Whoopie for Whoopie Pies!

Our weather took a turn for the colder after a nice early week-long melt. Well, being indoors makes me think about baking. It's efficient to help warm the house using the oven, right?

Today I couldn't resist the allure of a Whoopie Pie any longer. I dug out my favorite recipe that's been through at least 6 moves with me. It's from the Sunset Cookies Book. The original recipe is called "Chocolate Cream Cushions".
Cookie Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
5 Tablespoons Cocoa
6 Tablespoons Butter (softened)
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

Step 1: Sift Flour, Baking Soda, Salt and Cocoa into a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
Step 2: Cream Butter and Sugar. Add Egg and Vanilla. Blend well
Step 3: Add 1/3 of milk blend til incorporated
Step 4: Add 1/3 of flour mixture. Blend til incorporated
repeat steps 3 & 4 until all of the milk and flour mixture are gone. Give the bowl a good scrape with a rubber spatula to make sure it's all mixed in.

The batter should be thick and a bit fluffy.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets. the recipe states by teaspoonfuls, but I use a #20 disher about 2/3 full. (A disher is like an ice cream scoop).

Bake in 400* preheated oven for 10 minutes. Do Not Overbake! The tops will spring back when lightly pressed.

Cool cookies well then make a sandwich using the Buttercream Icing (recipe next) to stick the halves together.

Buttercream Frosting: 10 Tablespoons Soft butter (the original recipe calls for 12, but I didn't want to break open another stick)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla (Yum for the extract we made for the Holidays!)
1 Cup Confectioners Sugar
6 Tablespoons Fluff (yep the kind you remember from the fluffernutter sandwiches ash a kid).

Beat this until it's all fluffy and delicious. Spread a generous amount onto one of the cookies. top with another cookie. Enjoy!

Talking Turkey

It almost seems sacrilegious to talk about turkey in March, but I had one left over from Christmas. I was proactive last November and purchased two fresh Amish turkeys: one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas. We ended up going to the in-laws in Ohio for Thanksgiving, so I ended up freezing BOTH fresh turkeys. We did roast one in the traditional fashion for Christmas, but the Thanksgiving bird was just taking up space in the deep freeze.

After thawing slowly in the refrigerator for about 3 days, I propped him up on a can of beer and slowly cooked him on the Weber grill. It took about 2 1/2 hours for the 11 pound bird to cook. He came out golden brown, crispy skinned delicious. I didn't brine this one, so he wasn't as moist as I would usually like. I also didn't do anything to spice him up - very unusual for me.

After cooling overnight in the fridge we carved off all the 'good stuff' for sandwiches, soups and pot pie leaving the unsightly naked turkey corpse. That stuff has not fulfilled its full turkey destiny - yet. Into the stock pot with any vegetable scraps it went covered with just enough water to ensure it all swims. Then, as Chef Anne Burrell chants, "BTB-RTS-STS" - bring to boil, return to simmer, skim the scum. After simmering for a couple of hours the bare bones are sent to the trash while the little bits of meat go to the dogs. The rest is strained off reserving the liquid for some special stuff!

Turkey Stock
I cannot believe how many people spend good money on stock that is loaded with preservatives and salt. It is so easy to make your own that there's really no need. The plus for me is it falls into the Waste Not Want Not category. Make chicken, beef or pork stock using these same steps.

Ingredients:
1 turkey carcass
any vegetable scraps you have around (we save onion skins, celery tops, carrot peels, whatever is around)
Water to barely cover

Process
Dump it all into a stock pot. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer for a couple of hours. Cool a bit. Strain stock into smaller containers to use/Chill/freeze.

If you're feeling adventurous (or if you forget it's on the stove like I did) simmer the strained juice for a while longer to concentrate the flavors.

What's Turkey Stock Good For?
Use it in place of water to cook rice, beans, lentils, barley (get the picture?)
Make soup
Make gravy for Turkey Pot Pie (that's for tomorrow folks!)

Be happy!

Crock Pot Braised Pork Chops

For those people out there who don't have time to cook, or cannot afford to eat healthy food because it's sooooo expensive, here's another recipe for you. Keep in mind that I treat food recipes as starting points. Sometimes when the mood strikes I will modify quantities and sub out ingredients.

Tonight we enjoyed Crock Pot Pork Chops. I purchased a bulk package of pork chops a couple of weeks ago and froze portions in vacuum sealed bags forgetting to brine them. To me, defrosted pork chops seem to come out dry if not brined - that is UNLESS YOU BRAISE THEM.

Ingredients Used:
3 boneless pork chops
1 large onion
2 apples
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
2 cups Chicken broth
1 cup or so red wine (it was on the counter, so why not?)
2-3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
Fresh ground pepper - to taste
A handful of shredded red cabbage (it was in the fridge and looked pretty...)
3-3 large carrots, peeled cut in half

Step 1: Brown pork chops in sautee pan in a little oil (I used Olive). Get a nice caramel color on both flat sides. Transfer to crock pot

Step 2: Sweat onions - in the same pan the chops came out of. Lightly sweat - not caramelize. Put that into the crock pot.

Step 3: pile the rest of the stuff in. No particular order. Just make sure the chops are on the bottom.

Step 4: Cook long and slow all day long. It will be ready when you get home. We actually started it late on Sunday and realized too late that we didn't get it started in time. I cooled the crock, chilled over night then put back on the heat for a few hours today.

We didn't make any sides for this, but a nice egg noodle or rice would be nice to soak up the broth. I could have reduced the liquid as a thicker sauce, but didn't. It was bowl slurping good as it was. The whole dinner (with plenty left over for lunch tomorrow) totalled about $10.00. This was FAR less money than any fast food place for dinner and sooooo much healthier.

Enjoy!

Noodles and Chocolate Pudding

As you have probably read, we have an abundance of eggs. Using chicken eggs seems easy. Omelettes, fritattas, scrambles, hard cooked, salad, you get the gist. What is more difficult is using the duck eggs. I suppose I should 'man up' and just try one outright, but the thought of tasting too strong of an egg has me hesitant. Instead, I bake with them. Sunday night I wanted something tasty, yet a bit healthy to eat. I didn't feel like meat, so Teagan and I made some semolina egg noodles. The fresh cooked noodles we then stir fried into vegetables with a bit of parmesan cheese. This is one super way to get veggies into my family.

Semolina Egg Noodles
2 Egg yolks (we used duck)
1 cup Semolina Flour
1 cup AP Flour
1 T Good Olive Oil
1 Pinch Salt (we used kosher)
a little water.

I used my Kitchenaid paddle mixer to mix all ingredients together and knead. The mix seemed a little dry, so I added cool water 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture was a smooth ball. Then I wrapped the dough ball in plastic wrap and chilled for a couple of hours.
When ready to cook, Teagan and I rolled out 1.4 of the dough at a time on the pasta maker and cut them using the wide noodle setting. 3 minutes simmering in salted water and they were done.

Veggie Stir Fry:
I cleaned the freezer on this one. Broccoli florets, cauliflower, carrots in different colors, pea pods. I steamed the veggies to get the cooking started, then transferred them into a preheated (hot) wide skillet along with 1T olive Oil and a pinch of salt. I added a can of diced tomatoes with the juice and tossed around for abut a minute. Then I added the noodles and tossed it around to coat the noodles with the juice from the pan. Sprinkled a tablespoon or two of parmesan cheese into the pan to heat and served. Yummo. We had enough for 2 servings each for dinner and a lunch the next day.

Dessert Time: Chocolate Pudding A La Teagan
1 cup chocolate milk (she never finishes the little bottles from lunch time
1 cup whole milk (we use organic)
4 t Corn Starch
1/2 - 2/3 cup cane sugar (more or less to taste)
2 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
a handful of mini chocolate chips - because they were there
1 t Vanilla

Step 1:
Combine sugar, corn starch, 1 1/2 cups milk and the chocolate to a sauce pan. Warm through to gentle simmer

Step 2: beat egg yolks lightly in a bowl with 1/2 cup milk

Step 3: temper egg mixture with hot milk/sugar/chocolate.
Pour 1 - 2 tablespoons of the hot milk into the egg mixture while stiffing/whisking. Continue to add hot milk slowly until about 1/2 of the milk mix is mixed into the eggs. Return the tempered egg mixture back to the pan and bring to simmer stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken and coat a spoon. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla. Optionally you can add a butter pat to make it even more decadent and silky.

Pour into either separate bowls (around 6) or a single bowl. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent 'skin' from forming. Chill thoroughly.

Serve either as-is or topped with whipped cream. This stuff is amazing frozen into ice cream. Add slivered almonds for a little texture. Your imagination is the limit.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year!

A kind "Disher" help to remind me that it has been a very long while since the last topic. Once I turned 40 last September, the year just kind of escaped. As you can imagine, the holiday months were busy and simply flew by, leaving me at January in Chicagoland where I have to look forward to cold, cold and more cold. On the bright side, I'm only looking at about 10 more weeks of it before Spring.

Filling time is pretty easy. I have so many hobbies that I run out of time to do them. One of my favorites is cooking. Yesterday I made a traditional Bouf Bourguignon. What a fancy name for a beef stew with red wine. I don't often follow an exact recipe, but rather take bits and pieces from many other recipes and follow instinct on the rest. Here's what I did:

Beef Stew with Red Wine:
2 # Sirloin Roast cut into 1 - 1.5 inch cubes.
A bunch of Carrots peeled and cut in half so they were about 5 inches long. I love carrots, so I used about 8 large. Not traditional, but it's my recipe!
Celery - I love celery in stews - 5-6 large ribs cut in half to make 5 inch long pieces
A small bag of peeled pearl onions. Frozen is OK. (Peeling Tip:boil the whole onions for 2 seconds. The peels fall off with nearly no tears.)
2 cans of stock (I had no fresh available, so I used 1 chicken and 1 beef I had on hand.)
A bottle of Red Wine (Used Menage a Trois today).
A little flour
A couple tablespoons of veg and.or olive oil
A few Bay Leaves

Step 1: Brown the beef
- My beef was partially frozen from the fridge (woops...). If it were thawed I would have dried it with paper towels, but it was dry being frozen. Put a handful of beef in a hot pan with olive oil. Brown all sides, then move cubes to a bowl while the next batch of beef browns.
- When all beef is brown, sprinkle a bit of flour on the cubes and return to pan to form a little crust.
Step 2: Load the crockpot
- Move beautiful brown beef into crock pot set on low.
- Deglaze beef suate pan with 1 cup wine. Reduce to a few delicious tablespoons and get every last bit into the crockpot.
- Add vegetables, bay leaves and stock to the crock pot.
- Wait patiently all day long with tummy rumbling in anticipation
-Had I thought to buy mushrooms I would have cooked them down in butter and oil at this point.
- Make your side(s). Potatoes go well with this!

Step 3: create the sauce
- About 30 minutes before ready to devour, pour crock pot liquid into a wide sautee pan.
- Reduce by 2/3
- Add 2 cups of wine to the reduced liquid.
- Reduce again to equal roughly 2 cups.
-Season with pepper, herbs, etc. as you like.
Step 4: EAT!
-Remove bay leaves (if you can find them easily)
- Spoon crock pot contents into bowls
- Add some sauce
- the rest is history.

We had fresh buttermilk biscuits as a side. They come in very handy to sop up and stray sauce.
Buttermilk biscuits
Ingredients:
2 cups AP flour
2 tablespoons lard
2 tablespoons cold butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
1 cup Buttermilk
Step 1: Bowl ingredients
Combine all but buttermilk in a bowl until the mix resembles crumbs or very small peas.
Add 3/4 cup buttermilk and mix around. If the mix seems dry, add the remaining 1/4 cup.
Mix slightly.
Step 2: Knead and Cut
Turn mix onto counter (I use wax paper at this point)
Knead 4-6 times, then flatten the mixture out in a disc roughly 3/4 to 1 inch thick.
Cut into whatever shape suits you. I make 4 inch circles with frilly edges, but that's me.
Ste 3: Bake
Bake in 425F oven for 11-14 minutes - when they just start to turn golden brown and delicious.

Happy winter!

Using frozen tomatoes

When I first left the corporate world in favor of full time Teagan-hood, I made a deal with myself that I would work through the freezers before buying anything new. You know how scary it is to no longer have that sweet income that allows you to waste with reckless abandon... I would have vowed to eat my pets before buying meat if I didn't love them so much. Plus that would be sick.

So, the update. It's been a little over 2 months and the garage freezer is nearly empty. It will be nice to unplug that power sucker for a month or so until the new veggies come in. I just pulled out the last three gallon ziploc bags of last season's tomatoes for tonight's dinner. What can you do with a frozen tomato you ask? Well, sauce of course. It's way easier than peeling, seeding, etc. right at harvest time when you're buried under a hundred pounds of ripe little time bombs.

Here's what we do. First pick the healthy tomatoes from the garden and wash them really well. Toss or use right away any that appear too 'ripe' to make it. Once washed and basically dried, they all get piled into gallon freezer bags and stored in the deep freeze until they're needed months later. That's it.

When you thaw them the clear water just drains out. That saves hours of simmering! The peels slide right off too. No boiling water bath to ice bath. Just toss the little buggers into a food mill to strip any leftover peels and seeds and you're left with lovely red tomato goodness. Skins and seeds go right to the dogs in this house.

To make sauce from the puree, I turn to Chef Anne Burrell for inspiration: Bolognese Type Sauce. The secret is to brown everything really well. As Chef Ann says, "brown food tastes good!". If I have some leftover ground turkey, beef or something I'll use it. If not, I'll go vegetarian. Here's a link to the original recipe.

Bolonese Inspired Sauce from fresh tomatoes-Meatless
1) In a food processor grind up a few carrots, a couple stalks of celery and some onion. If you have garlic and like the flavor of it, go ahead and add it. Use as much or as little as you like, but don't skimp on any of the veg. You can add other things like green pepper to the grind too. Go wild. Add a little Olive Oil to help the paste along. When finely ground, put the mush paste in a large hot pan with a little more Olive Oil and some salt. If you like a little zing, add some spicy oil.
2) Brown the dickens out of this stuff. Let it sit to carmelize. Don't fiddle too much with it or it'll never turn brown. Taste to make sure there's no rawness in there. This step should take at least 15 minutes or so. Don't rush it.
2a) If you're in a meaty mood, add your ground beef, turkey or whatever you have after the veg is brown. Again cook it well. (BROWN).
3) DEGLAZE: Once it's a nice color (read you can't tell carrots are in there...) deglaze your pan with a little wine. I use whatever is open. Red, white, whatever. I don't discriminate. You'll need a cup or 3 depending on how much mush you have. Reduce it all by about half. Taste for seasoning. You can add more salt, herbs, pepper. Whatever floats your boat. They key is to make sure you cannot taste rawness in there.
4) Tomato magic: COOK OUT THE TOMATOES. Without this step you'll have a raw tasting tomato sauce... Ick. Scoop in one soup ladel of the tomato puree from the food mill bowl into the pan and let it sizzle down to being nearly brown and mostly dry. It'll sizzle like crazy if your pan is hot enough. Repeat for at least half of your raw tomato puree. The flavor is exceptionally full when you reduce like this. Taste. Season accordingly. In chef Anne's version she adds water and simmers it out to develop flavor. Remember her recipe starts with tomato paste. This one is fresh. If you feel like you must follow a recipe, then by all means go for it. I generally prefer to move right to step 5.
5) Eat! Sometimes I'll just put cooked chick peas and/or beans into the sauce and eat as-is. Sometimes I add pasta. It depends on how the spirit moves me that day. This freezes pretty well, but I don't have much evidence of that since ours usually is completely GONE in a day or so. If it's spicy, a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt makes it smooth ans silky.

Happy eating.