The family and I went to Bluemont, VA to go peach and blackberry picking. Blackberries are one of my favorite fruits and at Great Country Farm they grow their blackberries without any pesticides. It was a hot and sunny day. I had never seen so many peaches in my whole life! After taking a wagon ride out to the peach trees, we were told that yellow peaches were in row 3 and white peaches were in rows 5 & 6. You'd be surprised how many people went into aisles that were not ready to be harvested. Great Country Farm should label the rows, give a warning about the incredible amount of bees and remind children not to climb the trees.
After picking through our stash of peaches, we chose the best eight to take home. Some were firm, others were softer. They all tasted delicious! But before heading home to eat our peaches I had to stop and get some blackberries. I never knew that blackberries were red until ripe.
I walked down three picked-over rows of blackberries. I was melting in the sun and getting more disappointed every few feet I walked. I couldn't find any blackberries. Someone had mentioned that there was another blackberry field somewhere on the other side of the pond. I had no idea where it was, so I picked what I could and walked back to find my hot and dehydrated family.
After returning to the little country store to pay for my U-Picks, some people came up behind my with a whole flat of beautiful, ripe, huge blackberries! I was jealous and had to ask them where they picked them, as I showed them my under-ripe half-full pint container. "On the other side of the pond", they replied. What?! Where was this hidden gem of a field? They told me it was quite a hike and offered to let me top off my container with their over abundance of berries. I was so happy and touched by their kindness. Next year, I'll hike to the "other field", if I can find it!
Before bailing on my assignment of a Soccer Ball Groom's Cake I decided to give it another go using fondant. I've taken two Wilton cake decorating courses and "Fondant and Gum Paste" is course 3. Even though I haven't taken Course 3 or ever used fondant, and the only thing I know about it is that it doesn't taste good, I've decided it's worth a shot to try and make another cake.
Before I tell you a little about my fondant experience I must share with you a buttercream frosting recipe I made. I've always made the Wilton Buttercream frosting and I've never liked it. The taste is not that great and it's made with Crisco (evil, evil Crisco). I've made it with vegan shortening but the result was a grittier frosting. Not ideal to make roses with.
After doing an internet search I stumbled upon "Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting" via the Foodnetwork.com, courtesy of Gale Gand. Recipe at the bottom of the blog.
The buttercream frosting has only 4 ingredients and it tastes so creamy and good. I wish it didn't have whipping cream, only for the fact that I can't leave it out at room temperature for very long.
Fondant...
After baking a devil's food chocolate cake and giving it a "quick vanilla buttercream frosting" crumb crust, I put the cake in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I didn't have time to get to decorate it sooner.
Now I've read that you can't refrigerate fondant. If you do, when you take it out and it comes up to room temperature, the fondant sweats. My dilemma is timing, for making a cake for the wedding and transporting it. If the cake can't sit out because of the icing and it can't be refrigerated because of the fondant, what do I do? I'll worry about that later. My current problem is getting the shapes on the cake.
I copied the template provided with the ball pan onto wax paper. I rolled out my white pre-made fondant to about 1/4" thick. Using a knife, I cut out a few of the shapes. I used a little frosting to adhere the shapes to the cake. I did this one or two shapes at a time. I should've cut and attached them all at the same time. Why, you ask? Because I would've seen my problem sooner. The problem: the template provided works for a cake made for the size of the pan. After putting frosting in between the two 1/2 spheres, the ball is larger and therefore the template is off. If I had been piping on icing, like I did with my first cake, I could've marked the cake templates with toothpicks (as the directions say) and made any needed adjustments. Since the instructions don't mention fondant, there are not any tips for using this product.
I was excited after I put on the first three or four shapes. I started painting the black shapes. Why did I paint them? I saw someone else had painted them and her cake looked awesome. You can tint fondant but I didn't want to deal with the kneading of the fondant. Who's got time for that during a trial run? Uh, a patient person who is doing things right the first time. Not me.
As I was attaching shapes to the cake, the shapes started slipping as the frosting began to warm up to room temperature. I was dealing with smudging the black gel colouring as well. If I wasn't such an impatient person I would've realized that painting all of the black shapes at the end would've prevented the smudging. Hind sight. With the template problem, I attempted to resolve it by shaping the fondant to the size I wanted. It worked, but started to look silly the more and more pieces were being manipulated.
So after realizing that I was working with a few different situations that were all above my skill level and patience level, I decided to use the rest of the frosting to try to make the grass. By now the frosting was quite thin. I should've thickened it up by adding more powered sugar, but I didn't think of that until just now. The grass was cool and would've looked better is it had been thicker.
In the end, I think I'm going to have to pass on making a Groom's Cake for my Sister-in-Law's wedding. I hope I can tell her before she reads this!
I could spend hours looking at recipes on-line. Some nights I actually do! I stumbled upon this breakfast recipe and decided to try it. It was so nice and easy...and delicious!
I grated a fresh organic russet potato, instead of using store-bought hashbrowns. I used organic pastured eggs and chives. Instead of American cheese I substituted yellow cheddar. The outcome of a handful of ingredients turned into a wonderful breakfast with a great presentation! And, it cost next to nothing!
Even though I have a pinched shoulder and neck and would like nothing more than to be lying on a heating pad, I decided to try out a recipe from one of my Mother-in-Law's cookbooks.
"Cowboy Cookies" sound so cool, but in reality, they're basically oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. But, thinking ahead to a December Christmas Cookie Swap (even though it's still July), I decided to give this recipe a try.
It's so easy to make and they turned out so yummy. The recipe said it would make 60 cookies, but who wants a tsp-size cookie when you can have a tbsp-size cookie? I got 27 out of the batch.
Cowboy Cookies
makes 27
1 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 stick butter, room temperature 1/2 granulated sugar 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup rolled oats 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease cookie sheets.
2. Mixed flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until blended. Stir in rolled oats and chocolate chips, mixing well with a wooden spoon. The dough will be a bit crumbly.
5. Drop heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until just firm around the edges but still soft to the touch in the center, about 15 minutes - less for softer cookies. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Being a vegetarian with two meat-eaters in the family can pose what I call "restaurant syndrome". Many times I cook or throw together three separate meals. Silly, I know. But I do what I have to do. My almost 3-year old toddler has become quite the picky eater and even though I'm a vegetarian, I dislike most vegetables. Thank goodness for my husband, who will eat almost anything I put in front of him. But, all of this non-allergy related mealtime madness gets us all to bed with food in our bellies.
Dinnertime hasn't yet evolved into a formal family mealtime. It does happen, it's sporadic. This is something I want in the future, but for right now I cannot get into the swing of eating at 6 PM. I prefer to eat later, after my son is in bed. Eating dinner is more enjoyable this way but then I guess we dedicate time to two dinner times. Justin's dinnertime is sometimes shared by just me or my husband or both of us. Someone is always keeping sure Justin isn't blowing bubbles out of his glass or swinging around his fork.
Tonight for instance, Justin and Jason are having dinner together. I made mini-meatloafs that can be easily frozen and reheated on the nights that I work. I also love the portion-control that the muffin tin provides. Jason and Justin both really like them and they're so easy to make. Jason's having them with broccoli. He's the only one in the house who will eat broccoli but he would never steam it for himself, since that's "too much work". Justin is having the meatloaf with baked beans. Jason won't eat baked beans...and so the restaurant syndrome is in half-effect. Full-effect examples will appear at some point...maybe tomorrow! So, I eat neither mini-meatloaf nor broccoli and so I'm eating something else whenever I get hungry.
I'm beginning to think I'm making life more complicated then it needs to be. Proper planning would eliminate some of my "restaurant syndrome". But, alas, that's for another better planned evening.
I make our meatloaf with all organic ingredients. I used real organic ground beef, since my family eats only a small amount of red meat. I use the "BBQ" version of the recipe with Arrowhead Organic stuffing mix. In 2008 I was only able to find this brand around the holidays, so last year I stocked up on about 5 bags of it to get me through the year. I have since seen it in Wegmans, but I got all of mine on sale and it won't expire until 2011.
I was asked to make a Groom's Cake for my Sister-in-Law's wedding. Her fiance loves sports, especially soccer.
I searched online for a cake to more or less copy. The plan...to decorate a sheet cake with standing green grass and a 3-D soccer ball on top.
After purchasing a Wilton Ball Pan, I gave baking it a go. The 30-40 minute back time was really 50-60 minutes. Not a problem. I knew my challenge would be getting the image on the cake and transporting it from Fairfax to Alexandria.
After baking, it was time to put on the crumb crust. A crumb crust is essentially a thin layer of frosting that you put on before actually icing the cake. This process prevents the icing from sticking to the cake and pulling off the crumbs. I bet you wish you had known about this secret sooner!
After putting on the crumb crust, my ball looked like an egg, more oval than round. I'm sure you can picture it perfectly in your mind.
I'm impatient and I want things done correctly. Decorating this cake did not bring out the best in me. I traced the soccer ball template onto wax paper and did the outline in clear gel. I did this because my impatience got the better of me. Had I closely and slowly read the decorating instructions, I would've seen that you take the template to the cake and mark it with toothpicks. I quickly read over this part, didn't quite understand it and went with a technique I learned in cake decorating class. That tracing technique is great on a sheet cake, but not a 3-D ball.
As I was icing it the frosting was warming up from the heat of my hands. The white icing was turning off-white and I was getting tired and frustrated. I finished what I could to take a decent photo and then I stopped. I used the wrong "grass" cake tip but after 1 1/2 hours I couldn't be bothered.
All-in-all, it did turn out better than expected, but not for a wedding. This would be fine for a child's birthday, but again, not for a wedding.
I went out and bought pre-made fondant. I think cutting out the shapes will be easier. There's going to be a wedding cake, so I'm not worried about how this one will taste. For me, this is all about appearances. Keep an eye out for an updated photo!
I have a recipe for Apple Brie Tarts. They're made with puff pastry and the reviews said the brie was bland and using crescent rolls was a quicky way to make them.
I, of course, chose the quicky way since I can only cook or bake during nap time. I chose to try a sharp cheddar to try and up the flavor factor. Granny Smith apples are tart and with the sharp cheese a nice balance was struck.
Every one of these was folded differently. I wanted to show the ingredients but only a couple turned out well.
These need to be eaten warm and were super simple to make. I'll try the puff pastry when I have more time.
Overall, not a bad little snack...minus those nasty trans fats found in crescent rolls. Maybe there's an alternative at Whole Foods. I need to look into that.
After picking through our stash of peaches, we chose the best eight to take home. Some were firm, others were softer. They all tasted delicious! But before heading home to eat our peaches I had to stop and get some blackberries. I never knew that blackberries were red until ripe.
