Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

CLOSED.

Maybe I'll start up this blog again some day. I don't have the motivation or equipment* at the moment to keep b/vLoggin'.


Too bad because I'm making chocolate cake tonight and it's going to be heavenly.

Adieu!




*my chopped up videos bug the heck out of me. no video editing programs on my computer and besides, it'd be nice to have a real videocam recorder for my vLogs.

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Men may come and men may go, but pie goes on forever.

Winter Fruit Compote




Almost any combination of dried fruits can be refreshed this way and turned into a dessert to be served alongside a slice of cake, or with a little creme fraiche. Fresh winter citrus fruits also make beautiful winter compotes when soaked in syrup flavored with their zest. The compote makes a memorable tart filling. Strain off the liquid and use the fruit to make a galette. Reduce the liquid and use it to glaze the galette after baking.

In a medium-size saucepan, combine:
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup Zante currants
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup dried apples, diced
1 3/4 cups fresh orange juice
3 strips orange zest
1/4 cup brown sugar

Split in half lengthwise:
one 1-inch piece of vanilla bean
Use the tip of a really sharp knife to scrape the black seeds from the inside of the bean directly into the saucepan; then add the bean, along with:
1 star anise (optional)
Cook over medium heat until the dried fruits have plumped and the juice has slightly thickened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool slightly, then discard the vanilla bean, orange zest, and star anise.







To make the tart dough.. (also under the cut is vLogs of Mini and Grizzly!)

Have measured:
1/2 cup ice-cold water
Mix together:
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
Add:
12 tbsp cold butter, cut into small cubes

Cut or work the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or your fingertips, leaving some of the butter in fairly large, irregular pieces. This will take a minute or two. Pour in three quarters of the water, stirring all the while with a fork until the dough begins to form clumps. Keep adding water if needed. Divide the dough in two, bring each part together into a ball, and wrap each ball in plastic. Compress each ball, and then flatten them into disks. Let rest, refrigerated, for an hour or longer.







Tart dough is easiest to roll out when it is malleable, but not soft. If it has been chilling for a number of hours, allow it to sit out of the refrigerator for about twenty minutes to soften.
When ready to roll, take the disk of dough, still wrapped in plastic, and flatten it well with your hands, tapping or pinching edges to seal shut any cracks. Dust the counter lightly, and dust the top of the dough generously as well. With the rolling pin, tap firmly across the top fo the dough a few times to flatten the disk even more, then begin to roll. Guide the rolling pin from the center of the disk towards the edges, pressing with firm but consistent pressure. After a few rolls, turn the dough over, smooth the flour on top, and reflour the work surface. Keep rolling the dough out from the center, as opposed to back and forth.
Roll the dough a little less than 1/8-inch thick for an open-faced tart. Roll it slightly thicker for pie or double-crusted tart. Once the dough is rolled, lightly brush off the flour (a brush or a kitchen towel will work if used with a light touch).
To move the dough, fold it in half and then quarters. Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (highly recommended to avoid sticking). Put the dough back in the refrigerator, baking sheet and all, to rest for an hour.

Grizzly approves. The tart dough was by far the best I've made, but the fruits was alright. I did not like the apricots at all!! Loved the apples the most.





If you have a cat, you must go buy the yeeow catnip! cat cigar thing. Mini (formerly known as Relish) isn't a big fan of catnip, but this cigar is filled to the brim with organic catnip tops and she goes insannee for it. This is her third cigar!

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God's always got a custard pie up his sleeve.

After spending Christmas with Jesse's parents, we returned home with a car full of goods, including lemons from the tree in his parent's backyard. I used it often in cooking, and made wonderful lemon curd with a few lemons.

I don't have a picture of the finished product, nor do I have a picture of the sponge cake roll filled with lemon curd. Daaang yummy, but my idiotic self used my biggest baking sheet for the sponge cake, so I ended up with a super thin cake that rolled over itself multiple times instead of the standard thick cake rolled over a few times. Still yummy nonetheless! We had it for breakfast on a Sunday morning mmmm

Lemon Curd




2-3 lemons (preferably Meyer lemons, about 10 ounces)
1/4 tsp cornstarch*
1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
6 tbsp unsalted butter

*cornstarch may be omitted unless you want to use the custard as a filling in a tart you want to brown

There are so many variations you can use to make curd, and I don't think this is the recipe I followed.. Maybe, I don't remember!! I copied and altered this recipe from my Chez Panisse Desserts cookbook. It actually is a Blood Orange Curd recipe that I copied, and you can subsitute the lemon for pretty much any citrus fruits! Just add a tbsp of lemon juice to whatever fruit you choose.

Wash the lemons and finely grate the peel into a non-corroding bowl. Juice the lemons, strain the juice into the bowl. Mix the cornstarch into sugar if using (this helps prevent lumps from forming when the cornstarch is cooked into the eggs). Put the eggs in a small non-corroding saucepan and whisk the sugar-cornstarch mixture into them. Stir in the juice-peel mixture. Don't be alarmed if it curdles, it will smooth out later. Cut the butter into several pieces and add to the mixture.

Cook over low heat. Once the butter melts, whisk constantly until smooth. Alternatively, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture coats the spoon. Remove from the heat and stir for a minute or two until the heat of the pan dissipates so the custard won't curdle on the bottom. Pour into a small container and chill.

As you can see in the second vLog, I strained the curd through a fine metal mesh strainer. I highly recommend doing so, for straining will smoothen the curd and eliminate the zest, along with any curdled egg bits.





(transcript coming soon)

I know y'all non-Californians are blanketed in snow, and this would be nothing to you guys but HEY ITS ARCATA OK. At sea level too! It was very wet snow that hardly stuck, but it lasted from late AM to late afternoon.

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Care for Mama Earth. Support your local small-scale farms!

At around 1:35 it looked like I said good for money?, but I meant good for land?




Oops, it's localharvest.ORG!! and the program I mentioned is called Community Supported Agriculture, and it can be found at http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

I'm neither tech savvy, nor do I have fancy equipments. So per usual, bear with my chopped up vids! Transcript under cut.

Transcript: People love to clain they support organic/small-scale farm, but is that true? Probably not. For example, if a person goes to the store for tomatoes and one's perfect, cosmetic, beautiful tomato and the other choice is organic, for example heirloom tomatoes, maybe its not perfect with a bit o' blemish like brown lines or ridges that makes it look peculiar, not perfect like the other tomato. The person's most likely to pick the perfect cosmetic tomato. Good choice? Nahh! That cosmetic tomato's most likely, well yeah for sure from a mega farm, which is harmful to the environment. The mind of mega farms is all about cash, exploiting land as much as possible to get as much money as they can. Big farms almost always grow a single cash crop, which means grow all tomatoes, all corn, or all potatoes etc. Good for land? Nooope. Small farms are smart about rotation of crops meaning once a year they grow specific plants in specific areas.. I'm not totally knowledgable but the idea is to grow crops until the soil is well used then rotate crops to relieve the soil from overworking. The soil doesn't have to bear one plant all the time. Mega farms tend to use chemical fertilizers and deplete the soil of all nutrition. Waters also suffer from run-off of fertilizer from the farm. Another example hmm... Ah! Deforestation affects farms oh yeahh! Not just farms, but the environment terribly. Every year, tax payers spend 50 million dollars on 4 billion tons of soil errosion from deforestation. When mega farms buy land, they try to make it as bare as possible. Trees must be taken down because the dirt it's on can be used for growing, which means moneyy! That's not..neccessairly true! Small farms woahhh benefit from trees on their land. It's a natural wind barrier and can provide fuel, wood to repair fences, and wood to build things. If the wood lot is well taken care of, it can be used for many years and passed on from generation to generation. Also something that upsets me- why should lettuce be grown in California and shipped to Maine? Why should Maine grow potatoes and ship to California? Doesn't make sense! Small farms can easily grow a variety of crops-which they normally do! not a single cash crop-and support their local economy and feed the locals! Y'know it's bad for the economy to send fruit, vegetables, food whatever cross country! You have to pay for workers, you have to pay for transportation, you have to pay for packaging, and so on!! If you buy from a small farm, it's directly from them! Or a store can buy directly from the farm. There's no middle-man. Every person on every side can benefit from that. Don't have to divide money amongst different people, different things (transportation, etc). Small farms tend to take care of their soil well and can carry on through generations, which usually is the purpose. Give their children something.. They can continue the legacy! While mega farms...DONT CARE! Just want to use soil as much as possible till it's no good, which is common. Lots of soil here in America have good nutrition? Possible to grow plants well? Nahh! Mega farms exploit the land. Well, well! Please support small farms! Ohhh and don't buy your dinner from Walmart! Just heard that a while ago- someone said "I'm gonna shop for dinner at Walmart!" I'm like, WHAAT? You're crazy! Think about where your money goes. Good for environment? Good for people? Ask yourself!! I suggest you go check out www.localharvest.com That website gives info on small farms around you. There's a program where you can buy from small farms every week? or every other week. The farm will give you a box full of fruits and vegetables that's local! Great- you can use seasonal local produce! I recommend you look! www.localharvest.com

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Quick, Healthy, and Easy! Homemade Hummus

That bowl o' barf actually is yummy, yummy homemade hummus!

Hummus

one can garbanzo beans
1/2 cup tahini*
juice of a lemon
garlic clove, peeled, sprinkled with salt, and mashed into a paste
water
salt and freshly ground pepper
paprika

Rinse the garbanzo beans and add to food processor, along with tahini, lemon juice, garlic paste, and a (hefty, but don't overseason) touch of salt and pepper. Process until there are no visible chunks of garbanzo beans left. Add about 1/3 cup of water and process. Continue adding water a little bit at a time until desired consistency is acheived. Taste for seasoning and adjust as needed.
Transfer hummus to a bowl and sprinkle paprika over. Enjoy the hummus with fresh vegetables or toasted pita bread.

You can make the hummus any flavors you want! I did a sundried tomato and basil hummus, which gave it a gorgeous salmon pink color with flecks of green thorough the hummus. I suggest roasted red peppers, fresh herbs, cumin, spinach, olives, and so on! Adjust the amount of ingredients to taste. If you don't like the taste of tahini, don't use as much! Or if you wish for it to be more garlicky, add more garlic! You get the idea :)

*tahini: sesame paste made from lightly roasted sesame seeds. Tahini can be found in most speciality food stores, though I'm not sure about supermarkets! Check the international food section, namely the Middle East food section.

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Eat leeks in tide and garlic in May, and all the year after physicians may play.

I got rid o' my vLogs because heck I never like my productions! I do that quite often..delete vLogs after I post 'em! I don't sign right, I make funny faces, and whatnot! Probably not true, but I think so heh aanndd I think as I go, so my points are all over the place and I don't explain things very well. So, I found a great vLog that gets my point across better : )

Jon Savage's BULLY ASL

Homemade Eggnog

4 egg yolks
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1 pint whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 ounces bourbon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 egg whites

In bowl of a stand mixer, beat the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue to beat until it is completely dissolved. Add the milk, cream, bourbon, and nutmeg and stir to combine.
Place the egg whites in a clean bowl of a stand mixer and beat to soft peaks. With the mixer still running, gradually add 1 tbsp sugar and beat until stiff peaks forms.
Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Chill and serve.
Cooked Eggnog for high risk populations:
Beat the yolks in a stand mixture until they lighten in color. Gradually add 1/3 cup of sugar and beat until dissolved. Set aside.
In medium saucepan, over high heat, comvine the milk, heavy cream, nutmeg, and bring just to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and gradually temper the hot mixture into the egg and sugar mixture, then return everything to the pot and cook until the mixture reaches 160 degrees. Remove from heat, stir in bourbon, pour into medium bowl, and set in refrigerator to chill.
In medium mixing bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks. With the mixer running, gradually add 1 tbsp sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Whisk into chilled mixture.

**
Soup with potatoes and leeks have got to be my favorite. This recipe worked well, but I was upset I didn't have any bacon! Cook the veggies in bacon fat and crumble some bacon over the soup at the end. Yumm-o!

Potato Leek Soup



a lot of butter or even better, bacon fat!!
a pound of medium size potatoes of any kind (used red), diced
two medium leeks, white and light green part only, cleaned and sliced
small onion, diced (don't need onions, but I had some I wanted to use up)
four cups warmed free range low sodium chicken broth
1/2-1 cup heavy cream (preferred), milk, or half-and-half
salt and pepper
dill

Heat up the fat in a large pot over medium-high and add the vegetables. Season with salt. Cook until softened slightly, 5 to 7 minutes. Add enough warmed broth to cover vegetables; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for twenty minutes until potatoes are cooked through. Smash the potatoes slightly with wooden spoon and stir in cream. Cook a bit longer until soup has thickened.
In small batches (SRSLY. small batches, okay?? otherwise the soup is gonna explode!), puree in blender and return to pot. Reheat soup, taste for seasoning (I added white pepper. Freshly ground black pepper works, but white isn't visible). Stir in dill and serve.






Was going to do the transcripts and post this last night, but Pirates of the Carribean was a freakin' long movie! Finished it at 1am.. gee golly! Today is travel day (Amtrakin'), so I'll do it when I return : ) cheers!

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