Adventures in Piping

I got a set of decorating tips and a piping bag for Christmas and thought it was finally time to give it a try. I have envisioned making gorgeous layered cakes with beautiful designs on them for a long time, but have always been thwarted by apprehension. Then I was inspired by an episode of Barefoot Contessa where Ina was celebrating her anniversary with her husband and just "whipped up" a three tiered cake with a simple, but elegant piping job on it. "I can do that!" I thought. Yes, I know, she is a professional and used to make all occasion cakes at her shop, but she made it look so easy, I was inspired.
I had an occasion to make a cake this weekend and I decided to go for it. The cake is a carrot cake recipe I got out of a "healthy" cookbook and it involves whipping egg whites until they are at "soft peak" stage and then folding in the ingredients one by one so as not to completely deflate the foam. It is a very "springy" cake in texture, pretty dense, and very flavorful. I love it and carrot cake is Erik's favorite. For the frosting, I have a relative who does not like confectioner's sugar, so I wanted to make the frosting without using it. I tried to find recipes on the internet without confectioner's sugar. Yikes. My new plan was to try Superfine sugar. I was worried even Superfine would be a bit grainy in the final product so I added just enough hot water to it to melt it before adding it to the cream cheese and butter I was beating up in the Kitchen Aid. This worked like a charm with the grainy issue, but sadly, left my frosting too soft. I tried switching out my paddle attachment for my whip attachment and that added some body to it. Then I put it in the fridge for a while to see what that would do, and that helped but not enough to hold the shape of the star tip piping. It could have maybe been chilled longer, but I think next time I will try the Superfine without mixing with water and see what that does.
Despite the "goopiness" of this frosting, I was not deterred from trying to decorate my cake. I think for a first attempt it's not too terrible. I need to work on the evenness of my strokes, and with this soft frosting I went too close to the edge on the top a couple times and it nearly fell right off.
Definitely a fun thing to try and I think there will be more elaborately decorated cakes in my future. Watch out, Ace of Cakes, I may be looking for a job soon ;)

Eggplant Fritters

Every so often I buy eggplant because for some reason I feel as though I should cook with it and like it. I don't know where this urge came from, but there it is. I feel like eggplant parmesan is a hassle and usually ends up greasy. Eggplant's ability to absorb grease and water can make it difficult to deal with and I also find it goes from not cooked, to mushy in about 20 seconds difference of cook time, so you have to watch it!
For this round of eggplant cookery, I found a recipe for eggplant fritters in the Joy of Cooking cookbook (right above the calf brain fritters). It involves precooking the eggplant in some water with a teaspoon of vinegar then creating a batter with some flour, baking powder, an egg and salt. Once the batter is made you have to let it rest for two hours, then fry it up! I have tried a similar batter in my deep fryer before and it slid through the basket before setting up and made a big mess, so this time I went with a sauce pan and enough oil to go 2/3 of the way up the fritters, requiring a flip halfway through cooking. I had a little trouble with them sticking to the bottom of my pan, but learned I just had to be firm with my spatula and all was well.
I made some tartar sauce to dip in, not knowing what might be traditional for this application, but really what savory fried food doesn't go well with tartar sauce? This may be one of my favorite eggplant concoctions thus far, but I've been told to try it on pizza... perhaps next time I get the urge in the produce aisle for this purple delight.

When life gives you 90 degree heat and humidity...

make lemonade! Or in this case, lemon-limeade, because I had some limes that were on their way out. I like mine really strong- the kind where you are left sucking your cheeks together after a gulp, so there are lots of lemons and limes in this one pitcher. Then it's just a matter of how much sweet you want to add in the form of simple syrup (equal parts sugar and hot water to dissolve the sugar).
You know those silly hypothetical questions like "if you could bring one _____ to a desert island, what would it be?" Well, lemonade might be the drink I'd bring. I swear, if I didn't think I would eventually burn a hole in my esophagus (and gain weight on the sugar) I would drink it all the time. Although, it is easier to savor as a special treat. This batch, really hit the spot!

Golden Graham French Toast

Sorry for the hiatus, blog readers, but as most of you know, I was busy having my second baby recently and due to my friends' and family's generous gifts of dinner brought to my door since the baby has been born, I haven't been doing much cooking! The one exception has been breakfast. I LOVE cooking breakfast and it is the meal that I only really get to make on weekends when the whole family is home to eat a leisurely morning meal. With Erik home on paternity leave, though, I've had ample breakfast cooking adventures and have enjoyed every attempt at it. I had to share this amazing version of french toast. I got the idea from Diners Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network where someone made Captain Crunch Cereal encrusted french toast. I was in awe of the genius idea. I try not to buy too much sugary cereal though because I love it so much I'd probably eat it two meals a day and that's just not healthy, however we did have some Golden Grahams in the house and I thought that would be a great variation.
The wet mixture had eggs, half and half, cinnamon and vanilla extract in it. Then I just pounded the cereal in a plastic bag with a meat mallet. I wanted there to be some bigger pieces, not just all powder crumbs, or I would have used the mini cuisinart. After a good soak in the wet mixture, I coated in the cereal and put on the griddle. I thought I had over done the crust a bit as it was nearly getting to be burnt, but Erik liked that deep flavor better than my less well done pieces. You do have to be careful that the temperature isn't too hot on the griddle because you can easily burn the cereal before the egg mixture has set. I loved the crunch and flavor the cereal brought to the toast- with a little maple syrup, it was perfect! I can't wait to try other cereals!

Local Flavors

Despite the abysmal weather we have been experiencing, there are some local products starting to hit the market and making me quite happy. Keagan and I went to a local farm for strawberries, honey and ice cream. I wish this blog was equipped to let you smell these berries because they are spectacular. The honey is from local bees, and is supposed to help people with seasonal allergies if you eat it (has to be _raw_ and local though). So we're testing out that theory, at least for Erik. I'm not a big allergy sufferer, I just like honey. Simple as it sounds, fresh strawberries and honey on toast makes for a delightful meal. The Maynard Farmer's Market is opening this weekend and I am looking forward to what else the farmers have been able to make grow in this dreary weather. Surprisingly, we've had our own luck getting a pumpkin seed to grow outside and are hoping we may get a home-grown Halloween pumpkin this year.

Shepherd's Pie

It has been a very cool, gloomy June and I've found myself cooking very "out of season" with things like roast beef. Why not have the oven on if it's 60 degrees and raining?? With the leftover roast beef and mashed potatoes, I decided to make a shepherd's pie... of sorts... it was a bit more soupy that I had wanted, but it was hearty, tasty and brought a bit of warmth to a cool, raw evening. It is a cinch to make if you have leftover meat and mashed potatoes, too. I also had leftover gravy, so the filling was simply chopped up meat, gravy, and veggies, then a big layer of mashed potatoes on top. This is one of those old-world dishes that has many incarnations, but for ease and tastiness for this evening, mine worked out just fine.

Summer Salads

Sometimes the same old macaroni and potato salads can get a little boring for summer cookouts (well, at least for some people, I might not be one of them). I have found two alternatives that are as tasty as they are beautiful in the bowl.
The first is a black bean and corn salad from a Rachel Ray recipe. You can probably still find the recipe at foodnetwork.com (I'm not going to chance copyright infringement here). It is incredibly simple to make and doesn't involve any cooking (perfect for a hot summer day). What makes this salad so tasty is the balance of sweet with the corn, salty with the beans, peppery punch of the red onion and freshness of the red pepper. Plus, the use of cumin and lime juice in the dressing adds a little something unexpected. It's also a great offering for vegetarians in your cookout crowd, who are sometimes left with carrot sticks and dip to eat ;) My only suggestion for this salad would be to add a touch of aroma and green color with some fresh flat-leaf parsley, or possibly cilantro (which I'm not a huge fan of, but could see it in here if you like it).
The second salad is a Greek Orzo and Spinach salad that I got a recipe for from a friend. I did my own bit of tweaking to it before it was done, but was very pleased with the results. I think what makes a big difference in this salad is the choice of produce. I used fresh baby spinach and let the heat of the cooked orzo wilt it just slightly with some olive oil to prevent sticking, then put it in the fridge to chill before adding the other ingredients. The rest of the additions are cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, feta cheese, and a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar and lemon juice, with some salt and pepper. I used Armenian cucumbers, which are small, very sweet cukes that you don't have to peel or seed. Grape tomatoes were the suggestion of the recipe, and I agree are a great choice. For the feta cheese, I found a mild cow's milk feta and bought it in a block so that I could leave it as little cubes in the salad. This way, if feta isn't your favorite, you can pick it out, but I was happy to see that with the milder version, the feta was a success. This was a fun salad to build. I didn't worry about the recipe's amounts for anything, I just went with how things seem to balance, added some more lemon juice when I thought it needed a bit more fresh bite and aroma, then some more salt when it had rest for a while and seemed a timy bit bland. The ratio of orzo to veggies is also up for fiddling with. Once you have the idea down, it's a great one to play with.