April 11, 2013
Lentils for play
Not a real food post, but just an idea, if you have some old legumes kicking around and want to entertain your children. This is Olivia's lentil-filled farmyard:
April 5th: 300!
This is post #300.
Family came to visit in March. Liam committed in advance to making me bread or cookies or something during the trip. He made southern buttermilk biscuits. They were excellent. When he left, I still had plenty of buttermilk leftover, some of which I used in Sadie's birthday cupcakes. I kept thinking I should toss the rest, but L convinced me to do otherwise, namely, by telling me to make the biscuits again. So I did. Buttermilk was still good, and biscuits were delicious.
The recipe is specific in its directions, and notes that the second round of dough will result in tougher biscuits. I made just one biscuit from the leftover bits of dough, and Greg ate that one and said he liked it better than the light and fluffy first rounds. There you go; no need to waste the bits!
I made the biscuits to go with a chicken soup I made. The stock was made roughly from the Red Apron recipe, and the soup was based on Today's Parent's Mexican Blizzard Soup (go easy on the chili powder, should you wish your children to eat it). It was great soup. I wish I still had some kicking around to eat. Guess that means I should make it again. And the biscuits. Yum.
Family came to visit in March. Liam committed in advance to making me bread or cookies or something during the trip. He made southern buttermilk biscuits. They were excellent. When he left, I still had plenty of buttermilk leftover, some of which I used in Sadie's birthday cupcakes. I kept thinking I should toss the rest, but L convinced me to do otherwise, namely, by telling me to make the biscuits again. So I did. Buttermilk was still good, and biscuits were delicious.
The recipe is specific in its directions, and notes that the second round of dough will result in tougher biscuits. I made just one biscuit from the leftover bits of dough, and Greg ate that one and said he liked it better than the light and fluffy first rounds. There you go; no need to waste the bits!
I made the biscuits to go with a chicken soup I made. The stock was made roughly from the Red Apron recipe, and the soup was based on Today's Parent's Mexican Blizzard Soup (go easy on the chili powder, should you wish your children to eat it). It was great soup. I wish I still had some kicking around to eat. Guess that means I should make it again. And the biscuits. Yum.
April 3rd and 4th: sweetened condensed milk and coconut macaroons
Two quick and simple recipes from February 2013's Chatelaine: homemade sweetened condensed milk (so easy! who knew?) and, made with said milk, coconut macaroons (same link, scroll down). Delicious all around. Instant skim milk powder needed for recipe, but it will be good to pick some up, since you'll never have to buy canned condensed milk again.
March 31, 2013
March 30th: Challah
Usually for Easter weekend, I make a big, fancy, Easter dinner. This year, I decided to forgo the usual, and I made bread instead. I have a 1 year old. I can't make bread and a big dinner. I know women used to be able to pull off this kind of thing, but I don't know how they did it.
Olivia and I made Challah, a Jewish sweet bread, from March 2013's Chatelaine. It made two large loaves, and they were fabulous. Rave reviews everywhere we took the bread. Especially delicious hot from the oven, with butter.
Will do again!
Olivia and I made Challah, a Jewish sweet bread, from March 2013's Chatelaine. It made two large loaves, and they were fabulous. Rave reviews everywhere we took the bread. Especially delicious hot from the oven, with butter.
Will do again!
March 27th: jam thumbprint cookies (Jam Drops)
After school, Grace, Olivia and I were looking through cookbooks for fun. I found a recipe for cookies for which I had all the ingredients, sort of, and decided to whip them up that night. They were yummy. From Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2:
Jam Drops
180 g (6 oz) butter, softened
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar*
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
jam, to decorate
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Stir through the flour and baking powder and mix to a dough.
Roll 2 teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, allowing room for the cookies to spread, and flatten slightly. Press a finger into the middle of the dough to make an indent. Fill the hole with jam.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Add a little more jam to the holes while the biscuits are hot. Cool on wire racks. Makes 60.**
*I used icing sugar, the only sugar I had in the house at the time.
**I made about 50. Never make my cookies quite as small as any recipe tells me!
Jam Drops
180 g (6 oz) butter, softened
1 cup caster (superfine) sugar*
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
jam, to decorate
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat well. Stir through the flour and baking powder and mix to a dough.
Roll 2 teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, allowing room for the cookies to spread, and flatten slightly. Press a finger into the middle of the dough to make an indent. Fill the hole with jam.
Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Add a little more jam to the holes while the biscuits are hot. Cool on wire racks. Makes 60.**
*I used icing sugar, the only sugar I had in the house at the time.
**I made about 50. Never make my cookies quite as small as any recipe tells me!
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| I didn't take my time with the jam, obviously! |
March 24th: blackberry cornmeal cupcakes
Sadie Baby's birthday! Oh, my sweet little baby girl is a year old and almost not a baby anymore. Crawling, babbling, getting into EVERYTHING. I love this child to pieces and wish I could slow down time to spend more with her.
For her first birthday, I decided very last minute to make Martha Stewart's Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes, from a cookbook I received for Christmas: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Silly me, I thought the recipe sounded a bit like a muffin recipe, and would be a better option for a baby who doesn't know the difference, but no, they were super sweet and definitely a cupcake, so she had lots of sugar, and enjoyed doing so.
Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purose flour
1/2 cup fine-ground yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 to 2 containers (6 ounces each) fresh blackberries
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter; pour over flour mixture, whisking to combine.
Fill each lined cup with a scant 1/4 cup batter. Top batter with blackberries (3 to 4 berries per cup), then sprinkled evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake until evenly browned on top, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes, otherwise, they stick to the papers and fall apart.
Recipe says it makes 16 cupcakes; I only made 12.
Recipe also points out 375°F is essential for the blackberries to stay on top and not sink to bottom.
For her first birthday, I decided very last minute to make Martha Stewart's Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes, from a cookbook I received for Christmas: Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. Silly me, I thought the recipe sounded a bit like a muffin recipe, and would be a better option for a baby who doesn't know the difference, but no, they were super sweet and definitely a cupcake, so she had lots of sugar, and enjoyed doing so.
Blackberry Cornmeal Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purose flour
1/2 cup fine-ground yellow cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 to 2 containers (6 ounces each) fresh blackberries
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter; pour over flour mixture, whisking to combine.
Fill each lined cup with a scant 1/4 cup batter. Top batter with blackberries (3 to 4 berries per cup), then sprinkled evenly with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar.
Bake until evenly browned on top, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before removing cupcakes, otherwise, they stick to the papers and fall apart.
Recipe says it makes 16 cupcakes; I only made 12.
Recipe also points out 375°F is essential for the blackberries to stay on top and not sink to bottom.
March 23rd: Baked 3-cheese tomato strata
From October 2012's Chatelaine (but I feel like I made this once ages ago?): Baked 3-cheese tomato strata, or, as I call it: egg-filled bread. Basically a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with eggs and baked until they are done. Wait until the eggs puff up, or else they will be runny inside! Lesson learned the hard way. Topped with roasted tomatoes, pretty much the only way I like tomatoes, and so yummy.
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| Eggs NOT puffed up enough. Runny when cut open. Back into the oven with ye. |
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| Individual serving with oh-so-delicious roasted tomatoes. |
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