Snow Day and other February Updates

So I am a little behind but better late than never I suppose. Work has been difficult as of late. It is manageable over all, and while I don't really want to go into it, i hit my breaking point in early February and opted to take a personal day before I made a stupid decision based on my mood.

It turned out to be a brilliant stroke of planning as we ended up getting blizzard conditions and the city shut down. I have lived in Wisconsin my whole life and have seen my share of winter storms, but this was a new experience for me. It wasn't really the snow that was the issue. We only had about 4-6 inches. It was the wind. I got caught out in it briefly coming home from bus stop. The force o the wind left me a little disoriented on a few times and I occasionally couldn't open my eyes because of all the debris it picked up. It only got worse from there. At one point I looked out the window at the howling wind and was a little unnerved by the scene outside. It was like something out of a sci-fi/fantasy movie.

The weather made for a perfect day to stay in my pajamas and get stuff done around the house. I got all my laundry done AND folded. This is almost unheard of for me. I got the kitchen cleaned and promptly made a mess again. I have been long to make this caramel-apple pie and had some apples to use up, so I decided to tackle it.

Essentially, you make the crust, the apple filling, and the caramel sauce all separately, assemble them together, and then bake it in the oven to meld them all together. I am utter rubbish at sauces so the caramel sauce didn't turn out quite as caramel-ly as I had hoped for texture wise but the flavor was there. It was a lot of fuss (and a lot of dirty dishes), but overall I think it turned out well if slightly too sweet.

Because my husband can't have apples, I also made a cake for him. Nothing special; just a quick mix. Of course, domestic bliss was short-lived when I burnt dinner while I was on the phone talking to my mother and ignoring the simmer that had turned into a boil.

I applied for school for this fall, got some knitting done, and even played some video games. It was exactly what I needed as far as days of go, and because I was so productive, I could spend Saturday with my friends drinking tea and knitting. I am only 2 repeats away from finishing the lace scarf. Hooray!

Later on in the month I came down with a nasty respiratory infection. Normally when I am sick, I hunker down with some tea and string and bad movies and fell sorry for myself. However, I was so sick and feeling so lousy the best I could manage was to prop up a book on my pillow and lay in bed. (This was probably a good thing because I was reading the Mortal Instruments series and couldn't put them down. I would have been completely non-functional until I had finished them, so while I hated being sick, I had a good reason to stay in bed reading). The URI knocked me completely low. I ended up needing an inhaler to help me breath for a bit.

And I love love loved the Mortal Instruments series. It was angsty or sure and occasionally annoying that nothing good ever seemed to happen for these characters until the end of the 3rd book. But I couldn't put them down. I am debating whether or not I want to read the 4th book which is coming out in April. They were so dark for so long and the 3rd book had such a satisfying ending I am afraid to jinx it.

Cake Party

One of my favorite places in the universe is the Sow's Ear. It is my knitting store of choice and my cafe of choice as well it comes down to it. It is full of string and tasty food and coffee smells. Even the most aggravating human beings I know don't rub my nerves when I am there. I can spend hours there knitting and petting string and enjoying their tasty sandwiches (My favorite is the Savory Sow with brie and roasted red peppers). The staff is awesome (one of the coffee guys even knows how to rock a bowler hat). It is such a happy place and in many ways feels like home for me. It is the sort of shop I would like to have if I ever owned a shop. I even like the way the string still smells like the shop even after I have had it home for a couple of days.

The other great thing this place has is knitters. There are some locals who just really enjoy the atmosphere but even many of them eventually can't resist the allure of string for too long. Knitters are a strange group. Maybe it is just that we all know that string is something that needs to be shared and so it overcomes any social awkwardness or misanthropic tendencies.

Anyway, I met some friends there and while we were happily enjoying all that the Sow's Ear has to offer I overheard someone at the next table talk about a cake party. The following exchange ensued:

Me: I am sorry for eavesdropping but I must know what is a cake party and why have I never heard of it before?
Lovely Woman Wearing the February Lady Sweater: Well it is a party where everyone brings cake and then you eat it.
Me: Wow...I definitely need to steal that idea.
LWWFLS: Be my guest.

So yesterday, two of the most awesome women I know descended upon my house, and we had a cake party. I made a jam cake with caramel icing that was completely full of fail and some lovely oreo cheesecakes that were unbelievably full of win. We ordered Chinese food, drank tea and wine, ate cake and snacks, and watched hours of chick flicks and played with string. It was one of the best days I have had in a long time, and needs to be repeated...with better cake options :)

Fondue!

We hosted for the second time our New Years Day party which involves food and games and such. I think it went well though I really over-cooked. We had ranch chicken wings, bbq pork, pita with 2 kinds of hummus, various cheeses, chips, etc. And there was fondue!

I found a recipe online for a traditional three-cheese fondue and I really liked the way it turned out. I was skeptical of how it would work because I am not a fan of swiss cheese or cheeses of that ilk. I bought some nice specialty cheeses from a local market and it turned out dangerously yummy. I also made a chocolate fondue that we flavored with cinnamon that was creamy and decadent and .... *drool*

Fondue is totally awesome!

I also had an amazing time at the LARP (called "Clerical Error) I went to the other day. I was worried at first given my lack of experience, but it ended up going well and the way the story unfolded was just plain awesome. They are running the game at Intercon K this year so I will refrain from going into more detail. I think LARPs are something I want to explore more of in the future.

Happy New Year!

I have yet to find a better way to say what I wish for everyone in the new year, and so I will once again rely upon the wisdom of the ever brilliant Neil Gaiman:

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."

Green of indefinable wrongness...

Isn't that just wrong? Absolutely and completely terrifyingly wrong? It is of course why it had to be done. I stumbled across a recipe for Mountain Dew Jelly while searching for something else. I immediately shared it on a social networking site and my wonderful friends being who they are asked if I wanted to come over and make some. My friends are awesome! We made two separate pots of jelly so we added green food coloring to one hence the different colors. It actually doesn't taste horrible. I am not quite sure what you would eat it with, but that really wasn't the point. I think I might try root beer or cherry coke next.

What else has been going on since I last wrote...Well I had my first LARP experience in early November. It was unbelievably cool and I am actually traveling to Chicago tomorrow for another one (different designers).

There hasn't been much on the crafting front. We finally found bookshelves to suit our purposes and so much have my time has been spent unpacking. We have only two boxes left and if I am lucky those should be mostly dealt with this afternoon. Hooray for being moved in to our wonderful new home.

I did a lot of playing around with recipes from the Artisan Bread cookbook. Not all successes but some good experiments.

We are having a party on New Years day so I have been playing with recipes for that. I just made some roasted red pepper hummus as well as some edamame hummus (soy beans replace the traditional garbanzo beans). I bought a small food processor (I don't like them in general because of the noise but I thought it might be handy to have a small one around) last year and thought this was a good excuse to play. They didn't turn out too badly though I don't think I am a hummus convert as of yet. The second recipe came from one of the cookbooks I got for Christmas that is written by the local agricultural society. There are all sorts of neat things in this cookbook and I am actually going to make the orzo stuffed peppers for dinner tonight. Wish me luck. I also got a fondue pot and I am disturbingly excited to play with that as well. Inaugural melty goodness this weekend.

I have been home this week and it has been so wonderful to get more time to make meals. I made vanilla belgian waffles with strawberries and chocolate coffee this morning. There is a small part of me that wishes I could stay home and cook all the time.

Bread!

I made bread! No really, I realize this doesn't sound like anything monumental but it is vastly encouraging for me. I have never had much luck with it. I follow all the rules, I read all the instructions, and I can just never make it work. I have a 50/50 chance with focaccia but those just aren't very good odds. I have learned to accept the fact that if there is yeast in the dough there is a high likelihood for fail if I am the one making it.

However, at the Cooks Collegium last weekend I was presented with what seemed like a pretty fool proof bread recipe. I was enchanted with the idea of beautiful fresh baked bread, and I had to give it a shot.

And it worked. I made bread! Granted I have only made it once and it is possible that this will become the 50/50 sadness of my previous "reliable recipe" bread attempts. I remain hopeful. I am also excited about experimenting because a lot of the recipe is based on ratios so you can alter the dry to wet ingredients you use as long as you maintain the ratios and still have success. Hopefully there will be future happy bread posts. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I love cooking events...I always come home with such exciting recipes and kitchen ideas. I have a couple of others waiting for me in the kitchen I can't wait to try.

With the bread, I also took some pointers from the Good Eats bread episode (I have been watching these a lot lately...they are uber helpful), and I think between the two of them I had a good approach. One of them in particular is the proper temperature bread is supposed to reach in order for it to be considered done. I think that this is why I don't like a lot of homemade breads because a lot of times they end up really dry. Turns out the bread should be between 205 and 210 degrees F. Any hotter and it reaches the boiling point so all the water boils/evaporates away.

I should have put it on a rack instead of cutting board though. The steam all settled at the bottom and loaf got a little soggy there. I also cut into it too early and it didn't have enough time to set. It was still a little dough-y. Fresh baked bread is a challenge in patience.

Torta Bianca (updated)

Previously I posted a recipe for Torta Bianca a couple years ago. I felt that the recipe needed some work and just have not taken the time to make the corrections that I wanted to. I decided that I wanted to make this tart for a potluck at the Middle Kingdom Cooks Collegium that took place last weekend.

Life intervened and I did not end up getting the chance to make cheese as I did before and I was just going to use cream cheese. However, my traveling companion is quickly becoming a cheese goddess and made some neufchatel for me to use. This had a much better texture than the cheese I usually make and worked perfectly.

One of the things that I was hoping to correct was the 'oily' texture my original tart had to it. I thought that it was just an issue of too much fat being added but decided to do a little research. By research, I mean watch the Good Eats episode on cheesecake :)

Turns out that one of the issues may have been that I didn't allow the pie shell to cool enough before adding the filling. The shock of heat caused the butter to separate and created the slimy texture. This made a lot of sense given my general impatience. I also approached the recipe as a cheesecake rather than just a recipe with some instructions. I wiped the cheese longer and to a much smoother texture than I did previously. I slowly incorporated the wet ingredients. And by using just ginger this time I improved the likely hood of snow white tart.

It is one of the interesting things about period redactions...the way you approach things can change what you ultimately get.

Anyway here is the new recipe:
12-16 ounces homemade cheese at room temperature (depends on what type of cheese you use. It should be a soft white cheese. You can also use 16 ounces of cream cheese)
6 egg whites
1 cup of sugar
4 tablespoons of butter, softened
1 tsp ginger
1 cup milk
salt (to taste)
Rosewater/additional sugar

I beat the cheese and butter together until smooth, added the sugar, salt, and ginger. I mixed the egg whites and milk together and gradually beat these into the cheese mixture. This was poured into a pie shell and baked at 350-375 (depending on your oven) for 1 hour.

Sprinkle lightly with rosewater and sugar.