Strawberry Shortcake

Yesterday I was going through the fridge and saw that we still had heavy cream from my coconut pie.... then at the grocery store I saw that strawberries are finally coming into season.... Bingo!  I have to make strawberry shortcake!  I have made this recipe once before a couple years ago and Dano said it was "the best dessert" so, it was definitely time to make it again!

The original recipe is from "Vegetarian Cooking for Dummies" which actually has a lot of great recipes.  This isn't like a "cake" but more like a biscuit.  If you want it to be sweet like cake then add more sugar to the batter.  I like it a little blander because then it really brings out the sweetness of the strawberries.

1 qt strawberries, sliced and sprinkled with sugar
2 T sugar
2 c flour
3 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 c milk (regular or soymilk)
powdered sugar and/or whipped topping for garnish

Preheat oven to 450. Grease 8" cake pan.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, oil, and sugar in bowl and mix with a fork until crumbly.  Add milk and stir just enough to dampen dry ingredients.
Scoop batter into pan and press evenly with fingers.
Bake 20 minutes or until browned.
Allow cake to cool and slice lengthwise, fill with strawberries, and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Since it is just the two of us I just cut wedges and topped them so it wouldn't get soggy.

Enjoy!

Coconut Cream Pie

I have been wanting to make a post about this for a while but we have been so busy with the Godwit Days birding festival that I just haven't had time!  There is nothing that will wear you out quite like driving around looking at birds from sun up to sun down.... especially in the rain!

But we got the amazing opportunities to see tufted puffins (which can only be seen from shore one location in California), marbled murrelets (an endangered species), and this morning I got a great look at the brown shrike, an Asian bird that somehow lost his way and ended up in Humboldt!  People have been flying in from all over the country to see this bird that is hanging out right by our apartment--how amazing?!
Here's the picture I took through the scope

The real reason for this post though.... was my attempt to make my own coconut cream pie for book club last week!  If you like coconut cream pie, I highly suggest you attempt this recipe because it is delicious and easy.  I used this recipe from Allrecipes but made a few changes with the suggestions in the reviews and I used wide coconut for the top just because I thought it would be prettier ;) 

1 1/2 c canned coconut milk
1 1/2 c half and half
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c cornstarch
1/4 t salt
3/4 c coconut
1 t vanilla
1/4 c wide coconut, toasted (on a baking sheet for about 5 min at 350)
whipped topping
pie crust- using allrecipes article for baking

The only difference I made in the actual combining of ingredients is that I slowly added the already beaten eggs once the mixture was slightly warm.... otherwise you can just follow the directions in the link!

Enjoy!

a month of birthday cakes...

This past weekend was one of my best friends 25th birthdays and I really wanted to try to make an extravagant cake.  I have now completed all Wilton cake decorating classes and thought it was time to really challenge myself.  I've found since starting cake decorating that sometimes the hardest part is just coming up with an idea!  But for some reason this time it came to me pretty quick.... although throughout the process it changed a lot!

The party was on Saturday and I started getting things ready on Wednesday.  I began with making the fondant roses so that they would have a chance to dry hard before I started assembly.  Then I made the fondant that I would use to cover the cake.  Its a lot of work and was really tough on my kitchenaid.  I think in the future I might just knead it by hand.  I also think I might look into getting some food service gloves so that I can work the dye in without making my hands tie dyed!  I think too this time I let the fondant sit for a couple days wrapped in saran wrap and it was much easier to work with.   

I was most worried about making the fondant and smoothly getting it on the cake.... but my biggest challenges were the inside!  I tried a new recipe for lemon cake (I know, I know, no new recipes when it's important!) which did not pan out well.... Then I wanted to make the Italian Buttercream I made a week or so ago and try flavoring it with raspberry jam.  I made it ahead, refrigerated it, and tried to beat it up the next day... lets just say it looked so bad I didn't even want to taste test it! From now on that recipe will only be made the day of!

But besides all the set backs the cake turned out fabulous... I must say I even impressed myself a little bit!

I wish I had taken more pictures of the process but I felt so in over my head to think about anything else!  But here are links to the recipes I made for the party:

Marshmallow Fondant  - I did not add butter, but used a lot of shortening while working with it
Chocolate Frosting  - just the "perfectly chocolate" frosting recipe at the bottom.  I just eyeball the milk.... I always make it really thin if I'm going to be spreading it on a cake.
Salt and Pepper Cheese Puffs  - I added a couple teaspoons of powdered mustard and salt in the dough
Sangria - always make a double batch ;)
Jalapeno Popper Spread - I used about 3 fresh jalapenos instead of canned and added two diced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce from a can.  Added breadcrumbs on top and baked it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Now I have Dan's birthday coming up in a few weeks.... I better start planning!

Vanilla beans and lots of cilantro!

I think vanilla is the one ingredient I use a lot that really irks me to buy.... how can such a small bottle be so expensive?!  Then I came across this blog post and got really inspired to make my own!  I did a lot of research and also checked out the recipe on Allrecipes.  After looking at the price of vanilla beans at our local Co-op, I decided ordering them online would be cheaper even factoring in the cost of shipping.  Reading people's reviews, I choose Madagascar beans and purchased them through the website Beanilla.   

Don't they look so yummy?!  The actual process took only like 5 minutes!  I just sliced each vanilla bean down the center leaving the ends intact and dropped them into a vodka bottle!  Now I just have to wait 6-8 weeks... that will be the hard part!

Also Dano and I made a really delicious and super easy dinner last night that I thought I would pass along. 

We made two individual thai pizzas on large tortillas and hot and sour soup.  The original recipe for thai pizza is from Rachel Ray but we sort of make our own thing!  I started typing out each thing I change but I'll just give you a basic recipe!

pizza dough (if serving for more then 2) or large tortillas
plum sauce (in the asian section of the grocery store)
red pepper flakes
mozzarella cheese, shredded
bean sprouts
red pepper, diced
green onion, chopped
cilantro
peanuts

Just spread the plum sauce on the crust of your choice (if you are using pizza dough you might want to pre-cook it so it isn't soggy in the middle) and sprinkle with red pepper flakes (how ever much heat you can handle!).  Then top with cheese and cook in the oven until lightly browned... if you are using tortillas it definitely won't need to cook as long or as hot!  Then take it out and let it cool a couple minutes and top with all the fresh ingredients!  If you like asian food and like everything on the ingredient list--you will love this.
Next... hot and sour soup. 
For the most part I use this recipe, but always use an assortment of fresh mushrooms... dried mushrooms sound kind of gross to me.  This weekend the crimini mushrooms weren't looking too good so I just got a handful of button mushrooms and a portobello that I chopped up.  I tend to amp up the amount of garlic and ginger... and always add chili oil.  Yum, this is so good and even better the next day for lunch!
Its hard for me to relay recipes since I don't measure things out too often but I think it's the best way to cook (although I wouldn't recommend it for baking...).  Taste as you go and make corrections.  Everyone's palate is different so no recipe is perfect for everyone anyway. 
Have fun!

slacker update

So, I haven't been cooking or baking much the past couple days... I felt like Tuesday and Wednesday last week I spent the whole day in the kitchen!  By Thursday I was sort of sick of being in the kitchen and also coming down with a cold.  Now I am in that full-blown cold stage where nothing tastes good so I haven't had much desire to cook!  But I made two semi-successful cakes last week.  One for the birthday and one for my final cake class.  I am really sad that my classes are over... it was fun to be learning something new and it was nice to meet with the same ladies every week for 3 months!  I will definitely miss it and I need to force myself to keep practicing!

This is obviously the b-day cake.  I really need to work on my writing with a piping bag!  There are so many oddly placed flowers because I had to cover up my mistakes....

This is my final class cake with fondant.  This was the very first time I covered a cake in fondant so there were definitely imperfections but... I really liked the simplicity of the cake.  I made my own marshmallow fondant since the premade stuff is so expensive and not that tasty from what I've heard.   Hopefully I will get a good nights sleep tonight and be back to the kitchen tomorrow!

Baking : 1 Tara : 0

I should have known that lately things were going waaaay too well for me in the kitchen.....
Today was a disaster.
Well, to start off with it was the first sunny day we have had in a while and I would have liked to spend it outside.  But tomorrow is one of Dano's co-workers birthdays and I already said I would make the cake.  I decided to make the dark chocolate cake I have mentioned before, which is usually a pretty basic recipe for me!  But our oven and I have a power struggle for it to stay on the right temperature and the cake came out looking a little strange.... then I tried to move one of the layers and it broke into multiple pieces.  I felt like I couldn't start over because I had used all ingredients I had left out for hours to get to room temperature.  So, I made some chocolate buttercream and re-assembled the cake and filled between the layers.  However, during the melting of the chocolate I remembered I need to check the mail for a package I was expecting (this was such a blonde moment....) and just walked out the door to the mailbox!  What was I thinking?!  Walked back in to smoke, burned cream all over the stove.... a huge mess.
I should have stopped here and called it a day, bought some canned frosting, and no one would have known.  But being myself... I decided to try to make a frosting recipe for the outside of the cake that I have been studying for weeks!  When I went to print off the directions it was going to be NINE pages (I deleted the pictures and it was still a full two pages).  Its for Italian Meringue Buttercream from the Whisk-Kid blog (which is absolutely amazing)!  You can check out the link for pictures and the recipe.  Overall I think it went okay... (minus some stray sugar that indefinitely hardened to the stove, the bowl, and my saucepan). 
While all this was going on I also tried to make vegetable stock at the same time!  I've made stock one other time, but today I wanted to try making it in my crock pot.  I sort of used a recipe from Allrecipes but didn't exactly measure everything because a gallon of water won't even fit in my crockpot.

Doesn't that just look amazing!

The veggies roasted and ready to simmer!

I also added just whatever was left of my parsley plant from last summer (mostly stems), sage I found in the back of the produce drawer (ooops!), and a few pieces of the rosemary (also from the patio garden).  I read on other websites that people normally cook their stock for about 2 hours in the crockpot but.... I wasn't really happy with it until it had cooked for like 6!  But that is the joy of the crockpot--you can kind of just forget about it (I went for a hike in the sunshine, finally)!  After roasting your vegetables make sure to really scrape the pan and get all the burned bits into the pot.... I lick the spatula afterward because that caramelized vegetable juice is SO good. Julia Child got me into making my own stock because, well, she says "whats the point of making your own soup if you are using stock out of a can?!"  Which is kind of true... and I would never argue with Julia :)  It's also really healthy because you can control the amount of salt you add and it needs much less because it is so flavorful! 

This was one end result I was happy with today!

our very first barn dance...

The Arcata Marsh, one of the places I volunteer (and love to visit!), had a barn dance last night as a fundraiser.  They needed people to bring baked goods to sell so naturally I jumped at the chance!  I decided to make chocolate surprise cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies.  I made a half batch of this chocolate cake recipe, which made around 20 cupcakes.  Then I used the filling from this recipe.

 I like this filling because it doesn't have to be piped in, you just put a layer of cake batter, a dollop of filling, and then I do just enough batter to cover the filling.  It cooks with the cupcake so its not gooey, but just a cream cheese flavoring-delicious!

To coat the top of the cupcake, I didn't want to use frosting since these are already rich enough so I just smoothed the top with chocolate ganache (basically just melted chocolate with some cream and butter or shortening) that semi-hardened.  The end result tasted a little like a Hostess cupcake!

I made royal icing flowers to top the cupcakes.  I make the flowers in large batches and then just save the rest for whenever I need them.

I thought they turned out really cute and I just put them in a fold-over baggie with a white ribbon for the bake sale!

Dano came with me to drop the goodies off and we stood around debating if we should actually go in and participate.... We figured we would be the youngest people there and it would be sort of lame.  Well, we were very wrong.  The place was completely packed and it was quite an assortment of kids, young adults, middle agers, and kind of just a smattering of older folks.  The place was so lively and everyone was dancing, laughing, having a great time! 

Needless to say, we had a lot of fun and just might keep our eye out for the next one ;)