The ultimate burger and fries...

On Friday night, we had a barbeque. The reason we were having a barbeque was to raise money for Ronald McDonald House to buy them a hospital grade breast pump and although we didn't have very many people in the end, it was still a nice evening and I think we rocked the food. In particular, I have to highlight the burger and fries. It was my goal to try and make an excellent burger and fries, and I think we succeeded. Of course I had the assistance of my husband and my friend, but together, we pulled off a great barbeque. If you want, you can still donate to our cause by clicking here.


So what exactly was our burger and fries? Well, the burger was made of lean ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce. I made them from scratch and Jeremy cooked them up. We served them with an avocado relish that Cindy threw together for me. The recipe was from Bobby Flay's Burger Fries and Shakes and it was fantastic. We served up the burgers with tomatoes, lettuce and also a homemade Basil Chive Mayo with chives fresh from our yard. The mayo got great reviews. Basically we mixed up a package of basil, about 1/4 cup of chives (I'm guessing here as I just chopped up a bunch and added them), and about 1 1/2 cups of Miracle Whip. And all I can say is yum.

As for the fries, I again referred to the Bobby Flay book following the perfect fry recipe. I used Russett Potatoes just like he suggests. To season them, I made a seasoning of smoked paprika, ground cumin, roasted garlic powder, salt, pepper and brown sugar. I was going to try making the barbeque seasoning in the Bobby Flay book, but didn't quite have all the ingredients. We double fried the fries, and I have to say, they are the best fries I have ever made. Of course, it was the first time I actually read up on making them, but it was worth the time because the taste was excellent. Thank goodness for our local Asian supermarket T&T because they sold peanut oil in bulk!!

We served the fries with the mayo dip and your traditional Heinz ketchup. Both were good, but I have to say that I was mostly using the mayo dip myself!! Yum!!

Cindy made a peach cheesecake for dessert and it was fantastic as well. And then we offered the kids some homemade cookies, but more on those another day...

Skate fish times two...

The Challenge: Skate, traditional flavors powdered (slightly altered) as presented by Sketchy of Sketchy's Kitchen. This is a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook - page 230.


As part of the Daring Kitchen, and the Daring Cooks specifically, we got to make skate fish this month, with a bunch of different powders (basically dehydrated foods). I have to give almost all the credit to Jeremy. He made all the fancy powders. He got the Alinea cookbook for Christmas and has yet to use it, so he was very excited to finally give it a try. He basically followed the recipe as it was presented except the parsley powder was just parsley, no cilantro. He plated it as was suggested as well. He rocked the dinner and it was neat. Very different, and very unlike anything I've had before. I mean, we were eating fish with bananas and green beans, along with all the powders of course. And, we only had the two of us, so there were leftovers.

Now what to do with the leftovers... why, make skate fish salad sandwiches!! I thought this was genius of me!! I took the leftover skate fish, and the leftover green beans, added some of the caper powder, parsley powder, lemon powder, a bit of miracle whip and some pepper and made my sandwich filler. Then, this morning I went and got a fresh baguette (I know, a REAL chef would probably have whipped up her own bread, but no time for that!!), and then this afternoon had a picnic lunch at a park in town. And, it was great in a sandwich too. Jeremy refused to try it, but my friend Cindy had it, and said it tasted fine. And, I liked it so much I might have it again for lunch tomorrow!!

So, without further delay, here is what we did...

Skate, Traditional Flavors Powdered - with changes
4 skate wings
* Beurre monte
* 300g fresh green beans
sea salt/kosher salt
1 banana
454g butter - 4 sticks
300g lemons
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet
150g cilantro
150g parsley
100g dried banana chips
300g spray dried cream powder (or powdered milk)
100g cup minced red onion
200g capers (brined, not oil)

* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)

* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small
saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a
time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion
will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Powders - prepare ahead of time
caper / onion
lemon powder
cilantro/parsley powder
'brown butter' powder

Powders
once dried, all powders should be pulsed in a coffee grinder/spice mill/morter and pestle then
passed through a chinois or fine mesh strainer.



citrus powder
300g lemons
1000g simple syrup
5g citric acid/vitamin c tablet

zest 300g of lemons (10.6 oz), remove the pith from the zest and poach in the simple syrup
three times. dry with paper towels and move to a dehydrating tray. 130 for 12 hours. pulse the
zest in a coffee grinder, pass through chinois, and mix with citric acid/vitamin C powder.
If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 8 to 10 minutes at medium powder.
Once dried, follow the other instructions.

cilantro/parsley powder
150g cilantro
150g parsley

blanch the parsley in boiling saltwater for 1 second, submerge the leaves in ice water for 3
minutes. Dry on paper towels and place on dehydrator tray. 130 for 12 hours. grind and pass
through chinois.
If you do not have a dehydrator, place in microwave for 30 seconds, turn over leaves and
microwave for another thirty seconds. They should be dry by now, pulse in coffee grinder, pass
through chinois and reserve.



onion powder
100g cup minced red onions

dehydrator - 130 for 12 hours
microwave at medium power for 20 minutes.
pulse in grinder, pass through chinois

Caper powder
200g capers (get the ones packed in brine/vinegar)

run the capers under cold water for two minutes to remove some of the brine.
dry on paper towels and dehydrate for 12 hours at 130 degrees.
microwave instructions are unclear. Dry them as much a possible with paper towels, the
microwave on medium for 1 minute. Check the moisture content and stir them. repeat for 30
second intervals until they are dry. If you use this method, pleas post the time needed to dry
the capers.
Once dry, pulse and sift the powder. Mix it with the onion powder.

Brown Butter powder
100g Dried banana chips (unsweetened if possible - many are coated in honey - the freeze
dried ones would be brilliant)

300g spray dried cream powder
If you cannot find the cream powder, you can substitute Bob's red mill non fat dry milk
powder, or even carnation instant milk powder. The substitutions will alter the flavor a little,
but you will still get the general idea.
preheat the oven to 350 degrees, sift the cream powder into a fine layer on a silpat or on
parchment. bake for 4 minutes, then remove for heat. If it bakes for too long, it will burn. Be
very cautious with all powders in the oven. They all go from browned to burnt in a few
seconds.
grind the banana chips in a coffee grinder and mix with the toasted cream powder. Pass this
through a chinois and reserve.

* For green beans, slice each beans into very thin rounds (2 mm)

* Beurre Monte - 454g butter (4 sticks, 1 pound) cubed and cold, 60g water. In a small
saucepan, bring the water to a boil, remove from heat and whisk in the butter 1 cube at a
time. This should from an emulsion. Keep this heated, but under 195 degrees. The emulsion
will not break - this is your poaching liquid.

Skate
Prepare the skate - 50G v shaped cuts are recommended
Bring 100g water, 100g beurre monte, and green bean rounds to a boil over high heat. Cook
until the water has evaporated (about 3 minutes), when the pan is almost dry, remove it from
heat and season with 3g salt
bring 300g water and 300g beurre monte to simmer over medium heat, add skate wings and
simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and flip the wing over and let rest in pan for
two more minutes. Transfer to warming tray lined with parchment and season with 5 grams of
fine sea salt.

Plating
Take the tip of a small spoon and make a small mound of the citrus powder, the onion-caper
powder, and the cilantro parsley-powder. Swirl these around in a hurricane type pattern. I
found that it is easier, and you get finer lines if you lightly shake the plate to flatten out the
mounds, then swirl the spoon through it to get the pattern.


peel the remaining banana into very thick slices (3mm) fan three slices on the plate, place
green beans on top and place skate wing portion on top. On the tall edge, sprinkle the brown
butter powder.

An ode to Sullivan

I have the cutest little baby
He makes me laugh a lot
He's always smiling, having fun
He gives it all he's got.

He is a happy baby
Nearly all the time
I can't help but be grateful
That he is all mine

His eyes are always watching
And taking everything in
He looks so cute and happy
Even with bananas on his chin

He makes the cutest sounds
And little giggles too
He is so easy to please
No matter what you do

He loves to watch his puppy
And big brother of course
He has a healthy appetite
And is growing like a horse

He makes me smile lots
Several times a day
And always seems so interested
In what I have to say

So thank you little Sullivan
For everything you do
Thanks for being in our family
I really do love you!!

Wedding Cake Characters

Life has been busy lately. For some reason, it always seems to be busy, but lately for sure. I was so lucky to go on a road trip with my mom and my boys and it was great. I'll write more about that another day. However, as soon as we got back, we had a wedding cake to make. This was for Jeremy's friend and coworker. I love making cakes, but feel so much pressure when I am making them. It's a good pressure, but pressure never the less. I want to do a good job. I want the people I make them for to be happy with them. I want them to be perfect. They never are perfect, but I try my best to do the best I can on them.

This time around, we tried completely new recipes. I was inspired by and used recipes from Professional Cake Decorating, by Toba Garrett. We used the basic yellow cake recipe and the chocolate fudge cake. The yellow cake turned out fine and tasted good. The chocolate fudge cake though, made more batter than just two cakes. I ended up having it boil over and made a huge mess of the oven. However, it tasted fantastic. We made them a second time, and they turned out great, although they did fall a little after taking them out of the oven. The taste however, more than made up for that.


My signature item is the little people I make, to look like the people the cake is for. In this instance, I had three people to make: the bride, the groom and their little son. I tried something new this time that I haven't done before with the people. I made them out of rice krispie squares. This worked out great, requiring way less fondant and getting the people dry in a more reasonable amount of time.



My husband helped me assemble the tiers of the cake and made the icings. We used scotch mints to clean up the edges. We assembled the cake at the location of the wedding reception.

The cake went over well, and the photographer was especially impressed and took our name and number. I was so excited by this. Who knows, maybe there is more cake making in my future. I would love that, because anytime I have the opportunity to make a cake, I love everything about it. We've made cakes in the past for birthdays, retirements, anniversaries, even a bachelorette party, but always, the wedding cakes seem to be the most fun.

So, if you ever need a cake, keep us in mind...

The daring bakers strike again...

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

This challenge was something I'd never heard of before, but I mentioned it to my brother and he instantly knew what I was talking about. It was different and I was a little nervous as I haven't had a whole lot of luck in the past working with pastry. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these recipes were to make and use.

Cindy and I met one Friday afternoon to make the tarts/pudding. We decided to make two different kinds, simply because we wanted to try a couple different options. We made two seven inch tarts and 6 little mini tarts. The first one we made was with seedless raspberry jam. It was very tasty. We also made a hazelnut chocolate banana one. I liked them both but for totally different reasons. I am not sure I could pick a favourite.

The raspberry one was great, but I love raspberries, so that was a given.



The hazelnut chocolate one was more original though because we used about a cup of hazelnut chocolate spread from Fachon in France. It was super decadent, and to that we added a mashed banana. It was such a nice combination.



I had a lot of fun making this and loved the challenge of doing the pastry and the frangipane. I love the daring kitchen simply because I love that it gives me a chance to try recipes I might never otherwise have made. This was an excellent dessert and hopefully something I will try again in the future, maybe with a whole other filling!!

So, how can one go about making this? Well, here is the recipe:

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.



Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.
Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:
• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

The matching tripp trapp chairs...

I am so excited. My parents bought us a new tripp trapp chair. Sebastian got one for his second birthday so we could skip the whole booster seat stage and all that, and it's worked out great for him. It matches our table almost perfectly and as Sullivan is just getting to the point where he will start eating, it was something we really hoped we'd have for him too, since Sebastian obviously still uses his. And, I was out with my mom this week who was visiting and she got it for us, complete with the baby seat insert so he can use it now. It's fantastic, and now Sullivan sits with us at the table while we're eating. And you can tell from the smile on his face that he is just loving it!!

My parents also bought the boys a tractor to ride on. It's super cute and Sebastian absolutely loves it. He has been putting things in the loader and the carrier on the back of it as well. He pushes it all over the yard (he's not quite strong enough yet to pedal it everywhere). it's so fun to watch him. Thanks mom and dad!!


Life has been busy lately. Last weekend I had hoped to go hiking but my husband said "honey, I think for Father's Day, rather than hiking, I'd rather clean out the garage". Well, how can I argue with that?? I was so thrilled that he was wanting to clean something, and I had been grumbling a lot lately about how the garage should look nice and neat and that stuff should be easy to find. He assured me that this was an impossible dream of mine. However, we did it!! The garage looks great. Everything is organized and easy to find, and we even locked up things that we don't really want Sebastian getting into or hurting himself with (can you say tools). We hung the bikes up on the wall, so that the strollers park nicely below them (and since we can't go biking with Sullivan until next year, blah). Now, I just have to make sure it stays relatively neat!!

And, my quest at exercise has been pretty good lately. I have been running fairly consistently. I am hoping to get a personal best in my next ten kilometre race, so I need to keep at it!! Plus, it's less than 16 weeks until the half marathon now!! But you can read more about my exercise efforts on my fitnessvsfood blog.

Next week, we are going on a road trip. My mom and I are driving out to the coast with the boys. It should be lots of fun. We'll take them down to Seattle even. I get to see a friend that I haven't seen in many many years, and our kids can play together, so that should be a lot of fun!! I just have to make sure I make time for running while on the road!!

And finally, here's a comparison of the brothers. Sebastian is in the top photo and he would have been about 8 months old, but based on his due date, closer to five months. Sullivan is below and he is 5 and a half months old, so there you have it, both of them at what should be five months old!!

Our fun Father's Day project...

So, my friend Cindy and I were inspired by the Bakerella who made these really neat Father's Day Baskets, so we decided to give it a try and do the same. And, they turned out amazing. Cindy was in charge of all the packaging, and she completely rocked it. We used the template from Bakerella's site. I think everything turned out great, wouldn't you agree? And, I was in charge of the baking. Then, we got together to do the assembly on Saturday afternoon. It was tons of fun and it was so neat watching everything come together into these beautiful little burger baskets. Of course, it's all actually baking, but I think we managed to pull off some pretty convincing little baskets of food for dessert. And, we know they were effective when Jeremy's grandma refused to even try the burger because she couldn't quite believe it was only baking.


What exactly did we make? Well, the "buns" were vanilla cupcakes. I used a recipe from George Geary's Complete Baking Cookbook for those. I added the Sesame seeds too lake though, and if I did it again, I'd add them when I put them in the oven, because they mostly just fell off. The "burgers" were brownies from the same book, however I had to modify the recipe a little since I didn't have enough butter (did half butter, half maragarine), and I wanted to use up my Lemon Blueberry Blackberry Jam (instead of the raspberry jam it calls for). We coloured coconut green to make the "lettuce". We coloured fondant orange and rolled it out to make the "cheese slices". The "ketchup" was your basic buttercream icing with colour added (a combo of red food colouring and then some of the Wilton's colours copper, yellow and burgandy... since I was out of red). The "fries" were sugar cookies, and the recipe I used was a Williams Sonoma one. A note about the fries, the first batch, I made and cut and left together, we thought they would break apart to be french fries, but this didn't work out very good. The second batch, I made and cut, and then put about 5 individual cut outs together, and they baked into a cookie that looked like it was a group of fries, and that worked out much better, so in the future, if I wanted to make fake fries again, this is definitely the way to go.





We had fun and I think the project turned out pretty good. We got some pretty funny reactions to them, and lots of "oh are those ever cute" type comments. All in all, it was fantastic.

And then, Cindy went made some cupcake cake pops and shared a few with me. They are basically little cake balls with icing mixed in, which she subsequently dunked in chocolate and made them to look like cupcakes. Didn't she do just a fantastic job? We loved them!!