Tuesdays With Dorie: Citrus Sablés December 8, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is  brought to you by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara.  She chose Dorie’s Sablés which are located on pages 131-133 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  Sablés are essentially a shortbread cookie.  For this recipe I decided to play around and use the zest of half of an orange and half of a lemon.  I figured since they already had half of their zest gone from last weeks Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart, that I should go ahead and use it

I rolled the Sablés in a mixture of red and green sugars, since I am currently out of plain white decorating sugar.  These little cookies are fantastic.  If I am not careful, I will eat them all.  I might have to make some more and include them in the cookies that I give to my family for Christmas.  More than likely I will be making the same cookies and adding a few more.  Here are the two posts I did last year: Part 1 and Part 2

Pictures from Thanksgiving December 2, 2009

I didn’t take too many picture of the food at Thanksgiving.  I think that is because I pretty much made the same stuff I made last year   Well minus the corn pudding and potato-mushroom gratin.  We ended up having regular corn because some people just don’t understand the yumminess of corn pudding, and we had mashed potatoes.  Since I was actually cooking for 8 people this year, I had to cook some things that were familiar I also didn’t want to stress myself out too much since we just moved into our new house 5 days before.  Imagine trying to get a house in order in 4 days and then make Thanksgiving.  It actually turned out pretty well.

Pumpkin Pie

Cherry Pie

Stuffing waiting to be finished

The guys on the porch waiting for dinner

Tuesdays With Dorie: Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart December 1, 2009

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie is brought to you by Lauren of I’ll Eat You.  She chose Dorie’s Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart, which is located on pages 370-371 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  The picture of this tart in Dorie’s book is GORGEOUS!!!!  With everything going on I almost completely forgot to make it this week.  Lately, when everything has been going right something craps out with my car.  This time it was the driver’s side back window.  It decided to randomly start rolling itself down while we were driving down the freeway.

In the middle of getting the car fixed yesterday, I actually found time to make this tart.  I decided that since we still have half of a cherry pie and half of a pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving still in the fridge, that I was only going to make half a recipe.  I ended up making 4 small tarts.  I actually only used 1 poached pear for all four so I have 2 poached pears chilling in my fridge waiting to be devoured.  The tarts turned out beautiful.  The lighting outside was actually perfect so I took the tarts outside on the deck and took the pictures.  YAY for no rain today

I will be digging into these later today, so once I have tasted all the components together I will give everyone an update on the flavor

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: MIA Cannoli November 27, 2009

I would like to apologize for there not being a Daring Bakers’ Challenge up today.  I do have everything to make the CANNOLIS, which are my FAVORITE, but I just moved into my new house and then hosted Thanksgiving Dinner for 8 people.  It kinda takes a lot out of you, organizing a house and unpacking in 4 days.  I will be making these, there is no doubt in my mind about that.  But it the mean time climb on over to Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives

She hosted the challenge this month and picked something wonderful

Tuesdays with Dorie: Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake November 17, 2009

This weeks out of order Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Katya of Second Dinner.  She chose Dorie’s Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, which is located on pages 269-272 in Baking: From My Home to Yours.

The picture of this cake in Dorie’s book is beautiful.  I thought about going the same route as Dorie and making it in a square cake pan, but I couldn’t do that to myself.  I do own one.  I think it is because where I work I am use to glazing round cakes with chocolate.  Holding the cake in one hand, while simultaneously pouring chocolate glaze and turning the cake.  It take a bit getting use to, but I knew I could do it and have it come out pretty good.  I also decided to finally use my adjustable round cake form that I got last year for my birthday.

I built the cake inside of the form, place it in the fridge to set up (3 hrs), un-molded the cake, and smoothed out the icing on the top and sides.  I placed the cake in the fridge again to get firm before I poured the glaze over the cake.  I was surprised that everything turned out so well.  I should have taken a picture of the inside of the cake, but I ended up taking to my Nanny’s house and then it went down to the shop so the rest of it would get eaten.  I loved the taste of the cake.  It wasn’t too sweet, and one slice was just enough.

The ingredients for this cake was a little hard to find.  I was surprisingly able to find jarred chestnuts at my local grocery store, however, they didn’t have the spread.  I ended up ordering the Chestnut Spread from The Frenchy Bee.  My order was fulfilled in a timely manner and I got the product rather quickly.  I don’t know if I will ever make this cake again because it is a little pricey, but it was very delicious.

Daring Cooks’ Challenge: Sushi November 14, 2009

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

This challenge comes in four parts: Making proper sushi rice, Dragon sushi roll, Decorative sushi, and Nigiri sushi.  I also decided to make a Spicy Tuna Roll and a California Roll, with the extra rice and ingredients that I had.  I found a local Japanese market call Tokyo Market that had everything that I needed (fish/seafood wise).  I already had all of the other necessary components to make sushi because back in college I use to make Spider Rolls and California Rolls for me and fiancé (husband now) so that made it a little easier.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies November 10, 2009

This week marks another Out Of Order Tuesdays with Dorie November.  This week I made Dorie’s Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies, which was chosen by Pamela of Cookies with Boys.  These cookies are located on pages 76-77 in Baking: From My Home to Yours. Pamela has a great blog and I love it that she posts cute pictures of her boys.  They are extremely adorable.  I have to say that I am so happy that she chose these cookies because they are fantastic.

They do spread out a good amount so you need to make sure you give them plenty of room.  I baked 6 to a pan (1/2 sheet pan) and they had plenty of room after they spread.  I loved the crunch of the outside of the cookie and the soft inside.  It was perfect with a cup of tea (50/50 mixture of Haute Chocolate Rooibos and MatéVana Herbal).  The nice spice and the hint of pepper in the cookie was perfect.  These remind me of Fall in a nice little cookie package

Cruise on over to Pamela’s blog, Cookies with Boys, to get the recipe because you will love this recipe and they way it makes your house smell.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Cran-Apple Crisps November 3, 2009

For this month, we have been given an option to post about any of the November Recipes as long as it is on a Tuesday.  Since I was having issues finding all the ingredients for the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake, I decided to make the Cran-Apple Crips instead.  Fear not, I will be making the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake after I order the Chestnut Spread.  Believe me I checked everywhere: Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and local grocery stories

Todays  Tuesdays With Dorie was chosen by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef.  She chose Dorie’s Cran-Apple Crisps which are located on page 422 in Baking: From My Home to Yours. I was very happy when this recipe popped up because my parents just came to visit and brought me Granny Smith Apples from a local orchard and who doesn’t like apples and cranberries together

For this recipe, I decided to bake it in my large Souffle dish.  Probably wasn’t the best idea, but I did it anyway.  It turned out pretty good except I think it need to cook little longer but the top was starting to darken.  I did cover it in foil and wait until the juices start to bubble. I think next time I will definitely go with a pie pan   I thought that the crisp was fantastic.  I loved the cinnamon and coconut in the crust.  I actually got someone that doesn’t like coconut at all to eat this and he loved it.  I will definitely be making this again.

Happy Halloween October 31, 2009

Every year my friend Jennifro has a pumpkin carving party at her house.  Everyone brings a pumpkin, the floor is covered in newspaper, and Jen brings out the carving tools.  Lets just say it is fun with knives and pumpkins.  Jen makes vegetarian chili, and everyone sits on the floor, drinks so beer, and carves their pumpkins.  At the end of the night all of the pumpkins are put on the front porch and lit.

This year I actually had to work the night of the party.  I ended up making it to Jen’s around 11pm to see the final product and a few people still carving.  I brought my already carved pumpkin with me because I knew that I wouldn’t have time to carve it at the party.  Also, the night before the party I took Jen 2 dozen cupcakes for the party (Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, and vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream).

I came up with the design for my pumpkin this year.  I actually drew it out and everything so that I would have a template for carving.  I was very surprised at how it turned out and I LOVED it.  I made a Tasty Devil Cupcake

VeganMoFo: Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs October 30, 2009

I had some extra Pepperidge Farm puff pastry in my fridge and decided that it was time to make something quick an easy with it.  I went to my sidekick, Vegan Brunch, and saw a tasty recipe for tempeh sausage pastry puffs and knew I had to try them.  Everything came together perfectly and I had a few of these for dinner the other night.  I loved the flavor of the tempeh sausage.  It was actually one of the best recipes for a quick sausage that I have ever tasted.  The flakiness of the puff pastry was the perfect bed for the sausage and it made them easy to just pick up and eat.  Finger food is my friend

Tempeh Sausage Pastry Puffs

Source: Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

8 oz tempeh, crumbled

1 package puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm brand is vegan), thawed

For the marinade:

1 cup vegetable broth

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

For everything else:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp fennel seeds, chopped

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

salt, to taste

olive oil for brushing the pastry

Whisk the marinade ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.  And the tempeh and let marinate for an hour.

When the hour is almost up, preheat a large pan over medium heat.  Saute the red bell pepper and onion in the oil for 7 to 10 minutes, until the onion is translucent.  Add garlic and spices and sate another 3 minutes.  Frain the marinated tempeh and add it to the pan.  Turn the heat up to medium hight and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 400°F and start preparing you puff pastries.  Pout a little olive oil into a cup and brush a large baking sheet with olive oil.  Cut each pastry sheet into nine squares and set them on the baking sheet at least an inch apart.  Brush the tops of the pastries with olive oil.  When the tempeh is ready, taste for salt and remove from heat.  Top each pastry right in the middle with a heaping tablespoon of tempeh.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the pastries are nice and puffed.  Serve ASAP.