Browned Butter Orzo

Have you ever looked in a cupboard and had an ingredient just speak to you?  Perhaps it was a bag of chocolate chips or a bottle of curry powder.  Whatever it was, you just knew you had to make something with it immediately.  That's what my jar of orzo did last week.  

I wanted it to star in a dish.  Usually orzo co-stars in pilaf or soup or salads, but this time it took center stage. A browned butter stage.  It really was a great combination with the nutty browned butter and the normally shy orzo.   I served it with pork roast and maple carrots.  It was a lovely meal.  

Browned Butter Orzo:
1 pound orzo, cooked according to package directions
1/2 stick butter
2 Tbsp truffle oil
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 Tbsp dried chervil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
Brown the butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Watch out that you don't burn the butter, you just want it a pretty, deep brown.  Lower the heat and add the truffle oil, nutmeg, chervil, salt and pepper.  Heat through and pour over the cooked, drained, but still warm orzo.  Serve immediately.

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Homemade Twinkies: Make Your Own #40

Making homemade twinkies involved revisiting an old nemesis.  You see, I wanted these treats to be shortening free.  I needed a filling that would be creamy and thick.  After looking at a lot of copycat recipes floating around the internet, I realized with a sag of my shoulders, that I was going to have to use Continental Frosting.  Have you heard of it?  I suppose it has been around forever and is actually an old fashioned form of icing/filling.  I hadn't tried it before last Christmas, however, and the version I tried failed...miserably.  I have come to realize, though, that it was the recipe I used had faulty instructions.  I compared as many recipes as I could to the one I had and all of them stood together against the hand written recipe in my kitchen.  It turned out much better this time around.

I also had to search high and low for a sponge cake recipe that didn't call for 7-9 eggs, separated.  I had 2 egg whites in a bowl in my fridge from the butterscotch pie I had made earlier in the week (I wonder if I took any pictures of that...it was gone in one sitting)  Anyway, I was feeling lazy and wanted to use what I had.  I finally found a "Quick Sponge Cake" on Cooks.com that worked.

So, here it is: this cook's version of Twinkies:
for the cake: (from Cooks.com)
2 eggs (or 1 egg and 2 egg whites)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour (or 3/4 cup AP flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch)
1 tsp baking powder
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until they are the palest yellow and very frothy.  Add the sugar and mix another 2 minutes until smooth and creamy looking.  In a microwave safe container, nuke the milk for a minute
or until bubbly.  Add the butter and vanilla and let the milk sit while the butter melts.  Add the milk mixture to the sugar mixture.   Combine the flour and powder thoroughly in a little bowl and add to the batter and beat another minute.

Spoon into either a prepared twinkie pan or homemade twinkie forms made out of foil.  Instructions are found in this video


Bake the twinkies at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from the foil forms and let cool on a wire rack.

For the filling (Continental Frosting):
3 Tbsp AP flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
In a saucepan, combine the flour and milk with a whisk.  Heat and stir until it thickens to the consistency of pudding.  Remove from heat and stir in the salt and vanilla.  Place plastic wrap or waxed paper directly on the thick flour mixture and let it cool completely.  In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.  Beat in the cooled down flour mixture.  Keep in the fridge until ready to use to fill the twinkies.

Place the filling in a pastry bag with a plain tip.  Gently squirt the filling into three places in the bottom of each cake.  You can try making a hole first with a straw or chopstick.  Don't fill too much or the sides will burst.

The verdict: "Mom, these don't really taste like twinkies, but they are really good."  So, if you want a "good for you" twinkie and don't plan on buying the hydrogenated fat filled kind, these are a perfect substitution.  If you want either a vegan or a gluten free version, I found these recipes.  Be sure to click through all of it.  It's full of all sorts of useful twinkie making information.

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Saturday Stories: Calling on Angels

I don't think there is a parent out there that has not prayed or at least petitioned some higher power to watch over their children; if only to say in our hearts, "Please let them be safe!"  It starts as soon as that baby is placed in our arms...and I don't think that it ends until we parents breathe our last breath.   With my children, especially my sons, I think there is an angel putting in a lot of over-time hours.  There have been many instances when I have whispered a "Thank You!!" in my heart that things worked out well.

When my oldest son was in second grade, his regular school was torn down and rebuilt.  While the construction was in progress, the entire student body was sent to an extra school the district kept for the huge "replace all of the old schools" project.  There were bus routes created for all of the students and it was a big deal to ride the bus for most of the kids who lived really close to the regular school building.  We decided to let our two school aged sons ride the bus in the mornings, but we chose to pick them up every afternoon.  We had to drive to the bus stop, so it wasn't very convenient, but it was a lot of fun for the boys.  One day, when I went to pick up the boys, only the Thinker came out to the car.  I waited and waited until I was the only car left and still, the Musician didn't come out.  I parked the car and went into the school looking for him...and he wasn't there.  Starting to panic, I drove home looking for him on all of the side streets between the school and home.  He was no where.

Meanwhile, The Musician had decided to ride the bus home that day.  He didn't know which bus stop was his, but when he recognized some of the neighborhood the bus was driving through, he got off.  All of the other children ran home, leaving him looking around for a direction home.  He started one way and then turned around and went back the other way.  Finally, about an hour after school was out, he managed to make it home, scared and tired.  I called off the school, my husband and every other person I'd called that afternoon.  

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A few years later, my husband and I went to a dinner party at some friends' house.  My littlest brother was staying with us for the summer, so we left him at home to babysit the four boys.  We had a great time and returned home to find my brother almost in tears.  While we were gone, the Comedian decided that he didn't want to be left home and he took off to find us.  My brother wasn't even aware that he'd gone (yeah, that didn't say a lot for his babysitting skills) until the doorbell rang and there was the Comedian with strangers.

The little guy (and remember that he has always been extremely little for his age) had no idea where we were, so he had headed toward the neighborhood park.  Two ladies in a van had seen him walking all by himself and had pulled over to see if he needed help.  By this time, he was crying because he didn't know where his mommy and daddy were and realized that he wasn't going to be able to find us.  He got into the van with these completely unknown people and directed them back to our house.

My heart went through my stomach when I heard that tale.  It still makes me shudder when I think of what might have happened if those two ladies hadn't been good people.

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Last year, my son, The Thinker went on a twenty mile hike in the Superstition Mountains with his boy scout troop.  He left on a Friday and was to return sometime Saturday afternoon.  When it got to be 6pm on Saturday and they weren't home, I began to worry.  When I got a phone call from the wife of one of the scout leaders an hour later,  telling me that her husband and son had gotten lost and the entire group would be late, I began pacing.  When my son got home at 11pm and told me the whole story, I began to wonder if I ever wanted to know what went on at scout camp outs ever again.  Between taking way too little water and not staying together as a group, the entire event was a bunch of almost tragic errors.

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There isn't a day that goes by that I don't say, "Please let them be safe."  I am so glad that someone is listening! Tweet

Wild Mushrooms Take The Stage in Ravioli and Pork

Recently, I received a package from Marx Foods containing five different kinds of dried wild mushrooms.  My mission was to create a wonderful new recipe using one or all of the varieties.  The varieties included chanterelle, porcini, matsusake, lobster and black trumpet mushrooms.  I spent about 20 minutes just smelling the open bags.  It was like Christmas!  My sons all thought I was nuts.

So, after doing a bit of research, I came up with two different recipes.  One is vegetarian and one is completely carnivorous...to the extreme.  I couldn't decide which I liked better, so I am posting them both.

The first is a homemade ravioli with butternut squash in the pasta dough, filled with lobster mushrooms, ricotta, asiago, and marscapone.  They are covered in a butter/truffle oil sauce with garlic, more lobster mushrooms and summer savory.

Three Cheese Butternut Ravioli with Lobster Mushrooms:

For the ravioli: 

3 cups AP flour

4 eggs

1/2 cup cooked, pureed butternut squash

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Pour the flour in a large mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center and add the eggs, squash and herbs.  Mix with a fork, until a ball forms.  Knead on a floured surface for 5 minutes or until the dough becomes elastic and smooth.  Cover and let rest while you make the filling.

For the filling: 

1/2 ounce dried lobster mushrooms, reconstituted with hot water, chopped fine

1 16 ounce container ricotta cheese

1/4 cup shredded asiago cheese

1/4 cup marscapone cheese

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Roll out the dough and form ravioli using this method.  Boil five at a time in gently boiling water.  Drain and serve with butter sauce.  Sprinkle with Parmesan or Romano cheese if desired.

For the Lobster Mushroom Butter Sauce: 

5 Tbsp butter

2 Tbsp truffle oil

1/3 cup white wine

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp dried summer savory

1/2 ounce dried lobster mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water, chopped in small pieces

1/2 tsp white pepper

Heat butter and oil over medium heat and saute the garlic and lobster mushrooms for five minutes.  Add the wine and seasonings.  Let it simmer gently for a few minutes and serve.

For the second dish using these wonderful dried mushrooms, I brined a pork loin, then  wrapped it in bacon to roast and then served each slice with a Chanterelle cream sauce.  By grinding the dried mushrooms, I was able to slip these babies right by the mushroom haters in my family (hehehe).  Obviously, it is the texture and not the taste that they don't like.

Bacon Wrapped Agave Pork Loin with Chanterelle Cream:

2-3 pound boneless pork loin roast

1/3 cup salt

1/3 cup agave nectar

8 whole juniper berries

6 whole cloves

1 tsp dried rosemary

water (for brine)

6-8 ounce package bacon

Place the pork roast in a sealable plastic bag along with the salt, agave, juniper, cloves, rosemary and enough water to cover the roast (about 2 cups).  Seal the bag and place it in a bowl (just in case it leaks) and refrigerate for 4 hours.  After brining, remove the meat from the bag.  Overlap the bacon strips in the baking dish you are going to roast the meat in.  Place the roast on top and bring the bacon up over the top of the meat.  Carefully, flip the roast over so the ends of the bacon are under the meat and the top has a pretty overlapping pattern of bacon on top.  Roast in a 325 degree oven until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 173 degrees.  Bring it out of the oven, tent it with foil and let it rest 10 minutes before slicing.  Slice and serve with Chanterelle cream sauce.

For the Chanterelle Cream Sauce: 

1 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms

3 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 cups heavy cream

3 Tbsp fresh chives, chopped

1/3 cup white wine

1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

In a saute pan, melt the butter.  Add the flour, stirring to form a roux, browning the flour slightly.  Slowly add the wine, stirring until thickened to prevent lumps.  Add the remaining ingredients and heat through.

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POM Pizazz

For my son's birthday dinner party, I tried to take his favorite foods and fancy them up to a new level.  Pizza became a puffed pastry tart, chocolate became a hazelnut torte topped with mousse,watermelon was turned into a mock-tail, French fries turned into 'pomme de terre Lorette,' bacon managed to find its way around the roast and pop became a POM Pizazz.

I had received a case of POMWonderful Pomegranate juice earlier in the week and the Thinker's party seemed like the perfect time to create a drink out of that lovely juice.  By adding club soda, it became pop to the guys.  Because I served it in stemware, they couldn't guzzle it, but they all had thirds and finished off the entire pitcher before the end of the night.  I managed to snag a picture of the very last glass as I was doing the dishes...hence the dish towel and pile of china in the background.

POM Pizazz:
3 8 ounce bottles POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice
1 12 ounce can pear nectar
1 12 ounce can mango nectar
32 ounces club soda
Mix all into a large pitcher, serve cold. Tweet

Carrot Timbales

My son, the Thinker, turned 14 last week.  In celebration of his birthday, I hosted a fancy dinner for him and a few of his friends.  They had to dress up with white shirts and ties.  They had to use the proper forks.  They had to initiate decent conversations.  I served the food and played "Manner Mentor" from the kitchen.  It was a lot of fun.

I served these carrot timbales as one of the sides to the meal.  Filled with dill havarti, cream cheese and eggs, they are a delightfully rich way to serve carrots.

Carrot Timbales:
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup Dill Havarti cheese, shredded or sliced and chopped
1/2 tsp dill weed
2 eggs
salt & pepper to taste
Cut waxed paper or parchment paper to fit into the bottom of each ramekin (8).  Butter the sides of the ramekins, too.  In two pans, cook the carrots, the sliced in one and the shredded in the other, until done.  Carefully spiral the drained, sliced carrots into the bottom of the ramekins. Drain the shredded carrots and put them into a food processor along with the cream cheese, havarti cheese, dill weed, eggs and salt & pepper.  Blend until smooth.  Spoon the mixture over the sliced carrots and bake in a bain Marie (water filled pan) 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until done.  When they come out of the oven, let sit for a few minutes, run a knife around the edge and invert on individual plates.

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Homemade Puff Pastry, the easy way: Make Your Own Monday #39

Although I like using things like Pillsbury crescent rolls in a pinch,  I love making things from scratch.  I just don't always like the time investment it takes to get the same results as store bought.  I was recently reading through an old Gourmet yearbook from the early 1990s when I ran across a quick puff paste recipe.  I knew that I had found my next "make your own."  Puff pastry has the reputation for being incredibly time consuming to make.  With this recipe, I had it together in a matter of minutes.  I still had to take time to chill it, but really, the work was minimal.  The results were as good as any puff pastry you can buy in sheets.

Quick Puff Pastry (from Gourmet)

2 cups flour

2 sticks butter

1/2 cup ice cold water

If you can find 100% wheat all-purpose flour, use it instead of the stuff that has barley in it.

Use real butter.

Cut the butter into chunks and place in a food processor.

Place the flour on top of the butter and start mixing it until it resembles coarse meal.

Remove to a mixing bowl so you have room to add the water.

Add the water and stir together with a fork.

Keep stirring until it forms a ball.  Wrap the ball with plastic or waxed paper and chill for 1 hour.

After the hour of chilling, roll out the dough on a floured surface.  

Make a rectangle that measures about 12X8 inches.

Fold the top third down over the rest of the dough.  Fold the bottom third up and over the other. If the dough is getting warm, wrap it up and chill it another 20 minutes.

Bring the dough out of the fridge and turn it so the dough it is perpendicular to you and roll it out to the same 12X6 original size.  Fold it in thirds again.

Repeat so that you have folded it into thirds a total of 4 times.

The edges will get smoother as you turn it.  When you have finished all of the turns, you can use it immediately or you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.  

When you bake it, bake it hot (400 degrees) until golden.  The exact time will depend how you use it.

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Saturday Stories: Telling Tales on My Brothers.

One of the nice things about writing these stories on my own blog is the license it gives me to tell stories about my brothers.  I suppose if this were a family collaboration there might be some tales best left unsaid.  However, this is venue is mine and I have a bit more freedom here.

My brothers are significantly younger than I am.  I was basically an only child until I was a teenager.  When I was almost 13, my first brother was born, followed in quick succession by 3 more boys, one of whom died right after his birth.  I am 17 years older than my youngest brother.   It would therefore stand to reason that my brothers and I were brought up very differently.  My father retired from the military when I was 19, so the boys, as I call my brothers, were raised in one place.  They had older, unhealthy parents on a limited income.

But, they had each other, while I had a rather solitary childhood.  They fought like normal brothers, but to this day, they are best friends.  When they get together, they laugh and kid each other about things that happened when they were little.

Mom often put them in the tub together.  It was just easier to bathe them all at once and cheaper to fill the tub only one time.  The boys played with toys and splashed each other as Mom tried to wash each one in turn.  One time, when they were about 5,3 and 1, the youngest pooped in the tub.  The other two boys started yelling madly to escape the grossness of the water.  Mom immediately removed the pooper and then the 3 year old and finally helped the 5 year old out of the water.  To this day, the oldest brother shudders as he talks about being the last one left in with the offending object as it slowly floated closer and closer to him.  "Why did mom leave me in the water longest, when I didn't do anything?"

When the time came and the oldest brother was 13, my parents left him in charge of the other two for an evening.  He kept a log of every single thing my other two brothers did wrong and wrote it to up for my parents to read when they returned home.  In it he wrote, "Mom and Dad, I tried, I really tried.  First of all, they wouldn't do anything that I asked.  I tried to get Dan to do the dishes, but he wouldn't.  Then I tried to get David to behave, but he wouldn't.  Mom, Dad, he threatened me with a butcher knife and then he ran away.  I tried to catch him, but I couldn't.  Finally, he came back on his own.  I tried to be patient and kind, but they wouldn't let me.  I love you, Mom and Dad, signed, John."  Of course, my brothers said it was totally false, that he was a despot and they were perfect angels.

All three of my brothers had wonderful imaginations.  They would make up games to play with each other.  Always, these games would involve some kind of imaginary weapons.  They'd chase each other around with these imaginary things, always trying to best each other.  The very last time they ever played this type of game, the youngest decided he was a killer bee and thought he had finally come up with something no one could stop.  The oldest, then became a flame thrower and burned the bee's rear end off.  David, the youngest was so mad that the game wasn't ever played again, but it had lasted months and months.

If one of them got in trouble for picking on the other brothers and was sent to his room for a time out, the offended party always went to my parents to plead for mercy for their punished brother.  They were never happy to see any of their brothers in trouble.  Oh, they got each other in trouble, but the consequence of not being able to play was punishment for all of them.

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Breakfast Bars

The Engineer had been hounding me to make breakfast cookies for about two weeks when I finally set aside a time to make them.  Then, low and behold, there were no rice crispies in the entire house.  Before mutiny erupted, I did a bit of fiddling with a few recipes, taking into account what ingredients actually were in the house this time and came up with a breakfast bar.  The nice thing about these bars is their versatility.  I also like bars versus cookies for saving time.  So, I give you the breakfast bar that saved the day:

You can add nuts, chocolate chips, coconut or any dried fruit...depending on what you have in your cupboard.  You could also mix in some spices or even flavorings like almond or orange. The bars are quite filling, though the boys in my family who have just entered the "I am always hungry" stage ate again two hours later.  They do that no matter what they eat, though.  

Breakfast Bars: 

1 stick butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup oatmeal

1 1/2 cups AP flour

2 Tbsp All Bran cereal

1 cup golden raisins

Beat the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla or other flavoring and mix well.  Mix in the oatmeal, All Bran and flour followed by the raisins....or any other add ins.  Spread into a greased 9X9 pan.  Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

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Plum Apple Butter

We had a great harvest from our plum tree this year.  It's a Santa Rosa plum tree.  They are so delicious, but we really couldn't eat all of them.  I cooked up half of the remaining plums, pureed and froze them.  I liked the idea of a pseudo apple sauce...a plum sauce.  It was very tasty with the addition of some sweetener.  I used stevia, my family would prefer brown sugar.  Either way, it will probably end up in a cake.

The remaining plums were combined with an equal amount of apples and some spices and then simmered down to a thick fruit butter consistency.  I bottled it as you can see in the picture.   It will do well on peanut butter sandwiches as well as on roasts or in yeast rolls.  With the eight or nine bottles I ended up with, the possibilities are endless.

Apple Plum Butter
3 pounds plums, cut in half and pitted
3 pounds apples, peeled and cored
3 1/2 cups apple juice
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground allspice
In a large pot, simmer plums and apples in apple juice until cooked.  Either use an immersion blender to puree all of the fruit in the pan, or let it cool and ladle it into a food processor a bit at a time and puree it that way.  Return it to the pot.  Add the spices and simmer until reaches the desired consistency.  Put it in clean jars with lids and use a boiling bath to process...20 minutes.

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Homemade Gourmet Apples: Make Your Own Monday #38

This week it will be October.  Can you believe it?    That means that Thanksgiving and Christmas and all that those wonderfully hectic holidays bring will be upon us before we know it.  Have you thought about gifts?  Me, either.  I have so many projects going on with this blog and real life that I haven't given it a lot of thought.

I had a friend years ago that used to make gourmet apples every fall to sell at bazaars and to give as gifts.  She always started with huge Granny Smith apples and used only higher end chocolates and caramels.  Her apples weighed over 2 pounds by the time she was done and they were much sought after by all who knew her.  I looked online to see if they are still popular...and they are.  They retail for at least $12 and up to $19 before shipping!  You can make these for much cheaper at home.  What great gifts they'd be for friends, teachers and neighbors.  

Watch for caramels to go on clearance after Halloween.  You can usually find them for 75% off a week or two after Oct. 31.   Chocolate chips are due to be going on sale as all grocery stores gear up for baking season.  Nuts will be cheaper, too.  Look for sales and these babies will not cost you much at all to make.  

You will need: 

firm, fresh apples (no bruises, no odd shapes)

clean popsicle sticks

1 bag caramels (or more if desired)

2 Tbsp water for every bag of caramels

chocolate or other flavored chips

nuts, M&Ms, sprinkles or whatever you can think of

Stick the popsicle sticks into the apples at the blossom end. 

 Melt the caramels with water in a saucepan, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat.  Holding the apple by the wooden stick, twirl the apple in the caramel to coat. Let the excess drip back into the pan. Let sit on a buttered plate or cookie sheet to cool slightly. 

(note: this was not a dipped caramel apple, I molded the warmed caramels around the apples, but this is Not recommended as it does not stick to the apple and after the entire thing is made, the entire coating slips off the skin....not a pleasant end for all of that hard work...however this is the only picture I took at this stage, so you have to use a little imagination.)

 Melt chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler.  Dip the apple into the chocolate and twirl the apple to coat with chocolate.  Roll it in the nuts, if desired.  Let cool slightly and roll in chocolate again...or another flavor of melted chips.  Coat with sprinkles or shaved chocolate or candy pieces.  Store in the fridge.

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PFB Challenge #2: Classic Greek

Thank you SO much to all of you who voted me through to the second challenge.

And here it is: Challenge Number Two: Make a classic dish; not French or Italian. Leave your comfort zone.

I asked my oldest son, The Musician, what cuisine he thought I should explore. He said Tahitian. Really, what kind of help was I actually expecting to get from a teenage boy?!

I thought about making a classic German dish, but as I am almost half German, I didn't feel like I would be venturing into the unfamiliar with that. British food, forgive me, isn't all that exciting and again is not a stretch. I am afraid Indian food would go to waste with my crew of taste testers (aka children). Japanese food would require access to fish not labeled “Chicken of the Sea” in a small landlocked Arizona town.

My options were running out, when it hit me. Greek food. Other than eating gyros periodically for lunch and drooling over recipes for spanakopita, I'd actually never made any. Certainly no one could argue that it was outside my comfort zone. In fact, the last time I ate Greek food at a real Greek restaurant, it was years ago, for my sister-in-law's birthday. She had found a little out of the way place south of Seattle and had all of the extended family gather there one evening. We all sat down at a great big family style table, had ordered our meals and were just getting down to the job of catching up on each others' lives when music started. Out from behind a veiled doorway, came a barely veiled woman. Belly dancing. All four sets of my sons' eyes widened as far as they'd go as that gyrating, not so svelte woman jiggled her way over to the table. I can't even tell you what we ate that night. I was too busy fielding questions and covering boys' eyes.

Yes, I definitely needed to revisit Greek cuisine... Even if it was only to make some new, more comfortable memories to associate with that lovely food.

The fates (Greek reference intended, of course) smiled upon me, putting eggplant on sale, and making the dish choice easy. Moussaka. I am not Greek food ignorant, you see. I am just Greek food inexperienced. So, I Googled every recipe for moussaka I could find, read through every cookbook in the house and then went about making this classic dish...with all of the normal frugality my nature is inclined to include.

Moussaka: (loosely based on a recipe found in a community cookbook called I Love New York and another found on greekfood.about.com):

2 large eggplants, peeled and sliced into rounds ¼ inch thick

½ cup salt dissolved in 2 quarts water

olive oil

1 pound lean ground beef (I know it should be lamb, but beef is a suitable substitute on a budget)

½ onion, chopped

1 quart home canned tomatoes (29 ounces store bought diced), drained

2 Tbsp tomato paste

½ tsp oregano

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

1 tsp garlic powder

½ cup red wine

1 Tbsp honey (this is dependent on the acidity of your tomatoes ~ mine needed it)

1 summer squash, chopped (optional, it was the last one from my garden and really wanted to be a Greek)

2 large baking potatoes (patA'tes – this is legal, there are several versions with these included)

¼ cup plain bread crumbs

grated Greek cheese, such as kefalotiri (I was able to find Parmesan in my town...'nuf said)

Soak the eggplant slices in the salted water for 30-45 minutes. Remove them from the water and drain on paper towels. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and cook the eggplant on each side until lightly browned. Place on a plate for later use. Wash the potatoes, poke them a few times and then cook them in the microwave until tender. Let them cool down, then peel and slice. While the potatoes are cooking, brown the ground beef in a deep skillet or Dutch oven. Drain the excess fat if you are using 80% lean meat. Add the onions and squash and cook until the vegetables are soft. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, spices, herbs, honey and wine. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring once in a while to prevent sticking. To assemble, butter a shallow baking dish (9X13). Sprinkle bottom of dish with bread crumbs. Layer half of the eggplant on top of crumbs. Spread ½ of the meat sauce on top, then sliced potatoes, remaining eggplant followed by the last of the meat sauce. Pour the bechamel sauce on top of the meat, spreading lightly to reach all the edges evenly. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Bechamel sauce:

3 Tbsp butter

¼ cup AP flour

dash freshly grated nutmeg

½ tsp onion powder

3 cups evaporated milk (regular milk or even cream would be fine)

salt and pepper to taste

4 egg yolks (conveniently, my son requested a pie for later this week...the whites will become meringue)

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Stir the flour into the butter over low heat for about a minute. Slowly whisk the milk into the roux, season and continue stirring until the sauce thickens. (Be patient, this is at least a ten minute process, if not longer). When it is thickened to your liking, add about ¼ cup of the sauce to the egg yolks to temper them (there is nothing worse than scrambled egg pieces in your white sauce!). Add the egg/sauce mixture back into the remaining sauce and heat through.

Egads! This was so good. The subtle spice in the meat sauce, the creaminess of the bechamel, the yummy flavors of the vegetables; I can see why moussaka is a must-make-at-least-once-in-your-life, classic Greek dish. Thank you Foodbuzz, for sending me to visit this delicious cuisine.

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Carrot Currant Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Filling

There are trends in food blogging.  Have you noticed that?  Someone will come up with a great idea and everyone else will run with it.  These doughnuts are, in fact, inspired by all of the carrot cake things I have seen lately.  Muffins, whoopie pies, cakes, cookies, you name it, there have been carrot cake versions.  This is simply my contribution. 

I couldn't call them carrot cake doughnuts, though, because they are yeast doughnuts...it was too confusing.  I have seen carrot cake doughnuts, sold by a famous gourmet doughnut place in NYC.  I have seen them covered with cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with cute little orange rinds.  I wanted to be different.  I think it's a phase I am going through.  Anyway, I wanted to know why I hadn't seen any carrot cake yeast doughnuts.  After making them, I am still wondering.  They were pretty wonderful.

The dough is filled with carrots, currants, cinnamon and other spices.  The cooked doughnut is rolled in sugar while it is still warm.  The middle is filled with a basic homemade cream cheese frosting.  What' not to love?

Carrot Currant Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Filling: 

2 tsp instant yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 egg

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cloves

1/2 cup finely shredded carrots

3 Tbsp currants

3 cups oil, for frying

sugar for rolling

1 8 ounce brick cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl, combine the yeast, warm water and teaspoon of sugar.  Set aside and let bubble for a few minutes.  In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, egg, butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves,  carrots, currants and yeast mixture until it forms a dough.  Knead for 8-10 minutes by hand or mixer.  Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.  Punch down, and roll out to 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface.  Cut into circles or squares 2 1/2 inches across. 

(these aren't stacked..I don't know why those little ridges formed on the sides)

 Cover and let rise another 15 minutes.  Heat oil in a Dutch oven on the stove.  When a popcorn kernel pops in the oil, it's ready to cook the doughnuts (I think that's 350 degrees, but I have never had a deep fryer or electric skillet).  Put four into the oil at a time.  Fry for 40 seconds on each side.  Let drain slightly on paper towel or a wire rack.  Roll in sugar and let cool on a plate.  When cool, use a round frosting tip on a pastry bag to fill them with the cream cheese filling.

For the filling: beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.

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Crazy Baking a Mile in the Air: Tips for High Altitude Kitchens

I live at an elevation over 5,000 feet. It is called the “high desert.” There is a mountain range just to the north that is almost 8,000 feet above sea level, but because my town is already so high, it doesn't look like more than hills. Being so high causes me to have to make a few adjustments when I cook and bake.  Here are a few interesting things you may not have known about elevated cooking and baking: 

• 
  
  The higher the elevation, the lower the temperature at which water boils. The 212 degree mark actually is the temperature that water boils at sea level. This being the case, you'd think that things would cook quicker, but because they are boiling at a lower temperature, it takes longer because the overall heat is lower.
• 
  
  If liquids boil at lower temperatures, it stands to reason that they are evaporating faster, too. So we have to add more liquid to recipes. Sometimes adding just one more egg will do the trick.
• 
  
  The atmosphere is thinner up here, so gases expand more...as in leavening gases in cakes. So we have to add less to recipes.
• 
  
  Have you ever noticed that there are “high altitude recipes” on the back of cake mixes? It's not only the baking soda and baking powder that behaves differently at high elevations, sugar changes, too. So, we have to add less to recipes.
• 
  
  In the cake mixes, you can't adjust the leavening and sugar, so the instructions have you add more flour to compensate.
• 
  
  Fats can pose a problem, too. If the gases are expanding and stretching the structure of the baked good, fats can concentrate, resulting in a bit of glop. Decreasing the amount of fat by even a tablespoon can solve that problem.
• 
  
  Another thing we high altitude bakers have to remember is not to over beat our egg whites. Again the air evaporates, the bubbles pop and the result is a baked brick.
• 
  
  For some reason, yeast behaves at all elevations and rarely has to be adjusted.
• 
  
  Other things to consider when cooking at higher elevations: potatoes and other dense vegetables take forever to cook unless they are cut into small pieces.
• 
  
  Beans. You'd think those tiny little things would cook just fine, but their cooking time actually doubles. Pressure cookers solve that problem.
• 
  
  Speaking of pressure cookers, canning (bottling) fruits, vegetables and all other things take longer. If you are using a boiling bath method, and the instructions say it takes 10 minutes, plan on 20 if you are at a higher altitude. If you are using a pressure cooker, plan on adding an additional 5-10 pounds of pressure when sealing the jars.
• 
  
  One last secret to high altitude baking is to use buttermilk, yogurt or sour cream in place of sweet milk as it raises the acidity of the batter. Acids hold in check some of the funky chemical reactions that the lower air pressure causes.
• 
  
  Finally, not all recipes will need to be adjusted. All cooking and baking is a matter of tweaking things here and there for taste as well as texture. If you have a recipe that just won't turn out, try some changes and see if it works better. However if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
  
  
  thursday-13.com

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Raspberry Marshmallow Custard Parfaits

My banana pudding idea morphed as most of my ideas usually do.  I didn't have any bananas and I did have frozen raspberries.  I also had some marshmallows that were ready to be used or turned into decorative rocks in the front yard.  Then, there was the can of Bird's custard mix that I bought to make a Daring Bakers' challenge that has been languishing in my freezer door...it begged to be included.

 I was reminiscing about a dessert my mom used to make when I was a little girl.  It had a layer of marshmallows and cream cheese folded into whipped cream upon which rested a layer of thickened raspberry sauce, and all of it was spread on a graham cracker crust.  It was one of my favorite desserts and then, it was moved off the rotation and was forgotten about.  That is, until I saw the homemade vanilla wafers, the raspberries and the marshmallows.  

Basically, I layered the cookies, a homemade raspberry sauce and a marshmallow cream cheese custard.  All five of my taste testers loved it.  The Thinker put up ten fingers and flashed them multiple times.  The Engineer kept looking at his empty sundae glass, trying  to figure out how to get his tongue all the way down to the bottom to lick it out.

Raspberry Marshmallow Custard Parfaits: 

11 ounces raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1/2 cup sugar (or less depending on how tart your berries are)

1 cup water, plus 2 Tbsp

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 Tbsp water

28 large marshmallows

4 ounces cream cheese

1/2 cup milk, plus 1 cup

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp Bird's Custard Mix

homemade vanilla wafers (or store bought, if you must)

In a sauce pan, boil the raspberries, sugar and 1 cup water.  Combine the cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water and then, while stirring, pour the cornstarch mixture into the raspberries.  Stir until thickened, remove from heat and let cool.  In a microwave safe bowl, combine the marshmallows, cream cheese and 1/2 cup milk.  Microwave, a minute at a time, until the marshmallows  puff up and the cream cheese melts.  Mix well.  In another microwave safe bowl, combine the sugar and custard mix.  Add the 1 cup milk and microwave a few minutes, until it boils and thickens.  Combine the marshmallow mixture with the custard mixture.  Crumble some vanilla wafers into the bottom of parfait glasses.  Layer the raspberry sauce and the custard.  Add more cookies as you desire.  Chill at least an hour before serving.

NOTE: You can use a regular small vanilla pudding mix instead of the custard mix, just make it up according to the package directions.  Or, you could use a homemade custard...if you have the time and inclination.

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