Crème Brûlée

Crème brûlée.

It's French. It's fancy. It's delicious.

AND, it is super easy to make. 

I'm serious.

I'm not talking "easy if you've got a PhD in French cooking". I'm talking "easy if you have an oven and are not lactose intolerant".


I love dairy. Cheese, milk, cream! Most foods I make contain at least one of those ingredients, and if you're really lucky, all of them. The "creme" in creme brulee = cream = yum.

I found out about a month ago that one of the main ingredients in creme brulee is egg yolks. Yup, not whites, yolks. That means, when I make angel food cake, and need something to do with all of those leftover yolks, I can double-up on the dessert and use them in some creme brulee! Uh-yeah!


Well I promised you an easy recipe, so here it is:

Creme Brulee (makes 4 servings)

2 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg yolks 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place four 6 oz. ramekins into a baking dish. 

Whip together egg yolks, then add cream, sugar, and vanilla. Whip until evenly blended.

Pour the mixture into your ramekins, distributing evenly. It's ok if they are full, your creme brule won't rise. Fill the pan with the ramekins about two-thirds full with water. 

Place the pan into your oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the sides are set and the center still jiggles a little. 

Let cool. Sprinkle with a light, even coat of sugar. If you have a culinary torch on hand, go ahead and caramelize the tops. If not, place them under the broiler, with the tops of the dessert about 5 inches from the heat until the sugar has caramelized.


I do not have a culinary torch. Though...I do have a fella who was comfortable using a hand-held torch thing from his work shop to do the job. It worked brilliantly. I applaud improvisation.

This dessert is rich, and oh so creamy. If you would like to make it for guests, and you would like to leave out the part about how easy it is to make, I won't judge.



Enjoy!

Beef Stroganoff

I decided to try something new for dinner tonight: beef stroganoff!

Well, not exactly new. My mom used to make beef stroganoff from time to time growing up. We had some extra beef that was in need of being used, and I had never before cooked stroganoff on my own before. So, lo and behold, I pulled out my trustee Pinterest and found a recipe.

After some searching I found one I liked. There were plenty of recipes gallivanting around claiming to be made from "scratch", but I found that more often than not they all contained canned soup. Call me a snob, but I don't consider it scratch if it has canned soup. Tisk, tisk.

I finally settled on an actual from scratch recipe from Eat Cake for Dinner, and decided to give it a whirl. I made a few small changes, but it turned out great! This one will definitely be printed and put in my cookbook. You might think I'm moving too fast, but this stroganoff is worth it. It's true love.

Don't believe me? Try it for yourself!

Beef Stroganoff

1 lb. ground beef
8 oz. mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 cup onion, diced (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 cups hot water
3 bouillon cubes
5 T flour
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cups sour cream

Brown beef over medium heat. I used a little steak seasoning to give it some extra pizzazz. If  you are using onion and mushrooms, sautee them together in a separate pan with a little butter. (Some crazy people don't like mushrooms OR onions, so you might need to leave them on the side). Whisk water, bouillon, flour, and Worcestershire sauce together in a separate bowl until smooth. Add this mixture (and the onion/mushrooms) to the beef. Bring the sauce to a simmer, and let cook until thickened (5-10 minutes on medium-high). Stir occasionally. Remove pan from heat and stir in sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I also may have spiked it with a little cream. Your choice!

This would be great served over egg noodles, or mashed potatoes (like we did). I also recommend a little somethin' somethin' on top (aka, cheese).



Enjoy!

The Making of Plum Jelly

Hello all!

Good news! We found wild plum trees on our property. After much deep thought and contemplation, we decided to make plum jelly from it!

The most difficult and/or time consuming part of the whole process was picking the plums. For this, we needed backup...and we were in luck! Henry followed us around the whole time, monitoring and offering moral support.

An offering of gratitude. 

Once we had a few pounds of plums picked, we removed the pits from each one. There may or may not have been some taste testing done along the way as well...You can never be too careful.

Once we had a good amount, I lightly chopped them in my new blender! That thing is amazing...like, it can make pesto, and guacamole, and jelly! Can you do that?!

In order to make our jelly, we followed the recipe on the back of the pectin box. (Some jellies use pectin and some don't, because it is found naturally in the fruit. We decided to use it this time!)

The process is super easy! You just boil the plums with some water to bring out the juice, then strain it (we used a fine strainer, but cheesecloth works too). Then you cook it some more with the pectin and sugar, throw it in a can and viola! Jelly!

The finished project!

Like I said, super easy! Though the plums are very sweet, this jelly is nice and tart, similar to a rhubarb flavor. If you want it sweeter, just peel all or most of the skins off the plums.

Some fresh jelly, and homemade bread...mmmm...fall is here!

Muffins

I have been doing a LOT more cooking lately than I am used to. This has allowed me opportunity to explore new flavors and to find some new favorites.

One of my new favorite recipes is for muffins! For those of you who know me, you know that I absolutely love to make cupcakes. Well, muffins are coming in a close second now that I know I've found a great recipe. The best part about it is that it's a simple muffin base, which means it is also highly adaptable, i.e. you can put whatever you want in it! So far I have tried almond/cranberry and wild raspberry/white chocolate. Both were awesome!

Wild raspberry & white chocolate muffins!

Here is the link for the original recipe at Simple Bites. This site has some awesome recipes to try!

My version of the recipe is as follows:

Muffin Base

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 cup oatmeal
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 heaping cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. Combine milk, vinegar, oats, butter, brown sugar and egg in a bowl. Mix well. 

Add remaining ingredients and any add-ins you want!

Scoop batter into a muffin/cupcake tin with liners, filling each cup about 3/4 full - don't be shy!

Bake until light brown and the tops spring back when touched, about 10-12 minutes.

(Baking time will be longer if you're adding fresh fruits.)

Let cool....EAT!

These muffins are amazingly easy and super delicious. Each batch makes about a dozen, so you might want to double it.

For cranberry & almond muffins I added a 1/2 cup each of craisins and almond slices, as well as 2 teaspoons of almond extract.

For wild raspberry & white chocolate muffins I added 1/2 cup each of wild raspberries I had picked and frozen earlier this summer and white chocolate chips, as well as 2 teaspoons of almond extract. I should forewarn you, if you are using wild raspberries versus store bought ones, they tend to have more seeds.

Enjoy, and let me know what flavor combinations you come up with!

Raspberries!

Earlier this Spring, we noticed several patches around the property that looked like they might be wild raspberries.

And sure enough!

They are beginning to pop. This is the first harvest of many, I'm sure!

I'm thinking raspberry rhubarb pie and raspberry jam.

Mouth. Watering.

The chickens think that they are the best snack ever as well. Especially my Orpington girls! Their favorite thing to do is steal treats from the other chickens. And oh how they love a good chase!

Duck

We cooked our first duck last week!

Where did we procure this duck you may ask?

From our backyard!

Yes, we cooked one of our pekin ducks (GASP!). As my roommate put it so perfectly, "I guess I am no longer disconnected from my food."

To make this wonderful meal you will need:

• Your crockpot!
• 1 duck
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
• Fresh herbs (I used rosemary and oregano)
• Garlic
• Onion tops, chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

Place duck in crock pot, sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, add onion tops and herbs (as many as you wish). 

Add garlic, either chopped, sliced, diced or pressed.

Add sweet potatoes, and water. Turn on low and cook for a good 6 hours. 

I know I sometimes don't use exact measurements for my recipes. This is because I have a horrible time following exact measurements! The words "to taste" are my favorite. I love to make the flavors and the food my own. Usually it works out pretty well!

To be honest, I have only been cooking...really cooking...for about two years (I know, I know...you all thought that I was a master chef and graduate from a fine culinary school). Before that, my specialty dishes included toast, pancakes and Ramen. Soul food.

My point here is that I don't know how to cook fancy food...but good food is not necessarily fancy. So any of the recipes that you may find here, you can expect to be beginner friendly...because I am a beginner. They will also be delicious!

Normally I prefer white meat over dark, but this was a completely different flavor than the dark meat I am used to. The duck was tender and buttery with a perfect amount of flavor from the herbs and potatoes. It literally fell off the bone when we served it up. No knives needed.

Feel free to comment below if you have any questions!

A perfect day, and some good food too...

I have the day off from work today! And my oh my is it the most perfect day to be free. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the sky is blue,the chipmunks are playing....it's like a Disney movie incarnate.

All we're missing is a song.

But let's not ruin a perfectly good day.


Jesco (my German-chocolatier pup), my co-worker and I started the day with a run. While Jesco and I have been walking and hiking plenty of times before, this was his first time running with me....and he LOVED it. Except that I wasn't going fast enough.

Afterwards we did some ab exercises in the grass. Well, my friend and I did abs...Jesco rolled around in the grass looking silly. Which is pretty much the same thing.

Then we came home and fed the rabbits and the chickens, and grabbed some leftovers for lunch. Can you say chipotle sweet potatoes!? Yum. There was supposed to be cilantro lime rice to go with it, but alas, someone ate it.

For those of you who are saying to yourself, "wow, that sounds yummylicious"...here is the recipe:

Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Warm spices, healthy sweet potatoes! Yum.

2-3 Sweet Potatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon chipotle chili powder

2 tablespoons vinegar

¼ cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Peel and slice (or dice) sweet potatoes. Combine all other ingredients.

Make sure the potatoes are thoroughly coated with the mixture (putting them all in a container with a tight lid and shaking works well).

Place in baking pan and cover with foil (punctured a few times to let steam escape).

Cook for 20 min., flip or stir potatoes and continue baking until soft.

Cilantro Lime Rice

Cook 2 cups rice, add FRESH cilantro, butter (optional), salt (optional), and lime juice to taste. DONE.

I try to use at least one ingredient from the garden, something that we have grown ourselves. It makes me feel good about the food I'm making....and it tastes heavenly. For this recipe I used fresh  cilantro. (If you recall from my post,"Cabin Fever", we started our cilantro way back in March)

I do have sweet potatoes growing in the garden, but they won't be ready for eat'n until September. If gardening teaches us anything, it is patience. 

So, give this recipe a try! It is super easy (the only way I cook, duh), and goes great with chicken or pulled pork.

Here is the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-chipotle-sweet-potatoes/.

Well folks, that's all for today! Happy Tuesday!

Book Review: Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma"

I just recently began re-reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. This was a book that I was assigned to read for a class about food and culture while I was in school. You may or may not have heard of Pollan and his books about the life of food and it's place in human (particularly Western) culture, but if you are at all interested in the subject I would say that his work is definitely worth a read.

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan takes you on a detailed journey through the natural history of various meals. It's not a book about dieting, nor is it about eating healthy. It is about the choices we, as ominvores, have when it comes to the dinner table. It is about how those choices have been blurred (and somewhat mutilated if you ask me) by the processes of modern food production. As an investigative journalist, Pollan presents you with his findings as he follows his meals from the farm, to the factory and ultimately the dinner table.

Food has always been a fascinating subject to us because it is a necessity for life, for survival, and has therefore become thoroughly intertwined into the fabric of human culture. Everyone needs to eat.

However, in the past few centuries, as technologies have advanced and capitalism has become king, food has gone through a transformation. It is no longer simply a basic need. It has become an art form, and a commodity. Most people rely heavily, if not entirely on the food-system rather than on their own ability to grow and produce their own sustenance. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. It is, as are most things, a much more complex issue than the black and white of good and bad.

At Mayhew, and anywhere else we may find ourselves in the future, we grow as much of our own food as we can. This includes gardening, raising chickens for eggs and meat, and raising rabbits, ducks, pigs and beef for meat as well. Do we still shop at the grocery store? Of course, I can't get salt or cinnamon or bananas from our land. We grow our own food mostly for the pleasure of it. We do what we can and we do it for the joy that comes of it.

I could go on and on about my views about growing your own food, about local and global food, fast food and slow food, about organic and non-organic.....but we'll save that for another time.

My advice would be to educate yourself and to understand what these things ACTUALLY mean beyond the buzz words of our generation and beyond the marketing and advertising that seems so appealing, luring us into what may well be a false sense of piece of mind.

Blah blah blah.

The End.

Mixed Up

I finally found a recipe for tiramisu cupcakes!!!

Let me rephrase that - I finally TRIED a recipe for tiramisu cupcakes!!!

Tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts. Whoever thought up the idea for putting it in cupcake form (another favorite dessert) is a GENIUS.

I know, I know...you're thinking to yourself "I thought this was supposed to be a blog about a home renovation." It still is. I made the cupcakes in the home that we are renovating, so there.

The recipe I used for the cupcakes can be found through Your Cup of Cake. I fell in love with this site! She has so many creative and yummy ideas for cupcakes that will make your mouth water and your cravings kick in. Not to mention the beautiful photography!

(Click HERE for the recipe)

I should also tell you that I'm one of "those people" who has a definite inability to follow ANY recipe exactly, so I will let you know ahead of time the changes that I made:

1. I made a cold brew for my coffee (this takes 12 hrs to set). I just let it sit overnight. You definitely do not have to do this. Instant or drip coffee works just fine!
2. The cold brew is also not as "strong" as your regular drip coffee (it's less acidic), so I used a little...a lot...extra to bring out the flavor.
3. For the buttermilk - well, I didn't have any. Instead I ended up using a milk/plain yogurt substitute found here. 

Overall, I'd say they turned out pretty well! 

I have a piping set that has attachments for doing specific things like filling and frosting. If you don't have one, just use a Ziplock bag and cut off a corner. Make a small opening for things like filling, and a larger opening for frosting!

Coffee mascarpone filling.....aahhhh!

Does anyone actually eat their cupcakes with a fork? I kinda thought the whole point of a miniature version of cake was so that it could be finger food...but I wanted to feel artsy like a real food blogger!

Fork?

Overall, I thought they turned out great! Especially the filling and the frosting. Next time I make them (oh yes, there will be a next time) I think I will make some changes to the actual cake part to make it slightly more tiramisu-esque. But other than that...I love 'em!

Happy Easter Everyone!