Junie Moon: cooking

Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts

Thursday, October 20, 2016

October Bake-Along and Bake for Good

One of my goals this month was completing King Arthur Flour’s October Bake-along Challenge:Whole-Grain Bread.

After assembling all my tools and necessary ingredients, I got to work. It really was not at all hard to make this bread.

The challenge also fulfills my pledge to bake and share with someone in my community as part of Bake for Good Month. For every pledge made in October, King Arthur Flour will donate to Feeding America to fight domestic hunger.

After cooling, my nutritious bread offering went next door to my very pregnant neighbor.

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Celebrating Autumn: Hobbits and Muffins

In addition to today being Autumn Equinox, it is also the birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! To celebrate, I participated in the Hobbit Day 5K. September is also World Alzheimer’s Month. As I honor hobbits, part of my race fee goes to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund where 100% of donations goes directly to research towards a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Next up was King Arthur Flour’s Monthly Bake-along Challenge. The recipe this month is Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins.

There’s ingredient (boiled cider) that needed to be made ahead of time as it takes a few hours, so I did this step last weekend in preparation for today’s baking effort. Here is a recipe card I made using "The Washington Post’s" recipe.

I could have skipped the boiled cider ingredient, but if I’m going to the trouble to participate in a challenge of any sort, then I try to do so as authentically as possible.

The finished results were photographed by looking down the top of the Mason jar where I let it cool before storing in the fridge. The picture reminds me of the mosquito in the amber depicted in the Jurassic Park movie.

The rest of the recipe was pretty simple and did not take long at all to make and assemble. Here is how it looked coming out of the oven.

These yummy muffins are perfect for saying hello, autumn!

I wish you happy autumnal days full of hobbits and yummy muffins.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Goodbye, Summer!

Today is the last day of summer. It's hard to really see a transition to fall from summer in Florida, but we gave it a go today. I made Key Lime Pies in Mason Jars—here is the recipe link.

After tucking the treats in the fridge for later, my husband and I wandered over to the beach to say goodbye to summer. Living on the Gulf coast in the Florida panhandle, the water has brilliant days we call Emerald Days. Today’s water was gorgeous.

While we won't really see any cold weather until around Halloween, we still try to celebrate the seasons in our own beachy-kind of way. Goodbye, Summer!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

National Apple Dumplings Day

The National DayCalendar says today is a bunch of celebratory days, but I’m honoring National Constitution and Citizenship Day as well as National Apple Dumpling Day.

I made apple dumplings using King Arthur Flour’s recipe. Here they are fresh out of the oven.

The napkin is one of a set I made years ago to go with a quilt throw for picnics. My homemade vanilla bean ice cream goes perfectly with the dumplings. Here’s to standing up and honoring our citizenship and our Constitution!

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Homemade Potato Chips

The only time I’ve had made-from-scratch potato chips was at our local yacht club. Crispy and delicious, those chips made an impression on me. I decided to give it a try myself yesterday.

I followed Williams Sonoma’s very easy recipe. After cleaning and peeling the potatoes, I sliced them thinly using my mandolin.

Small batches were friend In my deep fryer so they would crisp evenly.

Seasoned with sea salt, my tasty treat was ready to taste.

My assessment: very yummy—this is something I’ll definitely do again.

Sources:

de Buyer Mandoline
Potato Chips Recipe
Sea Salt: bought during my recent trip to Bonaire

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Classic Lemon Madeleines

What to do on an overcast Saturday at the end of April? The answer is bake, of course. So, I tried a new-to-me recipe by Williams-Sonoma: Classic Lemon Madeleines

The purported origin of madeleines stems from Louis XV first tasting them at the Chateau Commercy in Lorraine in 1755 when baked by his father-in-law’s cook whose name was Madeleine.

There is also a literary reference to these morsels. French lemon sponge cakes were thought delicious by the French novelist Marcel Proust. He mentioned his mother making them in his Remembrances of Things Past: “…those squat, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell.”

Now to add a dusting of powdered sugar and then scoff down these tasty treats.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Rolling Along Julia Child’s Way

Three years ago, I read about Julia Child and her rolling pins. She favored a no-handled pin made of hard wood such as maple about 18-inches in length and a diameter of about 1 3/4 inches. Around the same time, my friends and I were taking a series of classes where we learned special cooking or baking skills from each other. One of those classes was for making donuts and other assorted goodies. On the supply list was bringing a rolling pin.

Source: Unknown

Remembering Julia and her rolling pin, I set about finding one and then decided I’d simply make a pin using Julia's specifications. That thought led to the idea of making a pin to gift each of my friends attending the baking class. Not having any previous wood workshop experiences other than some minor efforts with my dad, I ordered lengths of unfinished solid maple from a wood company and asked my friend Paula’s husband Sam to help me as he has every tool known to man. The following pictures show my progress.

To add a small note of grace, I personalized the pins by stamping each attendee’s initials into one end of the pin with a metal alphabet stamp set attached to a wood-burning tool to finish it off.

Sam was such a sweetheart to help me with this effort. I learned so very much from him and am grateful for his willingness to do this and his patience.

The final step involved using a special sealant made for wood items that come in contact with food.

Since a dish towel was also on the supply list, I tied a new dish towel around each pin.

Here are my friendship gifts—I loved this project and think Julia Child would have approved.

The class itself was so much fun and we made all sorts of yummy treats: maple bars, donuts, and so on. The series of classes/workshops helped us learn more about each other and the amazing skills each woman has to offer.

I miss my friends back in Tucson—they are such awesome people! Maybe I ought to start a similar sort of group effort here with my new friends as they all have skills in a variety of ways, too.

And these are the homemade cinnamon rolls I recently made using my own special rolling pin.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Water, Water Everywhere

It’s supposed to be a rainy day here in the Panhandle and some health emails I get keep telling me to drink more water. But I can’t stand outside with my mouth wide open to get water to drink—it’s rather hard on one’s neck. And since regular water bores me, I made a more interesting version yesterday before the rain moves in—yet again.

So, I’m giving the Skinny Fiber Fat Flush and Detox drink a try. I’m avoiding soft drinks—don’t drink them all that often anyway—but I am a big sweet tea drinker as a born-and-bred southern girl.

I made two big batches of this purportedly-healthy beverage from a recipe found on Pinterest. It involves merely slicing up 1 cucumber, 1 lemon, 2 limes, and 1 bunch of fresh mint. After dividing the ingredients between two large pitchers, I filled the pitchers with water and put them in the fridge to get cold. Super simple and tastes pretty good.

A small tea strainer works to filter out all the bits and pieces when pouring in my glass. While I probably will never give up my sacred southern sweet tea, I still need to drink more water for my health and this recipe makes for a less boring refresher than say … water.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Chips off the Banana

Happy Epiphany (Three Kings’ Day)! Today marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Epiphany colors are white and gold to celebrate new hope. It’s a feast day and I have a small food offering—homemade banana chips using a recipe I found on Pinterest. Although you have to stretch your imagination just a tad, the concept somewhat invokes white and gold.

Turn your oven on to 200°F. Using olive oil, lightly coat a piece of parchment paper to fit your cookie sheet(s). Slice bananas into thin chips, dip in lemon juice, and spread on a cookie sheet. Bake for 2 hours at 200°F, then turn over each little chip. Bake for another 1.5-2 hours or until crisp.

Each oven is different, so monitor your banana chips now and then. My husband actually liked the little treats and they do make for a healthy snack. I’ll give this recipe a repeat try in future.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Orange Zest Madeleines

Along with some sewing projects, new recipes have made their way on my must-do-right-away list. One of those recipes is for madeleines. While I’ve made these little cakes before, I thought I’d try yet another recipe version.

Dry, dense, heavy madeleines do not excite me; however, the particular recipe I used this time resulted in a cake that was moist and delicious with a lovely, light flavor as the result of using just the right amount of freshly-zested orange.

I learned three things when trying this new recipe:

Do not over-mix the batter.
Chill the batter in the fridge for at least an hour.
Bake your madeleines the same day they will be served.

Source: Amazon.com

The recipe was published in The New York Times and is an adaptation from one found in The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.

A batch was made for my knitting group and another for my mother-in-law’s bridge group’s game day. Both batches were eaten in what seemed one heart beat of time.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Spring Cupcakes

Our college hosted two visiting poets this week: Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno and Frank X Walker. In addition to events surrounding their work, a reception was held last night featuring readings of works by students published in this year’s college literary magazine.

When asked to bake cupcakes for the event, I envisioned butterflies flitting above flower cupcakes. So butterflies were made using one of Martha Stewart’s punches.

I glued each butterfly onto a 4.5-inch lollipop stick, bending the butterfly wings slightly to emulate flight.

Wilton’s flower cups are lovely, but do not bake in them as the sides spread and lose their form. I baked lemon cupcakes in plain white baking cups and inserted them into the flower cups later.

Vanilla-flavored buttercream frosting was made and piped on using a 1M tip. The color is a combination of Wilton’s Rose and Burgundy coloring gels.

My test cupcake—I quite like how it looks.

The cupcakes were packed in Cupcake Couriers and the butterflies ensconced in a large mug to carry to the event site in another town. I drove over there about an hour before the event, set out the cupcakes, inserted the butterflies, and zipped back to my town to teach a class. I hope the attendees liked my springtime offering.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

St. Patrick’s Blessings

Spring equinox is only a couple of days away. Florida is starting to feel more like—uh, Florida—than I’ve experienced over the last few months. For a purportedly warm state, it has been a cold winter. Or maybe it just feels that way to me since I’m a transplant from Arizona.

Spring also means the inevitable pollens running amok as plants join the animal kingdom in doing the wild thing to repopulate the world with their particular species. I’ve decided pine pollen is definitely not my friend as I’ve been sick with sinusitis for over a week and now have bronchitis.

Other than required English department meetings and my actual classes, I’ve had to opt out of all sorts of other activities in order to try to get well as tomorrow morning I’m flying back to Tucson to visit my husband, sister, and friends during my college’s spring break.

Although I feel as though a huge pine tree actually fell on me as opposed to just sharing its own form of plant pheromones to irritate my allergies, I did manage to bake numerous batches of traditional Scottish Shortbread for my students in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, I do know that St. Patrick was Irish. However, my shortbread mold represents all of the British Isles, so my baked offering works fine. Each segment of the mold offers the following representation: Thistles for Scotland, Celtic Knot-work for Ireland, a Tudor Rose for England, and a Welsh Dragon for Wales.