Birthday Celebrations, Part Deux

This week, we celebrated N’s birthday, which, of course, required cake.

Her favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Given our busy lives, she very kindly said, “If you want to use a mix, it’s okay with me.”

Let me give you a little background on that. I have probably used one cake mix in the last twenty years. It’s not that I think they’re bad. I grew up on cake mix cakes. My mom made wedding cakes with mixes and guests swore they were from scratch.

It’s just that I tend to not have a cake mix in the house when I want to bake a cake. But I usually have all the component ingredients. If you think about it, most people do. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt baking powder and milk.

When it came to baking night, I still had not gotten a cake mix, but I certainly had all those items in my kitchen. So scratch it was.

Since I don’t have a favorite yellow cake recipe, I went searching. I was very interested in the recipes that called for buttermilk, but I didn’t have that. Nor did I have sour cream. But I’ll be trying those cakes at a later date.

What I landed on was this.

Yes, Martha Stewart.

Say what you want…the woman knows her stuff.

The cake is simple. Butter and sugar creamed together. Eggs and vanilla beaten in. Flour, baking powder and salt added alternatively with milk. Thick batter poured into two 8” rounds and baked for 35 minutes.

So simple. So easy to screw up. :o)

I didn’t really totally screw it up. But because I’m currently in the middle of a season of Top Chef: Just Desserts, I’m a bit more critical of my baking right now.

The cake was a little bit dry. But it was totally my fault. It needed a couple of minutes less in the oven and it would have been perfect. But it did have that wonderful butter flavor, delicate and rich. I will definitely be using this one again.

Now, I do have a favorite chocolate frosting recipe. It’s in the old McCall’s cookbook that my mom had. The flavor of this chocolate frosting is really unparalled. But it is complicated. You have to melt the chocolate, let it cool, cream the butter and sugar, add the chocolate, add the egg (yes, I said egg), beat it over a bowl of ice water to get it to the right consistency. If you are in a hurry or not meticulous, you can fuck this mother up. This is not something the middle-aged mother of a toddler should attempt, especially on a school night .

So I went hunting again. And I found this from a food blog called Savory Sweet Life. You have to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to the recipe.

What intrigued me about this recipe was the salt. It’s a pretty basic chocolate frosting recipe, but then it had salt. I knew this would bring out the flavor of the cocoa, so I decided try it.

It is now my favorite chocolate frosting. It’s easy to make, it tastes wonderful. How can anyone argue with that combination?

There is an option to use either vanilla or almond extract. I used vanilla. I’m not all that fond of almond flavoring in things. It is so easy to over do. And it wasn’t the right application here. But I think I will try it at some point. This frosting was tasty enough that I think it would be fun to play around with. Some cinnamon and cayenne, maybe?

In the final analysis, however, what matters is not whether I used cake flour or all purpose, whether I used almond or vanilla extract. What matters is how it tastes.

Well, the birthday girl rated it “awesome”. And that’s what’s important to me. :o)

The Birthday Burger

I’ve often written here about food being integral to a celebration. For me and for many.

This, I believe, is most definitely true for birthdays. The celebration of another year past is always made better by a satisfying meal.

This week I celebrated a birthday. Not mine…my sister’s. She turned the big 5-0 on Wednesday. And she wanted to spend it with me, which honored me greatly.

It got me to thinking about the way we celebrated birthdays when we were kids. We got to pick our birthday dinner, which, for me, was always manicotti. It was my favorite thing.

Dad didn’t make it very often. It was a special occasion dish. So it made birthdays feel very special.

Before you ask, no, we’re not Italian. We’re mostly a mutt mixture from the British Isles. But for some reason, manicotti became soul food to me. :o)

Dad would make a filling of ricotta, spinach and ground beef, combining the two filling recipes that came on the box. Sauce was the Smith family recipe…a jar of prepared sauce, some tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic and onion powder, dried herbs. He might or might not have started with some frozen leftovers.

When we were little he followed the instructions, boiling the noodles and filling them when they were soft. Such a pain! Then, before they started putting out the ‘ready to bake’ variety, he would stuff the shells uncooked, add water to the sauce to give the noodles something to soak up, and baked it. Easier by far!!

Of course, birthdays would not be complete without cake. That was mom’s territory. And there was always something spectacular. Winnie the Pooh, Holly Hobby, Marvin the Martian, a piano, books, 3-D dolls…you name it, my mom made it into a cake. And not only was it beautiful, it was damn tasty, too.

Well, there was no manicotti or beautiful cake this week for my sister’s birthday, but there was some really, really good food.

At my sissy’s request, we went to Red Mill Burgers on Phinney Ridge. It has always been high on my list of best burgers in Seattle. The Bleu Cheese and Bacon Burger is to die for. It’s so cool to order your burger and look over at the grill to see the wall of bacon waiting to be paired with a patty of beef.

This burger is just the right amount of juicy. It’s not too messy at first, but after three or four bites, you get past the point where the crispy edges of the toasted bun can no longer hold in the sloppy, melty blue cheese and the juice running from the perfectly meat.

They add tomato and lettuce, but don’t add mustard or ketchup. Those are on the table so you can dress your burger yourself. I appreciate that. I’m not a huge fan of ketchup. I like a little occasionally, but if I have a choice, I wouldn’t have it on my burger.

Oh…it was a heavenly lunch. My sister and I couldn’t even finish our burgers. Good thing we just shared the onion rings (which are apparently legendary…they were pretty fantastic).

We started the day with pedicures at Gene Juarez and ended our time together with coffees from Cloud City Coffee in Maple Leaf.

It was a short time, but it was great fun. We had some amazing food, had a lot of laughs, cried a little bit. And I’m sure Mom and Dad were around somewhere. They would never miss a birthday.

It was a privilege to share such a milestone day with her. And I’ve got six years to figure out what we’re going to do for my 50th!

I love you, Sissy. Happy Birthday!

The Modern Conveniences

Last time we met, I might have mentioned that our stove went out. The oven just crapped out while we were cooking a take-and-bake pizza a couple of Fridays ago.

Since we went through our home warranty service to get the repair done, it took a while for it to happen.

Finally yesterday someone came to fix our stove (Hurray!!). It was just a loose wire, thank goodness. Mr. Appliance (the real name of the repair company) was in and out in about 15 minutes and we had a working stove/oven again!!

But you know what? In this world of convenience food, it is pretty easy to live out of your microwave.

Thank goodness for Costco. They sell boxes of single-serving packets of vegetable yakisoba that are pretty darn tasty. And then there are the chicken nuggets. Which we are actually very fond of. They remind me of when Nancy was pregnant and couldn’t handle cooking smells. We ate a lot out of our microwave back then, too. :o)

Another bit of convenience we acquired because of the stove going out was an electric kettle. This is something I have always wanted, but could never quite bring myself to spend the money.

Now I don’t know how I ever lived without one. The water boils so fast and cleanup is dead easy. Bloody fantastic.

Sorry for going a bit Brit on you. Electric kettles remind me of our trip to the UK a few years ago. I’m pretty sure we had a kettle in every B&B we stayed.

Of course, being without certainly makes one appreciate things. I’m looking forward to making egg sandwiches for breakfast tomorrow. I might need to go get some bacon. Mmm…bacon.

But while we’re on the subject of easy meals, I have to mention what I ate while I was in Virginia on business.

I was lucky enough to visit friends in Richmond while I was there. They had me over to their house and we noshed on hot dips and chips for dinner.

I love hot dips. I used to make a parmesan artichoke dip for parties all the time. I have a hard time making it very often any more because it’s mostly mayonnaise. I can eat an whole recipe of it on my own and I really have a hard time justifying eating an entire cup of mayo at a sitting.

At our friends’ house, there was a very tasty spinach-artichoke dip and pita chips. This version had significantly less mayo and thus was (thankfully) not guilt-inducing. I got a lot of veggies that way!

And then there was my favorite…a simple layered dip of cream cheese, refried beans and shredded cheese.

I couldn’t stop eating it. It was so good. The beans were really well flavored (I think they were the Whole Foods store brand). And the best part? All you have to do is open packages, spread out the layers, and bake until bubbly. Now if that isn’t a great emergency party dish, I don’t know what is! Serve it with the scoop Fritos and you will not be able to pry people away from the dish until it is empty. I hurt myself on that stuff.

Alternately, you could use a can of chili instead of the refrieds. An old friend of mine used to do a quick dip that was cream cheese and chili. Put it in a bowl, get it hot in the microwave and you’re done.

Which brings us full circle, doesn’t it? We’re back at the microwave.

I wouldn’t want to use it as my main cooking appliance all the time. But it sure does come in handy sometimes.

Necessity: The Mother of the Crock Pot (or Thank God for Easy Mac)

This week we brought out the crock pot out of sheer desperation. You see, our stove decided to start crackling at us while we were baking a pizza last weekend, so we had to plan to do without it for a while.

Yes, we’ve called for repair, but the warranty company we have a policy through has turned out to be less than responsive. Combine that with a very hectic week at work, and suffice it to say I’m glad we have a crock pot and a microwave.

So we broke out the America’s Test Kitchen book again, this time to make some shredded beef filling for tacos or burritos.

Three pounds of chuck roast, some chili powder, a couple of onions and 9-11 hours yielded us some mighty tasty filling.

One interesting thing about this recipe is that it had me sweat the onions and garlic (along with the chili powder, cumin and coriander and a little vegetable oil) in the microwave for 5 minutes.

What did this do for the recipe? Well, it gave the flavor development a bit of a head start. It also created a little bit of liquid so that the meat ended up covered in this paste of aromatics and spice. It made the house smell wonderful!!

It definitely needed some salt and pepper. I didn’t season the meat very well. I was in a hurry and didn’t want to deal with proper sanitation, so I skipped the salt and pepper on the meat. I won’t make that mistake again.

So this is winner number two from Slow Cooker Revolution.

Once I added a little salt, the meat had great flavor. The chili powder I used was nice and smoky and the cumin added some smoke and zing as well. The finish of a squeeze of lime gave it the bright balance it needed.

We ate it in bowls with tortilla chips, some black bean and corn salsa, shredded cheese and some sour cream.

I think this would make a killer Mexican lasagna filling. Layers of the meat, lots of melty cheese and some good fresh tortillas. Oh yeah, baby. All I’d need is a shot of tequila and a wedge of lime to top it off.

To keep things lively, we also used our microwave a lot. Like I said in the title, thank god for Easy Mac. Little cups of mac and cheese that you cook in the microwave. G really likes them and it makes for easy cleanup as well. And hot dogs cook really well in the microwave, too. Round it out with some frozen veg and G was a happy camper for the whole week.

If I really think about it, we don’t really use our stove much during the week even when it’s working. Between the crock pot and the microwave, we don’t really have to.

Thanks for stopping by! Next week I’ll be traveling for business and will be dining with friends, so that installment will probably make its appearance on Saturday.

Have a great week and a fun Labor Day Weekend!

Summers Bounty, continued....

We love going to open air markets in the summer and have done so much more this year than any other.

G likes to look at all the people and listen to the buskers. We love looking at all the fresh flowers and fruits and vegetables. And eating crepes and cupcakes and other yummies.

What always surprises me (though I don’t really know why I find it surprising) are the other food vendors, particularly the folks selling eggs and meat.

At the Edmonds Market we have seen people selling pork, beef and lamb, chicken eggs, duck eggs, butter and cheese. While we have yet to be brave enough to buy meat from one of them, we have gotten eggs before. Nothing tastes quite like fresh eggs. I never thought there was a difference until I had one. It just tasted more ‘eggy’. More flavorful.

And then there’s the butter. A local dairy called Golden Glen Creamery makes delicious butter. We had discovered their plain salted butter a couple of years ago. There is another product where you can really taste the freshness. I could have eaten the butter straight out of the tub.

Then they came out with flavored butters. I’d seen them at Metropolitan Market, but had never tried them. And the last time we went to the Edmonds Market, they were there with their cheeses and their butters. Garlic and sea salt butter, Cinnamon Spice butter, dill butter…I think they even have a butter that has orange and chocolate in it. That, my friends, is true decadence.

Speaking of decadence, we recently picked up some product from Pasteria Lucchese. They sell fresh pastas and sauces as well as some desserts, all of which are made the day before market. They get up early in the morning and work until late at night making their delightful wares.

We couldn’t resist the Wild Boar Plin, a kind of ravioli-like pasta filled with a mixture of meat, tomato herbs and spices. We also couldn’t resist a sauce they make…I think it’s called norcina. It’s a cream sauce whose major flavor components are pork sausage, mushrooms and black truffle salt.

I took a whiff of that sauce and my eyes rolled back into my head. It smelled so GOOD. It was the earthy scent of truffle that won me over. I had to have it. Along with some spinach tagliatelle to eat it on.

That sauce still makes me a little teary thinking about it. The freshness of the cream, the delicate seasoning in the pork, the amazing dark richness of the mushroom and truffle.

The real beauty of it all was that from freezer to plate it took only about 8 minutes. Three minutes to boil the pasta and the other five to toss it in the warm sauce, plate it and pour the wine.

So, Seattle area foodies, if you go to Edmonds or Ballard Farmers’ Market, look for Pasteria Lucchese. Heck, look for them at other markets, too. Those are the two I know for sure where they sell.

Too bad the outdoor markets are only in the summer, huh?

The Bounty of Summer - The Elusive Apricot

Today was a beautiful summer day. The chilly marine layer of the morning burned off and revealed a hot, sunny afternoon. I passed a thermometer on the way home that said it was 82 degrees. In a car with no air conditioning, that’s hot. :o)

I had a little time, so I stopped at the Juanita Friday Market, one of the many outdoor farmers’ markets in the area. It’s small compared to the Edmonds Market or even the Lake Forest Park Market, but, thankfully, I was still able to find what I was looking for. Something I had been chasing for weeks.

Summer has always been and will always be synonymous with jam in my world. Summers growing up were filled with steaming jars, soup pots full of bubbling fruit and sugar and pectin, the distinctive POP of the tops sealing over the jewel-toned containers of jelly and jam.

A couple of years ago when I first attempted making jam myself, I made strawberry, apricot and raspberry. I decided at the time not to do blackberry because I was to lazy to deal with the seeds and most people get annoyed with jam that is full of seeds.

That year, my favorite was the apricot. It had turned out so good. Perfect balance of tart and sweet. Just delicious. It was, of course, the first thing we ran out of. Besides, it was my mother-in-law’s favorite. So I wanted to make sure I made some again this year.

But I seemed to be just missing the apricots. The first week we went to the Edmonds market, there were some there, but I knew I only had time for one fruit that weekend and it was the end of strawberry season.

The last time we went, there were no apricots. There were plenty of peaches which were not quite ready for jam making. But I thought maybe I was make peach instead of apricot. I’d go back in two weeks, when the vendor said the peaches would be right for jam.

I thought I had somehow missed the apricots this year. The growing seasons are so screwy because of our very cool spring and our lagging summer. So I resigned myself to go without apricot jam.

Then I went to the Kirkland Market this past Wednesday and saw them. Only one of the vendors had apricots, but she had them. With my dumb luck, however, I couldn’t actually buy them because they weren’t scheduled to open for another 45 minutes and I had to get back to work!

At that point I was determined. There were still apricots to be had and I was going to get them.

On the way to pick up G-man from daycare in the evenings, I would pass Juanita Beach Park. On Friday nights I would see the tents of the Juanita Friday Market. So today I decided to make a quick stop in to see if anyone happened to have apricots.

Lo and behold! One fruit vendor had apricots!!! And because it’s the end of the season, he was pretty desperate to get rid of them. After just missing the yummy little darlings for weeks, now I could get them for a dollar a pound if I wanted to buy a 22 pound box!

Let me tell you, it was tempting. But that’s like 9 or 10 batches of jam. There’s no way I have the time or the energy to make all that jam. So I settled for what was still a pretty good deal on six pounds and left it at that.

They tried to elude me, but I was triumphant!!

So I have enough ‘cots to make a couple of batches of jam and I got a flat of blackberries to boot! So it’s more jam making for me this weekend!

I can’t wait!!!

Summer, I love summer, give me that summertime!

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since I posted last. In that time, I must have cooked a ton, right?

Well, no. Schedules have been incredibly weird and there have been lots of out-of-town visitors, so it’s been hard to get some quality keyboard time.

That’s not to say we didn’t get some good cooking done. Just not the regular stuff.

We did have a crock pot adventure last week. Pulled pork. Which is really not new. We’d tried a pulled pork recipe a while back that was really pretty underwhelming. But we recently purchased Slow Cooker Revolution by America’s Test Kitchen, the folks who bring you Cook’s Illustrated magazine.

I have really enjoyed reading this cookbook, mostly because at the beginning of every recipe is a paragraph called “Why this recipe works.”

The folks at the test kitchen did a major electrical overhaul so they could have racks upon racks of slow cookers so they could test and perfect meals for that appliance that is the savior of most suburban families. Bottom line: I trust them. And I also find them entertaining.

I won’t print the recipe here because it’s a new book and I don’t want to wake up and find a cease and desist in my inbox. But I will share some of their pointers.

First: you need a dry rub so you can start your flavor layering. Before you rub your pork shoulder, cut the roast into four sections and then put the dry rub on all sides of all four pieces, letting them sit a minimum of 8 but up to 24 hours.

Then all you have to do is put it in your slow cooker with a cup of your favorite barbecue sauce and cook it for 9-11 hours on low.

When the time is up, shred the pork, skim the fat off the sauce, combine the shredded meat with the pot sauce, adjust for seasonings (salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar). If I ever do this for a party, I'm making it a day or two ahead of time so I can put the sauce in the fridge and let the fat solidify on top. I hate skimming. I get impatient.

Et voila! Some pretty kick-ass pulled pork.

The dry rub is in the recipe. We used a rub that was made by our local market to make it easy. I discovered that I like my bbq on the tart side, adding more apple cider vinegar than I thought I would.

That’s what I loved most about this recipe. Once their part of it was done, they instructed the cook to adjust the flavors to their own preference.

Barbecue is a very personal, very regional thing. Some like it with more vinegar, some with more sugar, some with tomato, some with smoke. They didn’t mention liquid smoke, but if you like your barbecue smoky, you could certainly use a hickory or mesquite sauce or just put a drop or two of liquid smoke in there.

I love that they had the respect and knowledge to understand the personal nature of barbecue and put the reins in the hands of the cooks to finish the dish as they wished.

In other news, we’ve visited the Edmonds Farmer’s Market a couple of times in the last few weeks. One week we met friends and we bought a half flat of strawberries, which I promptly turned in to freezer jam, 16 half-pints worth.

Last weekend, we went again and spent a little more time just poking around and shopping. We got two bunches of gorgeous basil, which I turned into pesto. That also went into the freezer, 4 half-cup containers. Then we ate two this week. Half our efforts gone in the blink of an eye.

If we want pesto this winter, I think we’re going to have to get more basil. And I think we’re going to have to put it in the deep freeze in the basement so it’s not so easy to get to. Right now, it’s just too tempting.

We’re also thinking about going back to veggie bin delivery. G is getting more interested in veggies. And, frankly, we would eat more of them if they were delivered to us. So there may be a host of chard and kale recipes in our future, dear readers.

Thanks for stopping by. And thanks to everyone who's let me know they're reading. It's great to know you're there! Extra points for anyone who can identify the source of this week's title. (Hint: they're song lyrics)

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next Friday!