Seriously, why is this not a thing? Particularly considering frosting shots are a thing. I can’t think of anything I’d rather down a shooter of – what’s better taken in mouthful-sized doses than gravy perfection? Certainly not Sour Puss or tequila.
There was a Slow Food kitchen party tonight at Infuse with biodynamic farmer (and ultra sweet guy) Kris Vester. Wade roasted chickens (taste test: a heritage breed vs. the big-boobed kind) and potatoes, then Berkshire pork chops over braised purple cabbage while he and Kris chatted about food and politics and more food. I snuck out before dessert (but not before wangling a pork chop bone in the kitchen) to come home and fill you in, then prepare to do a talk at the Glenbow tomorrow – part of a new “Out for Lunch” series. I just hope I’m not out TO lunch.
February 08 2010 | leftovers | 4 Comments »
This was me today – a piggie in a blanket – wrapped in fleece, zoning out, sipping Belgian chocolate rooibos and eating toast and jam (and later, nachos with chili con queso and chocolate cake) like it was going out of style.
(Wait. Honestly? Does food go so horribly out of style that one might allow trends to dictate their choice of menu? I think not. Then again, there’s tomato aspic and salmon mousse. Then again, they’re not delicious. Some things dated have moved beyond their eras by virtue of their deliciousness. Case in point: those cocktail meatballs with grape jelly and chili sauce. Love them.)
Hey, I just segued right into the subject of 70s cocktail hour – the theme of the birthday party I cooked for last night – without even meaning to. That was easy.
In honour of the 1970s I made devilled eggs, pigs in blankets, meatballs, cocktail wienies, angels on horseback (dates stuffed with Parmesan, wrapped in bacon and baked), fondue – the entire menu was pretty cheeseball. Oh hey, another segue way.
What we have here is a traditional pecan-encrusted cheese ball made with a large tub of spreadable cream cheese (blocks would have been fine, too) and a couple cups of grated cheddar, spiked with a bit of Worcestershire, finely chopped green onion, and S & P.
For the pigs in blankets, I couldn’t bring myself to go so far as to use crescent rolls – I instead mixed up a batch of biscuits, tossing another handful of grated cheddar in with the dry ingredients before adding the milk, then rolled the dough out about 1/2″ thick and cut it into strips, which I wrapped around halved dogs and baked at 350F until golden. We generally aren’t much of a hot dog-eating family (much to W’s utter disappointment – were it up to him they would constitute our breakfast, lunch and dinner), but I’d make these again, next time W requests (read: begs for) them. Mike suggested wrapping the cheesy biscuit dough around pepperoni sticks (like the honey-garlic bison ones from Valta) or smokies, which is a capital idea indeed.
After the party I was not-so-fashionably late for Tonic for a Cause down at Velvet, where I further aggravated my Marge Simpson voice by yelling over the band until the wee hours; and today was a Sunday full of laundry, tidying, haircuts and homework before a belated birthday dinner for my Mom and sister. Dinner: homemade burgers, salad, oven fries and nachos with chili con queso, in honour of the Super Bowl. And chocolate cake – there must be chocolate cake. (I kind of miss keeping you up to date on our dinners. Food seems to have become an afterthought this week. Not so much that I might have forgotten to eat, mind you.)
In other news, I just read another lovely post about the Blog Aid cookbook, and am completely wowed that five minutes ago it was at 1069 copies. I had secretly aimed for 1000, and we blew that number out of the water in only four days. Wow. Just wow.
February 07 2010 | leftovers | 14 Comments »
I MADE THESE. I think the only thing I’m prouder of making is W.
I’ve been racking my brain, trying to come up with some small way to thank you. And it occurred to me I do have a little something – something that will change your life. (Most of your lives, anyway.) It comes in the form of a secret. Aren’t secrets just the best? And I have one just for you.
The secret is that you, yes YOU, can make flaky pain au chocolat from scratch. Seriously. And it’s not even that hard, nor does it take that much time. You can be a superhero without even having to wear tights. How to Win Friends and Influence People, with food.
I swear I’m not making this up. I further swear you do not require the monogrammed initials M.S. nor pastry chef certification to make these. From scratch. Meaning no frozen puff pastry dough to start with. No cheating. For real and true.
You’re probably used to working with butter, flour, eggs and chocolate, right? You can knead soft dough and roll it out into a rectangle, right? Yeah, you can totally make these.
Stop rolling your eyes. It’s not just easy for me. It’s easy, period. The only way I can prove it to you is by convincing you to try it. It’s an easy, soft dough that you just roll out, spread with butter, fold like a letter, chill, roll and fold; repeat. The instructions look long, but it’s really pretty simple. And there are probably plenty of things you could do with the dough besides wrap it around chocolate before you bake it. And it makes enough for you to bake a bunch of pain au chocolat and still have some left for something else. Or to wrap and stash in the freezer for next weekend.
Pain au Chocolat
Danish Dough:
3/4 cup milk, warmed
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, cold
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup(ish) good-quality chocolate (chopped, chips or squares, halved – I used Bernard Callebaut semi-sweet drops)
In a large bowl, stir together the milk and yeast. Stir in the sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add a cup of the flour and the salt, then add the rest of the flour gradually, stirring until it’s incorporated. Knead the dough on a lightly floured countertop for about 5 minutes, until smooth. Transfer to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap; chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, beat the butter and flour with an electric mixer for a couple minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl, until smooth. Set aside (don’t refrigerate).
When the dough has chilled, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a rectangle that is about 13″x18″ and 1/4″ thick. Spread the butter evenly over the right two-thirds of the dough. Fold the left third of the dough over, covering half the butter, then fold the right side over, as if you were folding a letter in thirds. (Unlike a letter, the dough ends should line up, so that it’s folded in three.) Cover the dough in plastic wrap and put it back into the fridge for 30 minutes.
Put the dough back on the floured surface lengthwise, with the open sides to the left and right. Roll it out into another 13″x18″ rectangle, 1/4″ thick. Fold the left third over the middle, then the right third over the middle. (This is referred to as “turns”. To keep track of each fold -or turn- press your finger into the dough at the edge to make two marks – you can do this each time you roll and fold so that you know how many times you’ve done it.) Chill the dough for another 30 minutes.
Roll, fold and refrigerate the dough two more times, so that you’ve done it four times total. Cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours, or overnight. It can also be frozen at this point for up to 4 months.
To assemble the pain au chocolat, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4″ thick. You can cut the dough into rectangles as large or as small as you like – we made them on the small side, cutting the dough into strips and then crosswise so that each piece was about the size of a business card. Put a little pile of chocolate, or a chunk of it, along the middle of the pastry, roll the sides up and place each one seam-side down on an ungreased baking sheet. If you have time, cover loosely with plastic or a tea towel and let them proof for an hour or two. (This is not absolutely necessary- we did ours in a rush!)
Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake the pain au chocolat for 15 minutes, until golden. (If they are larger, they may need more time.) Try to be a good person and share with your family and friends. Makes about 3 dozen.
UPDATE: Over 800 Blog Aid cookbooks have sold! Thank you!
One Year Ago: Peanut Truffle Fudge
February 06 2010 | bread and breakfast and dessert | 37 Comments »
I’m not sure how to start this post without a wow. WOWowOWowowoWOWOWOWowoWOWOwow.
As you know, the Blog Aid cookbook uploaded sometime around the middle of the night last night. When the alarm went off at 7 this morning I bolted awake, nervous, like you might feel on Christmas morning if you were terrified of Santa Claus – completely excited but a little bit panicked at the same time about what might happen if you come out from under the covers.
When I first checked, there were 65 books sold. 133 by 9 AM. 180 by 10 AM. 324 by 3:30, and by the 6 o’clock news 416 books had sold.
I really have been choked up all day. I don’t even know what to say but thank you. Not only for me, personally, but for all of us, for each other, for everyone in Haiti or with friends and family there. I want to deliver each book with a hug and a homemade pie. I want to say something wise and riveting (which is difficult to compose while listening to W in the bathtub singing his extendamix version of I LOVE MY BUM!) but the clock is ticking and at least a dozen people, including George Brookman, have emailed me in the last hour demanding I GET SOME SLEEP!! Excellent advice, I do believe I’ll take it.
Really, this is what it’s all about. This and food. And raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.
Final pre-bed tally: 488 books sold. That translates with matched funds to well over $20,000 CAD.
Wow.
And look! I finally made a cute little button. (Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to use it again.)
February 04 2010 | leftovers | 43 Comments »
(Click the cover to enlarge.)
It’s done. It’s done. It’s totally done. It’s really, fully done. The combing and the fawning and the spell-checking and the Cheezie-eating and the cross-eyed-going dragged on for an extra day or so, but we managed to upload it at approximately 4:53 pm (which, it eerily turns out, was the exact time of the earthquake on January 12th) and finally LET IT GO. At which point it came back, with file issues… we went across the street for spaghetti and meatballs and then came back to hack away at the pdf and replace some images that weren’t cutting the mustard. What was supposed to be a brief touching up this morning followed by a triumphant upload by noon stretched out to a 14 hour marathon (can’t believe it? neither can we), at which point we REALLY AND TRULY FINALLY got it gone, and then the ordering system set up. Before midnight, even. Barely.
And now commences the press release-sending, hand-wringing and order-status-checking.
What now? I’m going to Disneyland! Not really. Maybe Swiss Chalet.
There’s still a glitch in the system – my overtired self can’t quite determine how to get both the hardcover and softcover version onto one ordering page – right now they are on two pages – but I couldn’t wait any longer and it leaked out on Twitter soon after midnight, so here I am, offering up the goods. You can order the book, and preview it – the hardcover version ($50) is here, and the softcover version ($25) is here. They are both the same book, save for the cover – 7″x7″ and 110 full-colour pages, with photos of each and every recipe. I’m hoping that with the light of day, when my mental capacities return somewhat, I can figure out (or have someone tell me) if/how to put both versions on one ordering page.
But yes – we squeaked in under three weeks – from concept to completion – and there were so many on board helping make that possible. Cathryn Ironside. Beth Snyder. George Brookman and the fine folks at West Canadian Graphics. Jim and the guys at Blurb.com (some of whom are apparently from Lonely Planet). And everyone who cheered us on, sent rah-rah emails, brought lasagna.
I’m so proud of all who contributed to this pot of stone soup, so eagerly, generously, selflessly – even while tending to wee ones with a stomach bug or while pregnant and teaching band to dozens of young teenagers. One is at athlete’s village, cooking like crazy in what he calls the biggest kitchen he’s ever seen (and I imagine he’s seen a lot), another is celebrating the launch of her first book, yet another is in high school. I love that this project has brought together such a diverse group of people with a common love of food.
Hell, I’m going to bring them out again. Let’s hear it for Chef Michael Smith, Dana McCauley, Emily Richards, Catharine from Weelicious, Cheryl from Backseat Gourmet, Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches, Nishta from Blue Jean Gourmet, Lauren of Celiac Teen, Charmian from Christie’s Corner, Shaina from Food for my Family, Marisa of Food in Jars, Shauna and Danny from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, Lauren from Healthy Delicious, Alice from Savory Sweet Life, Tara from Seven Spoons, Jess of Sweet Amandine, Helen from Tartelette, Gail from The Pink Peppercorn, Pierre of Kitchen Scraps, Tim from Lottie and Doof, Tea from Tea & Cookies, Jamie from My Baking Addiction, Lori from Recipe Girl, Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox, Brooke of Tongue-n-Cheeky and Aimee of Under the High Chair.
We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.
February 04 2010 | leftovers | 67 Comments »
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