English Muffins

One time, I saw this utterly ridiculous video on the internet of a man who made a full-on meal in a hotel room from ingredients available at the corner store. I don't know if I buy the whole thing but it did make me stop and think ... are English muffins really that easy to make?



Sure, with a lot of time and patience. We usually buy whole wheat English muffins, so that's what I made. And truthfully, they are easy to make. But, as you can see, I wasn't very patient and had the heat on too high.

Maybe next time I'll try it on the iron.

Tortillas

One of the fascinating things I find about cooking dishes from different cultures is that there is always some variation of bread - some combination of flour, water, and heat.

And bread is always good.

Now that I'm pretty much a full resident of southern California, it was time I made tortillas.


Beautiful, no?

I'm glad I tried it. Probably wouldn't try it again. They're a lot of effort, especially if you don't have a press to get them really, really thin. And they're so cheap and tasty from the store, why mess with success?


Slow cooker salsa chicken. Always a win.

Party Ideas

A while back, we had a little get together at our house. I don't want to call it a party, so we'll just leave it at that.

There were a lot of people, so we just got one of those giant sandwich trays from Costco. Love those, by the way. They're always a win.

Now, no event at my house is complete without me cooking something.

Bread is pretty simple to make, believe it or not, so I made a couple of loaves with garlic mixed in, and topped with tomatoes and olives to serve with cheese. Yum. Too bad no one really liked olives.
Then I had the creative idea to serve a simple, easy, but unique dessert. Smores!

Yes, I know most of the fun of these is getting to play with fire in a semi-dangerous situation, but it was mid-day and there were a lot of people. And yes, these are just marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed up graham crackers. And ... they sort of look like little mushrooms. Which would be cute for a garden themed party right?

But I swear I set out a couple of plates of these (LOTS of marshmallows) and they were all gone.

Irish Soda Bread

So let's try again.

Remember when I graduated from school and said I was going to sleep for a month? I may or may not have done that. And then everything was supposed to be all easy and fun.
Instead all this other stuff happened. I was blogging and that was kind of fun, but I never really advertised it because I really don't like attention (true story). But here's the other part of the story: there's a whooooole lot of life outside my kitchen. Plus most of my work is sitting on the computer, so guess what I don't want to do when I get home? There's this huge world of stuff to see and do and being on a computer all the time = not fun for me.

Not to mention the pressure. I cook a lot, and the photos are a pain to edit and upload and all that garbage (I don't like to read blogs without photos). So those add up. Maybe I got burned out on cooking, too, since I felt like I always had to make something new and exciting. Dumb, I know.

But people see my pictures on facebook. Actually, lots of people. So maybe they're not interested in a blog about how to actually make the stuff, but it sure does help me - I make the same thing over and over again if it's good, and every time I make it I think "ooh, next time, I'll do this!" And promptly forget.

Here's the deal: I'll do 50% catch up, and 50% new stuff. Here's catch up #1:

Irish Soda Bread.

Around St. Patrick's Day (MARCH, people), the internet was all about making Irish foods. I resisted, because this must have been around the time that I was getting a little burned out. But then at the last minute, I really, really wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

Hence, the Irish soda bread, which was what I could make late on St. Patrick's Day with stuff on hand. It came out ugly, but so good. There's about 1,000 recipes, but this one worked just fine.

Stick around and if you're nice, I'll let you in on the other good stuff I've been cooking.

It's looking at me.

One day I came home from work, and wanted a snack. Specifically, bread and butter. Most people would probably just get a slice of bread and eat that but me? I have to make some skillet bread.

Everything was going fine until I flipped it onto a plate ...



I ate it anyway.

Red Lobster Biscuits

Don't laugh.

You've been to Red Lobster. You know these biscuits are probably the very best part of a trip there. Actually, Red Lobster is one of my family's places. There aren't a lot of places to get good seafood there - we're so spoiled here on the coast! And I will not eat something out of the Mississippi River. Just trust me.

Plus, I have a special memory from a dinner there. My grandmother, who by the way is one of the coolest people ever, told me to try one of her crab legs. And I did, even though I wasn't a seafood-eater at all. Thus started an expensive habit.

Anyway, recipes kept popping up everywhere. To the point that I finally gave in.


And, sadly, these didn't cut it for me. But I'm pretty sure it was my fault. I bought this "heart smart" Bisquick the last time, and I don't think it's as good as the real thing. And then I didn't have any oregano (I know!!), so I substituted parsley. Fail, guys. Fail.

I'd try again, and pay better attention to the recipe. But I'll stick to my California seafood.

Popovers

Popovers were literally everywhere on the little part of the internet I watch for about a week. I didn't even know what they were, really, before then. And then my own mom starts talking about them! She made some when we visited, and I could understand the attraction. (They're starting to sound really good right now, actually...)

They're so common that the Oracle had a recipe. An easy one, apparently. So I made these one night with a spaghetti and meatball dinner because, gosh darn it, I really wanted them.


As you can see from the picture, I'd like to call these Escapees rather than popovers. Watching them in the oven, they literally looked like they were crawling out of my ... ahem ... muffin pan. No, I don't have a special popover pan. I don't want one. Nonstick is the way to go. Rusty aluminum that you justify is OK because you use muffin liners is not. RIP old muffin pan.

The batter was sort of pancake consistency, and a good shot of cooking spray would have probably been as good as wiping the cups with shortening. They came out just perfect, although I understand there's a more complex and proper way to make them. According to the internet, people have trouble with them deflating. I promise I don't have the magic touch, guys. They're not hard.

I hear these are a good breakfast food. Is it tomorrow yet? Anyone up for breakfast?

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Hi. Happy new year!

I used the month of December 2009 to enjoy the holidays, and I hope you did too. Here's what's happened in between now and then:

• All the California family got together for Thanksgiving. I loved it.
  
• I worked at my new job.
• I helped hang gutters before the first big rain in our new house, and it ended in tragedy. OK, not really, but it's a funny story. Well, maybe not so funny as gory. Let's just say ... I haven't run in a month.
  
• I got the house (specifically, the upstairs bathroom and guest bedroom) in order for family to visit. Had no idea that picking out, much less hanging, curtains was such a pain.
  
• Re-caulked two bathtubs. One failed. I hate caulking.
  
• In-laws came, and drywalled in the garage. Not kidding. Luckily this distracted everyone enough not to notice that I picked out a superbright sea green for the laundry alcove. Heh heh heh.
• I read the first three Twilight books. You see, my popular culture knowledge drops off around 2004, when we decided cable was just not worth it (and proceeds to become less worth it). Since everyone's been going on about it, I gave in. I'll have to say it wasn't as bad as expected, although keep in mind that my expectations were very, very low. This about sums up the first book. And if you'd like to know what I thought about it, go read this guy's blog. I guarantee it's a better use of your time than actually reading the books. Really, this is what people think is healthy? Yikes, guys. Husband: thank you for not eating me. (I'm still waiting on the Life of Pi and Sense and Sensibility from the library, so don't judge.)

Obviously, I wanted to spend the holidays entertaining and having fun with family and friends. I hope you did too! This meant a lot less computer time. And I'll be the first to say I didn't miss being tied to my email/google reader/bank accounts.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen ...

I was on a cinnamon raisin bagel kick for a while. Actually, cinnamon raisin anything. So I got some raisins and tried making this cinnamon swirl bread. I don't have a bread machine, so I'm not quite sure why I didn't get the kind of dough that you can roll out and roll up to make that pretty swirl.

It still looked pretty nice! There was enough dough for two loaves, so I made some mini loaves as well. And it satisfied my cinnamon raisin craving just fine.

Time went on and I didn't really do anything with this loaf. It just kind of sat on the counter for a while.

Then one morning, I was thinking about french toast. I've never actually made it; it seemed really hard (and who could go up against IHOP?). But this loaf was going to go bad, so I consulted the Crocker Oracle for french toast.

I'm lame, I know. It's easy to make. I was intimidated for nothing.


Even with fairly thick slices, a whole loaf of bread makes a lot of french toast. There's probably still some in the freezer. Yes! You can freeze french toast!

This has to make you think: why not make french toast out of any bread that's been around a little too long? Or what other kinds of bread can you make in to french toast? Gingerbread? Pumpkin?

Pumpkin Cake

Since I didn't have a proper treat to take in to my last day of work, I wanted to make something quick. And impressive. And tasty.

What did I have on hand? Pumpkin.

I also had an untouched springform pan. Normally they're for cheesecakes, but why not a cake? But, I was a little squeamish about making a pumpkin cake from scratch given my recent track record and short time frame. Pumpkin bread is pretty fluffy, so why not that?

I can't remember which recipe I used, but they're all pretty close to each other. Here's a big list of them for you. Take your pick.



Springform pans are generally a little larger than regular cake pans; therefore, it came out pretty short. To be honest, it came out pretty meh. So I made a simple, quick vanilla glaze out of my Betty Crocker. I've been meaning to learn how to make it, but was always kind of intimidated. Sometimes the simplest recipes come out the hardest! Now that I know what to do, though, I expect it to be a quick add for a lot of my baked goods.

I had some green frosting left over from a previous project (I don't know what, but it wasn't the Halloween cake. This actually came before Halloween.) and these awful, awful pumpkin spice kisses. They only taste good mixed with something else. So I made a little quick pumpkin-esque decoration around the edge.

It went over pretty well at work (and, I heard later, the next day). No one knew it was bread rather than cake. This is the perfect kind of thing to bring in: sturdy, travels well, keeps for a while, and easy to make!

Pitas and Hummus

It's two for one!

I needed something to take to a picnic besides some ribs. I'd been meaning to make hummus out of the two cans of chickpeas in the cabinet, and to try making bread on the stove. This seemed like as good an opportunity as any! Obviously it's easier to make a simple appetizer from scratch than to spend $5 at the grocery store.

Our grocery store just started carrying pitas in the last year. In fact, they now have a little shelving section to all different kinds of flatbreads. But I'd seen this article on baking without the oven after watching a silly video of a man making English muffins on an iron in a hotel room. Did this actually work?

While the (whole wheat!) pita dough was rising, I got to work making hummus. Hummus is one of those foods that you shouldn't use a recipe to make. I loosely based mine off of this recipe, but after a long and bitter battle with the food processor, I really don't know how much I ended up putting in aside from two cans of chickpeas and 1/3 cup of almonds.

That's right. No tahini. Just almonds on hand. Tahini is just sesame seeds whipped in to a paste, so it stood to reason another nut could stand in. There's a wealth of information on the internet about tahini substitutions. It worked out just fine. Over-filling the food processor did not work out as fine.

There was plenty of extra-light olive oil involved. Hm, I wonder how butter or margarine would fare?

Embarrassingly, it took probably about an hour to get the hummus blended. The dough hadn't really risen much, but it was time to get cooking anyway. I'm starting to wonder, though, if my yeast is too old. Or if it just didn't have enough power to lift up the wheat flour, which seems extra heavy to me. Regardless, I pressed out six inch flat rounds and threw them in a pan in some olive oil cooking spray. They didn't puff up, but they did cook in about a minute in a half on each side as advertised.

Whatever. It came out tasting good. And even though there were leftovers, I'd say they went over with the crowd pretty well.

Very, very simple. And it's pretty Martha to show up at a picnic saying "Oh, I just made some pitas and hummus to bring this afternoon."

Blueberry Quick Oat Bread

Much like bananas in my home, it came to be that I had a substantial amount of blueberries that were not looking as appealing for my morning cereal.

So, like bananas, it only made sense to bake them. Right?

And lo and behold, here's a recipe that asks for blueberries and oats. Doesn't it just sound like breakfast in a loaf?

Normally this recipe wouldn't see the light of day in my kitchen because it requires buttermilk. As much as I like buttermilk, it's something that I don't use enough to justify buying. It'll just go bad. And then I caught wind of a magical, mystical invention: powdered buttermilk.

And sure as sunrise, there it was in a nice little can at the local Ralph's. It has to be refrigerated, but a little internet research shows it lasts forever. Plus, there's the extra possibility of freezing, as regular milk fat gets damaged when frozen.


The only thing this recipe was missing was that crunchy, sugary topping that appears on all worthwhile-calorie muffins. I just used a quick streusel recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook. It's essentially 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, a few tablespoons of butter, and cinnamon. It shouldn't be this melty; for some reason I was convinced it wouldn't stick to the bread if the bread was almost finished cooking. But of course, the butter in the streusel melts and gets sticky! I'm glad I finally cracked the book open for this. It's the perfect substitute for frosting or glaze. This is too much for this size of a loaf, but like sweet, sugary, buttery topping was ever a problem.

I also kept in mind a lesson from earlier to go ahead and destroy those blueberries. This is a chunkier bread, though, so it's not as important.

And oh, what a wonderful bread. Highly recommended for work potlucks, especially if it will make you look like a domestic goddess to your coworkers.

An interesting story about my loaf pan: it's a little smaller than you'd expect. It's over 50 years old. Back then, banks offered extra little incentives to open an account, much like how they give out ipods or $25 now (I'd totally go for the bakeware). It sat in my grandma's attic for years in its original, unopened packaging. Sure, I'm probably adding a healthy dose of lead or asbestos to our food, but if it isn't the little trooper of a pan!