Pretzel making

My friend Jocelyn and I got together on Sunday for some pretzel making. Using the recipe (it's vegan!) from Baking Illustrated, we made two batches of dough.


tools of the day - King Arthur bread flour and the Kitchen-Aid










The first batch of dough was left in the Kitchen-Aid a bit longer than the recommended 5-7 minutes due to an interruption by the house painter. This ball of dough was very firm and didn't rise as much but made a firmer pretzel.

batch one - big heavy lump














The second batch of dough was left in the Kitchen-Aid for the recommended 5-7 minutes and was firm, but easier to remove from the dough hook and, the ball of dough rose a bit more than the first. It made a "bread-like" pretzel.

batch two - spongy pillow of dough










We experimented with toppings and stuffings, making the following "flavors:"

Glouscester cheddar stuffed
Salami stuffed
Nutella stuffed
Salt (coarse sea salt)
Sweet (green & orange sugar crystals)


Jocelyn and I work the dough into strips - 12 per batch















rolling the strips into a long shape for tying














Jocelyn piping Nutella into a few













tying into pretzel shapes















tied pretzels waiting for their turn in the hot water and baking soda bath















each pretzel spent 1 minutes in the boiling water bath before being placed on a baking sheet and salted











the final result - delicious, well-formed pretzels just like the ones at Oktoberfest. Soft on the inside - smooth and salty on the outside











clockwise from top left - cheese, nutella, salt, sweet, salami (middle)

Bar-B-Que & Pie on a Friday Night

oven-ready















Our friends Katie, Matt, and Mark are coming by for dinner tonight and I wanted to make a dessert this morning before work so, I went for a pie. It was quick, simple, no-mess, and baked just in time for me to leave the house.

My Berry Pie

4 cups mixed berries (I used organic frozen mix, slightly thawed)
1/2 c sugar
1/3 + 2 tbsp flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pie crust of your choice - I made a home made crust

Prepare a pie crust or unwrap a frozen one if you're a cheater. In a large bowl mix the berries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and lemon juice until the berries are well coated. Fill pie shell and top, fluting the crust or making a fancy crust like a diamond weave.

Bake at 425-degrees for 45 minutes - voila!

On the menu tonight:
Grilled pork loin using John Stage's recipe for dry rub
Butternut squash puree
Salad greens
Walnut levain
Berry Pie

It's a good thing the weather cooperated since we dined outside again (our new kitchen table arrives next week for those who know the 5-month saga).

The finished product

Extra produce? Try roasting!

I tend to overbuy produce when I shop, mainly because we eat a lot of vegetables at our house and I don't like to run out mid-week.

Last night I found myself looking at long beans, carrots, fingerling potatoes, and brussel sprouts I purchased that needed to be eaten soon. Soup was an option but I've made soup two weeks in a row... we're a little souped out. A tart was an option too but I wasn't in the mood to mess with pastry dough.

Then I remembered several Thanksgiving meals ago my friend roasting veggies according to her Mom's recipe. I knew there was olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper involved so, I put all the veggies into a large bowl and started mixing. Here's what I used. I didn't measure but if you want to, I think the amounts below will be fine.

veggies, pre-roast














Roasted Vegetables

1-2 pounds of vegetables (root or otherwise)
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl, coat the vegetables with the ingredients above. Place the vegetables on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 45-50 minutes at 350-degrees.

veggies, post roast

I Heart Girl Scout Cookies

My friend Kelly sent me a link to a recipe recently that looked too good to be true - home made Girl Scout Cookies. Samoa's to be exact. The delicious little morsels of caramel, toasted coconut, and chocolate that linger outside of grocery stores sold by adorable little girls in green uniform. They, and their cookies, are the devil, I tell you!

Before anyone freaks out I don't really think Girl Scouts are the devil. I was one myself for many years and I sold my share of cookies for camp.

On Sunday I decided to make the cookies which are a three step process of baking, making topping, and assembly. The ingredients are very straight forward and I believe easily adaptable for vegans who know how to modify recipes well.

The cookies themselves are crispy, delicious, and buttery. They're more like a shortbread cookie than a traditional cutout cookie, probably because they have a full cup of butter in them. The recipe makes close to 5 dozen when rolled about 1/4" thick. I used a 3" flower shaped cookie cutter and make the center hole using the tube end of a kitchen funnel.

You can read about the recipe, it's development, and a few success stories at Once Upon A Plate and see the original recipe at Baking Bites.

Here are a few photos from my baking adventure.



rolling dough and cutting cookies












cookies fresh from the oven, cooling












caramels in my MacGyver-style double boiler... I don't own a microwave and don't plan to get one











Spreading the coconut topping was really difficult because the caramel hardens after about six cookies. I worked quickly but still had to reheat every couple of minutes. Next time, I think I'll try layering the coconut and caramel or, skip putting the hole in the middle which might make the spreading go faster. I did add more caramel toward the end which made the topping a little too gooey and not as pretty.

topped, and ready for chocolate drizzle












the finished product all packed up and ready for Kelly

Last Sunday I made a very lucky breakfast for myself and my husband - we got an egg with a double yolk! This was only the second time in my life that I've found a double yolk. To me finding a "double-yolker" is lucky because as an over-easy egg consumer, I think the yolk is the best part.

So, after breakfast on Sunday, we bought lottery tickets.


I cracked two eggs into this bowl - the one on the left has a double yolk

















I read online that some hens will lay double-yolked eggs as the result of unsynchronized cycles. That's right, chickens get out of whack in the reproductive arena too. A few online sources also noted that younger hens tend to lay double-yolked eggs. Double-yolked eggs will also never result in "twin chicks" because the chicks would fight each other and die - awww.

Spaghetti Carbonana.... kind of

After seeing Martha show Luke Russert how to make Spaghetti Carbonara the other day I decided to make the dish for dinner. I've got a recipe that I like to use so, I dug it up and started cooking.

However, I was cooking and taking photos and then my husband wanted to talk about something and I got distracted and forgot to add the cream. When we sat down to enjoy dinner I took a bite and knew that something was missing. Thinking back through the steps, I realized my mistake.

It didn't taste awful and we actually did eat it but bottom line is, don't forget the cream and don't do too many things in the kitchen at once. This was my second blunder of the week - the first being a burn to the hand while roasting garlic, sans pot holder (yea, stupid).

Spaghetti Carbonara

two eggs, beaten
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 c cream (in a pinch you can use half and half)
two servings whole wheat spaghetti or linguini
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c diced chipotle chicken sausage or any other sausage

In a small skillet gently sautee the chicken sausage. When done, set aside.

In a large pot prepare pasta. While the pasta is boiling, prepare the egg mixture.

Egg mixture: In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten. Add the parmesan and cream, stir well. When the pasta is done, drain, but do not rinse and immediately add the hot pasta to the bowl with the egg mixture. Stir well. Mix in the diced sausage, salt and pepper to taste and voila! Dinner! Serve with a green salad.

Now, eating raw-ish eggs can be tricky however, if your pasta is hot enough this will not be a problem because the heat from the pasta will temper the eggs, essentially cooking them.

Foodbuzz Publisher Community Launches Today!

I am very pleased to share some exciting news with you today! FoodBuzz Inc has officially launched it's food blogger community! The Housewives' Understudy has been an exclusive partner food blogs since July. Please take some time to check out FoodBuzz.com to see not only my restaurant reviews, recipes, photos, and blog posts but also those of other foodies that I have met. I hope you enojoy the Site as much as I do!

Best Regards,
The Housewife






LAUNCH OF GLOBAL FOODBUZZ BLOGGER COMMUNITY
LEVERAGES REAL-PEOPLE, REAL-TIME POWER OF FOOD PUBLISHING

San Francisco – October 13, 2008: Foodbuzz, Inc., officially inaugurates its food blogger community with more than 1,000 blog partners, a global food blogging event and an online platform that captures the real-people, real-time power of food publishing in every corner of the world. At launch, the Foodbuzz community ranks as one of the top-10 Internet destinations for food and dining (Quantcast), with bloggers based in 45 countries and 863 cities serving up daily food content.

To read more about the launch and check out FoodBuzz, click HERE.

Butternut Squash Pie

Squash are now available in farmers markets and I'm pretty happy about that. I really enjoy squash now as an adult but as a kid, I loathed the stuff. I thought it was pretty disgusting when my Mom baked squash with butter and brown sugar in the oven and that would be her dinner. Now, that dinner sounds like heaven to me (especially the sugar part).

But, because I'm not eating sugar like that these days, I'm find new squash recipes and making up a few of my own. I have a recipe for squash pie that involves butter, cheese, and two, yes two cups of cream. This recipe, from my coworker Stephanie, is pretty darn delicious but I've vowed never to make it because of all that cream. I know myself - I could eat the whole pie.

So, in a search for alternate squash pie recipes that left me empty handed, I made up my own and it turned out GREAT!

Here it is:

Butternut Squash Pie Two Ways
(makes 2-9" pies)

Ingredients
One butternut squash
One head of garlic
One 6" twig of fresh rosemary
2 cups skim milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup low-fat cheese (I used monterey jack)
salt and pepper to taste
Pie crust (you can use frozen but fresh is so easy... just try)

Directions
In a 375-degree oven roast your butternut squash. Leave the squash whole and just put the whole thing in there. 20 minutes after you've placed the squash in the oven, put the head of garlic in the oven as well, wrapped in foil. Simply cut off the very top of the head and pour a little olive oil into the cloves before you wrap it up.

After 45 minutes stab the squash with a knife. If it's soft, it's done. If not, let it go 15 more minutes and stab it again. When the squash is fully cooked, remove it (and the garlic head) from the oven and cut it into quarters, lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Discard the seed in your green waste bin or throw it into compost and see what happens! Scoop out the squash. Squeeze the cloves of roasted garlic into a ramekin and set aside.


squash and garlic, after the roast













In a blender, combine the squash and 2 cups of skim milk until you get squash "soup." Salt and pepper it to taste and then divide it in half, leaving one half of the mixture in the blender. Add two eggs and the rosemary leaves and blend. Stir in 1/2 cup low fat cheese. Pour the mixture into one unbaked pie shell and set aside.

Placing the other half of the squash "soup" into the blender, add two eggs and the roasted garlic until blended. Pour the mixture into one unbaked pie shell.


unbaked pie ready for the oven












Bake both pies in a 375-degree oven for 50 minutes or until you can poke the pie with a knife and it comes out clean.

I served the pie with a green salad and light miso-style dressing.

Who says playing with your food is inappropriate?

Kaiser Wilhelm I, known to his friends as "der fleischmann"
















Recently my friends Bill and Carrie traveled to Germany where they met Kaiser Wilhelm I at a farmers market in Freiberg. Wilhelm was just hanging out, smoking, and enjoying the sweet sunshine of a fine German afternoon.

Wilhelm appears to be made of several types of sausage and a large piece of bacon. I don't think that Wilhelm will ever return to Germany, or be consumed by America(ns). Wilhelm is happily enjoying life as Bill's office companion and top conversation piece.

Culture: Farms, Flavors, and People

A new magazine devoted to cheese, cheese makers, and farms is going to be available soon. Culture: Farms, Flavors and People will be available beginning in November, 2008.

The magazine's current Web site says they also plan to launch a site that will include cheese shop listings, cheese descriptions, forums, and q&a.

Sounds great to me! I am looking forward to checking it out.

AND... speaking of cheese

If you "hanker for a hunk-o cheese", give Roaring 40's Blue a try. I've purchased this cheese from a few different sources so I don't think it's that hard to come by. I first read about 40's when Janet Fletcher reviewed it in the San Francisco Chronicle a few years ago. Since then, when we're looking for a nice blue to add to a cheese tray, we go for 40's.

Roaring 40's Blue comes from King Island, a small island located in the South Ocean in a straight between Australia and Tasmania. The "40" in Roaring 40's Blue comes from the island's location, longitude - which is 40-degrees South. Now, most French-style blue cheeses are made from ewe's milk (for those of you not familiar, an Ewe is is a female sheep) but Roaring 40's Blue is made from cow's milk which makes it a little less "barnyard" flavored. The cheese is still nice and full bodied (sharp) but has a nutty, sweet aftertaste. I like to eat this one straight up - I find on a salad, the taste is wasted.

In 2002, Roaring 40's Blue won “Champion Cheese” at the New York Fancy Foods show. Kings Island sounds like a great place. There are less than 2000 people on the island and most folks either raise cows, produce wool, or grow kelp. I think I would like to sit back on Kings Island with a skein or two of local yarn, my knitting needles, and a wheel of Roaring 40's Blue some day.

Czech out this chicken recipe!

I know, bad joke.

Have you checked out Martha's blog lately? Martha spent a day in Prague recently. Yup, a day.

Seeing photos from her trip reminded me of a recipe I put together based on a dish I had in Prague. My friend Anne and I traveled to Prague in 1996 and ate at an unmarked restaurant one night where we had the most amazing chicken dish made with peaces and a smoky cheese. Coupled with a Czech beer, it was one of the most memorable meals of my life.

Here is the recipe that I came up with after returning home. It can't hold a candle to the meal in Prague but, it's a close and very tasty comparison.

Czech Chicken
4 chicken breasts
sliced peaches - about 12 slices, peeled
smoked cheese (any kind will do) - 4 sandwich size slices

Preheat oven to 375-degrees.

After lightly brushing with olive oil on both sides, place the chicken breasts in a baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to you liking and lay 3-4 slices of peach on top of each breast. Cover with foil and bake for 20-30 minutes.

Uncover and place one slice of cheese on top of each chicken breast. If your cheese slice isn't large enough to cover the peaches completely, you need more cheese. The key is to completely cover the peach slices with a cheesy blanket.

Bake 10 more minutes or until the cheese is melted. Let stand 5 minutes so the cheese can settle a bit before plating. Enjoy!