Did you even know it is World Nutella Day today? Yeah, I only figured that out because everyone and their brother are posting recipes made with nutella. Well, guess what I have ZERO of in my house? Yeah, Nutella. It like not having Turkey on Thanksgiving. It's a crime punishable by...well isn't not having any Nutella it's own form of punishment??
Anyhow, if you are fortunate to be blessed this festive day, I saw this brilliant idea for Nutella Milk over on bell' alimento. It uses up the last bits of Nutella stuck to the inside of the jar. Not a bit of wasted Nutella! Brilliant I tells ya.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
I Am Scared and Intrigued
I can see this being served at a "classy, high brow" superbowl party. I can't quite figure out if this sounds gross or delicious. Needless to say those folks at Choosy Beggars created a really unique fusion food!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Happy Spring!
So today is Setsubun...the Japanese Bean Throwing Festival/Ceremony. It's kind of like New Years Eve. Today is considered to be the first day of spring. Um, it is so very un-spring like here it's not even funny. As I write this it is only 3F with a windchill of -10F. Hey, it's supposed to get all the way up to 13F. Yup. Sounds like spring to me. Better get out the soccer ball and sidewalk chalk.
Anyhow, what you are supposed to do on Setsubun is throw dried soybeans out your front door or at a person wearing a Oni (ogre or demon) mask. While you are doing this you say "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi." This means Demons out, good luck in!
I found this cool print out through Hiragana Mama of a great mask to color. If you click on the link to Hiragana Mama you'll also get to see the wonderful video of "Ogre Underpants" which has provided several hours of entertainment for Blockette.
So today we colored in our wonderful masks, but we didn't have any soybeans dried or otherwise. I had some red lentils so we threw those out the door instead. We also growled at each other with our masks. I don't think that is part of the tradition, but it was fun.
Another thing you are supposed to do is eat a bean for every year of your age. It's supposed to bring on good health for the rest of the year. Again since we didn't have any beans I wasn't sure what to do. I heard that you could use peanuts, but we didn't have any of those either.
Blockette suggested M&Ms. Well, they were peanut butter M&Ms so that counts right? Sort of? Then Blockette realized that 5 M&Ms is a lot less than 35 M&Ms. I should have probably felt a little bit guilty about that, but I'm mean and I didn't. I feel like I earned everyone of those M&Ms. I told Blockette that we could always eat real beans next year and she scrunched up her face and not a word was said further about the issue. I did give Blockette 6 M&M's because according to her she is "almost" 6. I must not be too mean because I plan on giving her some more M&Ms after lunch. Maybe I'm loosin my touch!
Anyhow, what you are supposed to do on Setsubun is throw dried soybeans out your front door or at a person wearing a Oni (ogre or demon) mask. While you are doing this you say "Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi." This means Demons out, good luck in!
I found this cool print out through Hiragana Mama of a great mask to color. If you click on the link to Hiragana Mama you'll also get to see the wonderful video of "Ogre Underpants" which has provided several hours of entertainment for Blockette.
So today we colored in our wonderful masks, but we didn't have any soybeans dried or otherwise. I had some red lentils so we threw those out the door instead. We also growled at each other with our masks. I don't think that is part of the tradition, but it was fun.Another thing you are supposed to do is eat a bean for every year of your age. It's supposed to bring on good health for the rest of the year. Again since we didn't have any beans I wasn't sure what to do. I heard that you could use peanuts, but we didn't have any of those either.
Blockette suggested M&Ms. Well, they were peanut butter M&Ms so that counts right? Sort of? Then Blockette realized that 5 M&Ms is a lot less than 35 M&Ms. I should have probably felt a little bit guilty about that, but I'm mean and I didn't. I feel like I earned everyone of those M&Ms. I told Blockette that we could always eat real beans next year and she scrunched up her face and not a word was said further about the issue. I did give Blockette 6 M&M's because according to her she is "almost" 6. I must not be too mean because I plan on giving her some more M&Ms after lunch. Maybe I'm loosin my touch!
Thankful Thursday 5.11
I'm so messed up with all the snow days I almost forgot it was Thursday!
1. Mrblocko humored me when I wanted to rearrange a few rooms.
2. The "Nobody likes me-worm song" made Blockette laugh when she was being a grump.
3. The power did not go off during the blizzard
4. we got the driveway shoveled with no major injuries.
5. Mrblocko got home before the blizzard got bad on Tues.
6. Blockette had fun playing in the giant snow drifts.
7. I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I would be after shoveling.
8. I went to the grocery store on Tuesday so I don't have to go out in this yuck today.
9. I remembered today was not only Chinese New Year, but the Japanese holiday called Setsubun which has given us some more things to do.
10. We haven't killed each other going stir crazy...yet
1. Mrblocko humored me when I wanted to rearrange a few rooms.
2. The "Nobody likes me-worm song" made Blockette laugh when she was being a grump.
3. The power did not go off during the blizzard
4. we got the driveway shoveled with no major injuries.
5. Mrblocko got home before the blizzard got bad on Tues.
6. Blockette had fun playing in the giant snow drifts.
7. I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I would be after shoveling.
8. I went to the grocery store on Tuesday so I don't have to go out in this yuck today.
9. I remembered today was not only Chinese New Year, but the Japanese holiday called Setsubun which has given us some more things to do.
10. We haven't killed each other going stir crazy...yet
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
20 Things To Do With Your Munchkin on a Snow Day
Are you and your munchkin bored from being stuck in the house with all this snow? Here are some ideas of stuff to do. Got any more ideas cause we are still bored over here!!!!
1. shovel
2. attempt to french braid your and your munchkin's hair
3. make a puzzle
4. play a board game
5. make marshmellows
6. bake bread
7. make soup stock
8. Read
9. draw/paint with your munckin
10. paint your and your munckin's toenails
11. torment your pets (eg catnip, feathers, string)
12. sew
13. surf the net
14. introduce your munchkin to a new (to them movie) like Neverending Story or Princess Bride
15. rearrange your house
16. Do some laundry...make your munchkin sort darks and lights
17. scrub your kitchen floor (yeah right.)
18. go through your stuff and weed out the stuff that needs to be donated to charity.
19. Make paper snowflakes
20. watch crazy you tube songs about ogre underpants in Japanese
1. shovel
2. attempt to french braid your and your munchkin's hair
3. make a puzzle
4. play a board game
5. make marshmellows
6. bake bread
7. make soup stock
8. Read
9. draw/paint with your munckin
10. paint your and your munckin's toenails
11. torment your pets (eg catnip, feathers, string)
12. sew
13. surf the net
14. introduce your munchkin to a new (to them movie) like Neverending Story or Princess Bride
15. rearrange your house
16. Do some laundry...make your munchkin sort darks and lights
17. scrub your kitchen floor (yeah right.)
18. go through your stuff and weed out the stuff that needs to be donated to charity.
19. Make paper snowflakes
20. watch crazy you tube songs about ogre underpants in Japanese
No Lard Tortillas
I was going to post a recipe for Hot chocolate today, considering half the nation is buried under snow, but my best friend made a special request. Yesterday she asked, "Hey when are you going to post that tortilla recipe you've been talking about?" Well, I didn't have time to write something up yesterday, so I'm posting it today. So for those tortilla-less folks who get a hankering for Mexican, but can't make it out the front door, let alone to the market, this recipe is perfect for you.
I had heard making tortillas was easy but I was sceptical. A few weeks back I was searching for a recipe on Tasty Kitchen and I stumbled across this particular recipe for homemade flour tortillas . The thing that makes this recipe unique is that it calls for oil, and not lard, shortening or butter.
I was surprised to find out how easy they were to prepare. I'm still not the most skilled with a rolling pin, so they were rather free formed in shape. They worked great for egg tacos and quesadillas. If I was going to make something like enchiladas I would buy a package of flour tortillas. The uniform tortillas would just be so much easier to handle when assembling that sort of dish. If anyone can give me some tips on how to get the tortillas less amoebic in shape, that would be awesome.
One quick note about ingredients. Because you aren't getting any flavor from the fat, if you have it, unbleached flour is the way to go. Unbleached flour has a bit of a nutty flavor, where bleached flour is pretty tasteless. Tasteless works great in chocolate chip cookies because there are a lot of other flavors in there that you'd rather shine through, namely the chocolate, butter and sugar. Of course, if you are snowed in and don't have any unbleached flour, I'm sure that regular old bleached all purpose will work fine. To continue with the Chocolate chip cookie metaphor, it's kind of like using milk chocolate chips in the recipe. Yeah, they taste OK, but semi-sweet chips result in a better tasting cookie.
Also, do not use soybean oil. Stick with canola. I made a batch with Soybean oil and they did not roll out as well as the ones I made with canola. They didn't taste any different, they were just a pain to roll out. I haven't tried making these with regular vegetable oil so I can't attest for the roll-ability of the tortillas with that particular oil.
After making a few tortillas, I found I was able to roll out one portion of the dough while another was cooking on the skillet. This allowed me to get sort of an assembly line going while I rolled and cooked out all the tortillas. It went much quicker than I expected, and I'm pretty slow going in the kitchen.
I was also surprised that the tortillas stayed warm under a dish cloth as the remainder of the tortillas were cooked. This was a really nice surprise. This meant that I got to eat my tortillas warm too!
The recipe didn't say how to store any leftover tortillas. Since there are no preservatives, I was afraid if I left them on the counter they would go bad so I stored them in the fridge. I reheated them briefly on the skillet to make them malleable again. They tasted just as good the second day as they did the first!
No Lard Tortillas from Tasty Kitchen
3 cups Organic, Unbleached Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅓ cups Canola Oil
1 cup Hot Water
Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder with a whisk. Add the canola oil and mix with your fingers until all the oil is incorporated and the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add 1 cup of hot water and mix until a ball is formed. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. (I have also refrigerated it overnight).
Divide the dough into 12 balls and roll out one at a time on a floured surface. Brush off excess flour. Cook on a hot, ungreased griddle over medium-high heat. Turn the tortilla when brown blisters form on the first side. Stack the totillas and serve warm.
I had heard making tortillas was easy but I was sceptical. A few weeks back I was searching for a recipe on Tasty Kitchen and I stumbled across this particular recipe for homemade flour tortillas . The thing that makes this recipe unique is that it calls for oil, and not lard, shortening or butter.
I was surprised to find out how easy they were to prepare. I'm still not the most skilled with a rolling pin, so they were rather free formed in shape. They worked great for egg tacos and quesadillas. If I was going to make something like enchiladas I would buy a package of flour tortillas. The uniform tortillas would just be so much easier to handle when assembling that sort of dish. If anyone can give me some tips on how to get the tortillas less amoebic in shape, that would be awesome.
One quick note about ingredients. Because you aren't getting any flavor from the fat, if you have it, unbleached flour is the way to go. Unbleached flour has a bit of a nutty flavor, where bleached flour is pretty tasteless. Tasteless works great in chocolate chip cookies because there are a lot of other flavors in there that you'd rather shine through, namely the chocolate, butter and sugar. Of course, if you are snowed in and don't have any unbleached flour, I'm sure that regular old bleached all purpose will work fine. To continue with the Chocolate chip cookie metaphor, it's kind of like using milk chocolate chips in the recipe. Yeah, they taste OK, but semi-sweet chips result in a better tasting cookie.Also, do not use soybean oil. Stick with canola. I made a batch with Soybean oil and they did not roll out as well as the ones I made with canola. They didn't taste any different, they were just a pain to roll out. I haven't tried making these with regular vegetable oil so I can't attest for the roll-ability of the tortillas with that particular oil.
After making a few tortillas, I found I was able to roll out one portion of the dough while another was cooking on the skillet. This allowed me to get sort of an assembly line going while I rolled and cooked out all the tortillas. It went much quicker than I expected, and I'm pretty slow going in the kitchen.
I was also surprised that the tortillas stayed warm under a dish cloth as the remainder of the tortillas were cooked. This was a really nice surprise. This meant that I got to eat my tortillas warm too!
The recipe didn't say how to store any leftover tortillas. Since there are no preservatives, I was afraid if I left them on the counter they would go bad so I stored them in the fridge. I reheated them briefly on the skillet to make them malleable again. They tasted just as good the second day as they did the first!
No Lard Tortillas from Tasty Kitchen
3 cups Organic, Unbleached Flour
1 teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅓ cups Canola Oil
1 cup Hot Water
Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder with a whisk. Add the canola oil and mix with your fingers until all the oil is incorporated and the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Add 1 cup of hot water and mix until a ball is formed. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. (I have also refrigerated it overnight).
Divide the dough into 12 balls and roll out one at a time on a floured surface. Brush off excess flour. Cook on a hot, ungreased griddle over medium-high heat. Turn the tortilla when brown blisters form on the first side. Stack the totillas and serve warm.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Have you never been Mellow...marshmellow that is
I can't believe it's been over a month and I haven't introduced you to the newest member of our family.
Meet Betty:
Ain't she a beauty? She's a Kitchenaid 5 quart Artisan Standmixer. Mrblocko bought her for me for Valchristmastinebirthmother's Day. Yup, that's right. He's off the gift giving hook for the rest of the year. Pretty lucky guy eh? Actually, I'm the lucky one cause the standmixer is totally rockin awesome!
Now the white color was not my first choice, but she was the one that was on sale. And by sale I mean MEGA sale so who really gives a flying flip about the color! She was dubbed Betty, after Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. White.
The very first thing I made with my cool new toy was Marshmellows! Yeah. I know I spelled the word wrong. Marshmellows is another word that I insist on misspelling. I think it looks much better than dumb old Marshmallow. Spelling the word Marshmallow correctly makes me think of the word wallow and that is not a happy word. Mellow is much groovier. In fact, it's the grooviest. And, since these treats are super duper groovy we are going to spell them my way! Marshmellow!
Yeah, plus, these babies are so yummy they will make your eyes roll in the back of your head. I have been wanting to make my own marshmellows for years. It is not something you want to attempt without a stand mixer. The recipe requires you to beat the thick molten sticky batter for 15 minutes. My hand held electric mixer does not have a strong enough motor to handle that kind of abuse.
Betty was up to the challenge. There was a moment where I thought I had messed everything up. When you put the batter/syrup whatever you call it, into the bowl of your mixer and start it up, it turns this yellowy-tanish color. I thought I had burned the sugar or something equally horrid. Nope. After a few minutes it begins to get that nice fluffy white color
When the mixing was done I poured the sticky mess into a 9x13 pan and let it set up. This was the hardest part. The waiting. Pure AGONY!
After a torturous 4 hours, the blob gets turned out onto a cutting board. With how sticky the marshmellows were when I put them in the pan, I thought this was going to be an impossible task. Apparently I coated the pan sufficiently. Don't skimp on the powdered sugar-cornstarch mixture. I think this is the key.
I cut my sweet treats into roughly 1 inch squares. Very rough. I can't cut a straight line without a ruler to save my life. If I was making these as a gift I'd whip out a ruler so they looked nicer, or even use a cookie cutter for a fun shape.
The recipe I used was marshmellows a la alton brown from the food network website. There are a ton of Marshmellow recipes out there. I chose this one because I had watched the episode of Good Eats where the marshmellows had been made. I felt this would be a safe bet since I knew sort of what was going on. Besides most of the other recipes contained eggs. The thought of eggs that may or may not get fully cooked in the marshmellows grossed me out.
I will be using this recipe from now on. When I'm feeling experimental I'll give the recipes below a try. They are all slight variations on Alton Brown's basic recipe.
Peppermint from Beantown baker
Cinnamon from the Family Kitchen
Chocolate malt from Piece of Cake
Irish Cream from My Adventures in Food
Candied Sweet potato from the Kitchn
A final note about these fluffy white clouds of deliciousness, if you want to take yourself over the edge, dip them in chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top. Ngaaaa! Drool city.
Alton Brown's Marshmellows
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray
Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 c water. Have whisk attachment standing by. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 c water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over med high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 min. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 F, approximately 7-8 min. Once the mix reaches this temp, immediately remove from heat. Turn mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour sugar syrup down side of bowl into gelatin mix. Once you have added all of syrup, increase speed to high. Continue to whip til mix becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12-15 min. Add vanilla during last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows. Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13x9" metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add sugar and cornstarch mix and move around to completely coat bottom and sides of pan. Return remaining mixture to bowl for later use. When ready, pour the mix into prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into pan. Dust top with enough remaining sugar and cornstarch mix to lightly cover. Reserve rest for later. Allow marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Turn marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1" squares using a pizza wheel dusted with confectioners' sugar mix. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with remaining mix, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.
Meet Betty:
Ain't she a beauty? She's a Kitchenaid 5 quart Artisan Standmixer. Mrblocko bought her for me for Valchristmastinebirthmother's Day. Yup, that's right. He's off the gift giving hook for the rest of the year. Pretty lucky guy eh? Actually, I'm the lucky one cause the standmixer is totally rockin awesome!Now the white color was not my first choice, but she was the one that was on sale. And by sale I mean MEGA sale so who really gives a flying flip about the color! She was dubbed Betty, after Mrs. Crocker and Mrs. White.
The very first thing I made with my cool new toy was Marshmellows! Yeah. I know I spelled the word wrong. Marshmellows is another word that I insist on misspelling. I think it looks much better than dumb old Marshmallow. Spelling the word Marshmallow correctly makes me think of the word wallow and that is not a happy word. Mellow is much groovier. In fact, it's the grooviest. And, since these treats are super duper groovy we are going to spell them my way! Marshmellow!
Yeah, plus, these babies are so yummy they will make your eyes roll in the back of your head. I have been wanting to make my own marshmellows for years. It is not something you want to attempt without a stand mixer. The recipe requires you to beat the thick molten sticky batter for 15 minutes. My hand held electric mixer does not have a strong enough motor to handle that kind of abuse.Betty was up to the challenge. There was a moment where I thought I had messed everything up. When you put the batter/syrup whatever you call it, into the bowl of your mixer and start it up, it turns this yellowy-tanish color. I thought I had burned the sugar or something equally horrid. Nope. After a few minutes it begins to get that nice fluffy white color
When the mixing was done I poured the sticky mess into a 9x13 pan and let it set up. This was the hardest part. The waiting. Pure AGONY!
After a torturous 4 hours, the blob gets turned out onto a cutting board. With how sticky the marshmellows were when I put them in the pan, I thought this was going to be an impossible task. Apparently I coated the pan sufficiently. Don't skimp on the powdered sugar-cornstarch mixture. I think this is the key.I cut my sweet treats into roughly 1 inch squares. Very rough. I can't cut a straight line without a ruler to save my life. If I was making these as a gift I'd whip out a ruler so they looked nicer, or even use a cookie cutter for a fun shape.
The recipe I used was marshmellows a la alton brown from the food network website. There are a ton of Marshmellow recipes out there. I chose this one because I had watched the episode of Good Eats where the marshmellows had been made. I felt this would be a safe bet since I knew sort of what was going on. Besides most of the other recipes contained eggs. The thought of eggs that may or may not get fully cooked in the marshmellows grossed me out.
I will be using this recipe from now on. When I'm feeling experimental I'll give the recipes below a try. They are all slight variations on Alton Brown's basic recipe.
Peppermint from Beantown baker
Cinnamon from the Family Kitchen
Chocolate malt from Piece of Cake
Irish Cream from My Adventures in Food
Candied Sweet potato from the Kitchn
A final note about these fluffy white clouds of deliciousness, if you want to take yourself over the edge, dip them in chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes on top. Ngaaaa! Drool city.
Alton Brown's Marshmellows
3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray
Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 c water. Have whisk attachment standing by. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 c water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over med high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 min. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 F, approximately 7-8 min. Once the mix reaches this temp, immediately remove from heat. Turn mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour sugar syrup down side of bowl into gelatin mix. Once you have added all of syrup, increase speed to high. Continue to whip til mix becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12-15 min. Add vanilla during last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows. Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13x9" metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add sugar and cornstarch mix and move around to completely coat bottom and sides of pan. Return remaining mixture to bowl for later use. When ready, pour the mix into prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into pan. Dust top with enough remaining sugar and cornstarch mix to lightly cover. Reserve rest for later. Allow marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Turn marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1" squares using a pizza wheel dusted with confectioners' sugar mix. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with remaining mix, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.
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