Treasures From a Pit Stop Bakery

Just take a look at the size of this cinnamon roll.


Yes, it was pretty much the size of my head. This bun, along with biscotti and a delicious sourdough baguette were our treats in hand in Freestone California's amazing Wild Flour Bread Bakery. Thanks for a nice Santa Rosan, we were directed to visit the bakery on our way to the Sonoma coastline. The setting of Wild Flour Bakery is idyllic, with its vineyard meets redwoods setting, charming garden, goats, and a pony -- it doesn't get much more appealing than this.

When you walk into Wild Flour, it seems you are instantly in a throng of people vying for tea, coffee, and/or delicious baked goods. After checking it out on Yelp, I'm certain this place is always busy. When we walked in, we could smell the "green goat" scone they were baking that day, featuring goat cheese, figs, and herbs. The inside of the bakery is almost like a big barn (maybe it was a barn once?), the ceilings and walls are adorned with paintings of birds, as if they're flying around the place. The most noticeable is a massive bird swarm above the bakery's famous wood burning oven. In the public area, there's a large communal picnic table, clean restroom and views of the huge open baking area, the front of which is filled with bustling staff and owners to take your order. The energy of the bakery is great, even though it's a very busy place.

As shown in the picture, I couldn't resist a cinnamon bun, especially after smelling it. The thing weighed nearly 3lbs (maybe more!). We went outside to a bench to eat our goods and sip tea, saving the delicious sourdough baguette for a snack later in the afternoon. After I consumed maybe a fifth of that yummy bun, we moseyed around the garden and appreciated the flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Here's a peak of what it's like!




Definitely one of the best "pit stops" ever. Makes me wonder, should one even refer to this place as a pit stop to somewhere else? I happen to think it's a destination in and of itself. The baked goods are expertly made, the service is awesome, and the setting is magical. Truly special. If you happen to be in the Sonoma wine country, be sure to put this place on your list to check out.

Mini Red Velvet Cakes

For my Dad's recent birthday, I was tasked with picking up a red velvet cake from Costco. My mind immediately thought, "pssssh! I can make a red velvet cake!" I started to plot and plan my execution, and then I consulted my beloved and well, the whole plan went into the extraordinary realm (as things do with professionals who care deeply about what they're doing). I walked away from the adventure still claiming dear Dad would have wound up with cute cupcakes if it weren't for J.

Since I hadn't made red velvet cake before, I decided to look for a tried and true recipe variety so as to not risk having to try to bake and then have to buy a replacement "I failed" cake anyway. I settled on this cake recipe, from Epicurious, minus the berries.

J convinced me that mini cakes would be an unexpected delight for our party attendees. He was certainly right. Check these little cakes out:

I must admit, I cannot take credit for their cuteness, as I did little more than bake the actual cake and spread the frosting. The design, cake cutting and chocolate and cocoa decor was all done by my better half.

So the how to?

Quite simply, I followed the instructions in the epicurious recipe, with the exception of two things. Upon researching red "velvetiquette" it was clear that cream cheese was the favored frosting variety but the recipes really varied in the amount of chocolate involved. We decided to enhance our particular red velvet chocolatey-ness by adding a ganache layer between the stacked cakes instead of more cream cheese frosting. Not to be too chocolatey in the actual cake itself (and thus less red), I reduced the amount of cocoa in the cake batter recipe by half.

I baked the batter in a 9X12 cake pan, then popped the cake into the freezer to cool it quickly. We chose about a 4" circle cutter as our method for creating the small cake layers. This was somewhat tricky, so I left it to J to handle! If you embark on this task, just be patient and be prepared to trim tops and edges with a sharp serrated knife so they're even. Remember also that frosting can hide any minor imperfections!

Once the cakes were evened out we stacked each, 2 layers per cake, with a thin layer of ganache between the small circles. The ganache was a fantastic surprise to our recipients, and I'm wishing now I had a picture of the inside of the cakes but...they were gone so fast that the photo journalistic thought slipped my mind!

We spread the cream cheese frosting on the tops, sides, and J blew a "dusting" of cocoa all over the cakes and shaved dark chocolate for the tops. Each half of the cakes served up a hearty portion -- definitely a crowd pleaser. If you ever take this route just keep in mind the extra time involved in cutting the cakes out and determining how to transport them! The mini cakes are definitely worth it for a lasting impression but not your everyday "I baked you a cake" choice!

Tired of Waiting on that Cold Stick of Butter?

I once read a tips and tricks section in Cooks Illustrated magazine that gave advice on how to deal with butter straight out of the fridge that is too cold and hard for creaming. One of the tips was to whack the stick of butter (put in a plastic bag for less mess) until it begins to bend a bit. In light of that advisement, I recently found myself amidst an urgent cookie making episode, so I thought I'd test something out.

What happens if I just add the stick of butter and let the paddle in the stand mixer beat the stick of butter? Voila! (Covers hand over mouth in shock at how quickly this worked) This was almost too easy to believe. Why hasn't anyone mentioned this find to me before? I am certain I'm not the first to use this method, but I thought I'd share it here at any rate. Maybe I'm even some idiot home bakestress who thinks this is a pretty cool discovery but all other bakemasters know about this already. Nevermind that, this discovery hit me as so revolutionary, I risk looking dumb for the sake of passing it along to perhaps one other forlorn baker waiting needlessly for that darn stick of butter to soften.

Warnings:

1. Do not add sugar until the butter is softened for a few minutes. ( Learned this one the hard way, let's just say there was sugar spewing out of the mixer into my face, onto the counter... forget about your careful measuring)
   
2. Run on a slow speed until the butter gets mixed into a few pieces. (large flying chunks of butter may just pop out of your mixer bowl! Refer to the above re: flying sugar)
3. Beware cookie making now takes even less forethought, so you may wind up making them more. No more waiting for that stick of butter to soften up could lead to more hasty cookie baking decisions.

Other uses for this method include making butter spreadable for all sorts of yummy applications!

Magical Cookies

Feeling low tonight after watching Book of Eli, I decided to make our household fave, Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even though only temporary, there's something about the warm melting of freshly made chocolate chip cookies and a cold glass of milk that makes you thankful for being alive. Or maybe that's just me... Though I've made these cookies almost a hundred times, tonight I decided to document the process with my tips and tricks for a perfect cookie. Enjoy!



Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Recipe

Ingredients

8 oz Butter

3/4 C Granulated Sugar

3/4 C Brown Sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 C All Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1-2 C semi sweet chocolate chips





Instructions


Pre-heat oven 350 degrees F.

Using mixer, cream butter and sugars together approximately 3 minutes on medium to high speed or until light and fluffy.

While butter and sugar are mixing, set aside a separate bowl and mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda)

Mix eggs and vanilla into creamed butter/sugar mixture until just combined

Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, one-third at a time until mixed

Stir chocolate chips into dough

Scoop onto cookie sheet (use disher as shown here for best results):

This scoop is approximately 1.5-2 oz. I use this size for my preferred cookie size (about 2.5-3 inches across when baked)

Drop scoops of dough onto baking sheet, careful not to place them too close together.

For best results place into freezer for about 5 minutes just prior to baking. I've found this solves the problem of butter-based cookies from melting too fast and creating a flat, ugly cookie.

An optional yummi-fying step just prior to putting cookies into the oven is to add just a small sprinkle of salt to the top of each cookie. As shown below, I only took a very small pinch and used that one pinch across all of the cookies. Use kosher salt or fleur de sel (something fairly large grained) for best results. Do not try this with table salt!

Bake cookies at 375 for approximately 12-14 minutes (depending on how long frozen and how "done" you like your cookies!)

Remove cookies from baking sheet with spatula and place onto cooling rack. Enjoy your cookies within 10 minutes for the most delicious gooey results but these cookies will be really good for 24 hours. Store in air-tight container for best quality.

Butter and Me...and me

Today I received a delicious dozen of valentiney cupcakes courtesy of my wonderful husband. We don't normally do "Valentines" but this was a tasty surprise. So far, my lunch has consisted of chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. :)

I'm not sure what pastry chef Kelly Garcia uses to make her buttercream but it's delicously light and fluffy with the right amount of sweetness. This is of course beyond the obvious cutification of her cupcake delights. For great cupcakes in the Phoenix area, seek out Butter & Me!

Attempt at Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

A favorite sweet at our house is classic chocolate chip cookies. Preferably made with Guittard semi-sweet chips if anyone is wondering...but nevermind, because this posting is not about the finer points of chocolate chip cookie perfecting (of which we've done plenty), it's about taking the great chocolate chip cookie and trying to find it's cupcake sibling. Kind of like a "brother from another mother" concept...only not really since this is just the baked goods world.

So upon setting out to try to make a cupcake taste just like a chocolate chip cookie, I sought one of my favorite cupcake bloggers, Chockylit, on her blog Cupcake Bakeshop. I was thrilled to see she was back from being on hiatus last year and revelled in all the cupcake finery she has produced. Searching and searching I could not find a chocolate chip cookie cupcake so I settled on a cake recipe that she made for Samoas cookie cupcakes. The cake recipe is called "Brown Sugar Butter Cupcake" so that sounded close enough for me.

I created the cake batter as instructed and then swirled in about a 1/3 of a cup of dark chocolate chips. I scooped the batter into cupcake cups and baked for about 20 minutes. The result...

OK, so I didn't know what or how to eat these. I decided to make some ganache for the top, at least just to add some gooey yumminess to them. On their own, the chocolate chip cookie cupcakes are somewhat uninteresting. Kind of like eating a cupcake without frosting, if you ask me...So, the next step involved making an icecream sundae out of the cupcake with ganache topper. Very yummy, especially when the cupcake was just barely warm still. A hit indeed! In our home, chocolate chip cookies (especially those baked in skillets) are often paired with vanilla icecream, so this step was not an unusual turn of events.

However, for practical cupcake purposes, this cupcake could not really be declared a success. I couldn't propose a new cupcake flavor that relies on icecream to make it yummy. In my experiment, I didn't want to bust out J's involved Italian Merengue Buttercream (nor do I really know HOW for that matter), so I discuss here a possible option for making this cupcake a servable reality. With the smooth ganache, the chocolate chip cupcake is definitely a dark chocolate lovers heaven, though it's not super-duper chocolatey like one of those double chocolate cupcake varieties. I propose the following actions: glide on a thin coating of dark chocolate ganache, refrigerate until set, then pipe (or pile on) some very lovely vanilla buttercream atop the shiney chocolate coating. This would have the effect of vanilla icecream, without the melty mess! There's something decadent about a double-frosted cupcake anyway, right?

Budget Friendly Dessert: Warm Rice Pudding with Holiday Spices

Budget Friendly Dessert: Warm Rice Pudding with Holiday Spices

Follow the link above for Jeff's latest write up published on Examiner.com. Makes me salivate to read it.

Posted using ShareThis

For the Love of Summer

Living in Phoenix makes it tough to really love summer. It's so hot that when I'm out walking my dog at night, after dark, I desperately seek out a sprinkler to give us a little dowsing to cool off. OK, so that's only on days where it is above 110....So there's plenty, right?

Alas, living the seasonal lifestyle has made me actually really enjoy summer for something else...for it's bounty of fruits and vegetables. Lucky for our warm climate, it begins here sometime in March. Elsewhere, the farmer's markets and grocery stores who stock local and organic produce all have fabulous stuff in the midst of summer.

One of my favorite foods of all time is the tomato. This is in spite of most ordinary store-bought tomatoes being terrible. Now is the time to head out and buy something local, heirloom, vine ripened, or organic (or even grow your own--but it's too late now). What are you waiting for?! Seriously these things are phenominal. Try different colors, even. The sad thing is, I've been enjoying this bounty for several months now and have only just now decided to post in honor of the wonderful things. And I'm so sorry for any tomoato-haters out there, it's a pity and well.. I am not even sure I trust you. This is some of the best stuff anywhere, and a simple caprece salad is a wonderful showcase of the tomato's simplicity and deliciosity. (Yes, that can be a word.)


Tomato and Basil; best friends....Voila! Above a yellow tomato slice is topped with a chopped bit of fresh mozzarella and a snip of basil leaf. For the best mozzarella, make your own or buy the kind that comes in water . Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Optionally, balsamic vinegar is a fine touch. Yum. What a great summer snack and extremely easy to throw together.

Makes me temporarily forget about my least favorite weather...

Meet the Kitchen Staff

Meet Tank, the kitchen floor cleaner. He's great, at our beck and call, he runs around while we're cooking and prepping food just to make sure he can pick up accidental messes. Such a helper, altruistic at that.



Can you sense the sarcasm?

But seriously, the kitchen wouldn't be the same without this 8 pounds of pure food motivation. Though sometimes he finds himself in the way, he's fast to scurry those little legs and listens when it counts. This convenient clean-up system never fails to ultimately put a smile on my face. To see him earnestly look on while I'm slicing carrots is the epitome of pure dedication. Thanks for your service and company, little buddy!

Fabulous Fresh Food + Wow = France

My last posting ended with a promise to tell about our adventures in France. My equation title pretty much sums it up. Thankfully, my traveling companion, chef aux maison, and fiance loves food more than me. I say thankfully for this because without him, I would likely not have tried socca, pigeon terrine, or a lovely tarte citron in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont (see below for one of the many marvels of Veronique Mauclerc) all the way in the 19th arrondisement.

That's right, in the land of glorious wine and a culture that places such an importance on quality food...I would not have even come close to touching these things on my own. Granted, I would have likely enjoyed a delightful cheese, croissant and bread-filled experience, but we wound up taking many side treks simply to seek out the best. From an authentic Nicoise socca stand, to the contrasting sleekness of a Pierre Hermes Parisian bakery, it turned out to be a great way to see some different sights as well as give our palates a holiday like no other. It was so fantastic in fact, that it is truly sad to be back in America, culinarily speaking, that is.

More posts to come on France...but for now, I'll leave you with a few snapshots of the delightful bounty available daily in the outdoor market in charming Old Nice. We saw variations of these offerings everywhere in both Paris and Nice. France is truly a country where food is unquestionably worthy of respect, but not so pretentiously as you might think, it is made available in the freshest way possible to everyone nearly everywhere.

Bon appetit!

Proof I Did Not Inherit a Green Thumb

Since my prior posting about all the hope and promise of beautiful lush herbs growing in little pots right in our townhouse patio, things have since taken a turn for the worse. I'm not even photo logging this sad news, it's that bad. JTK and I did enjoy fresh lemon thyme for a little over a month, garlic chives were eaten in perhaps 6 different meals, and the mint is hanging on to this day by only a bare thread. The chives have some sense of green left but consists primarily of whispy yellow strands of dearth. Have you ever seen lemon thyme impersonating "burnt to a crisp"?...hmm? No? Because that's what our particular plant is currently doing. The serrano peppers have also bitten the dust, copying the stature of the nearby thyme.

It's not like we did not care for these precious plants, either. They were watered, given light, shade, and love. This is why I know that the "green thumbs" my grandmother and arguably both parents bear somehow skipped a generation. Perhaps this is not even a genetic trait afterall. Even though I don't deny my lack of plant care-taking capablity (I'm sure there's a shorter word for this, if you know it, please tell me, as it describes me to a T); I still harbor some denial by blaming the fact that for all intents and purposes, I live right up against the sun. It doesn't help that we had one of the most blisteringly hot Mays on record either. It was still only May, people...and yep, you read correctly, 14 consecutive days at 100 degrees or greater, breaking the previous record of a mere 13 days. I even threatened JTK that I had once and for all had it with the heat and we should move.

So there you have it. I'm not great with plants, but I may have been successful further into the year if it weren't so darned HOT this time around.

Maybe I'll try my hand at some indoor basil...but I'll leave that for after this summer's vacation, for which I cannot wait! The cities Paris and Nice will soon witness an alarming consumption rate by JTK and me. When we go on a trip, we are sure to try as big of a variety of cuisine as possible at the local cafes, restaurants, and bistros. Stay tuned for some hopefully rousing food tales from our journey.

In the meantime, I hope my little mint plant will pull through. This ironically unseasonably cool June could do the trick.

Ode to Spring..and some words about foods I used to not like

Spring has been with us AZ folks for several months now, so it's time I do a food post that's appropriate to the seasonal cooking JTK and I strive to do. When I first learned about seasonal cooking, I thought, who cares? I can get whatever I want most the time at the grocery store, why should I pay attention to seasons? Well, first, and most important is the food TASTES BETTER when it's in season near where you live. Second, it's better for the environment to not be importing things like berries in the middle of the summer that have to be shipped and driven all the way from South America. If you want fresh berries in December, go to the southern hemisphere! They don't even taste as good....sorry to say South American farmers.

I realize that some people live in climates (mine being one, come summer time) that fresh produce is not available year round. I understand some rules need to be bent. But for the most part, I'm all about it. For more on this topic, I suggest Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life . To find out how to eat more regionally and get fresh produce, visit Local Harvest to find a CSA...or if you're lucky enough to live near a farmer's market, support it by going there to buy your produce.

OK, I'll get down off the soap box about eating seasonally and locally for now.

One of my new favorite things to eat in season is roasted beet salad. Yes, beets are something I used to put in the category of "I don't care for that so much, thanks". Suddenly beets are yummy when paired with the right things (or even pickled!). Not to mention they are absolutely beautiful with their striations, visible once you slice into them. They're literally food works of art. As for flavor, the earthiness used to be a bit of a turnoff to my taste buds. Fortunately, that has changed by trying beets in new contexts. Thanks to JTK and one of my favorite places to eat, Essence Bakery in Tempe, I have a springtime crush on beet salad! Include some goat cheese, fresh greens, and other succulent treats like candied walnuts for crunch and sweetness...all of the flavors balance each other out perfectly. Oh and did I mention, this counts as eating your vegetables...Mom would be proud! How did flavor-town get to be healthy too?! Read on to find out how to make your own version.
To make this salad, there's a bit of prep ahead work involved. First, I didn't have any candied nuts on hand, so one Sunday afternoon I decided to make my own. I pretty much followed this recipe from Chow and it worked out great. Next, to get the beets in perfect-for-salad condition, they do need to be roasted and cooled prior to puting them in a salad. To roast fresh beets, simply put trimmed beets on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan in a 250 degree oven for about 45-60 minutes. Pull them out when they're easy to stick a fork in (aka: fork tender). Once cooled, peel the skin off using a towel or rinsing with water. Roasted beets can be stored in a container in the fridge for about a week.

Construct the salad to your preference. My favorite method, encouraged by my wise executive chef de la casa, is to mix the dressing in a large bowl first so you can just add the greens and toss by hand. For the salad shown here I used some red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper and just a wee bit o' dijon mustard for the dressing (Dad would also be proud, making my own dressing by hand!). Whisk until the emulsion is formed. Add greens and toss gently. Transfer the greens to your plate and place sliced roasted beets, dabs of goat cheese, and candied nuts to your liking. Isn't it lovely? I think it says spring. I especially like the combination of gold and red beets.

The moral of the story, ok...really there's two morals: 1)eat in-season, it just tastes better!; and 2)keep trying foods you think you don't like. You may just find you like new things when prepared with different ingredients (what I call "the right ingredients"). In fact, just in the last 2 years alone, I have recently converted to loving the following things I previously could hardly stand: arugula, mushrooms, cooked spinach, and beets. What's really funny is that I LOVE these things now. I don't always like them by themselves in their raw form, but pairing these things with the right ingredients makes all the difference in the world of tastebuds.

Enjoy spring and it's great bounty of fruits, vegetables, and herbs while they're here. In the desert we're already seeing over 100 degree heat so I know our spring is already out the window. See you next year, dear beets!

From Blah to Ahhh

A few weeks ago we set out to try our hand at growing some herbs again this season. Last year I only had moderate success in barely keeping alive a basil plant. What a measly plant, at that! I also managed to kill off cilantro, and the "unkillable", (according to several members of my family) mint. Yes I killed a mint plant! And it certainly hasn't been my first. Let it be known that green thumbs are not genetic! Back to my story, this year we started off with some Lemon Thyme, Chives, and a Serrano Pepper plant. See image below. There's something about greenery that livens up a townhouse patio, right? As we stood there trying to figure how to best arrange our new flora, JTK and I got to thinking...what if we rearranged some things? In a moment of mutual shared genius spiked with overtones of "why didn't we think of this before?!", we agreed to relocate the barbeque (to the smaller deck on the patio). This new layout would allow the herbs to get sun and maybe a bistro set to relax in. Voila!

I have to say if it weren't for the herbs we may not find the patio as appealing. Entrance to the house, laundry access, bicycle storage, and the behemoth barbeque have been the only uses our patio has received. Very utilitarian. But why the heck not make it look great? Someone needs to enjoy the company of these precious herb plants. A trip to the local imports stores (always a good excuse for shopping), and I also added some flair.

Note that we did also plant a mint plant in the corner...we'll see how this one prevails. Since the planting of the herbs, we've enjoyed several meals made with these yummy leaves.

Adventures in Cupcake Land

After receiving an invite to a ladies' party, I wasn't even considering what delectable food I'd be bringing. That conundrum lasted all of 5 minutes when I began salivating over a previously unread "Recipe of the Day" from Chow in my inbox. Oh yes...this was serendipity. Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Frosting!!! Who doesn't like a little salty with their sweet? What girl doesn't like a cupcake? Thus, it was decided I would bring cupcakes.

I'm not going to write up the recipe because I essentially followed the Chow recipe with one exception (follow link above for recipes). With my cupcakes I used both half of a vanilla bean and about a teaspoon of vanilla extract. I wanted the bean flecks for a nice look but I knew I'd get better vanilla flavor out of the extract. The batter turned out very yummy. The smell of these things baking alone could bring quarrelling lovers back into the arms of love. Provocative scents aside, these cupcakes did become somewhat dry once cooled. However, I sampled one while it was still warm and it was a very good cake, even sans frosting. If I made these again I'd either pull them from the oven a minute earlier or add another egg to the batter.

I didn't read the comments on the recipe for the frosting until after I already made the super yummy salted caramel buttercream. Thus, I missed out on a couple of recommendations, one I definitely agree with. The frosting could stand to be slightly more caramelly than the recipe turns out. When making again, I will increase the ratio of caramel to butter. However, the buttercream I ended up with was definitely decadent.

It also proved a fun addition as an internal filling for these slightly dry cakes, per the recommendation of JTK. To perform this twinkie-reminiscent feat, I slaved like a surgeon to carve a small piece off the top of each cupcake, piped in some frosting, and placed the tiny top back on. I will concede, it wasn't as stressful as surgery, but it was definitely above and beyond what I'd planned for my baked treats. To finish them off, I piped more frosting on the top, and adorned with a few delicate silver dragees and a sprinkling of finishing salt. A less-than-perfect baked creation in light of the dryness and the caramel factor...but still mmm-mmm good.

The Best Brittle You've Ever Had

This past Christmas I made a batch of the best nut brittle I've ever had. The recipe is courtesy of Chef Chelsea Higgins at Scottsdale Community College, though I've trimmed it down some to fit a regular home-sized sheet pan. Aside from having the perfect balance of sweet and salty, without a hint of being chewy; this is the easiest treat you will ever make. All you need is a sauce pan, a spoon to stir, and some elbow grease. I prefer cashews but peanuts or pecans are also yummy.

How to make it:

Ingredients

1/2 Vanilla bean, scraped -- or 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 3/4 C nuts

Just shy of 1/2 C of granulated sugar

1/8 C Corn Syrup

5/8 C Butter (this is a stick + 1 T)

1/8 C Honey

1 tsp salt

Have a greased sheet pan ready (or you can put on a Silpat and forget about the greasing) Put all ingredients into a big enough saucepot and cook over medium high heat while stirring constantly. It's done when it's just starts to turn a dark caramel color (mahogany). Poor onto sheet pan and spread around as much as you can. Once cooled, you can break it up and give as a gift or hoarde for yourself with a happy sugar high! The picture below shows what my batch looked like when it was cooling in the sheet pan.

Pumpkin Pie My Oh My

Pumpkin pie is good. Ok, pumpkin pie is great. I made my first pumpkin pie this year for Thanksgiving. Correction, it was my first ever solo pie-making attempt. I don’t have any pictures of the thing because quite frankly, when it came out of the oven I dismissed it to the ugly gods to handle. Something along the lines of, “well, it’ll probably taste good” was uttered.

Along the way I struggled during the “pre-cooking” phase of the pie crust. The darned edges started to sink down the sides of the pan! I tried to fix it, by taking crust from the top edge, leaving my pie a hobbled, and nearly burned, mess on top. During this pre-cooking process I also burned my finger and forearm on the oven. Yes, in a fit of unbridled baking frustration, one becomes uncoordinated and is prone to burns. This also includes yelling at loved-ones to “Get out!” of the kitchen. Ahem…well, maybe that doesn’t apply to you but that’s apparently what happens to me.

Once wounds were licked and the Thanksgiving feast was had, the end result was fantastic. The pie filling was light, flavorful, and perfectly cooked. The parts of the crust that remained were light, flakey, mostly not-overcooked, and buttery. Jeffrey paired it with homemade eggnog spiked with spice, brandy, and love (the secret ingredient). And yes, I can be sappy because it’s Thanksgiving! In a word, the two in combination knocked dessert out of the park.

In the spirit of “pies are too much trouble” I do have an alternate dish I prepared the week before of which I do have photos. If you’re a fan of crème brulee or pumpkin pie you will surely love this recipe I picked up from the November issue of Bon Appetit. It was a snap to make and wound up with the flavor of pumpkin pie and a very similar texture. The best part is, there’s no crust to fuss with. Make it extra decadent JTK-style and put a dollop of whipped cream on it.



Though this delicate pumpkin custard is a close-second, it wasn’t the same indulgence of crust-perched richness that is pumpkin pie. If it weren’t for that and my inability to pass up a challenge, I might give up on pumpkin pie in the future. There’s something about making pies that has me no doubt returning again. Pie forces me to deal with my desire for perfection when I’m cooking. Sure perfection helps drive toward a great performance, but a mere pie is not worth burn scars and overblown stress. I can learn a little bit of “ohmmmm” and a whole lot of future yumminess by mastering a great tasting AND good looking crust….and if I don’t…who cares?!

We're Still Here

For any of you who are reading the blog periodically, I apologize for a delay between posts. To be quite frank, it has been anything BUT boring around here. The JTK (Jeffrey's Test Kitchen) has been busy. My culinary life is actually starting to resemble an episode of Bizzarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. It has been a challenge to get a nice snapshot and share with you all of the adventures that have gone on. To give you an idea, there's been oxtails, bone marrow, pig tails, goat meat, and pork belly (a.k.a. BACON meat), to name a few.

Fortunately for you readers and for Jeffrey, I will eat mostly anything. Well, at least TRY everything. So stay tuned as I have plenty of great experiences to share with you.

Something to Bark About - Product Alert

One of my favorite things to eat over the Christmas holiday time is peppermint bark. Well, as if commercialization hadn't gone far enough, what with decorator "trees" for nearly every holiday, they now make bark for the funnest holiday of the year -- Halloween! Stonewall Kitchen makes a Pumpkin Bark that I can't wait to get my hot little hands on. I'm weak for anything pumpkin-esque. I love the rich depth of its flavors, along with the wonderful spices that accompany it; it is the essence of fall flavors to me.

If bark isn't your thing, maybe their Maple Pumpkin Butter
or Pumpkin Pesto will get you into the festive fall flavor mood instead.

If you ask me, the pumpkin bark is more than tempting...as if I need another excuse to enjoy my favorite time of year.

Pineapple Upside Down Yum

The recent purchase of a fresh pineapple inspired a flurry of dish ideas. Soon after the ideas started to fly, a favorite was recommended by Jeffrey: pineapple upside-down cake. Why the heck not?! I think the last, and only, one of these I made was in home economics class in seventh grade. I’m thinking we very likely used a box cake mix, canned pineapple, and it definitely did not include rum. For Jeffrey, this cake harkens back to the comforts of childhood so we decided to seal the deal and revisit this odd little cake topped with one of my favorite fruits.

After searching for some recipes, I came upon a good looking recipe for pineapple upside down cake which gets baked in a cast iron skillet. Oh how we love the skillets at our house. There will be more about skillets later when I delve into cookies for all of you readers. Actually, for all I know there could be just one reader. However, I am optimistic for all you potential-non-readers out there that you know what’s good for you and you’ll stay tuned for my mouthwatering treatises on cookies and skillets. Don’t worry, I don’t mean you, since you are reading this.

I digress back to this recipe. Now, the two things that caught my eye on this particular iteration: the usage of rum and cardamom. How flavorful does that all sound? Plus, I have been just looking for a reason to bust out that cardamom. In the three years I’ve had it in the cupboard, I’ve only used it once, maybe twice. Immediately upon choosing this recipe, I pictured my dear friend J quizzically looking at me in the Penzey’s store with an inquisition; “what do you need cardamom pods for?” Mind you, she doesn’t really care what spices I choose, but her wonderment was obvious. And now you have it. Pineapple cake is what it’s for. Yum.

Ok, so I’m Miss Smarty Pants prepared with exotic spices for making uniquely wonderful cake, right? Yeah, not so much…because now I’m going to explain in detail that I believe I have the wrong kind of cardamom pods for baking sweet treats. I quickly notice the very strong aromatic quality of my fancy green pods as I start popping them open and grinding them down with my mortar and pestle. I also note that the innards of the pods look somewhat like bird turds! At this point, I had to regroup on my brainiac decision to use this “fancy” cardamom business. I begin to think I’m not going to be using the recommended 2-3 teaspoons on this. Not only would my arm surely break off from all this manual labor, but the overwhelming flavor of multiple teaspoons of this stuff would stifle the rest of the cake. I scan the spice jar details…this is apparently for Turkish cuisine, no mention of baking. I rapidly commit to my decision to only use the one teaspoon.



[Note to readers: I believe there is a white ground variety of cardamom that is used in baked goods. If you follow this recipe, I suggest this in the recommended dosage of 2 tsp….and yes, spices can be considered a dosage, especially cardamom.]

So I admitted my cardamom-folly but don’t think for a minute that my cake was wrecked. [Which reminds me of one of my favorite funny blogs] Cardamom definitely adds a certain je ne seis quois to the overall yumminess of this cake and it simply wouldn’t be the same without it. The problem with my type of cardamom is that it’s very potent and I was not able to grind it down to the appropriate powdery level as would be desired in this type of recipe. Thus, I had some visible carda-chunks in my cake. Yet it was delicious, chunks or no, so I’m over it. See for yourself how tasty it must have been in the pic below.





Serve this up with some whipped cream or rum sauce for a bonus prize. I’d like to thank my sous chef, Jeffrey (in this case the tables have turned) for perfectly slicing the pineapple. We successfully remade an oldy-but-goody with a unique flavor slant…and learned a little spice lesson along the way!

OMG...We Went to Binkley's

Saturday was Jeffrey's birthday. As a surpirse gift, I trekked us up to Binkley's for a nice dinner. Wow. Nice is an underestimation. I wish I could adequately review this place. I think we will have to make another trip up there, perhaps armed with a camera (if they let us) before I can fully take it in and do the experience justice.

According to the Phoenix New Times, Binkley's is the winner of the "Lives up to the Hype" award. It certainly does. If you appreciate creative food expression, a fantastic dining value, and just darned great food, make sure to pay Kevin Binkley and crew a visit on your next trip to the Phoenix-area. In fact, I suggest you COME to Phoenix in order to go to Binkley's if the aforementioned attributes excite you.

I really can't even begin to review this place just yet. More on Binkley's later. Be certain when Jeffrey starts in with making his own food-flavored powders and gelees, I will harken back to the Binkley's moment of inspiration.

Bon Appetit and thank you Kevin Binkley.