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.

End of Summer

My toes are cold this morning - second day in a row so fall must be officially here. I suppose that means now is as good a time as any to wrap up my summer.

I did not really accomplish much on the crafty front with the crazy hours I put in at work all summer and moving into our first home.



I am still getting used to the space but I can't begin to describe how much I love it here. I am also starting to learn the personality of my new kitchen. It sounds odd but we seem to be a little shy around each other. It is getting better.

I did manage to do some canning at the close of the summer season. I made pickled green beans for my husband using some of the produce from the farmers market and also the end-of-summer jam he loves. It is a combination of peaches, pears, plums, lemon and ginger and is unbelievably tasty. It comes out this gorgeous blush color. Sadly my impatience meant I took it off the heat too quick so it is a little thin. Still workable but you have to eat PBJ very quickly :)



I also made some sekanjabin as well. It was a drink I was introduced to through the SCA and while not a big fan at first it has really grown on me. When properly diluted it is really very refreshing.

I am on vacation this week from work so I decided to use the time to get some knitting projects started. I had a bunch of time I needed to use up so while not an exciting vacation hopefully it will be a relaxed one. It is starting to look like it won't be as productive as I originally intended but after all these years you would think I would know that about myself. I have gotten 3 of my 5 knitting projects started. My intent is to cast on a bunch of different patterns/yarns into various projects so when I get a moment I can pick something up and knit on it rather than stalling because I don't feel like casting something on. Mostly just socks although my sweater project is staring at me waiting for me to get the courage to make a swatch. I know I shouldn't be daunted but I am.

On patterns and things and other stuff

I had this brilliant idea that I was going to sew my Halloween costume this year. I have long been obsessed with the awesomeness of costuming but my dislike and frustrations over sewing have turned me off to actually becoming a costumer. However, my desire to have truly awesome costumes has brought me to the realization that I am going to learn how to sew one way or the other.

I have done some sewing in the past. I actually made the vest my husband wore for our wedding. Mostly though it has been a "close your eyes and go" situation.

So, I took myself down to our local fabric megamart to look at patterns. And I quickly decided that I was in over my head (and my budget this month). I am proud of myself in that I finally decided to start small and bought a pattern to make an apron instead. It was a significantly better idea then spending money on a project I couldn't really afford that had a high likelihood of failure. I guess I will try the one step at a time approach.

This does mean that I am now clueless as to what I am going to do for Halloween this year. I think I will try to hit some thrift stores this week.

I have also been thinking long and hard about learning to make hats. I love hats and I am starting to realize a passion for crazy wild hats. They are expensive though and part of me has been wondering if it would be more affordable to make them myself. My one fear is that I am not really much of a designer so I don't know where I would come up with ideas but I thought I wouldn't worry about that so much just yet. For now I am going to work on assembling the skills. YouTube user "Threadbanger" has some interesting how-to videos and some of them involve hat making.

In my quest for acquiring costuming skills, I have been paging through pattern books. Particularly costuming because that is really the kind of sewing I want to be doing. Here is the thing I don't understand about the costume world. I have seen in Halloween stores the costumes with the slutty-I mean "vamped" up versions of a theme. The sexy nurse, the sexy cartoon princess, etc where the hemline falls just below the butt cheek and the neckline falls in the middle of the cleavage. But you can also get patterns to make these.

For me costuming is about the escape and the better the costume the better the escape. I suppose I can see the appeal of sexy costume role-play but really good costumers can make some truly sexy pieces without having to cheapen it. Oh well, I guess I shouldn't judge. To each their own. Off for a walk and probably some playing with string later.

Fallen

I recently finished Fallen by Lauren Kate. It is a book aimed at the young adult/teenage audience. It is difficult to describe without giving away too much of the later half of the book. The first 3/4 is mostly setup of the characters and there is a lot of angsty soul-searching on the part of the heroine.

I am not really what one would call "well-read". I read a lot to be sure but not one would call "steady" reading. Most of the books on the list of books a person is supposed to have read I have found endlessly boring and have preferred to stick with books that amuse my brain rather than strengthen it.

However, I realized that there was a lot of really great fiction geared towards young adults that I missed when I was a teen. I read a lot of best-seller/murder-mystery type books at that time in my life. I have been trying to read more of what I missed.

The thing I like about the fiction written for this age group is it lacks some of the...and I have been wrestling to come up with the right word for it...but it lacks some of the pretentiousness and the boundaries that come when writing fiction for adults. And not even sci-fi and fantasy are able to overcome those boundaries.

I am not sure why but for some reason when I open the cover of a young adult novel, I feel like the author is giving me much more freedom as a reader to explore my own imagination within the structure of the world they are creating in the book. Maybe we loose something as adults as we get older and become more experienced that we expect the fiction written to target an adult audience mirror. Maybe we loose something as we gain wisdom and perhaps it is the connection to our imagination. Which is odd because there is quite enough examples of junk literature cluttering the adult fiction section. And I am certainly guilty of considering the devouring of a brain-candy novel before a more serious tome.

But even where the fiction is light and unencumbered it still lacks the freedom that youth fiction has.

Anyway, Fallen was in a recommended reading list based upon other books I had read so I thought I would give it a shot. It was pretty angsty. Don't get me wrong - at 15 I would have gobbled up every word and probably not left my room until I had poured through the whole series. I still have enough of a connection to that part of myself to see how it would have appealed to me. However, I have also lost enough of it to find it somewhat unpalatable now. I am not sure that I want to finish the series. I may but I am just not the sort of person the book is really written for.

You can't always go back to who you were and what you used to love I guess. I am finding this out when I try to re-visit some of my old favorite TV shows. Occasionally nostalgia is ruined when one attempts to re-discover.

Small Comforts...

There is something comforting about a murder mystery or at least certain murder mysteries. I am speaking particularly of the ones where one finds oneself in a small hamlet, with an over large cemetery. These are the ones where every time you meet a new character they are either a victim or a murderer. Stir in a lead character with some pluck and let the mayhem ensue. It is a little certainty in an uncertain world.

I am generally a fan of mystery type shows by which I mean at the beginning of the show there is a problem which through a series of steps clues begin to unfold leading the cast down a path of twists and turns ending up at a resolution. And they come in so many delightful forms these days: Castle, Bones, Leverage, etc

But every once in a while I like to return to the classics. Maybe it was all those late nights watching Murder, She Wrote reruns with my dad.

On Jane Austen and other things

As of late my biggest project for the last couple of months has been buying and moving into our new condo. I think I am officially a grown up now (or if I wasn't after getting married I am now). I haven't been doing much crafting in general, I am not in the right frame of mind to play with recipes, and even my knitting has been only plodding along.

I have been reading however. My latest brain candy are a series of mysteries utilizing Mr. & Mrs. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice fame. The series isn't brilliant literature by any stretch and the author occasionally over uses stereotypes to an annoying degree but overall they have been enjoyable reads. I have waxed poetic (that is a nice of way saying I was unreasonably indignant) over my absolute disgust at the whole "Classic novel + Monster" series that has been showing up on bookshelves of late. I am somewhat mollified that Jane Austen has not been the only target but only slightly.

While I am waiting for the next two books in the series to come to my local library, I picked up Pride and Prejudice again. I haven't read it in a while because the movie adaptation is so faithful to the book I haven't really needed to. But there were a few things I had forgotten and wanted to get re-acquainted again. In doing so I think I discovered what it is about Ms. Austen's works that is so important to me. Her characters are so perfectly drawn that you can really imagine them - good qualities and bad. They feel more real than any of the other characters I have enjoyed in novels. Re-reading Jane Austen is like being re-acquainted with long lost friends. Which why the idea of having my "friends" eaten by sea monsters or zombies is so entirely unpalatable to me. (Well, that and it doesn't need fixing). So while I don't mind reading some Austen based fiction (as long as the author remains true to the original characters) I do have a problem with Austen-based abominations.

In any case, my brain is getting stuffed full of fun literary bits at present even if my string habit is being somewhat neglected. I am almost finished with my fingerless mitts and am very close to the half way point on my lace scarf.

In other news, Sharon Shinn has a new book coming out in October...SQUEEE

Reading...

As of late my reading list has been mostly the Temperance Brennan series by Kathy Reichs. I have long been a fan of mysteries though I wouldn't say that I would read just any mystery. I have to find either the characters or the concept palatable. Which doesn't mean that they are necessarily "good" fiction...just "tasty" fiction. And, I really like this series. I like the science; I like the concept; and I like the way the story progresses. It has even helped me find appreciation for the series Bones. I have always thought that this was a show I should like but could never get into. It turns out I needed to see the pilot. It made the rest of the series make sense, and has been my brain candy for the last few months as I work through back episodes.

In between my dives into the world of forensic anthropology there have been a few other side adventures. I picked up a copy of some of Jane Austen's short stories and essays that she wrote as a young woman. They were interesting and you could really get a sense of what a clever woman she was. They weren't brilliant necessarily but it was evident that hers was a mind that didn't often get to use itself to its full capacity. It was unlike anything I have ever read. I didn't get through all of it but I think it will be worth a revisit every now and again (though perhaps not in a full dose all at once).

It also seems I have a strongly tuned radar for Jane Austen inspired modern fiction. I don't always read them but I am always curious. I recently picked up Vanity and Vexation by Kate Fenton and was pleasantly surprised. It is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice but the author I think took pains not to make it the exact same novel. All the elements were there (well mostly) but they were used differently enough to make the story interesting. I of course knew where the novel was going from the first page (at least generally) but I didn't mind riding along with the author to get there. It worked. I have certainly read worse. And of course there are some "adaptations" I refuse to believe exist.

There is also another kind of book I need to find more of...autobiography/biographies in which food/recipes play a role in the storytelling. Books about food have always been comforting and I have stumbled upon a few books in which the author shares their story with the support of kitchens, recipes, and food. I have enjoyed them and need to find more...I am just not quite sure how to go about searching for them.