2008 July

Peanut Butter Cookie Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

July 21, 2008 by Rebecca 2 Comments

When we finished up our end of the school year testing a couple weeks ago we were due for a celebration. The boys, after a great deal of discussion over lunch, decided to celebrate by putting together their own picnic. Because really; what do you do immediately after eating? You plan a picnic, of course. They got together and planned.

Sidebar: They’ve been really into “planning” lately. If I were a more panaroid person I’d think they were plotting against me. As it is, I’m just glad they’re getting along so well and are capable of linear thought.

Liam informed me that this was a project they intended to take on themselves. I stepped aside just in time as the sheer spontaneous force of energy that is five little boys working together sprang into action. The side door kept banging open and shut as all five boys ran back and forth between the kitchen and the yard. There was a great deal of clanging from the silverware drawer, the squelch-woosh-smack of the fridge being repeatedly accessed, and the dull thud of the pantry door getting slammed (“I don’t know how it slammed, Mom, I just so gently closed it with my foot like THIS!” [insert roundhouse kick here.])

Even though I knew the clean-up on my end would be a project of epic proportions I knew enough to bite my tongue and let them have at it. When I’m bright enough to get out of their way and let them try these sorts of things I am repayed dividends by watching the concentration and joy on their faces.

The activity came to a swift and dramatic end with an announcement from the boys. They had set up a blanket [large beach towel] in the front yard and Dad and Mom were invited to their picnic. The front door was thrown open and five beaming boys came out single file, walking ever so carefully to avoid dropping their precious cargo: Liam had a tray with little pyrex mise en place bowls full of peanut butter and strawberry freezer jam and a plate full of rough-hewn slices of whole wheat sourdough bread. (His knife skills are pretty good for a 10 year old…) Aidan had two precariously full glasses of ice water in his hands and a half eaten bag of Doritos tucked under his arm. Ty had another two filled-to-the rim glasses of ice water. Leif carried the last glass of water and a banana. Rowan brought up the end of the line with two lollipops, a banana and a cat-eating-yellow-jacket grin.

They all walked like they were balancing books on their heads down the length of our sidewalk. They crossed the first loop of driveway and carefully deposited their bounty on the beach towel blanket they had so lovingly arranged in the full sun. My husband, who was working on a ladder, climbed down and joined us. They asked me to take a picture of their feast. I was more than happy to oblige.

My boys’ picnic feast

After five minutes in the hot sun, when we had exhausted the ice water, chips and most of the bread, the boys bounced up and ran off yelling, “This is the best day EVER!” I was glad to not sit in the blazing heat any more and beat a retreat to the kitchen with the tray of leftover peanut butter, jam and other picnic detritus.

I broke the out the peanut butter again later in the day to make Manipulation Cookies (see here for explanation and recipe.) The next morning, when there were only a few cookies left, and those that were left were stripped of their chocolate kisses by my stealthy 2 year old, I sent those cookies to a better place; my ice cream maker.

In one recipe I was able to cram most things that I love in a dessert; cookies, peanut butter, chocolate, peanuts, and hazelnuts. This ice cream recipe is super simple because it’s Philadelphia style. In case you haven’t had your nose crammed into “The Perfect Scoop” like I have the past couple weeks, Philadelphia style basically means it’s easy. You don’t have eggs to temper with this recipe. Measure, whisk, add, stir, pour, freeze. That’s the method to this madness.

Manipulation (Peanut Butter) Cookie Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 1/8 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons barley malt syrup (available in health food stores or departments, beer and wine making suppliers, and internet/mail order/store front baker supply stores.)

1 1/4 cups whole milk (if you use skim, it’ll be too icy!)

3 cups heavy cream

1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate malt syrup (Can’t find any in stores? Never fear. My recipe is below! In a pinch, you can substitute any old chocolate syrup. I recommend Nesquick because it doesn’t have High Fructose Corn Syrup!)

3 Tablespoons Frangelico liqueur

a pinch of salt

10 Manipulation Cookies, stripped of their chocolate kisses (any peanut butter cookie will suffice here, but this ice cream is really excellent using Manipulation Cookies, specifically.)

In the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl, add malt syrup, sugar, chocolate malt syrup and milk. Whisk or mix on low speed until sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. When you no longer hear or feel sugar scraping on the bottom of the bowl, add vanilla, Frangelico, and heavy cream. Stir until combined. If using a stand mixer, you can beat on a slightly higher speed to incorporate a little air for a fluffier-textured finished ice cream.

Freeze according to your ice cream maker manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice cream is nearly frozen, coarsely crumble the cookies into the mixture. Allow ice cream to finish freezing, transfer to a container with a tight fitting lid and allow to harden for about two hours in the freezer.

In an homage to my kids’ efforts with their picnic the previous day, I made us PB&J Sundaes with this ice cream and some more stawberry freezer jam. Every PB&J should be this good!

PB&J Sundae

Fabulous Chocolate Malt Syrup

(Adapted from an Alton Brown recipe) The delicate malt flavor in this syrup makes it so sublime it can rival old fashioned malteds. Heck, maybe it holds up to them because it is old fashioned.)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups water

3 cups sugar

¾ cups Dutch process cocoa powder

¾ cup black cocoa powder (If you can’t readily find this, you can order from here, or double up on the dutch process cocoa powder and omit this.)

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

2 Tablespoons barley malt syrup

In a moment that proves that Alton Brown is a super hero, he says, “In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in [remaining ingredients]“ Um wow. When I did this, I very nearly had a boil over. I say save a couple years on your life and use a large saucepan or pot. Here are my instructions.

In a large sauce pan (sorry, Mr. Brown) add sugar and water and bring to a boil. Whisk in the barley malt syrup, salt and vanilla. Add the cocoa powder about 1/2 a cup at a time and whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Continue whisking until the cocoa powders are totally dissolved. Lower heat and reduce slightly. Don’t overdo it here or you’ll end up with hot fudge sauce. Delicious, to be sure, but we’re shooting for syrup here. You’ll know you’ve reduced it enough when you do “the test”. Dunk a spoon in the syrup and allow excess to drip away. Drag your finger down the back of the spoon. If it leaves a clear clean space on the spoon that doesn’t fill back in your syrup is ready.

Kill the heat, pour through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher or jar and cool completely before using. You can transfer this to a squeeze bottle after it is completely cool. It makes the best malted chocolate milk of all time and is an obvious choice for topping ice cream! Best yet? It doesn’t have any funky preservatives, food coloring or the dreaded high fructose corn syrup!

Filed Under: Desserts, Rebecca Tagged With: cookies, ice cream, peanut butter cookie chocolate malt ice cream, peanut butter cookies

The Ultimate Hamburger Rolls

July 18, 2008 by Rebecca 8 Comments

For an easy to print version of this recipe, see the new, updated post here.

I’ll keep this to the point. Make these burger buns. They’ve been our family favorites for a couple years now and I know it’s burger season so I’m back to evangelizing about these rolls. Ask my sisters, Mom, brothers, Aunts, and other assorted family members. They’re probably really glad I’m blogging now so that I can wax rhapsodic about these rolls with people other than them.

They’re gorgeous with a shiny brown exterior, flavorful and melt-in-your mouth tender. When you’re shaping the dough you can even turn them into the ultimate hoagie or hot dog roll. Long story short? They’re the absolute perfect burger bun. Pretty please tell me you’ll try them.

(I do usually make double the quantity I’m giving you below, but I acknowledge the fact that -unlike our viking horde here- most families do not eat between 17 and 20 burgers in one meal. Therefore, I halved my normal amount. That being said, these do freeze well. That is, if you ever have enough left to freeze…)

Bec’s Buns (that just sounds so naughty…)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups warm milk

1 large egg, beaten

6 Tablespoons softened unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

3 Tablespoons malt powder (or sugar)

4 cups high gluten (bread) flour

1/4 cup instant potato flakes

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten (This is optional, but the finished product is better with it.)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

For Glaze:

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

For Toppings (use any or all of the following):

sesame seeds

poppy seeds

dry onion flakes

lightly sauteed onions

cracked black pepper

coarse salt

caraway seeds

minced or chopped garlic

chopped fresh rosemary

If you have a bread machine, this is easy-cheesy. Put all the ingredients in the pan in your manufacturer’s recommended order. Program for the dough cycle and let ‘er rip. Go play catch with the kids and come back after the cycle is done. Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment I need to tell folks without a bread machine how to make these. Meet me in two paragraphs…

If you do not have an indentured servant (bread machine) it’s still easy. It just takes a bit more elbow grease. Mix warm water, malt (or sugar) and yeast in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, milk, potatoes, gluten, yeast and salt.

Add the egg and butter to the water and yeast and stir gently with a sturdy wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture one cup at a time and stir until combined. When a shaggy dough has formed, turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Form dough into a smooth topped round and place in a lightly greased large bowl. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about an hour or until doubled in bulk.

Are we all on the same page now? Alrighty. Turn the dough out onto a clean and very lightly floured surface. Divide dough into portions equal to your desired number of buns. I usually make 12 round or long rolls with this recipe and they make good sized buns.

To make hamburger or round sandwich rolls, take each dough portion and roll into a tight ball, stretching the skin smooth over the top of the ball. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet or half sheet pan. Make sure to leave room for these bad boys to expand because they will. I can comfortably fit 8 rolls per half sheet pan. (That means my normal recipe takes 3 half sheet pans, because as I’ve mentioned, I always make double this amount.)

To make hoagie or hot dog rolls, make rounds the same way you would for a round roll, flatten into an oval and roll up tight like a cigar.

Whether you’re making the hot dog rolls or the hamburg buns the process is the same from here forward. Using the heels of your hands and palms, flatten each roll. Cover each pan with a clean tea towel. (I know, I know! That’s what? Three towels I’m having you dirty? I hate laundry, too. These rolls are worth it! Trust me!) Let dough rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. While oven is heating, contemplate glazing and topping your buns. What are you going to serve on them? Hamburgers? Our favorite topping for hamburger rolls is dried onion flakes and poppy seeds. Are you serving roast beef on weck? Go for caraway seeds and coarse salt. Leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce? (Don’t look at me like that. I know I’m not the only one who does that…) Try the minced rosemary and sauteed onions. Bratwurst, white hots or Italian sausage? Definitely get generous with the garlic. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Just before putting those soon-to-be gorgeous rolls in the oven, give them a little special attention. Gently brush them with the egg glaze and sprinkle on the toppings. Slide sheets into the oven and set your timer for 15-25 minutes, depending on how big your buns are… The goal is to have shiny brown buns (the same goal as sun bathing. Heh.)

You do want to let these cool before eating so their crumb has time to set up. At least that’s what they say. I won’t tell anyone if you hide in the linen closet to eat a warm roll in peace. Transfer the rolls you haven’t snitched to a rack to cool. Split the rolls just prior to serving.

And should a miracle happen and you have leftover rolls? Pop them in a freezer bag, seal. Then make like SNL’s “Anal-Retentive Chef” and put the freezer bag inside a paper bag, roll the top and stick into the freezer. As much as this sounds like over-kill, it really does protect your gorgeous buns from freezer burn. Eat within a month.

Filed Under: Bread, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca Tagged With: hamburger rolls, hoagie rolls, hot dog rolls, sandwich rolls

Buttermilk Pancakes

July 16, 2008 by Rebecca 5 Comments

Update: The easy-print version of this recipe can be found here!

“I feel thrifty, oh so thrifty.

I feel thrifty and nifty and bright.

And I pity any Mom who isn’t me tonight.”

Alright, so Stephen Sondheim I’m not, but this is what I was singing to myself this morning while simultaneously whipping up pancakes and patting myself on the back. I should explain.

I have been on a mission lately to drastically reduce our cold cereal consumption in the house. The quantity of cereal the boys (and in that category I also lump my husband) can tear through is budget busting. The trouble is not entirely with breakfast. When we have cereal- even if it’s just bare bones Cheerios, crisped rice or shredded wheat- they not only eat two or three bowls for breakfast, they also stick their grubby mitts in the boxes whenever they think about food.

I will now interrupt myself with an important “living with 6 males” informational interlude: What do men think about every thirty seconds? Well, before they’re old enough to start thinking about that they think about food every thirty seconds. It’s a natural progression. Back to food, though…

The boys can polish off one and a half boxes of cereal at breakfast and kill the remaining half of the box with the occasional handful by the end of the day. You see why this is untenable? I’ve made my own granola for a very long time, but granola every single morning? We need some variety. That’s why we were buying the cold cereal anyway- to break up the granola monotony. I decided to throw the heavy weight of all my obsessive compulsive tendencies behind solving the problem of what to eat for breakfast.

Here were my goals for the challenge.

Find foods that are filling. I don’t want to have to do second breakfasts and elevensies for my hobbits.
The foods need to be easy enough to make before I’ve gotten two cups of tea in me. I’m good at following complex recipes, but only when sufficiently caffeinated.
The recipes need to be economical. I’m feeding seven people three meals a day with snacks.
There can’t be too many foods on the pickiest eater’s ”no-no yucky” list. Diced onions? No-no yucky! Pureed or microscopically minced onions? Yes! I don’t work that hard in the morning. So, revisiting that statement. No “no-no yucky ” food items at all. We’ll work on food aversions at lunch and dinner.
The recipes should be made with readily available items. I am fifteen minutes from the middle of nowhere. It takes me thirty five minutes to get to a decent grocery store and an hour and a half to get to a great one.

Day One:

I attempted to pass off oatmeal to a mostly hostile audience. I make very tasty oatmeal, but it did not fly here. I tried steel cut oats with dried fruit, cinnamon, a wee bit of garam masala, demerara sugar and cream. Three out of seven ate it. That’s no change from the myriad of other times I’ve tried oatmeal for the kids. I’m not sure why I thought would be different this time. Nothing doing. This only got 6 thumbs up out of 14.

Day Two:

I made a double batch of Pioneer Woman’s French Breakfast Puffs (thanks to Evil Chef Mom for reminding me of those, here.) Yes, you read me right. I said I made a double batch. If you’ve made these you’re probably already laughing at me. I’m traumatized by all those recipes written by people feeding 2 or 3 at most per meal. I am a knee-jerk recipe doubler. If you’ve never worked through a recipe for seven hungry and impatient people only to find that it yields 3 fruit-fly sized servings you won’t understand my pain, but that’s my cross to bear.

So the yield was- and I want to make sure you understand that I am not exaggerating because this staggering count becomes important in the next paragraph- 24 standard sized muffins and 48 mini muffins. That’s 72 muffins! Mmm. The muffins were tasty, but they took a while to make first thing in the morning. I’m not the “wake up an hour before everyone else and cook” sort. I want to sleep as long as the rest of the crew. That means that we’re all waiting around for 35-40 minutes while these are being measured, mixed, portioned, baked, dunked in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar? Maybe that would work occasionally, but not on a regular basis.

Besides being a little too time consuming for normal mornings, they were all eaten by 2 p.m. My husband and I had 2 standard muffins each. The boys ate the rest of them. The (sometimes-hidden) health-foodie in me balks very much at the idea of my kids ingesting that quantity of shortening, butter and sugar every morning. This got 14 thumbs up out of 14 for taste, but it’s getting shelved anyway due to cost (1/2 a lb of butter every day?), time and nutrition concerns.

…And lest you should grow concerned at the quantity of calories my kids consume, have a gander at this:

Day Three:

Oh sweet crappy pappy! I intended to put a slow cooker of jook together last night before going to bed. Jook gets a consistent 12 thumbs up out of 14 and is well loved by everyone except Leif who remains convinced that there are ”sneaky vegetables in it.” I forgot. We were out of cereal, out of granola, out of bread for toast with jam, and didn’t have enough eggs to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. The kids would be ”starving” and begging shamelessly for food any minute. The proverbial light-bulb illuminated over me and divine inspiration planted the word “PANCAKE” in my head. Most of the time I save pancakes for dinner, not being much of a breakfast eater myself, so this was a revelation (if a stupid one.) My pancake recipe comes together in a flash and makes a huge amount of batter. I mixed it up and starting pan frying. Liam and Aidan had six pancakes each, Ty and Leif had four and Rowan ate three. I ate one. My husband, The Evil Genius, was at work. I had a ton of batter left. In fact, I had enough for another breakfast meal, at least. I did not feel like standing at the stove to finish off all the batter. Somewhere in the back of my head I remembered that you could save pancake batter in an airtight container in the fridge. It was that or neglect my tea. The batter went into the chill chest. This recipe is a 14 thumbs up out of 14 for taste, ease, and economy. And it kept them full until elevensies.

Day Four:

Pancakes, redux. The batter survived admirably and made pancakes equally delicious to the previous days efforts. There was indeed enough batter left to feed the whole crew and have a couple leftover for elevensies. It was so nice to wake up and have breakfast mostly done. I think that’s why I’ve fallen into the cold cereal trap time and again. This will be a good one to keep handy. My recipe for the pancakes is below. Stay tuned to future posts for other great early morning foods that don’t take un-caffeinated mental acuity to prepare.

Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Unused batter stores well tightly covered in the fridge for up to three days. It also makes really admirable waffles.

4 eggs

1/4 lb (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

4 cups buttermilk (or 1/4 cup cider vinegar or fresh lemon juice added to 3 3/4 cups with milk, stirred and nuked for 45 seconds)

4 cups all-purpose flour

2-4 Tablespoons sugar, to taste

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in your blender and process until smooth. Or you can do as I usually do adding all ingredients to a large pitcher and combining them with my stick blender. It’s the cheater’s way! The batter needs to be smooth. No one likes pockets of dry flour in a pancake! The consistency of the batter when I make it is about that of ketchup because we like thinner pancakes. If you like a fluffier, loftier pancake, you can add a couple tablespoons of flour to the batter, but make sure it’s still pourable!

Heat your griddle or frying pan until water sizzles on it and carefully butter or oil the surface. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter onto the hot pan for each pancake, leaving room for it to expand. You can flip the cake when the bubbles that show up on the top pop and don’t fill back in. The second side will cook much faster than the first side, so DO NOT WALK AWAY!

Serve hot! To really ease the morning time crunch, you can also cool these off on a wire rack, stack them separated by waxed paper, and seal in a bag in the freezer for up to a month. To reheat, remove desired number of flapjacks from the freezer to a plate and microwave for about 30 seconds-1 minute, depending on strength of microwave.

Enjoy!

Update: I’ve said it before: I love the events. This post and recipe are being submitted to the Bread Baking Day event being hosted this month by Aparna at My Diverse Kitchen. This month’s theme is “Small Breads“. How fun!

Filed Under: Breakfast Foods, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Stretching your dollars, Uncategorized Tagged With: Buttermilk Pancakes, economical dishes, time savers

Roasted Beet Salad with Herbed Goat Cheese

July 14, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

It is official. I am addicted to food blogger events. When I saw that Holler from Tinned Tomatoes was hosting her No Croutons Required event for July and that the category was vegetarian soups and/or salads showcasing herbs I was thrilled. I lovey love love fresh herbs. Since I have parsley and chives growing in abundance the question was not which herbs I would use, but how I would show them off to their best advantage.

Enter my dairy goat farming friend from up the road. I occasionally get wonderful goat milk from her. Some of the best cheeses I’ve made have been from her goats’ milk. Happily, she brought me about a gallon late last week and also happily, I had chevre culture in my freezer. I immediately set about making the chevre. The plan was to stir in finely minced garlic, chives and parsley from my garden. If you have never made chevre, or any cheese for that matter, don’t be impressed. It’s so deadly easy that you really have a difficult time paying the gobs of money they charge for it in the store once you’ve made it.

There are several ways to make chevre. I think the easiest way is simply to use direct set chevre culture. It’s available from many mail order sources under many names, but I’ve been pleased with the quality of the culture I get in five-packs from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. (click here for product unformation and current pricing) Once you see how easy it is to make you’ll be glad to have made the $6.00 investments to keep a couple packets handy in the freezer. (You can also purchase butter muslin through New England Cheesemaking.)

The recipe is as simple as can be. I follow the directions printed on the culture package:

“Directions: Heat 1 gal. pasteurized milk to 86F, add &mix in 1 packet, let set at room temperature undisturbed for 12 hrs. or until thickened (as in yogurt). Ladle curd gently into a butter muslin lined colander, hang & drain 6-12 hours. Refrigerate & Enjoy!”

I can add a couple observations that are based on a few years of home cheesemaking. When setting out your milk after mixing in the culture, make sure you cover it to keep the fruit flies and other winged buggies away from the party. Your room should be at least 72F. This temperature is also ideal for proper draining when you hang the cheese in the butter muslin.

To make the herbed chevre as I did: (Please note [in the upper right hand corner of the picture] the mighty hunter, Diggedy, cunningly stalking the wild chevre and praying fervently that I need to run back into the house for a spare camera battery or to pull the boys out of the toilet or some other well timed interruption…)

1 batch freshly drained chevre (approx. 1 1/4 lbs)

1/2 cup finely minced fresh herbs (any combination of chives, parsley, chervil, etc…)

1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced (according to taste)

1/2-1 teaspoon cracked black pepper (according to taste)

1-2 teaspoons kosher salt- or any other non-iodized salt (according to taste)

Add all ingredients to a medium mixing bowl and mash together with a wooden spoon until evenly combined. Transfer and pack into molds or form into a log on a piece of parchment paper (roll up in parchment paper for storage). Place in fridge and eat within two weeks. This cheese does not freeze particularly well.

To make the salad as pictured above…

Herbed Goat Cheese and Roasted Beet Salad

To Roast the Beets

3 large beets, scrubbed and trimmed of greens

2 Tablespoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F. Lay the beets in a large sheet of heavy duty foil, raise the edges of the foil around the beets to form a bowl and drizzle with the olive oil. Cinch the foil up the rest of the way to form a closed packet around the beets. Place on a rimmed baking dish and roast for 20-45 minutes (depending on the size of the beets) or until the beets are easily pierced to the center with a sharp knife.

Remove from oven and cool until you can handle them. Use your hands or an old towel to slough off the beet skins and slice into batons for your salad. Set aside.

For the Vinaigrette

1 Tablespoon coarse dijon mustard

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon water

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (or canola oil)

1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

pinch kosher salt

Add all vinaigrette ingredients to a mason jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until emulsified. Set aside.

To assemble the salad

Leaf Lettuce (fresh from the garden if you have it!)

Roasted Beets

Herbed Chevre

Dijon Vinaigrette

Additional chives, parsley, whatever fresh green herbs you can rustle up

Edible Flowers

Pile greens on a plate and top with the roasted beet batons, drizzle lightly with the dijon vinaigrette. Crumble chevre over the beets and top with additional minced chives, parsley and edible flowers.

This salad was sooooo delicious that my husband and I are going to sow more rows of beets so we can eat it more often.

This recipe definitely gets 4 enthusiastic thumbs up (my husband and I) and 10 non-committal thumbs pointed any direction that didn’t require them to hold their forks. The idea of the beets and goat cheese didn’t really ding the boys’ chimes so they opted for plain greens dressed with ranch. Ah well. Can’t win ‘em all. (The only time I got the boys to eat beets was the time I told them that if they ate the entire pan full of beets they’d pee pink. The trick has not been repeatable.)

Filed Under: Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Side Dishes, Vegetarian Tagged With: beets, chevre, chives, goat cheese, herbs, parsley, roasted beets, salad

Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Inaugural Event- all over again.

July 14, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

Did you catch the Yogi Berra reference? Okay, I must admit that my attempt at establishing an event less than 48 hours ahead of time was too big a challenge for even the internet. Several blogging buddies have mentioned that they wanted to participate, but just didn’t have enough time. I have learned a valuable lesson.

So, without further adieu, we announce that in keeping with our “2″ theme (second Tuesdays, second use of the food, etc…) we are going to do a second inaugural event. That’s right! The prizes remain the same, the rules remain the same and we’re still really excited to see what everyone can do with their leftovers. Feel free to enter as many Déjà Food masterpieces as you have time to create and write up. And for our friends who are without blogs, please feel free to send us your submissions via email at: foodiewithfamily [at] yahoo[dot] com.

You can read the previous post for more details.

Here is the badge for those of you who would like to add one to your post.

Submissions for our (second) inaugural event are due by August 11, 2008. Be there or be square!

…And in the spirit of doing everything twice (because if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing twice, right?) I am reposting our entire original blurb about the event below…

And yes, there’s a prize! (See below)

Here at Foodie With Family we- Rebecca and Valerie- love leftovers. They let us get creative with ingredients, minimize food waste, save money, try new flavor combinations without risk (You got one meal out of this already, right? Take a chance!), and save time. And they do the laundry. (No, wait, that’s what I wish they did.)

There are, as far as we’re concerned, two kinds of leftover meals. Regular leftover meals are simply a second serving of the first meal. Not bad by itself, but we prefer the second type of meal; a grand makeover of the original dish we like to call Déjà Food.

Shockingly, we know a great many people who do not eat leftovers. Since we prefer to think well of people we choose to attribute this to the fact that they don’t know how to make-over leftover food. So in order to educate them and to celebrate the oft-maligned leftover we have decided to create our very first event; The Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Event. The second go-round with the food on the second Tuesday (2sday?) of each month. Easy enough, right?

The event is open to everyone and will be repeated monthly. Here’s what we’re asking:

Use your leftovers to create something delicious and different.
Write up and post what you made by the second Tuesday of each month. (We understand that leftover wizardry does not often involve measuring, so if you can’t provide the exact recipe don’t sweat it. Just tell us what you made originally- with or without the recipes- and how you transformed it!)
Send us the permalink for your Déjà Food write-up and a 150 x 150 image of the dish. (Image optional)
Mention the event in your post so that more people learn about the event and we can all inspire each other to create greater Déjà Food masterpieces.

Because of the relatively short notice of this first event, you’re welcome to submit previous posts you’ve made of your Déjà Food show stoppers!

The rules for a Déjà Food meal are simple. It has to be materially different from the first meal. For example, you can take leftover refried beans, beef, lettuce and tomatoes from tacos and supplement it with homemade tortillas and fresh guacamole to make tostadas as we did in this post. Alternately, you could make a pizza crust and top it with the goodies to make a taco pizza. You can take leftover roasted or barbecued chicken, chilled leftover rice, and a supplement it with some fresh veggies, eggs and soy sauce to make fried rice. You can throw your turkey carcass from Thanksgiving into a pot with rice and water to make jook (congee). The possibilities are nearly limitless.

On the second Wednesday of each month, we will post the entries. You’ll then have 48 hours (2 days- Can we stick with a theme or what?) to let us know your vote for who did the most amazing thing with their leftovers. The winner can choose of a jar of sweet, fruity, smokin’ hot homemade pure habanero jelly (perfect for glazing grilled meat, serving over cream cheese with crackers or spreading on a sandwich and guaranteed to give you immediate pain AND a hot sauce hangover!)

Or you can choose a jar of lovely, mild, homemade cranberry ketchup (great with pork, venison, as a dip for or part of a glaze for grilled turkey.)

And as always, all of our homemade preserves, pickles, jellies, jams and whatnot, are all-natural and contain no added funky unpronouncable preservatives or colorings and are prepared according to established safety standards.

Click here if you’re the badge-loving sort! I made it all by my little-old-self. (Like you wouldn’t be able to tell that when you see it. I’ll just feel superior until you click here.)

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Rebecca, Stretching your dollars, Uncategorized Tagged With: contest, Déjà Food, events, Second Tuesdays

Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Badge- If you’re so inclined.

July 6, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

It was pointed out to us that we should have a badge for our Second Tuesdays Déjà Food event. (I’m looking at you White on Rice Couple!) So, here it is. Eherm, I think it is anyway. Not so sure what a badge is, but this looks badgy to me.

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Valerie Tagged With: Second Tuesdays Déjà Food

Second Tuesdays Déjà Food Inaugural Event!

July 6, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

And yes, there’s a prize! (See below)

The event is open to everyone and will be repeated monthly. Here’s what we’re asking:

Use your leftovers to create something delicious and different.
Write up and post what you made by the second Tuesday of each month. (We understand that leftover wizardry does not often involve measuring, so if you can’t provide the exact recipe don’t sweat it. Just tell us what you made originally- with or without the recipes- and how you transformed it!)
Send us the permalink for your Déjà Food write-up and a 150 x 150 image of the dish. (Image optional)
Mention the event in your post so that more people learn about the event and we can all inspire each other to create greater Déjà Food masterpieces.

Because of the relatively short notice of this first event, you’re welcome to submit previous posts you’ve made of your Déjà Food show stoppers!

Or you can choose a jar of lovely, mild, homemade cranberry ketchup (great with pork, venison, as a dip for or part of a glaze for grilled turkey.)

Click here if you’re the badge-loving sort! I made it all by my little-old-self. (Like you wouldn’t be able to tell that when you see it. I’ll just feel superior until you click here.)

Filed Under: Getting Creative With Leftovers, Kitchen Techniques and Hints, Rebecca, Recipes, Stretching your dollars, Valerie Tagged With: leftovers, Second Tuesdays Déjà Food

King Arthur Flour Mixed Flour and Cornmeal Tortillas

July 3, 2008 by Rebecca 6 Comments

Yesterday morning, while studiously avoiding anything resembling housework by noodling around on the computer, I saw that Michelle, over at Thursday Night Smackdown, was having a “First Thursday Smackdown” event. The rules? Simply make something you’ve never made from your collection of cookbooks or magazines. Righto! I was up for a challenge. I broke out the newest member of my cookbook family, “The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion”.

The TNS event does not give restrictions on what you prepare, but my choices were limited to what was already in my fridge, freezer and pantry. As I have mentioned before, I live miles from nowhere. Last minute hops to the store are nearly out of the question. And unless I catch my husband before he’s past the last decent grocery store on the drive home I’m out of luck having him pick up ingredients. Exploring the fridge and pantry turned up about 1 pound of browned ground beef and some nice bacon refried beans from Sunday’s tacos, three perfect avocados (how did that happen?), some lettuce left from the weekend’s hamburgers, a couple nice (locally grown- no salmonella here…) tomatoes, Vidalia onions and various other yummy things. I thought tostadas would be nice and hoped King Arthur had a tortilla recipe. I was in luck! “Thin Cornmeal Tortillas” appeared on page 185. The recipe appears for free on the King Arthur website, so I’m okay with reposting it here.

“Thin Cornmeal Tortilla

The following is more of a classic tortilla in texture, wafer-thin and pliable. However, it falls off the classic track by including both flour and cornmeal, something a “real” tortilla would never do. We just happen to love the faint sweetness of cornmeal paired with flour’s soft texture — so there!

1 1/3 cups (5 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (2 3/4 ounces) yellow cornmeal
4 tablespoons (1 3/4 ounces) corn oil or vegetable oil
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 ounces) water
1/2 teaspoon salt

Manual Method: In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, cornmeal and oil. Gradually mix in the water and salt. Knead briefly, just until the dough is smooth.

Bread Machine Method: Place all of the ingredients into the pan of your machine, program for Manual or Dough, and press Start. Cancel the machine and remove the dough when it’s smooth, after about 5 minutes of kneading.

Divide the dough into 10 pieces, weighing about 1 3/8 ounces each. Round the pieces into balls, flatten them slightly, and allow them to rest, covered, for at least 30 minutes. This resting period improves the texture of the dough by giving the flour time to absorb the water, and it also gives the gluten time to relax, making the tortillas easier to roll out.

Preheat an ungreased cast iron griddle or heavy frying pan over medium heat. Working with one piece of dough at a time (keep the remaining dough balls covered), roll the balls out until they’re about 8 inches in diameter. Fry the tortillas in the ungreased pan for about 45 seconds on each side. (Or, if you have a tortilla baker — use it!) Stack tortillas on top of one another as you remove them from the pan, to keep them soft and pliable. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store, tightly wrapped, in a plastic bag at room temperature. For storing tortillas longer than a couple of days, freeze them. Yield: 10 tortillas.

Nutrition information per serving (1 tortilla, 36g): 130 cal, 6g fat, 2g protein, 17g complex carbohydrates, 1g dietary fiber, 110mg sodium, 42mg potassium, 4RE vitamin A, 1mg iron, 1mg calcium, 33mg phosphorus.”

I was pretty excited about making these, because I had never made tortillas before. I know it’s shocking that a mainly Irish American mutt from northern Michigan has never made tortillas, but there you go. The dough came together easily. Really easily! The only place where I departed from the recipe was when I doubled it.

I rolled out and dry-fried each tortilla. Contrary to what you might think from looking at the picture below, I am not incapable of rolling out a nice circle, I just didn’t care last night. I had a lot of hungry people (myself included) waiting for these and decided to leave perfectionism for another evening.

They smelled great while frying; a little nutty and toasty. I deliberately cooked them beyond just done to the crunchy stage because I was making tostadas with them. I did leave a couple soft for the littlest son. I feel the need to point out that these are neither low carb nor are they low fat. In other words, they’re delicious!

They were topped with the bacony refried beans, garlicky beef, fresh guacamole and shredded lettuce. And hot sauce. I went with the Tabasco. My husband went with his favorite chili garlic sauce from the Asian market in an amount that destroys most people’s stomach linings. Without exaggeration I tell you he ate 2/3 of a cup of it on his tostadas. Sometimes I wonder whether he actually has tastebuds.

Here’s how the finished product looked seconds before I wolfed it down.

Final analysis: Would I make these again? Oh yes. These tortillas were so good and so easy to make that I don’t think I’ll be buying tortillas again. I will probably make them regularly in large enough quantities to keep handy for last minute snacks and breakfast burritos. The combination of cornmeal and all-purpose flour resulted in a non-traditional tortilla that was delicious. It had both the natural corn sweetness that you get from corn tortillas and the pliability that you get from flour tortillas. It was a big winner both for its ease of preparation and its taste! The only thing I’ll do differently next time is to triple the recipe instead of doubling it.

Rating: 14 Thumbs Up! It was unanimous.