Christmas Dinner 2015

Our country Christmas.

There was a last minute reversal. I wasn't happy with the meat I ordered and just yesterday ran to the store to see what I could find.
Though it's not generally James' favorite I landed on prime rib. I considered a whole NY roast but it just didn't seem festive enough. Right at the meat counter I came up with a plan from a recipe way n eh back of my head. To open up the roast (after it was separated from the bones) slather it with a horseradish, parsley, garlic paste, roll it back up and roast now highly seasoned meat resting on the bones.
"Can you butterfly that for me?" I asked.
Blank stare.
"No, no I wouldn't want to do that," the first butcher replied across the meat counter.
"I've been in some kind of food service for 9 years and I have never heard of anyone doing that," the second butcher -- now interested, chimed in.
I explained the recipe I was thinking about.
"You could do that yourself," the first butcher offered up.
I did.
They doubted but this was one of the best roasts I have ever made. Tender, flavorful, juicy. I might never cook prime rib any other way. My delicious flavor paste, BTW, was 6 anchovies,  about 1/3 cup fresh horseradish (I love horseradish and roast beef -- that was the major attraction of this idea), 3 cloves garlic, 2 tsp chili flakes, about 1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg, 1 cup parsley, and about 1/4 cup olive oil cobbled together from a recipe I found in Bon Appetit.
I rubbed the paste inside the butterflied cuts, along the bones that served as a roasting rack and all over the outside of the roast. In another unusual step I started the room temperature meat at 500º for about 40 minutes and then turn doth even down to 350 for an additional about 15 minutes a pound until the temperature hovered around 130-135º for medium rare.
Beautiful and delicious -- exactly the kind of showstopper I was hoping for.





I just wanted to do something fun for dessert. Of course there were cookies and gingerbread cake pops made from my signature Christmas cake batter but after hours and hours or watching The Great British Bake Off (I'm totally hooked and binging) I felt like a stretch. Oh there is never enough time and I decorated and redecorated. Never happy in the end I settled for festive but not quite homemade ribbon trim and let the inside speak for itself.

A very Merry Christmas one and all.

Gravenstein Apple Cake

When guests come I like to leave a little something for their breakfast. It's hard for guests from town to figure just how far we are from a Starbucks or a quick run to the store so we make sure we're supplied. More often than not our supplies might include this moist apple cake. It's super quick to make, stays fresh for several days on the counter, and feature our home canned apples so we always have the ingredients on hand.
For the batter, starting from a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen,  I sift together 2 3/4 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 TB baking soda. In a separate bowl I combine 1 cup vegetable oil, 2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup oranges juice, and 2 1/2 tsp vanilla. I mix the wet ingredients into the dry and then add 4 eggs one at a time. Half the batter goes in a tube pan topped by half the batch of my home canned apples (I mix a drained 1 qt jar of apples with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 Tb cinnamon). Then another layer of batter and the rest of the apples on top. Sometimes I add nuts. Sometime just the apples. You could make this cake with fresh apple as the Smitten Kitchen recipe does (6 peeled and cubed) but for me the joy is using my jarred apples out of season to give guests a truly local -- right in our own backyard -- taste.

Getting Ready For The Fair

I love a fair. I always have. Tomorrow is drop off day for entries in the Sonoma-Marin Fair. The first of the season and my first time entering the baked good division, with my cream cheese frosted persimmon bundt cake. Fingers crossed.

A Springtime Cake

Cool spring days bring fresh strawberries to our local farmer's markets. And citrus is still hanging on. I was trying to use up the overflow of eggs in our fridge (the girls have been super busy) and decided not just on eggs for dinner but a rich, eggy pound cake for dessert.
In one bowl I mixed together 6 eggs, 1/3 cup milk, and about 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Into a second bowl I sifted 2 2/3 cups of flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt. In an electric mixer I creamed 3 sticks (I told you it was rich) or room temperature butter with 1 TB lemon zest, 2 TB blood orange zest, 1/2 cup white sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar. When was butter is well mixed I alternated between the flour and egg mixture (ending with the flour) and then stirred in about 2 cups of sliced strawberries tossed with 1 TB of flour.
1/3 of the batter went into my well buttered and floured bundt pan, followed by another 1/2 cup (a heavy 1/2 cup) of strawberries tossed with a heavy 1/2 tsp flour. Another layer of batter (1/3 of the total) covered those berries and was topped with another heavy 1/2 cup of berries tossed with flour. I spread the last 1/3 of the batter on top and baked my springtime pound cake for 1 hour and 10 minutes at 325º.
While the cake was baking I combined 2TB lemon juice,  3TB (maybe it was 3 1/2) blood orange juice and 1/2 cup sugar in a small saucepan. I brought the liquid to a boil stirring to dissolve the sugar to make a tangy syrup to flavor the cake.
When the cake was baked and still warm in the pan I poked holes in it with a wooden skewer and brushed my cooled citrus syrup over the top -- the holes help it sink into the cake. After cooling for 10 minutes I flipped the cake over onto a cooling rack (next time I will turn it over onto parchment paper on a rack as that syrup was pretty sticky) skewered holes in the top of the cake and brushed on the remaining syrup.
Despite the 6 eggs the end result was a moist, tangy fruit filled cake. Just right to welcome and celebrate another spring.

Baked Goods For Guests

I first met James at an oscar party (and first made a date with him at the same event a year later) and I have always considered the awards show our anniversary. James is out of town working but I am still celebrating with our friends watching the telecast. To go with our oscar dinner (I'll tell you about that tomorrow) I made some bite sized (or just a bit bigger) baked treats. Mexican chocolate brownies flavored with cinnamon and ground almonds and sour milk spice cake, a frugal old fashioned recipe for a Hollywood night.

Whole Wheat Cake

With a patisserie in every neighborhood French women, I am told, are not bakers. Yogurt cake, a beloved French snack, is the exception. There are endless variations but the basic yogurt cake formula uses yogurt, flavored or not and then the empty container as a measure to add 2 parts sugar, 3 parts flour and 1/2 part oil. Mix the wet ingredients together with 2 (or sometimes 3) eggs and then add in the flour already mixed with 2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. The cake, either in loaf pan or 9 inch round bakes at 350) for 50 - 60 minutes. The batter is a perfect base for experimentation -- flavoring with ground almonds, berries, lemon or even chocolate.
My yogurt cake tonight was whole wheat -- much to my dismay I had no white flour in the house. But, we still needed cake. I mixed up the standard batter flavored with orange zest (no lemons in the house either). When the cake had cooled a bit I brushed the top with a syrup of orange juice and powdered sugar to soak some extra flavor and moisture into the cake. Whole wheat flour absorbs moisture readily and can make baked goods dry. I poured a thicker glaze (also of orange juice and powdered sugar in different proportions) over top and garnished my quick cake with toasted almonds. Easy dessert.

I'm Out Of Everything Cake

Banana Blueberry Pound Cake. An Invention.
I started off to use up the buttermilk in the fridge and make James a quick poundcake to have while I am gone. It started off to be so easy.
I creamed 1 cup of butter with 3 cups of sugar and was just about to add the eggs when I realized I had cooked some of the precious few I had left for James' breakfast. Not to worry I added in a whole banana and 2 TB of vegetable oil to substitute for the missing eggs and then added in the two eggs I had. In a separate bowl I mixed together 3 cups of flour, 3/4 tsp of baking soda and 1 tsp of baking powder (for safety sake). I went for the buttermilk and instead of the cup I had planned on I found a 1/2 cup at best. I mixed 1/2 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup whole milk yogurt. I alternated adding the buttermilk and the flour mixtures to the mixer (starting and ending with the buttermilk). The batter looked creamy and smooth. I slipped in a tsp of vanilla and started eyeing the pint of blueberries in the fridge. We probably wouldn't eat them before I left. James loves blueberries. Banana blueberry seemed like a good combination -- in they went. I gave the batter one last stir and poured it into a greased (though not quite well enough) 10" tube pan. The super moist flavorful cake baked for 70 minutes at 325º.
Maybe not my prettiest cake, but no complaints on the taste. I might just try this one again -- on purpose.

303 And Counting

The stakes are high. Four dollars in our electoral college pool still unclaimed waiting on Florida.

Yesterday was such a busy day around here. James was out on the tractor digging in a new water tank. I was trying to get the house and dinner ready (not so easy given our muddy yard and 3 cheerful dogs) for friends coming over to watch the election returns all while ordering materials for our current landscape extravaganza and checking in on the early reports form the poles. No time to blog, but we did -- exhausted -- manage to get dinner on the table for our friends.

Oddly enough I don't have any pictures in the middle but here's where it started and how it finished. It's been a good long while since I delved into Jim Lahey's bread recipes. We so love the rosemary meyer lemon bread from nearby Della Fattoria I knew I could never compete. But I had a beautiful bag of stone ground flour I bought from a family farm in Washington state and there's no time like the present. I whipped up (if you can say that about a recipe that takes 2 days) a nice crusty loaf of whole wheat bread and set it out with delicious McClelland butter and homemade tomato bacon jam. There in the distance are our mini-appetizers -- a bowl of cayenne spiced pecans and Southern style cheese straws. I figured those were a good companion for the fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and kale salad that came later -- along with a neighborly pot of homegrown beans.

For dessert, since I still have apples on the tree, a brown sugar sweetened old-fashioned 3 layer apple cake from a recipe on marthastewart.com with a brown sugar buttercream. The frosting used egg white so I took that as a perfect excuse to make a quick batch of vanilla ice cream. James said it might be his favorite cake I'd ever made -- must be the apples right off the tree.

Mini Easter

I'm trying to stay somewhat on the diet so James had a mini-Easter for one. A single serving potato gratin delicately scented with lemon thyme, brown sugar - mustard glazed ham steak, and fresh buttered peas.

I meant to make an Easter bread but got all involved weeding a garden patch in front of the house and settled for a pan of biscuits. Pretty nice with salty ham.

For dessert, a single serving lemon pudding cake. Fresh and light and a pretty low calorie treat.

Happy Easter 2012

Neighbors Bearing Gifts

A couple days ago our neighbor down the road, Sally, reached a big bag of apples over our back fence. Sally and her husband Mike run a "you-pick" apple orchard and on the weekends folks drive out from town for their hnand-picked share of the country.

James is aways happy to have apples to eat out of hand (especially topped wth peanut butter and raisins) but since we had so many and since I am still getting on good terms with this oven, I decided to try a cake. I am still the same lazy cook I was in our last kitchen and with no mixer on the counter (we still have boxes to unpack) I wanted an easy mix (no butter to cream) cake and zeroed in on a recipe I found on Smitten Kitchen, a moist long cooking oil instead of butter (a Jewish-style apple cake) cake.

James loves the combination of slightly crispy sweet crust and the cinnamon flavored butter soft apples.

It's good to have neighbors . . . neighbors with fruit trees.

Old-Fashioned Dessert

After last week's dessert disaster I was left with a jar of salted caramel sauce meant for the ill-fated tart. I drizzled a little on ice cream but that hardly made a dent. At the same time I needed a make-ahead dessert and was picturing something simple and plain -- a county fair kind of cake. I landed on the idea of a caramel cake -- one dessert that really is better the day after it's made (a perfect dinner party cake). Following an unusual Food and Wine Magazine recipe I sifted cake flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Then I mixed in softened butter and milk and beat until smooth. Next came a mixture of egg whites and milk in three additions and soon I had a smooth, but somewhat heavy batter. The next step was a new one to me. I beat heavy cream to soft peaks, lightened the batter with 1/3 of the cream and then folded in the rest to finish. In just 25 minutes the cake baked up soft and light with a faint caramel aroma.

The recipe has a nice caramel frosting but I just couldn't make a new caramel when I had a perfectly good sauce in the fridge (even though I've been eyeing this cake recipe since before the tart incident) -- so I punted. I creamed butter and powdered sugar in the mixer and added in caramel sauce and a bit of cream until I had a smooth -- nearly spreadable (I knew it would harden up when it was cold) consistency -- a little more pale than normal but pretty delicious. Like most Southern cakes this one is sweet (too sweet for some) so I tempered the sugary frosting with a dash of strong Kentucky bourbon.

Unassuming and sweet with a little hidden mischief. I wouldn't mind being described that way

Grant's Limes

James' friend Grant has a backyard overflowing with fruit and he is kind enough to share. We've turned it into our own little game of stump the cook as I ponder how best to use up Grant's latest gift. Today's delivery . . . a big bag of bright green limes.

Now of course limes are handy for ceviche, or gin and tonics, or guacamole but I like to rally for these little neighborly challenges by transforming the fruit into a new dish, one that's easy to send back as a thank you. I usually fall back on jams and James dutifully delivers jars back to Grant. Our pantry is pretty stocked with marmalade right now. Salad dressing doesn't make the most exciting delivery.

Suddenly I remembered a cake recipe I saw on Epicurious. Basically an angel food cake flavored with lime zest, brushed with lime syrup, dusted with chopped pistachios and drizzled with lime glaze. A trifecta of lime transformation. Perfect.

There were egg whites in my freezer waiting for just such an occasion. I'd never whipped frozen egg whites before and was ready for a kitchen experiment. Besides I love to make angel food cakes. A recipe riddled with potential disaster -- a baking tightrope I love to walk. And, all the more satisfying when they cool to a fluffy pillowy presence too etherial to cut with a regular knife. I set to work zesting and juicing and in a couple hours had an airy, golden brown cake ready for delivery, along with a jar of lime curd for toast. Thanks again, Grant!