Blood cake and curd with sorbet
Blood Orange carnage
Gorgeous Blood Orange Juice
I’m not really sure what inspires me in the kitchen. It changes every day. Sometimes it changes hour to hour. This time I’m pretty sure that the ingredients influenced the cooking. I cannot resist Meyer lemons. The beauty of blood oranges captivates me every time. So I ended up with quite a bounty of beautiful citrus from my visit to Central Market. Sorbet is the obvious choice for me when it comes to fruit because I have a wonderful ice cream maker and my darling husband loves to have sorbet.
Blood Orange Sorbet
Meyer Lemons
That’s rather mindlessly easy for me now: Meyer lemon sorbet, blood orange sorbet- Mix the juice with simple syrup and freeze it in your ice cream maker.
Meyer Lemon Sorbet
I was hoping to make something more exciting, something new.
Maybe something like Lemon curd. The recipe for this came up when I was poking around on the Internet. I love Pinterest. I follow links on tastespotting also and find much inspiration there. Nevertheless, lemon curd was completely new for me and very exciting! I love it! I made this lemon curd in my Vitamix. It was so easy. Instead of cooking it on the stove and stirring endlessly, I just let the Vitamix run on hot soup mode and measured the temperature with a thermometer while the machine did all the work. Nothing could be easier. The curd came together effortlessly.
Meyer Lemon Curd
The search for what to do with the blood oranges was not so easy. I kept finding recipes for blood orange oil cakes. Or olive oil cakes that used blood orange juice. These did not appeal to me. This one did. It was called Blood Orange Yogurt Cake. And it seems like a great recipe. Once I got into making the recipe I realized that it actually had a good bit of oil.The Blood Orange part- a syrup you pour on top and a drizzle of blood orange glaze. It came together easily- I prepared the cake as directed. (but I had to bake it a little longer than the recipe called for)
It’s incredibly moist and delicious thanks to the greek yogurt and oil. So moist though- I think I can cut the oil in half and still get a great cake. I will try that next time. I did pour the blood orange juice syrup on top of the warm cake. As you can see it didn’t penetrate very deep though it did seep in.
Blood Orange Yogurt Cake
Also, to note: I cut the cake in half before I glazed it simply because I did not like the pink color of the glaze. It looked a little like Pepto-Bismol! I made the coating but rather UNenthusiastically glazed half. HA! The sugar gave it a nice sweet flavor. I will glaze the entire cake next time but I might use half regular orange juice and half blood orange juice to change the color. It is delicious! (did I say that already?) I had a great time creating with all of this fruit- now what to do with the lemon curd? Did someone say “Make some scones?” Hummm……
With Blood Orange Sugar Glaze
Manatee to Hippo to perfection!
My second of two more attempts to make cinnamon raisin swirl bread brought success! As you might recall reading in my last post about cinnamon raisin swirl bread the breads came out looking a bit like manatees. Adorable and tasty but not beautiful. I really wanted to make a beautiful bread.
The first of the two attempts didn’t rise properly. I’m certain that the water that I added was not the correct temperature. It was too cold. I knew it when it was going in but I thought that it wouldn’t be such a big deal. The recipe says to mix the wet ingredients separate from the dry ingredients. The yeast gets mixed with the flour, not directly with the water. So I assumed that the heat of the oven and the rising processes would make that happen. Uh, no. Another thing that I did differently I retarded the dough overnight in the refrigerator after I formed the loaves and put them in their pans. When I took them out the next morning I sat them in an oven that I had turned on, warmed up and turned off. I waited five hours for those loaves to rise and they never really did. Hope springs eternal- so I baked them anyway. You can see it did not go as I had hoped.
It never rose. It looks like a log.
This one looks like a yummy sleeping hippo. But not bread.
Two days later I decided to try it again. This time I paid careful attention to the temperature of the water, I did not retard the dough but let it rise 3 times and I baked the bread exactly as the recipe said. Another thing- I think this was the biggest issue starting with the very first Manatee loves–I changed loaf pans. The loaf pans with the Manatee and Hippo loves were larger than the pans that I used on the successful third try. I think the original loaf pan was so big that it couldn’t support the dough to shape properly when rising. Perhaps if I had used all of the dough for one loaf it would’ve worked in the larger pan. Nevertheless, mistakes were made and lessons were learned! HA! It’s wonderful to know that I can bake beautiful bread!
Lovely loaf
No large water mammals here, just swirl!
Pretty and delicious. Success!
Sorry Frank. Dogs can't have raisins. ;-(
Healthy Dog Treat Recipe (original)
Pumpkin Hearts
Little George our new puppy came to us full of- to put it delicately- Intestinal parasites. As disgusting as that is it’s common for puppies especially when they 1st leave their mommies. Needless to say he has had a tummy ache since he got here! Upon our 2nd visit to the vet we discover he indeed has SEVERAL parasites! GROSS! And they make his skin flaky and dry. The veterinarian suggested that I give him a little pumpkin every day to soothe his stomach and help firm up his poop. The treatment would not help with the poo for a while- but they would make him feel better. Also adding some oil to his diet would help immensely with the dry skin. I could certainly give him a spoonful of pumpkin everyday but I also wanted to help out with the dry skin. It sounded like a treat recipe was in the making!
I went online (of course) and discovered flax seed and it’s oil is good for skin. I did not have any flaxseed oil on hand- but I did have flaxseed meal and olive oil. I also read that ginger is soothing to the doggy tummies- that makes sense doesn’t it ? Ginger is very soothing for humans. Apples are good for your tummy so I decided applesauce would be a good idea as well. This treat contains everything that the pup needed. I also decided to minimize the processed wheat using several alternative grains and alternative flours.The results are below. These treats I call “Feel better Little Puppy” Pumpkin Hearts. Why don’t you give them a try?
“Feel Better little Puppy” Pumpkin Hearts
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup of olive oil
2 eggs
1 cup instant brown rice
1 cup rice flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup bulgur
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoon ginger powder
2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed or flaxseed meal
1 cup cold chicken broth or cold water
Heat oven to 350°F.
Combine all dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together well. In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients except for the water and mix together. Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients- mix with a large wooden spoon and then your hands- inside the bowl to minimize mess. Add half cup of water/broth and then more as needed to combine. Mix well. Roll one third of the dough out on a well-floured surface at a time. Roll to ¼ inch thickness. The dough will be sticky. Add flour liberally as needed on both sides to keep dough from sticking to the countertop or the rolling pin. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Poke holes on the tops of the shapes t keep treats from puffing up too much. Bake at for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Store in airtight container or the fridge.
Fear and loafing.
Last night I made cinnamon raisin swirl bread. I found the recipe in Fine Cooking magazine last month. I was having a special guest over for breakfast so I wanted to do something delicious and showy. Cinnamon raisin swirl bread in the shape of manatees was the perfect solution! This is my 1st time to make cinnamon raisin swirl bread. This is my 1st time to make cinnamon raisin bread at all. I like to make bread. It’s fun, although I find myself afraid of handling it too much. I think it’s because I make so many biscuits. Anyway here’s a shot of the breads right after they came out of the oven. I didn’t plan for them to turn out looking like big lazy sea going mammals- but there’s no denying it.That’s exactly what I see when I look at them. I am a little bummed- It was pretty late when I finished last night, so the 1st photographs are kind of dark. The next group of photographs aren’t quite as dark, but it is kind of gloomy and overcast today, so they’re not as bright as I would like for them to be either. I am eating bread to feel better. Do scroll down if you decide not to read any further… the photos of the toast are lovely.
Cinnamony manatees in the midst (mist)
Here the loaves are this morning showing off the center. Those big globs in the swirl are HUGE raisins from Central Market bulk. WOW! They were big! I will probably use “normal” sized raisins next time. It’s very cinnamon-y. The recipe called for a total of 6 TB of cinnamon. Some folks who reviewed the recipe online complained about this, they thought it was too much. I thought it was perfect. There are some things I will do differently next time, and there will be a next time, sooner than I’d like to admit. I’ll try to roll the bread out to a more even thickness and pay more attention when I’m rolling it into shape. Sometimes I get so caught up in the technical part and I forget the important artistic pieces at the end. Again, it’s mostly about fear, and loafing! (Sorry I had to!)
swirly insides
I also made a frittata for us this morning. During last night’s session I also made a loaf of the easy little bread that I posted about a few days ago. It was again really really delicious. We needed salsa, so I made a batch of that this morning while we hung out, and we had that with our eggs. Once this beautiful cinnamon bread was toasted it became something super extra special that I cannot even describe! Butter took it to an entirely new level. Give this recipe a try when you’ve got a little time on your hands, and want to make something special. You won’t regret a single bite.
Toast like yo' mamma never made you!
Winner winner!
Congratulations to the lovely and lucky Eve Agush! She is the randomly chosen winner of the Massive Yoga Book Giveaway!
Thanks to everyone who entered. I will do this again in a few months, so stay tuned!
Smooch!
Wonderful Easy Bread (makes you poo)
I have recently discovered that I really enjoy making bread. And you notice that I didn’t say “baking bread” because I think of baking bread as bread that you have to knead. I do love to knead dough and make proper bread, but I also love to make quick breads. These “quick” breads sometimes contain yeast in the recipe but rise in the pan very quickly. And some, like banana bread, you just stir together and put in the oven. This bread is one of the former. You have to bloom the yeast, but don’t get nervous, it’s very easy. Basically, you mix the yeast in warm water and a little honey let it sit for 10 min. Pour that into the flour and oats mixture mix the dough with a spoon, put it into the pan, let it sit for 30 minutes. Put it in the oven. It’s that easy!
This is a recipe that I found on 101 cookbooks. This is Heidi Swanson’s food blog. It’s wonderful! She inspires me so much! I feel kind of silly because it seems I’m constantly referring to her recipes here. What can I say? She’s fantastic. She calls this the easy little bread. She apparently got this recipe from another recipe book (from New Zealand) and made it her own, much like I have done here. If you click that link you will find her recipe. I added pecans, because I’m from Texas, and we put pecans anywhere we can! This loaf was begging for ‘em!
The next day, all that's left of the loaf.
Here’s a photograph of the other side of the bread, you can see it’s kind of boring looking Compared to this beautiful grainy exterior.
Somewhat boring looking.
But then all you need to do is slip it into the toaster, and magic happens! Butter is of course optional–I usually take that option.
Magical toast!
I urge you to give this easy little bread to try. You won’t be disappointed. I promise! I also think it’s appropriate here to make a side note that Heidi was probably to polite to mention. This bread has an incredible effect on the digestive system. If you’re feeling sluggish and feel like you need a little help, this little bread will change your life. I am not kidding. You’ll poo like mad. Enjoy my friends!
New puppy in town & How to: Overcook a Chicken
George loves Frank
This last week has been wild! There is a new puppy in town, and is name is George. George is a live teddy bear, and we all love him- TONS! Puppy’s are SO demanding! It IS all about The Puppy. Of course, I have been cooking much less because of The Puppy, but I have managed to sneak in a few things. I made a pork and chicken italian sausage red sauce for pasta. It was derived from my husband’s aunt’s recipe. Her’s contained beef and veal. I am not ready for that just yet- I thought it came out pretty good. Mr. thought it a bit bland. Veal. Beef. sigh. That’s another post.
I also roasted the hell out of a chicken. This is easy to do. First, under cook the chicken. Sigh.Butterfly the chicken and cook until you think it should be done but it will not be done. Refrigerate overnight. The next day cook the chicken in foil at 400 degrees until there is no chance of it being edible. A couple of hours should do it. Feed the chicken to the dogs over a few days.
Wednesday I cooked Chicken Cacciatore a la Michael. That is a no heat version. No peppers of any kind, (not any. not bell peppers. none.) except for fresh black pepper. Onions, mushrooms, carrots and celery roasted with lots of fresh basil and thyme in tomatoes and homemade chicken broth. (broth from the freezer. I. Am. So. Smart.) It was deelish. Also declared a success by Mr.! That’s worth everything. I made my southern yogurt biscuits to go with the hearty dish. Perfect really. Last night I made Heidi Swanson’s Easy Little Bread recipe- with my own little riff. More on that another day. Here’s her recipe and pics. Try it, you’ll love it!
This weekend I want to make brownies, and cakes and some soup. There are Meyer lemons and blood oranges calling to me. I bought them for specific recipes but… I cant remember what they were. Now where is