Poor Richard's Almanac: Waste not, want not

Have you something to do tomorrow? Do it today.

-Poor Richard's Almanac

 This week is so lovely and sunny here, but last week told a different story. When I moved here, it made me laugh to see everyone cover their trees and plants with blankets when temps hit 32 degrees, but now I have my own yard, and I get it. SAVE THE PLANTS!! Everything here dies when we hit 32 degrees, because everything that grows here survives 120 degree temps in the summer. You can't have it both ways. So as we headed into a week of freezing temps, I headed out and covered the precious plant life in our yard, and set about harvesting two trees worth of lemons, and a full tree of pomegranates. 

What to do, what to do...

It's delicious. I love lemon sorbet, but the pomegranate seems to mellow out the zing a little bit, so it's even better. Plus, I love the color.

And look how cute it is served in egg cups :)

Lemon Pomegranate Sorbet

2 C Water
2 C Sugar
1 C Lemon Juice (These were ripe lemons. You may need to use less if yours are more tart)
1 C Pomegranate Arils

Heat the water and sugar just to a boil, and remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Use a food processor or food chopper to break down the pomegranate arils into a juicy paste, and strain through a mesh sieve into the lemon mixture. Now freeze!

You don't even need an ice cream mixer for this---I didn't feel like pulling mine out, so I just froze it in a bowl and took the bowl out of the freezer and stirred it every once in a while to break up the ice crystals as they were forming. The result? Soft, tangy, perfect sorbet. 

Enjoy!
 

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Christmas Carols: Homemade Egg Nog

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the treetops glisten,

and children listen

To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

With every Christmas card I write

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white

I really am dreaming of a "White Christmas," but as the chances of that are slim, I made our most snow-like drink today: My Mother's Egg Nog. But it looks as if you poured it for Santa himself :)

Before we get started, I need to say this:

I HATE EGG NOG!

(From the store)

It's like the texture of raw eggs blended up. It has some weird chemical aftertaste, and it has a mouth coating effect similar to that of pepto bismol. And those little flecks? I am not entirely sure they're spices. I'm just saying...

But that was all before I tried

THIS EGG NOG

And I am not the only one. When my mom first began making this egg nog at Christmas time, we all became converts of the most religious kind. This egg nog is an absolute STAPLE in our holiday menu now, and gets requested every year. By everyone. It's seriously that good. And NOT AT ALL like the store bought variety.

This egg nog is non-alcoholic.

You will have to hunt down brandy flavoring at the supermarket

(This is easier said than done. I will tell you our Kroger/Smiths/Frys stores do carry it, but WalMart doesn't)

Any YES, it uses raw eggs. You can buy pasteurized eggs if that bothers you, but I just use regular grade A eggs and I have never had a problem, so you decide for yourself.

Old Fashioned Egg Nog

By the mother of the BeBookBound-ers.
Adapted from her Grandma's more boozy version...

6 eggs
1/2 bottle of Brandy Flavoring
1/2 Gallon Whole Milk
1 C Heavy Cream
1-2 cups Sugar
Fresh Ground Nutmeg

Throw 4 eggs, and 2 yolks in a blender (Reserve the other 2 whites to whip with a couple tablespoons of sugar) At this point I like to remove the chalazae from the eggs. (That's the technical name for those umbilical cordy things in the eggs. Yucko.)  Now add the Brandy flavoring, and transfer to a large pitcher. Add the milk, cream, and a cup of sugar. You can adjust if you want more sugar at this point. Grate in some nutmeg. I use about a quarter of a nut's worth. Just do it to your personal taste. In a separate bowl, whip those egg whites and sugar we talked about earlier, just until they form soft peaks. Spoon the whites onto the nog, and top with a dusting of nutmeg.

Enjoy!

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Edgar Allan Poe October: Pecan Pie Bars

That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful.

-Edgar Allan Poe

I love that quote, and although it might not have much to do with Pecan Pie bars to you, that is because you haven't had them yet, and I assure you, they are pure beauty. Erika gave me this recipe two years ago, and since that point, these bars have become one of my "Everyone dies over these" kind of recipes. People who hate pecan pie love these bars. People who love pecan pie ask to have these bars at Thanksgiving instead of pie. I am serious, people. They are a game changer. I think the secret lies in that buttery shortbread layer at the bottom. It's just salty enough to balance out that sweet, gooey topping. Oh dear, I may have to go eat another. Without further ado...

Pecan Pie Bars

Makes a 9X13 pan of cookie bars.

Ingredients
    •    2  cups flour
    •    1/2  cup sugar
    •    1/8 teaspoon salt
    •    3/4 cup  butter
    •    1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
    •    1 cup light corn syrup
    •    1/2 cup butter
    •    4 large eggs, lightly beaten
    •    2 1/2  cups finely chopped pecans
    •    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Combine first 3 ingredients in large bowl; cut in 3/4 cup butter thoroughly with a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Press mixture evenly into a greased 13" x 9" pan. Bake at 350 for 17 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned.
Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring gently. Remove from heat. Stir one-fourth of hot mixture into beaten eggs; add to remaining hot mixture. Stir in pecans and vanilla. Pour filling over crust. Bake at 350° for about 25 minutes or until set (Jiggle pan, and if the filling doesn't move, they're done) Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Now go die of happiness! Enjoy :)

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Anne of Green Gables: Lemon Lavender Tart

“Since you are determined to be married, Miss Cornelia," said Gilbert solemnly, "I shall give you the excellent rules for the management of a husband which my grandmother gave my mother when she married my father."

"Well, I reckon I can manage Marshall Elliott," said Miss Cornelia placidly. "But let us hear your rules."

"The first one is, catch him."

"He's caught. Go on."

"The second one is, feed him well."

"With enough pie. What next?"

"The third and fourth are-- keep your eye on him.”

~ Lucy Maude Montgomery from Anne's House of Dreams

Dumb things husbands say #21: "You should take cooking lessons from my mom."

In Hubby's defense, his mom is like a super human mutant combo of Martha Stewart and Julia Child, only with a way better figure than either of them. And he honestly thought he was suggesting a fun activity, instead of insulting every thing I had ever placed on our table up to that point. Silly man.

Flash forward a year to our first real Thanksgiving away from our families. I cooked a masterpiece meal of Panzanella, Winter Vegetable Soup, Cardamom Cranberry Sauce, Citrus Stuffed Turkey,  a whole lot of other stuff that I can no longer remember, and an assortment of eight pies. This might have been overshooting the mark (Especially considering that we were only feeding us and another couple), but I had something to prove. At the end of it all, he looked at me with big eyes and said, "Honey, I knew you could make good food and all, but you can really COOK!" Maybe it was just the pies talking, but I have never been so proud.

All that being said, I can tell you right now that when he gets home from work tonight, he will wonder why I stuck flowers in the crust, and proceed to tell me "You know what would make this better?" And the answer is almost always "Steak."

Ladies, you understand. I know you do. So here it is:

Lavender Lemon Tart
by BeBookBound
(Filling adapted from America's Test Kitchen)

Crust:
1 1/4 C. All Purpose Flour
1 TBSP Lavender Flowers
1 TBSP Sugar
1/4 C cold butter
1/4 C Shortening
 Water

Pulse the flour, lavender, and sugar together in food processor to combine and break up the flowers a bit (Mine were dried) and add the fats, pulsing til you get a crumb texture. Then add water a tablespoon at a time until you have a dough. Mine only took about 3 tablespoons.

Press into bottom and sides of a tart pan. Freeze for half and hour and preheat oven to 350.  Bake with pie weights for about 30 minutes, or until it turns golden.

WHILE that is cooking, make the filling.

Filling:
2/3 C Lemon Juice
Zest of those lemons
1 1/2 C Sugar
7 Egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1/4 C Butter
Pinch Salt
3 TBSP heavy Cream

Combine all ingredients except the cream in a sauce pan (Non reactive) and cook at medium low heat until it thickens into a "thin sauce" consistency. (About 5 minutes.) Then strain through a sieve and add the cream. Pour into the shell hot from the oven and return to bake for 10-15 minutes (Until center just jiggles and the rest is set. Cool and enjoy!

Happy Eating!!


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Anne of Green Gables: Chocolate Chip Applesauce Cake

"Yes; but cakes have such a terrible habit of turning out bad 

just when you especially want them to be good," sighed Anne, 

setting a particularly well-balsamed twig afloat. 

"However, I suppose I shall just have to trust to Providence

 and be careful to put in the flour."

~Anne of Green Gables,  Chapter XXI

I have had my share of cooking disasters, including (but not limited to) the molten lava enchiladas I made for my dyspeptic grandmother, the crystallized Christmas fudge that felt like sand on your tongue, and the pecan pie of 1996. Oh that pie, that miserable pie. It was my first Thanksgiving as a newlywed, and I insisted on bringing a pecan pie to my in-laws' because I wanted to impress my husband's mother (aka the world's greatest lover of pecan pie). I showed her alright. I smirked a self-satisfied grin when she saw my gorgeous pie and duly fawned over its presentation. It was beautiful, with its perfectly congruent pecans that radiated in perfect circles from the center of the pie. But then she tried to actually eat it. Apparently, if you overcook corn syrup, sugar, and butter, you can turn out your own batch of homemade concrete. Beautiful, congruent, radiating concrete. As she stuck a knife into the pie to cut the first piece, she met with some resistance. With a little heave and a grunt, she wedged the knife down hard into the center of the pie. When she tried to remove the knife to make another stab at it, the entire filling came out in one perfect solid mound. She stood there with my pie filling on the end of her knife looking like Mary Poppins holding an umbrella---an umbrella made of pecans. "Oh dear," she whispered. 

It took me 12 more Thanksgivings to get up the guts to try another pecan pie. The fact is, sometimes the kitchen conspires against us, and sometimes the mealtime muse never arrives. Luckily for those of us trying to impress guests, there are a few recipes that you simply can't get wrong. This cake is one of them. My mom made this cake for Miriam and I growing up, and after two generations of wowing crowds, it is still going strong. It is the perfect tea/snack cake with its moist, dense texture and rich taste.  If only Anne and Marilla had one of these lovelies on hand as a backup when the minister and his wife were ready for dessert.  (And if only my mother-in-law loved chocolate chips as much as pecans . . . )

Chocolate Chip Applesauce Cake

Cream the following:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

Add:

15 oz can of applesauce

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

Mix until well blended and add:

2 1/2 cups flour

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan.

Sprinkle the top of the batter with the following:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 package of chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean in the center of the cake.  

Let cool and slice into squares or bars.

 

Many happy and successful cooking endeavors to you all!

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Beatrix Potter's Easter: Blackberries and Cream

 I AM sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening.

His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea; and she gave a dose of it to Peter!

``One table-spoonful to be taken at bed-time.'' 

 BUT Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries, for supper.

The End.

-Beatrix Potter's "Peter Rabbit"

I want you to know that I DO NOT pass on recipes on this blog if I feel like they just turned out "okay." If I am definitely going to re-make something (And in this case, probably about three times this week,) then I share the recipe. Because I want you to have the joy of Blackberries in sweet cream soaked bread, with a crispy top, drizzled in white chocolate cream.... I might have to make more right now.

*This is an adaptation of the "Kneader's Raspberry Bread Pudding" recipe.*

Blackberry Bread Pudding with White Chocolate Cream Sauce

3 Cups of Blackberries
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/4 C. White Grape Juice
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Cream
1 Egg
1 loaf of crusty bread (I used 2 small loaves, but just judge what will fit into a 9X9 pan)

Mash the blackberries, sugar and grape juice together.
Mix the Milk, Cream, & Egg.
add them all together with the bread broken into one inch crumbs.
Let it all soak for a while, and bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.

White Chocolate Cream Sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
2 TBSP flour
1 1/2 C milk
1/3 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 C White Chocolate Chips

Whisk butter and flour in a saucepan over medium heat until it's just starting to change color. You do NOT want this to turn brown, you just want the flour to cook so you don't taste flour paste. Then whisk in the milk and sugar, and cook until it thickens. Add the vanilla and white chocolate and whisk until it's all incorporated. Drizzle over the bread pudding and enjoy!

The Ultimate Seal of Approval.

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Jane Austen Month, Day 22: A Tea Party Treat

I have many favorite tea treats. One was this amazing little chocolate cup that looked like a tulip and held mousse and fruit. We had it at the Empress tea room in Victoria, BC. Today, I ran across it's twin. The pic is kind of fuzzy (Phone, shooting through glass, sorry!) but you get the general idea.

ugly picture, gorgeous treat.

Another little sweetie we saw today was this little cake, topped with a strawberry mousse, capped off with a layer of preserves, and wrapped with white chocolate. My little lady got to it before I could snap a picture, but I cannot blame her for that.

Now I would like to share with you one of my favorite, "Big hit" tea recipes. Everyone likes these. They are light and sweet, and very feminine.They have a crunchy, sugary crust, with a slightly chewy center, and then there's the creamy top and tangy fruit to round it all out. Trust me. This one's a winner. Also, if you are craving a french Macaron, these are a WAY easier substitute that can take their place proudly any day.

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BeBookBound's Meringue Nests

Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest

1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a large CLEAN (grease will kill this.) bowl, whip the egg whites with salt and cream of tartar to a soft peak. Sprinkle in the sugar while whipping til it reaches stiff peaks. Fold in the lemon zest. Drop a spoonful on your sheet, and hollow out the center a bit- like you would with mashed potatoes.
3. Bake for 35 minutes, or until they peel off of the sheet without sticking. Cool on wire racks.

Egg Whites/Cream of Tartar/Salt

Soft Peaks- time to add sugar.

I added a little blackberry juice to mine (after the sugar) for some color.

I told you- just like mashed potatoes.

Filling:

• (This is really not a science. Just make a yummy creamy filling. Hard to mess up.)
• Whip 1-2 cups of heavy cream a few drops of vanilla and a couple of tablespoons of sugar to stiff peaks.
• Beat in in 1/2 tsp. Lemon zest and 4 oz. room temp. cream cheese.

Assembly:

Fill each cooled meringue nest with the cream cheese mixture and top with fruit of choice. I have also drizzled chocolate on top, or garnished with mint depending on the occasion. Serve, and enjoy.

I love what the blackberry juice did- look at that lilac center.

Happy Eating!

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Jane Austen Month, Day 13: Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte

Strawberries, and only strawberries could now be thought or spoken of. "The best fruit in England- everybody's favourite- always wholesome. These the finest beds and finest sorts, delightful to gather for one's self- the only way of really enjoying them."

-Jane Austen, Emma

I haven't the luxury of picking my own strawberries, but my local grocery store fills that void as best they can, and thank goodness! Without them, I couldn't bring you one of BeBookBound's best sweetheart recipes:

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Our Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte is A perfect dessert for Valentine's Day, or any other day of year for that matter. I love this recipe for summertime as well because you don't even turn on an oven. Believe me when I say that this one fools foodies into thinking it took all day to make. But it is E-A-S-Y! Erika has a version of this that also involves a chocolate ginger cake layer (drool....) But this is SO much easier. Here it is:

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte
BeBookBound

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, halved
• 2 cups Bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix crumbs and butter to blend thoroughly. Press evenly onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan. Stand strawberry halves about pan, touching, side-by-side, pointed ends up, with cut sides against the side of pan; set aside.

2. Microwave water and corn syrup until it comes to a boil. Mix in the chocolate chips and stir until all melted. This should be reasonably cool at this point. If it's still hot, cool before next step.

See that chocolate starting to melt...

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat 1 1/2 c of the cream to form stiff peaks. With a rubber spatula, fold cooled chocolate into whipped cream to blend thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan. Level top. Points of strawberries might extend about the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours. 

Starting to fold...

 

All folded in...

Start pressing down to fill in holes by strawberries

Oh no! Some of the strawberries are too tall! DON'T FREAK OUT! The whipped cream will cover this :)

4. Up to 2 hours before serving, in a medium mixing bowl, beat remaining 1 c cream to form soft peaks. Add sugar and almond extract. Beat to form stiff peaks. Remove side of pan. Place cake on serving plate. Spread whipped cream onto top of cake. Arrange remaining halved strawberries on whipped cream. To serve, cut into wedges with thin knife, wiping blade between cuts.

I used lime leaves to add some color to the platter.

Now let your camera go blurry as you try to save the torte from grabby little fingers. And fail. Luckily, my Valentine won't care that the strawberries are missing from the top :)

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Jane Austen Month, Day 10: Silhouette Cookies

"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it... "

-Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

My kids have certainly been silly these last couple of days, and I am very sensible of it. Therefore, this is not the most perfect batch of decorated cookies, but I defy you to produce something better with these little munchkins wreaking havoc all around you :)

I took a cookie decorating class from this amazing lady a couple of years ago. Mind you, it was like an hour long, so she couldn't teach us enough to make us pros or anything, but I did pick this little gem up from her, and what is more Austen-esque than a silhouette?

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Royal Icing!

From "The Good Apple"

1/2 lb Powdered Sugar (WEIGH THIS, or you can double the recipe and use a 1 lb. box instead.)

2.5 TBSP Meringue Powder

1/4 C water

Beat this for about 5 minutes with hand beaters.

 

It will get fluffy and gorgeous like this:

 

Add water a teaspoon at a time until it is just on the cusp of softness but still basically holds its shape. Take some out. This will be your stiff icing, and you will use it for outlining. Now add a little more water to the rest until you can see that it doesn't hold it's shape. You will use this to "Flood" the cookie once it is outlined. Add food coloring gel as desired. You can use regular old food color drops, but I recommend incorporating them with the water, because you don't want to get the perfect texture and then have it ruined by adding too much coloring fluid. Just a pointer.

 

Now for the silhouettes (Or whatever shape you are doing), print them out to a size that will fit on the cookie you are making. Now place that paper underneath a silpat or parchment paper, and trace with the stiff icing.

Fill it in...

and DRY! Overnight. Don't try to pull them up too early- they will break. Just ask the 8 that I broke and therefore *Had* to eat. :)

The next day...

Make your favorite cookie dough (I like the super soft kind for this kind of cookie), make rectangle shapes, bake, and cool according to your recipe.

 

Okay see the outlined cookie?

See how it's been flooded with the softer frosting now? And if you need to move some around a bit with a toothpick, feel free. 

Now pick up your pretty little silhouette and drop it into the wet frosting. It will just kind of sink in and the whole thing turns into this hard cookie. 

Then, if you are me, you go and ruin it by piping letters onto them that look weird. Oh well, you win some, you lose some :)

And I still think it is the cutest little placecard I have ever seen :) 

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