Am I serious.?.......course I am!

I'm dedicating this one to a dear Chris-in-law.  No doubt if you can tell me what this is on sight then you (like) me have a pure understanding at the simple intricacies that make the world go roun' n' roun'!  What I'm talking 'bout of course, is good ol' fashion chicken cracklin'. 

Now I'm not gonna beat around the bush here, there are plenty of people who would be totally grossed out by this but I'm gonna have to at least give it a shout.  A friend of mine watching me de-skin chicken once told me that in China they chop chicken skins & deep fry them for snackies.  Now, you know & I know in the back of our little kitchen brains that cracklin' is an actual dish people make & eat but the thought of actually eating chicken skin for the sake of chicken skin always leaves me feeling a little, how do you say......gross.  But being the genius that I am (AKA, perpetual kitchen grazing munchie) tried & decided that it was indeed fantastic.

Now, why Chris?  When we lived together & I'd be making chicken he'd weasle his way into the kitchen & beg me to make him a batch of these crunchies for him to snack on.  Like seriously beg, in a whiny little way, and I of course would give in.  (Model SIL, I know)

But anyway.......you gotta try it.  There are only 3 rules here:

-  Slice the skin into thin 1 cm strips (nothing worse than actually getting chewy fat)
- Put a little oil in the pan for starters, though most of the grease will come from the drippings
- Make sure your pan is not too hot & preferably in a cast iron skillet (to keep the heat at a regulated temp, I got me a tiny little one)
- Salt, serve & eat when they've just cooled enough to get that CRUNCH going! 

So stone me, puritans if you must. But I gotta tell you, if you know someone who gripes & whines about "chicken fat", slip them a batch of these & then point your finger & laugh as they sit there munching away & you tell them what it is.

Go forth, brave cooks!  Come on now, I know secretly that picture of those shiny, crispy, salt crystal covered babies look totally eatable.

Gaijin Friendly Hijiki Salad & Anchovy Dressing

In each of my pregnancies I would more often than not turn up to be anemic & have fantastically dramatic kitchen/ofuro/jam-packed-train fainting spells so when it comes to hijiki it usually reminds me a little too much of being a substitute for iron supplements.  Along with spinach & liver of course.  I've only eaten it in the usual way simmered with thinly chopped abura-dofu, carrots, konyaku & soybeans.

I found this recipe in my "Harumi's Home Cooking" cookbook and finally tried it out.  I think it's the perfect introduction to hijiki for anyone whose never tasted it & therapeutic for anyone who has bad memories of gritty smooshy black goop.  It's so basic that when you think about it, all it really is comprised of is tossing a salad with hijiki.  And the dressing is one that I'd definitely make for any other salad, thankfully all my kids love anchovies too.  Here's the basic recipe:

10-20 grams of dried hijiki
a variety of vegitables, lettuce, celery, carrots, cucumbers & onions to taste

Anchovy Dressing:

10g anchovy fillets
2 tbsp sunflower/veg oil
1 tbsp wine vinegar
a little sugar (I put in a few pinches)
pepper
1 teaspoon soysauce

Soak the hijiki seaweed in warm water for about 10 min.  Drain well and dry.  Cut into short pieces if they are too long.  Cut the vegetables into thin strips, soak them in cold water for 5 min. drain & pat dry.
Mince anchovy and mix it with the other ingredients for the dressing.  Mix the hijiki and cut vegetables and put on a serving dish.  Pour over the anchovy dressing just before eating. 

That's all I got today....now, "ON TO THE THEATER!!!"

Carrot Spice Muffins

I started to feel like an impostor cook so yesterday I grabbed a cookbook & threw together these muffins for my kiddies. If you want an indication that your kids haven't had a home made baked snack in awhile observe how long they are willing to stand in front of the oven & count down the seconds till it's finished baking. Mine, stood there for 7 minutes counting it down......grim!

So, this recipe come from my reliable source Dorie Greenspan, I've even tagged all the recipes of hers that I've covered so far on this blog. They are generally WINNERS! So take heed. And here's the recipe for the muffins(changes I made in blue):

2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c light brown sugar (I only had brown sugar so I used a little less than 2/3 cup of sugar total)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c flavorless oil, such as canola, safflower or corn
2 large eggs
3/4 whole milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 c shredded carrots
1/2 c shredded sweetened coconut (I didn't have these so I upped my carrots to 1 1/2 c)
1/3 c moist, plump currents or raisins
1/3 c pecans or walnuts, toasted, cooled & chopped

Center rack in the oven & preheat the oven to 375f (180c) grease 12 molds in a regular size muffin pan, or 6 jumbo muffin tins.

In a large bowl whisk together dry ingredients. In a large glass measuring cup of bowl whisk oil, eggs, milk & vanilla extract together until well combined. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients & with a whisk or rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don't worry about being thorough -- a few lumps are better than overmixing the batter. Stir in the carrots, coconuts, currants & nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for about 20 min, or until a think knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from it's mold.
Note: These muffins are great warm but taste even better when they're given a little time to cool. Like many sweet spices the flavor intensifies with time. Best eaten the day they are made but if you keep them overnight, give them a toss into the oven for a few min, or split in the toaster.

Ol' Harry Rock Cakes: English Teatime Recipes

Made these cute little Rock Cakes/Scones today they're my idea of a perfect Teatime accompaniment. I've found myself with a new taste for candied orange rind so these little babies hit the spot. Here's the recipe as I used it. The actual recipe uses weight for the measurements which, if you have a kitchen scale, is great. I personally prefer it. But I just changed it all to cups. I've only changed a few things like a little wholewheat flour for texture, shortening along with the butter, & cut the sugar back by 1/2.

The little "explain" about the name says:

"These traditional roughly-formed "rock-like" buns are named after the isolated chalk stacks near Studland on the Dorset coast."

(recipe called for 2 c "self raising flour" so I just made up the difference with salt & leavening agents)
1 3/4 c all purpose & 1/4 c whole wheat
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt)
1/2 tsp mixed spice (I just sorta improvised using nutmeg/clove/ginger)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c butter (the recipe measured it in weight which was 115g, so I had about 1/4 of that be shortening)
1/2 c light brown sugar (recipe called for demerara sugar/raw cane)

1/2 c mixed dried fruit (suggests: currents, sultanas, mixed peel, glace cherries etc..) I used candied orange peel & cranberries
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 medium egg
2 tbsp milk

Put flour, salt baking powder/soda, spices in bowl, rub butter into dry ingr till mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Stir in sugar, mixewd dried friut & lemon rind. Add egg & milk & combine with dry to from a crumbly dough (don't worry it'll seem too dry at first) Form into 10-12 rough heaps (I love rustic cooking, it's makes us poor persons who have no time to cook seem incredibly cool) on GREASED baking tray. Bake for 20 min in 180c oven till lightly browned. Cool on baking tray for 5 minutes before moving to wire rack till cool. Best eaten on the day. But they also freeze well.

Well, friends if you've gotten this far then pray tell me. Whats new about this post?

If you've figured it out...you can thank my brah, Mas! He is the man & I am the proverbial NEWB!

Honest to God, if you come to my blog to harass me about photography or talk numbers & tactical photo-taking I shall stuff a scone in your mouth & tell you that I haven't time for such nonsense. Then of course secretly be on my itouch searching "what means ISO?" on google.

Wish me luck w/ my, as yet unnamed, sleek black baby & if you got any friendly advice just remember, if knew as much about cooking as I do about cameras I'd be blogging to you now about my exploits in scrambled egg making.

So, till you ring my doorbell for a free dinner hand out & lecture on my phototaking blunders-- hope you have a good one.

Northamptonshire Seed Cake: English Teatime Cakes

My Good Friend Mr. McNair got me a few new cookbooks for my birthday. Two of these were cute little English cookbooks, one called: Traditional Puddings the other is English Teatime Recipes (Traditonal Cakes from around the Shires)

They're both done with the cutest little water color paintings on each page & recipes with names like: Kentish Cob-nut Cake, Yorkshire Sticky Parkins. I was so tickled with these downright homey sounding little treats. So I finally got around to making one the other day. It's so easy you gotta try it. The combination of caraway seeds & freshly ground nutmeg was just too good. Here's the recipe if you wanna try it. It says:

"A plain cake flavored with nutmeg & caraway seeds, traditionally served at sheep shearing time."

Northamptonshire Seed Cake:

- 8 oz butter (it's 230 g. of butter but one 200g block is fine. 1 cup)
- 8 oz sugar (about 1 cup, but it's waaaay to much so I cut it down to 1/2 a cup)
- 4 eggs
- 8 oz flour (230 g. flour, or 2 cups of flour)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 2 tsp caraway seeds

Set oven to 350F (180c) Grease a 8 inch round cake tin. Cream butter & sugar & butter in a bowl till light & fluffy. Place eggs in a bowl & set over a saucepan of hot water & whisk until fluffy, whisk into the butter mixture. Sift the flour, b. powder together & nutmeg & fold into the egg/butter mixture. Add caraway seeds & combine well. Turn into the prepared tin & smooth over the top. Bake for 1 1/2 hr covering the top with a piece of kitchen foil if it appears to be browning too quickly. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

Renkon Chips

Ooooh-la-la. Renkon is very much one of my favorite little veggie treats. I put up one recipe for Japanese simmered renkon ages ago. But recently I tried making renkon chips & it was so easy I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't try it sooner. Tooo easy, gotsa try it!

Step 1) Fill a pan with about 1/2 inch of frying oil & heat
Step 2) Using a mandolin (the straight edge grater thingie) grate off a peeled renkon straight into the hot oil. Spread them out so they brown evenly.
Step 3) Using a pair of cooking hashi, pullm out onto a paper towel lined dish when they're just starting to get golden. (in about 1-1 1/2 min) A little bonus is you won't have to flipm when frying, they're so thin they'll fry up nicely.
Step 4) Salt & munch the num nums!

And if you're a OCD like me about some things cooking related. Go crazy loading them onto your single hashi as you pullm' out of the oil till you have a nice little row of fried "wagon wheels" (as my daddyo would say).

AND THAT'S IT.

Now, I'm not kidding when I say that the first time I made these I did about 4 massive renkon pieces and had a huge bowl full of chips that got COMPLETELY devoured at the dinner table. With requests to make more for snack and the approving "smirky smirk whilst hogging the last of the bowl" from my DH.

Some ideas of how you can incorporate them:
- Add to salad for crunch
- Add it onto your tower of tofu toppings
- Sprinkle them on your hot udon
- They're a totally cute garnish for a fancy dinner dish.

Well, that's all I can think of for now......
Go forth & deep fry!

Hot Buttered Rum!!

Yes, it's true!! I tried it & I did like it. And as you can see I didn't even have the decency to wait till happy hour. And why? Because when all your kids are over the dreaded flu of flus, & finished their 1st month of school....EVERY hour is happy hour!!



Here's a recap of the recipe:

Heat glass with hot water
3 heaping tsp of light brown sugar
Dash of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
2 oz (a shot) of golden rum
top with hot water
1 pat (tbsp) butter

Stir &........Enjoy!!

For pre-made "sugar & spice butter" for 10-12 drinks worth
1 stick (1 c) butter
2 c light brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
Dash of salt

mix till butter is softened & ingr. combined chill in freezer till needed to top drinks. Also great for topping toast/french toast etc....

Please be kind & if you please rate/subscribe/comment on my YouTube channel. And if you have a Christmas recipe request I'll do my best to buy yet MORE butter and demonstrate how to turn every recipe into a sucess. Nya ha ha!!!

Though next up will be some mulled wine or glogg, soon as I can get some good cheap wine!

FINALLY.....An EGGNOG recipe!!!

I finally wanted to get around to posting a eggnog recipe for you. Mind you when I make this I really sort of "wing-ding" it because I feel that I can do no wrong when I put a ton of whip cream & rum into something & all mistakes will be forgiven when friends are walking around with nog-stashes & cookie crumbs on their sweaters.

But seriously.....I covered a few of the basic highlights & concepts of eggnog that I like to stick to, in a noggie post 2 years back.

But for anyone who wants an actual recipe this is as close as we'll get. I wanted to make some & take some pics but I fear that'll have to wait till later on as if I break out the cookies & nog now there'll be no stopping me.

So here we go:

4 cups of milk
1/4 c of cornstarch
1/2 c sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract or (if you can 1/2 a vanilla pod's seeds scraped out)

1 cup of light rum (of course if you'd like more.......)
4 egg whites
2 cups whipped cream
1/3 c sugar
1/2 tsp (more or less) of nutmeg

Now listen up & remember the cardinal rule about eggnog is this:

As long as you put enough rum in no one will remember your eggnog sucked. Honestly, have you ever heard someone complain about eggnog being bad?

If you're acquainted with custard at all you'll get how to put together the first 5 ingr. with no trouble. There are a few standard custard methods (the traditional method of course, doens't use any cornstarch at all) I can't stand a curdled eggish mess so I usually stick with the cornstarch method.

First put aside the egg yolks in a medium size bowl & mix'm together. Next mix the sugar & cornstarch in a saucepan & mix in the milk. Stir on med/low heat till it start to bubble & simmer. Mix for about 1 minute & then swiftly (to avoid, again, egg curdled horrific mess) pour in about 1/2 or more of the mixture into the egg yolks whisking till blended then pour it back into the saucepan & bring back to a boil & simmer for another minute till thickened. If you want your nog NOW, place your saucepan into a bath of icewater & mix it till cooled then throw it into the freezer to cool quick (don't forget about it) while you're doing the rest. Or just cover with clear wrap (flush against the custard to stop a icky skin from forming, ewww) & put it in the fridge till you need it. It'll keep for at least 24 hrs.

Now for the fluff....remember if you're parinoid of raw eggs or you're wanting to make this the night before you probably don't want to have whipped egg whites sitting in your eggnog but if you're wanting a real creamy eggnog then I stand by this method. Beat the egg whites till stiff & whip the cream up adding sugar accordingly. Now pull out your custard & add the rum to it. Mixing thoroughly (it'll tend to settle to the bottom if you're not careful to mix as you pour. Fold in your egg whites then your cream. (the egg whites will deflate a bit but will lighten up the nog enough to take in the whipped cream without deflated completely)

Top with nutmeg & serve with cookies galore. I'd be going for something with extra spice like, 4 spice cookies or cardamom sugar cookies.

Experimental video! --- FEEEDBACK please! :)

Hey there friends. Been a little while. I'm still recovering from a cold, computer adapter fail moment, H1N1 sick kids & other such excuse making. Soooo, to make for it though really I'm still cringing from viewing this......here's a little video I made a while ago. I hope you'll forgive my humble stumble bumble attempt. I know I'm talking non-sense & looking at it now it's not as clear as I wanted (maybe I'll give it a thought before I start) . Plus I have no video editing program so that's something I wanna figure out too. Any suggestions? It's something I wanted to do & hope it'll at least make you smirk. Want to make another one soon. Any advice, tips & love coming my way is great.

Caramel Pumpkin Pie

I promise to not do any more caramel after this but I had to give you this recipe in time for you Thanksgiving cooks.

This pie has a great way of making caramel that I think you "classroom scientific" type cooks will find fun. It involves smoking sugar in a pan & other such questionable behavior. But all in all quite interesting. Remember when they'd tell you that white sugar was brown sugar burnt? Well, caramel, apparently is white sugar burnt....and, gosh darn it.....somehow it's brown again. So, we're all good!

And the result is of course fantastic. The caramel will give your pie a really rich dark color (if you make your caramel right). And served at room temp with ice-cream. It was fantissimo! I'd say it's probably for a more grown up audience, esp if you let the caramel darken enough. I served it to my grandparents & was slightly embarrassed when Miss 2# announced, "Is that Rum? I knew I recognized the taste". heh!!

I've left the recipe in it's entirety as it's something you want to read through before you start.

You can also find my pie crust recipe here. Have fun!! And lemmie know what you're making for Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to my unique Thanksgiving & contemplating what to make that won't involve baking anything other than the turkey in the last 4 hours before dinner. Any ideas?

Caramel Pumpkin Pie

1 9 inch single pie crust Partially baked & cooled

1 c sugar
3/4 c heavy cream
2 tbsp dark rum or cognac
2 tbsp unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces
1 c pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
pinch of nutmeg and allspice
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Getting ready:
Center rack in oven & preheat the oven to 350 f (175 c)

Sprinkley 1/2 c sugar evenly over the bottom of a large nonstick skillet. Place the skillet over medium heat & staying close cook until the sugar melts & starts to color. Once you see a little color gently swirl till it turns deep amber -- almost mahogany. The sugar will bubble up & foam & start to smoke. It's very dramatic & might make you think you've gone too far, but you want a dark (though not burned black) color; the darker the sugar the fuller the flavor. When the bubble s have gone from foamy to big & fat, you will probably have reached the right color. To check, drop a bit of the caramelized sugar on a white plate.

Lower the heat to medium, stand back & pour the cream into the skillet. The sugar will bubble & hiss &, if the cream was cold may even clump. Just continue to cook, stirring, and it will even out. Add the rum & butter & cook just until the caramel is smooth. Pour the caramel into a heatproof bowl or pitcher & cool for about 15 min.

Working with a whisk in a large bowl, beat the pumpkin to break it up & smooth it. Add the remaining 1/2 c of sugar & beat to blend. Whisk in the spices, salt, vanilla & eggs. beating until the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the caramel. Rap the bowl against the counter a few times to de-bubble the filling then pour into the crust.

Bake for 45-50 min, or until the filling is puffed and set -- tap the pan gently and the filling won't giggle. A think knife inserted into the center of the pie will come out clean. It will also leave a gash in the filling but you'll be covering it with whipped cream.

Trasfer the pie to a rack & cool to room temp, or cool & refrigereate. When you are ready to serve. Spread the lightly whipped cream over the top of the pie.

Blessed Bread ALONE: Focaccia

Recently someone asked me how to make Focaccia & I directed them to my blog saying that I had posted the recipe. But after searching I realized that I had NO such recipe posted yet. I mean.....REALLY? I've been making this recipe nearly as long as I've been making pancakes! Great balls of steaming ooger! The time to post is now. (though technically this draft has been sitting on my dashboard for months)

Now, If I may let you in on a little secret:

You have permission to be a mediocre cook but if you can bake a loaf of bread you'll pass as a kitchen genius.

Try it, next big meal take a little time to try out some bread and you'll have guests grabbing hold of your ankles refusing to leave. How do I know this? I am yet trying to shake off ankle holders now. (they are roughly between the ages of 5-1)

Honestly, people. This bread was one of the first breads I tried making & believe me, there's nothing like being hailed a genius when the only things you can actually make in the kitchen is scrambled eggs & focaccia. Observe:
Here I am posing as an impostor cook, looking smug, & mismatched. It's pretty obvious the only thing I've actually accomplished in the kitchen is drink several beers, make bread & successfully convince people I can cook. I admit I even pulled this on my boyfriend and he is yet still my boyfriend.

So please, pretend that you're not paranoid of yeast & get cracking: (Hint, the secret to a good focaccia is in the triple raising)

5 c of bread flour or all purpose flour (use 1/2 extra tsp of salt if using all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2/3 c olive oil (You only need 3-4 tbsp for the actual dough, rest is for topping)
2 c warm water (40 c) (Set aside 1/4 of the water for yeast)

Dissolve sugar in warm water in a bowl sprinkle yeast on top & leave undisturbed for 10 min. Sift flour, salt together in large bowl. Make a well in the center pour yeast/water in & mix till blended (there will be lumps & crumbliness) then make another well & add olive oil & remaining 1 3/4 c warm water. Mix with wooden spoon till it comes together then turn out onto floured surface & knead for 10 min. (If you have a stand mixer you can knead for 6-8 min)

The dough should be soft but not too soft to handle. Add more flour as needed. Turn the dough into a oiled large bowl & set in the oven or warm place (covered with towel) for 1 1/2 hrs till it's doubled in size.

Lightly oil two baking trays, or of you like use two 9" cake pans (this will give you a much fluffier, thicker focaccia), punch dough down shape into two balls roll or press into the pans, cover the pans with towels & let it rise again for 30 min. Preheat oven for 200c (400f)

Using your fingertips press dimples all over the dough's surface. Drizzle the remaining oil over the bread. Sprinkle generously with seasalt.

The most traditional topping is rosemary sprigs. But there are heaps of toppings that you can choose from & or improvise with some ideas are:

sliced red onion
coarsely ground walnuts or pecans
black olives halved
sun-dried tomatoes
cherry tomato halves
sprinkling dried basil
fresh basil leaves
brown sugar (about 1 tsp per loaf)
bits of anchovies
parmesan cheese

Let the dough sit again for another 30 min then bake for 20-25 min till golden brown. And that's about it. Cut & serve warm.

I try not to let my foccacia get too "busy" with toppings. Usually pick 2 or 3, max, besides the olive oil. Of course if you add a pizza sauce & cheese before the toppings then "BAM" the evolution of pizza.

Also if you have a bread maker you can set it to "dough" and put the ingr. in according to the maker's instructions till the first rising

Well, that's it & as you can see I have no actual picture of the finished product & that is because no matter how much I make there is almost no left overs at all. EVER! Sneaky guests have been observed sneaking back into the kitchen at midnight with their head in the fridge eating left over focaccia straight out of a ziplock bag. (yeah, you didn't think I knew it was you, didja?)

Afterthought about bread sticks:

PS. If you wanna make bread sticks divide the dough after the first rising into walnut sized balls & roll out to about 10 in sticks. Leave to rise for 30 min, then brush with olive oil & sprinkle with whatever topping you like. (caraway, dried basil, oregano, sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc..) & bake for 15-20 min till golden.

PPS. A simpler option to toppings on bread sticks is to add seasoning to the dough before kneading.

Lemon Mint Green Tea

Listen up all you men-folkie. If you wanna score great big brownie points with your lady-fair give this simple drink the once over.

I already talked about my mint mojito kick a bit but I also wanted to try something a little more "AM-ish" with the mojito mix. I tried this out first on my whiny little sister who wouldn't let go of my green tea cookbook but paced back & forth in front of the me in the kitchen waving, pointing & smiling like a doofus till I promised to try it out. I didn't get the lemon/green tea ratio right the first time but the 2nd time around I think I got it pretty good. Here's how:

1 tbsp sugar
15-20 mint leaves (a few good sprigs)
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp dried green tea leaves steeped in 1/3 c of boiling water (cool)
ICE

use a muddler/ wooden pestle or the end of a wooden rolling pin (what I used cuz' my mug was pretty deep) to crush the mint into the sugar. At this point you must restrain yourself from just licking up all the minted sugar from the bottom of your mug like a total sugar addict. Add the lemon mix well to dissolve the sugar. Add ice.Strain the cooled green tea into the glass & garnish with lemon/lime wedge & mint sprig & loose your mind completely while you relax sipping on this total refreshing summer treat.

The girly-ness of this drink is too wonderful to describe......if you are of the female variety I promise to make one of these for you when you come & visit. :)

Enjoy your last days of August.

Vanilla Poppy Seed Cake

Good Morning Everyone. Sorry it's been ages since I last posted. Nothing like a summer school break with lots of action to keep me exhausted.

These mornings have been cool but still sunny. This morning I even had a hot coffee on the patio taking a moment to stand under the trumpet blossoms & hang out with the latest tenant turtle dove whose built his nest in our trumpet vine about how things are going in his part of town. Somehow his red eye with that little beady black dot in the center makes me think he's got insomnia. And he never seems to leave the nest or I'd climb up there & sneak a peek.

I haven't baked in ages n' ages. I'm not sure why. I just don't feel like firing up the oven if I at all possible but birthday season is upon us next week starting with the #3's 8th Birthday on the 4th of Sept. So I'm trying to scratch my brain for ideas.

And...as promised a recipe. I made this one awhile ago & would certainly make it again. Reducing the sugar from 1 1/3 c to 1 made it passable as breakfast fare esp when served with fresh berries or fruit. Course if you start with adding cream then I feel you're venturing into the "coffee break num-nums" territory.

In anycase....hope you enjoy it the way a hoard of hungry children did when they scarfed it down. :)
Vanilla Poppy Seed Cake (from my beloved "Joy of Coffee" book)

1/2 c poppy seeds
3/4 c milk
1/2 c plain yogurt
2 1/3 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp b. powder
1/2 tsp b. soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
1 c sugar
3 large eggs seperated
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F (165 c) Grease & flour 10" tube pan

In small bowl stir poppy seeds, milk & yogurt set aside.

Stir together flour/b. powder/b. soda/salt in medium bowl.

In large bowl with electric mixer cream together butter & sugar till well blended, @ 2 min. (stand mixer works fine too)

Add egg yolks & vanilla blend thoroughly about a minute.

Add flour mixture alternating with poppy seed mixture, starting & ending w/ flour.

In separate bowl whisk egg whites till stiff, stir spoonful of whites into batter to lighten it gently stir in the rest

Pour batter into pan. Bake 50 min till cake is golden & toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire rack completely before removing from pan. Serve sliced at room temp. Refrigerate covered for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 4 mo.


Voila!

Lazy I AM!

Heya heya! Howz business on this fine roasty toasty day? As promised foodie pics, and now I shall deliver. Beware if you were expecting details & recipes for each picture below because I just don't think I can pull it off. I'm clean & cool sittin' here in my airconed dining room smelling my bread bake & my tummy rumble because I believe I contracted some kind of a bug-thingie that has been causing my stomach to speak to me in dark menacing tones & cause my 3 year old to give me a equally sad, detailed description of her toilet happenings. (and she can get VERY descriptive)

But I do feel a little bad that recently I have thrown out so much food pics & not much in the way of links/recipes etc... I'm gonna try to just post more tidbits esp in the way of recipes I've stumbled upon & quit trying to only post recipes here.

But for now here are the pics, some from the visit some of food:
Erika feasting on her very own temaki-zushi. I will give this restaurant two thumbs up. BEST IDEA for a kids meal. All of her own tiny utensils had her sitting there making her lunch till well after we adults were done.
I rustled up this basic recipe for Mint Mojitos. I think it speaks of summer perfectly & will be caught drinking one at happy hour (aka: roughly starting 1/2 hr before the kids get home from their afternoon fiesta of energy burning w/ DH) If you don't have this GODLY weed growing somewhere in your garden YOU OUGHT TO!
Proof of a successful visit!
Salad idea that made my day today: Ordinary salad of lettuce, tomatoes & cucumber sauted kuri-kabocha (those tiny, extra sweet & nutty tasting goodies) then mushrooms in butter, cooled & tossed in salad with olive oil & lots of freshly ground pepper & sea salt. If I had pumpkin seeds I belive it would have been too wonderful & I would've just cried. Unfortunately my poor DH nearly cried when he saw it on the lunch table.

Foccacia my faithful friend....I can't believe I don't have a recipe for this on here, gotta do that soon. Simplest bread with great power to impress at a pasta meal.
Apple sauce in it's embryonic stage, spiced with cinnamon/clove & cardamom. My attempt at a non-sugar applesauce cake was mediocre. I would actually have to classify it a bread rather than a cake. I followed this simple allrecipe.com recipe but didn't use any sugar substitute so naturally even though the applesauce by itself was like candy -- mixed into the double sifted whole wheat & other ingr. seemed to loose it's sweetness. Also beat the egg whites to keep it's body but I probably should have done an extra 2 egg whites. My kind sister approved but I'm still miffed about how anyone can survive on a "sugar/refined flour/dairy product-less" diet. I salute you!
My (quite frankly) pitiful attempt to record the fact that we ever had a barbecue at all. I was (not surprisingly) the only one who seemed amused by my "placenta" jokes about the raspberry & fruit jello. (Come on', at least Mr & Mrs Marrington would be laughing, right?) Maybe ya'll already knew this but if you soak corn (in the husks) for 2 hrs in salty water you can throwm' right on the coal & wait till the husks are near blackened & the inside will be pristine & perfect.

More hasty foodie business soon. Till then, be genki!

The Christening of the Crock Pot: Lebanese Lamb Stew with labne & za'atar

Behold my new gadget. The crock pot. This is a 6qt size crock pot & personally I feel like if you happen to be feeding a family of 8 and spend much of your day hyperventilating & cleaning up after your kids unsuccessful attempts to water-paint with milk on the floor you will most likely squeal for joy much like I did upon it's arrival.

One nice thing about it is you can take out the inside crockery & put it directly on the table to serve. It also came with it's handy dandy little feature that I like to call "the probe factor"

Observe the probe. It's a little thermometer thingie to check the temperature of what's cooking. And of course in case you didn't know how to "probe"-- on the lid there's this little clarification.....

Japlish is fun but there's nothing like good ol' straightforward english.

In my eagerness to try it out I made a Lebanese lamb stew on probably one of the hottest days of the year so far. Started it out around 11 in the morning & set the timer & temperature. And yes I did insert the probe.

I was happy with the recipe. The ingrediants were simple & though I was a little suspicious about the amount of cinnamon it called for in the long run it seemed to blend in quite well. It was a full flavored stew, served it with plain rice (1/2 brown) but I have to admit in our as yet, non-airconed dining room it was a rather foolish idea & we ended up sweating it out in a self-inflicted sauna, yet somehow no one could stop themselves & we nearly finished the whole thing.

I also threw together a little batch of labne (Lebanese cheese) I didn't have time to make it overnight but let it set for about 6 hours, hense a rather thinner than normal result.

A few spoonfuls of olive oil & a few spoonfuls of za'atar. Which is a stunning lovely mixture of spices and I'm quite serious when I say I could eat it by the spoonful.

Finished product.
The DH sure seemed to love this stuff though he couldn't ever manage to say it right --- so cute!

All in all, I'm really happy about the crockpot but probably won't be using it often (besides perhaps sphagetti sauce) till autumn.

Pioneer Woman's Corn Fritters

If you're a regular here you'll know already that breakfast is my favorite meal to expend energy on. And on this blessed day of days I happened to score some great blueberries for ultra-reasonable. Berry season is upon us, glory be!!

But today's real showstopper goes to these dudes.....

Behold the Corn Fritters!

Now now, I know what you're going to say & before you start pelting me with streaming toilet paper rolls -- my 13 followers -- bear in mind the state of confusion that I am presently experiencing.

(Tune up the cello & violins) Everything that I've known & loved about cooking has been yanked out from underneath me. My oven is gone. My blender of 4 years has broken. Even my handy wooden spoon has split down the middle & had to be thrown out. I've found that I'm neither a kitchen genius nor am I skilled at using a frying pan or grill. I'm finding myself seriously wandering around my kitchen a little lost for ideas. I'm a mess & YES, I'm resorting to deep frying, and first thing in the morning no less. But before you lash out I want you to try to whip up some of these babies.

The recipe is from my ever favorite, albeit slightly overly indulgent in the good things dept, Pioneer Woman. If nothing else her food photography is fantastic.

And you'll find the recipe here.

You can prepare the batter the night before & then slap it together in the morning. And to be frank & dreadfully honest, I think I ate 1/2 of these babies before the kids ever came down for breakfast.
PS. Any great food ideas are more than welcome. Do your part to save me from myself & my vat of deep frying oil.

Watermelon Sorbet

Somehow I'm hoping I don't get anymore 'followers' there's something just loveable about opening my Dashboard & seeing my 12 disciples!

If you must know, I haven't had any time to cook anything inventive. I'm sure to turn my grill into the gateway to creative desperation but as it stands I'm still knee deep in empty boxes, scrunched up newspaper & odd sockies.

So I give you this:

If I could find words to describe my affection for watermelon I would, but suffice it to say it is in my opinion the Queen of fruit. (Albeit a fat queen, but Queen nonetheless)

If it wasn't for slices of ice cold, crisp, juicy, dripping, red goodness we may as well just fold up & lie in the baking sun being bitten relentlessly by mosquitos whist having our eardrums rendered useless by the semis.

My heart was nearly stolen forever when friendly pal of mine walked a mile to bring me home a watermelon one day. Though come to think of it he probobly rolled it all the way to my doorstep. Could life get any better than having a watermelon in the fridge with your name on it? I THINK NOT!!

So here's how it works. Grab 1/2 a watermelon & cut it into chunks & de-seed it. Beware of your children lest one stick a seed up their nose & it sprouts forth a watermelon shoot making for an embarassing trip to the doctor. (No laughing, it happened to my Bro-in-law, it could happen to you!!)


Try despeartely to not snitch too much & then blend it with 2 or 3 tbsp of vodka & if your inclined 3 tbsp-1/4 a c of sugar. Remind yourself you're not making a frozen coctail & so you are NOT going to add more vodka & down it in a moment of weakness.

Put it back in fridge for at least 2 hrs or freezer for 1/2 an hr to get reeeeally cold again.

If you have a ice-cream maker you can at this point (following the makers instructions) churn the watermelon from slushy juice to freezing goodness.

If you don't have an ice-cream maker have no fear, you can always make this a granita by pouring it into a 8-11" baking tray (or other suitable tray) and freezing it for an hr or 2 (till it's hard but not rock solid) then scraping it with a fork into a bowl for a nice Kakigori-ish feel.


Now if you're want to get into the asthetics you may want to put some little mini choco-chips too but personally I think frozen chocolate has an awful texture so I didn't bother.


A little word of warning. Don't overdo it with the vodka as the alcohol will prevent it from getting solid. But keep a look out for "Massive Indulgence of WHOLE Vodka soaked Watermelon" experience, coming as soon as I can get my hands on one. And you better be at my house when I make it or I will have to polish it off myself

Aaaaand......that's all that she wrote.....catch youes later!!

Around the block.......

Hey ho my 11 followers, been awhile but I'm still alive & kicking....quite often my left leg when my 1 year old keeps trying to bite me to show me how very much he loves me.

For any of you who didn't know I was moving....I moved! And if you thought I was ignoring you.....I was!! Of course I was also steeped in rooms of boxes, manly men doing manly things like lifting, hurling & otherwise moving 5 unromantic 2 ton trucks worth of the ever ambiguous "STUFF". Not to mention giddy children enjoying the melodious sounds of their grimy feet soiling my freshly waxed naked house & thoroughly echoing it onto the next prefecture. Needless to say the week has been long.

Huge thank you's to everyone who helped us out. Mr. McNair who never ceases to amaze me with his ability to work overtime and survive on a combination of happiness & CC lemon. Oli & Mr. D who took time on their day off to unload boxes with DH, & last of all the terribly efficient Navi who navigated himself swimmingly through the ocean of furniture on our first day here & virtually saved me from being stuck with the 6 hoodlums in a "Tarzan/Jane" situation.

Any of you who have moved recently can testify with me that it takes awhile to recover so as much as I'd like to beat my brain for 2 or 3 really exciting things to tell you. I'm going to have to settle for a few pics from our move.

Moon mental season is upon us & I'm actually sensing either a moment of pure genius or complete stupidity coming on for a non-baked birthday treat for my dear Cancer Husband of love & fantastic truck packing skills.

On with the pictures now, shall we?:
I know this is dumb....but this pic hurts..........BAD!! Baking ware that is packed away yet!


I just knew there was something missing from my pre-teen floor waxing adventures......RED BULL!!

PS. Two words that make me cringe like no other: "CLEANING SUPPLIES!"


An empty house & my Libra children.


Good bye old house (& lawyer boy, who shall not be missed much)


Kids will find anywhere to play. One of 6 rooms in the "war zone".


A moment w/ DH. Bloody Marys & smoked salmon hours de vours.



Ritz/Parmesan/smoked salmon/(cough cough, mayo)/dill & capers.

In the words of Steve Irwin, "Ain't she a beauty, mate?"