Under Construction

Bug hunting and lemon juicing

My camera is periodically eating photos. It's driving me crazy! So if you think, "hey, this photo could have been better," just assume my camera ate the better one.

I've got baby gifts and a long list of other items I need/want to sew. So I spent the weekend bug hunting (aka gardening). I would show you a photo of my garden but the camera ate it. :( But the bug photo is safe and sound.

Do you know this bug?

What about this juicer?

You should (know the juicer that is). Best. Juicer. Ever.

I'm kinda enjoying documenting my fav kitchen tools. Maybe that is weird. But it's fun.

Hope you had a great weekend!

very busy

camping in the backyard.



Gotta get out there for story time. But to keep the kitchen thing going, these are fab cookie sheets from William Sonoma. Don't bother with cheap cookie sheets. Trust me.

Homemade cutting boards

The month-o-my favorite kitchen stuff continues (the loyal readers sigh in dismay)

(the loyal blogger perseveres)

So, cutting boards.  I made the one on top in college as a wedding gift for a high school friend. Then I lost touch with the friend during the "one-year-after-the-wedding-to-give-a-gift grace period." I may be a terrible person I've enjoyed the cutting board ever since. I use it for cutting but also for setting out cheese trays at parties.

The (larger) cutting board on the bottom is made my Mr. H and the bottom is engraved for me. So sweet.

The knife on top is gooey from last night's minor bread disaster. I underbaked my first artisan loaf. Then, today, discovered the errata. Hmm, wrong amount of yeast? That might make a difference!  Also, if it's really brown on top don't assume it's done; let it bake those last 8 minutes. Even if you're in a hurry. 

One of the (many) projects that has been running around in my head for months is making natural edge cutting boards out of olive wood. They would be SO pretty for cutting and/or cheese platters.  But have you seen the price of natural edge olive wood? (probably not. trust me, expensive) Let me know if you'll be cutting down an olive tree in the Sacramento region. I'll be right over ;)

Le Creuset

When Mr. H and I got married we'd been living in our own (separate) apartments for several years so our marriage began with two couches, two beds, two toasters and two full sets of pots and pans.  Mr. H is a Calphalon man. My heart belongs to Le Creuset. I got a full set of the blue secondhand (but still new) from a co-worker of my mom's who offloaded it for about $200.  Felt like way too much money at the time but it was a great investment.

This is my favorite pot. Tonight--risotto.

I've been enjoying hearing about your fav kitchen items, thanks for all the comments. But I've been super bad at email this week so my response rate has been pathetic. I'm sorry! Trust that comments make me happy!

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day--assuming you have flour in the house

I went on a 5 minute Amazon spending spree last week. Yesterday my blogland recommended books arrived on my porch.  Amanda Soule's new book, of course, and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as recommended by Angry Chicken.

At about 9:45 tonight I decided to make bread.  I cracked the eggs and heated the milk for an oatmeal bread and then discovered I have SESAME seeds not SUNFLOWER seeds in the pantry. Scratch that--milk back in the fridge, eggs in a container to scramble tomorrow. I switched to the basic loaf. Water, yeast, salt and...hmm....flour.  Only about 2 cups of flour in the house.  A third trip to the store (this evening) and the bread was mixed in less than 5 minutes.  I'll report back on final results.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to my friend that I wanted to post every day for a month about my favorite kitchen gadgets. Not sure it will last but let's start with my beloved Kitchen Aid. A gift from Mr. H for my birthday in 2000, about 2 weeks before he proposed with a diamond ring. That was an expensive month.  Eight years later this is the first time I've used the dough hook.

I almost killed her mixing homemade marshmallows this Christmas but Ms. Kitchen Aid is a workhorse and still performing admirably.  Go Kitchen Aid!

Dinner with friends

Favorite "go-to" cookbooks

Ina Garten, Mollie Katzen and Susan Branch--all excellent!

Trying a new recipe from a new cookbook

Honey Cake from Apples for Jam (unusual combo but tasty)

An old favorite from a well-stained cookbook
'
Vegetable Pot Pie from Barefoot Contessa Parties

I love a Friday off.  Time to hang out with Biscuit and still cook dinner for friends.  And the weather was even nice. TGIF

Cookies at midnight

Late last night I was the only person awake in the house and I had a sudden hankering for cookies.

At 11:08 the oven was preheating and the cookies were waiting on my new, red cookie sheet (thanks, mom)

By 11:20 they were in the oven and at 11:40 I was enjoying warm, gooey, crispy on the outside chocolate chip cookies with lots of walnuts. The Barefoot Contessa recipe I love most.

I don't know why the concept of freezing my own cookie dough was such a revelation (Otis Spunkmeyer has been doing it for ages) but I never thought to do my own.  This is great, and so easy. I originally made this batch of frozen cookies as a gift for my mom (but I never quite managed to get them to her house).

Since then, I made my non-cooking, city living, vegetarian sister several frozen entrees and packaged them up with a rice cooker for a birthday gift I think she actually liked. Genius I tell ya.

So the cookies were a great boost at 11:40 but I didn't get to bed until well after midnight. It's been one of those weeks. Sorry I've been completely lame at responding to comments but I SO appreciate you taking the survey. Really, so appreciate it. I'll draw the winner on Friday night so if you didn't take it, there's still time. And I'll report back on how we do in the competition. I also appreciated your feedback on tutorials. I think I have a good idea on that--maybe this weekend--when I'm recovered from staying up too late all week.

Happy Thursday!

Blog-worthy dinner in 30 minutes flat

I had two revelations/inspirations while making dinner tonight so, even though Mr. H was teasing me, I'm totally going to blog about it.

Inspiration #1: Cook it all in one pot.
Here's what I did:

1. start big pot of water boiling on "power boil"
2. rinse asparagus
3. add noodles to boiling water--set timer for 9 minutes
4. with 3 minutes left on timer, toss in asparagus spears
5. with 1.5 minutes left, toss in several handfuls of spinach
6. when timer beeps, drain in colander and pluck out asparagus (3 minutes was perfect)
7. stir pasta and spinach in with jar of sauce, cubes of mozzerella, leftover, cooked ground beef and bake for 15-20 minutes (you could even bake it in the pot!)

(I'm trying to win the "blurry photo award" with this image of butter and buttermilk after shaking)

Inspiration #2: You can make butter

1. We were out of butter and I wanted to make Texas Toast (can you believe that's on wikipedia?) with the rolls we had.
2. We had 2/3 cup of whipping cream left over from another recipe
3. While the pasta was going, I handed Biscuit a tupperware of cream and had her shake it
4. She tired quickly and passed on her responsibility to Dad
5. Dad shook for several minutes to create whipped cream
6. I shook several more minutes to create butter and buttermilk
7. Butter went on toast
8. Toast went in broiler
9. Biscuit drank the buttermilk

(very fresh butter)

Then I threw dinner on the table and sprinted out the door for a really fun meeting of the Sacramento Craft Mafia.

The end.

Technically frosting

A long (long) time ago I made cupcakes with the Barefoot Contessa's chocolate ganache frosting (minus the coffee granules so this was the easiest thing ever). The cupcakes were so-so but the frosting was spectacular. I had 3/4 of the frosting left so I tossed it in the fridge.  Tonight I pulled everything I could think of out of the cupboards and made the stickiest, mushiest, yummiest truffles ever.

(My fridge has surprisingly good lighting.)

We have: cocoa, walnut, coconut, butterscotch and peanut butter all firming up in the fridge. I'm definitely offloading these on my mom when she comes to visit tomorrow.

Hot date

Mr. H had a crazy, busy, long day at work today so I picked up Biscuit and took her out on the town. We went out to a (semi) fancy dinner at the Creperie where she ate an adult portion of quiche and fruit and I had a crepe. I swear the kid has a hollow leg lately with all the eating. Other than throwing her napkin once and chewing on a sugar packet she was a perfect lady.

We came home and made a pie for daddy.  She was so helpful.

Eating the sliced apples

Measuring and mixing

Describing this piecrust as "awwwesome" (her favorite adjective these days)

"prinkling" the topping

We popped it in the oven during bathtime and she was sound asleep by the time I drizzled the caramel topping:

This was the recipe I used.

Verdict: I ate the caramel and walnut part and it tasted delightfully caramel appley but it was too sweet. It was also too runny (perhaps letting Biscuit measure the flour was a bad idea). I give it a B+

So, as I recall, this used to be a crafting blog. Not so much lately but I've been on a baking kick and there are only so many hours in the day.  Tomorrow we're off for and early birthday dinner in San Francisco  and Friday I leave for a girls-only long weekend in Portland with my friend so I'll probably see you next week.  Have a good one.