the might of mighty mouse (flinging unincorporated flour or, even better, bits of batter, throughout the kitchen). It doesn’t solve the mess, but it does minimize it.
3. Read through the recipe before you invite them in the kitchen. Make sure you have all the ingredients and prepare what you can. 
3a. Be sure that if you are baking with more than one child that the recipe has more than one egg to crack. This is the highlight of baking for most children. You can also check to see if there might be a compensating step, but cracking the egg is hard to beat. To ensure equal egg breaking consider making scrambled eggs after or instead. All will be happy.
4. Choose a recipe that will be done today. Preferable within an hour. Patience is not common in children, especially when it comes to eating dessert.
Happy Baking with your children!
This is my first week doing TWD and I am very excited. I’ve had Dorie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook up on my shelf for over a year now and have baked some out of it, but as with many of my cookbooks in the last year, it has not been put through the paces as much as I would have liked. I have found two great birthday cake batters in there (Devil’s Food White-out Cake [pg 247]- a chocolate chip cake- and Perfect Party Cake [pf 250]- a lightly lemon flavored white cake with a stupendous crumb) but beyond that ventured very little. When I stumbled upon TWD one night last week while blog surfing– jumping from one baking blog to another through links– I was delighted. Accountability- that’s what I needed to explore her book more; so I signed myself up.
At least 2 weeks out of every four I must make the chosen recipe from her cookbook and then post my experience, reaction, etc here. So here is week one for me. My next posting will be not be for one or two weeks as I will be out of town.
So lets get down to the pudding…..(you can find the recipe here)
I’ve made chocolate pudding from scratch before from Barefoot Contessa’s cookbook, Parties! (I’ve found a recipe link here for that version) and with success. I am always delighted with the result, and with anything chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use the better your result. So this time I pulled out the bittersweet Valrohna bars which I tuck up in my baking cabinet for just such times.
After weighing out my five ounces I thought I should do this recipe right and prep all my ingredients (measured and all) before I got started. This is not my usual method, but I was multitasking with cobbler in the oven, and one child still awake making periodic visits to the kitchen for one more tuck in.
A few characteristic flubs (broken yolk while separating eggs [dump, start again], too much sugar in the milk [dump start again], too much milk in the milk [scoop out with a measuring cup because I was tired of dumping out]) and I got down to business. Of course that wasn’t the end of my mishaps– while taking my bubbling cobblers out of the oven the milk boiled and overflowed the pan, flooding my burner. Milk was fine but I was a 1/4 cup short now– that would be the 1/4 cup that was now filling my burner plates. No problem, pour off finished milk, boil 1/4 cup more with a sprinkle of sugar– Good as New!
Over all I found the back and forth between pan and food processor a bit tiring, but I think that is because where I plug my cuisinart in is not very handy to the stove, so I couldn’t, say, pulse AND watch the milk (of course we all know this isn’t why the milk overflowed, but it could have been). But I understand the reasoning– my arm was not exhausted after whipping up this pudding. When I’ve made some puddings and pastry creams (which are similar to pudding, and which this same cookbook has a great recipe for (Dark Chocolate Cream page 25 
the amount of whisking needed is downright frightening and I end up with flared up tendonitis in my forearms. Ina Garten’s recipe uses a similar technique but she utilizes the kitchenaid mixer instead of a cuisinart– perhaps that could be used here as well– but in either case I appreciate the modern shortcut.
Yes. I licked that Cuisinart bowl clean while my finished little puddings were chilling. And just for the record– I prefer the film on my pudding so I did not cover it. I love breaking through that film to the smooth depths.
The end product? Superb. Very Chocolately. Ultra Chocolately. I might almost substitute a wee bit of semi-sweet for some of the bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrohna 70% bittersweet). The richness is a nice way to savour it slowly. The six little cups (by the way I have to give credit to La Tartine Gourmande for the inspiration to use these little yogurt glasses that had been kicking around my kitchen for a while– too cute to recycle) that it made have lasted a few days as 1/2 of each is enough for each sitting.
I will be tabbing this recipe for future revisiting, but hopefully won’t flood my stovetop next time with sticky sweetened milk.
Well, I’ve done it. I made those muffins mentioned on Sunday and we finished off the last of them today. My final verdict– good, but a bit too sweet. I added sunflower seeds and raisins to them and that helped, but considering that I don’t normally have buttermilk around my house, I’m not sure this is a recipe I will make again (unless of course I have some buttermilk to use up, but I’ve found a couple other contending recipes including this one for buttermilk cookies from a newly discovered blog, ezrapoundcake.com). Instead I will probably stick to my old standby healthy muffin recipe, but try some new variations with granola, wheat bran and the sunflower seeds. Here is the basic recipe that I normally make (with any of my changes/preferences noted) originally from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas.
Basic Muffins
2 cups w.w. pastry flour
2 Tbs wheat germ or ground flaxseeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar
1 cup vanilla yogurt, soy yogurt or applesauce ( I use applesauce)
2 Tbs safflower oil (any vegetable oil seems to work fine)
1/3 cup low-fat milk, rice milk, or soy milk, or as needed (I use milk because that is what is in our house, but if your vegan this would be an easy recipe to convert)
Additional optional ingredients that I normally add:
1 cup raisins
cinnamon
1 smashed banana
1. preheat oven to 350 & prepare muffin cups with liners or oil
2. combine dry ingredients, including sugar
3. make a well in the center of dry and pour in wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined.
4. Stir in any additions and pour into tins.
5. Bake for 20-25 min or until knife comes clean.
Now having made the Family Fun recipe I’ll probably add sunflower seeds to the batter, top with granola, and experiment with substituting part of the flour for wheat bran, perhaps 3/4 of a cup.
But he did! In fact he had about 10 more Fried Potatoes. They were terribly addictive but the taste wasn’t the only thing to be celebrated. We used the oregano from our CSA box (!) and tried a new recipe from a new addition to my cookbook library.
We joined a CSA late last summer, but have noted that some ingredients (ones we don’t typically buy) tend to not get used up before they go bad. I decided since I have a bit more time this summer to make an effort to try some new recipes and use up our CSA goodies. Although I’ve given up on recipes for turnips (I’ve decided to admit I don’t like them) for other ingredients we get in our box I hit my cookbook indexes, especially trying out some of my newer additions, such as Mediterranean Harvest by Martha Rose Shulman that joined the shelf sometime during last semester only to collect dust until now.
I wasn’t doing much (ok…. ANY) cooking last semester as my schedule had me gone 3 nights a week, and doing homework the other nights, but I’ve had grand plans for this summer. I have in fact done quite well, making a blackberry-apple crisp and chocolate cookies from Nigella’s latest, and searching out this recipe for today to use our oregano. But did I make this one? No. I have been busy reorganizing closets and my sewing area. While I created a royal mess throughout the house emptying closets and making givaway piles, my husband did the cooking tonight. But I should get some credit for planning the meal, right?
Here is the recipe, slightly amended from Shulman’s cookbook. We had it with greens (I spritzed mine with balsamic and sprinkled feta on top), and tri-tip. But these were the star tonight.
FRIED POTATOES WITH TOMATOES AND OREGANO
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 medium potatoes, preferably Yukon golds, scurbbed, peeled if desired, and cut into thin wedges or 1/4 x 1/2 x 2-inch sticks
Salt and freshly ground peper
1 1/2 tsp. fresh oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (14 oz) chopped tomatoes, with juice
1. Heat oil in a wide nonstick skillet (we used our large cast iron) over med-high heat and add half the potatoes. Cook, turning, until nicey browned and cooked through, about 10 min. Season with salt, pepper, and 1/2 tsp of the oregano. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a serving dish or platter, leaving the oil in the pan. Cook the remaining potatoes, season them, and transfer to the serving dish.
2. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of the oil and add the garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minutes. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, and remaining oregano, and cook until the tomatoes thicken and smell fragrant, 5 to 10 min. Taste and adjust seasonings. Either pour the tomato sauce directly over potates, or use as a dip.
Note: You can make ahead of time and reheat potatoes in oven (350 for 15 min) or microwave if you desire. Sauce would be equally good hot or cold.
Well I picked up some more of my books for this semester today. I am comparing them to the leaning tower of Pisa. The pile is a little daunting, as is my growing “to do” list and my rapidly filling calendar. Did I mention I still have to buy 3 books! Where will they go? How will I find time to read them? Can I really do this? That is all flying through my mind right now.
On the other hand I’m really enjoying a return to the “natural cycle” of the year to me. Back to school is the true “new year”– even when I don’t go, so how much more natural it is to actually be going! Without getting ready to go back to school in August I’ve often felt as if December had come and gone with no xmas celebration. So this year everyone in my family is heading to school.
And I will chip away at the tower. Brick by brick; page by page; one sleepless night after another!
I always am curious to see what other people are reading. And how they read. Are you the type to check out one book at the library, read it, return it and then start your next? Not I! I am the multi-book, plan ahead (beacause a book drought is absolutely terrible!) reader. I have stacks here, and there, and under there, and oh yeah, over there. Thought it might be fun to look at some of my piles around the house currently.
Top of the nightstand: Whole World Over; From Puritanism to Postmodernism; Lost in the City; The amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; The Great War and Modern Memory.
Here’s my rundown on those titles. Whole world: I’m about half way through and while I’m enjoying it I can’t say it’s a great read. A nice light end of summer read. Nothing like what I remember her other novel, Three Junes, being like. But then that was a great book and great is always hard to follow- especially when great is your first novel. Sophmore blues I guess.
Puritanism/Postmoderism: Bought this off the bargain table at Border’s. It’s on my “list” — hoping I’ll skim through it this month, but it needs my proper attention which I can’t give it at midnight.
Lost in the City: Just picked this up at the Friends of the Library store. Heard about it over a year ago and couldn’t pass up the $1.50 price. It’ll be shelved soon for future reading (perhaps xmas break).
Amazing Adventures: This actually migrated from my husband’s nightstand to mine. I have read other novels by Chabon and enjoyed them (I read his latest one this summer) but this one is not on my urgent read list. One day. It too will be shelved.
Great War: I read this last spring in preparation for my Master’s thesis. It was terribly interesting, and depressing. It keeps floating around because I don’t really know where to put it. I need it kind of handy for when I really start doing more research this year, but am not going to referencing it every day. So it keeps floating from here, to the floor, to other piles and back. Hopefully it will find a home soon. 
Oh yes! I have a second shelf on my nightstand. This is where it goes after it hangs out on top for a while!
In Cold Blood: I was supposed to read that this summer, but somehow didn’t. I bought it after seeing Capote last year (one of my favorite movies from last year- chilling but soooo well done). I know I’ll get to it, but with my semester starting next week, it’ll probably languish there until December.
My Father’s Dragon: I’m going to read this to the kids- If I can remember it’s there!
The Big Over Easy: This by my favorite fun by smart author. He also wrote the Eyre Affair. Literary, witty but quick easy reads. I read this at the beach this year. It needs to find a new home. Probably at the Friends of the Library store.
On my floor next to the bed! Sad thing is I haven’t read any of these yet. They were early summer purchases when I optimistically forecast many more hours of reading then actually happened. But I do usually get to them eventually. So they will be shelved as soon as I can admit that summer really is over next week. I have however read some of those Harpers. I especially enjoyed reading two articles this summer: one by Cynthia Ozick titled Literary Entrails (isn’t that a great title!) about the need for literary criticism, and one by Jonathan Lethem titled The Ecstasy of Influence about plagerism vs. influence.
On top of my crochet bag next to my bed. On top of a binder of research. Yes, you can see my little secret obsession there- Sudoku. My husband got that for me two years ago and I was skeptical but hooked. It is great when I can’t sleep but don’t want to read, or when I just don’t want to read. And last but not least- Black Swan Green. This is by the same author as Cloud Atlas, which I read for my book group last year. I actually didn’t like Cloud Atlas because it got a bit too science fictiony for me, but he is an excellent writer (I can admit that) so I thought I’d try this autobiographical novel instead. Unfortunatley, also part of early summer buying spree– unread to date.
Well really must be off to read now! I’m beginning to feel guilty about all these unread books.
