Bonjour. I made a broccoli tart. Doesn't it look good?

But honestly? Not so great tasting. I like to make tarts (I make the dough, too, haters), but I probably won't make one again with broccoli. At least the leftovers make for a good breakfast when you're sick of the usual fare.

Something old, something new

When I was little, I can remember going to my cousin's house on Christmas morning, after we opened our own gifts at home and before the rest of our family came over. It was either my aunt or my cousin, and sometimes both, who made the most delicious and special breakfast treat. It only came out on Christmas morning. Served with butter, jelly, a side of fruit (and probably a side of bacon and/or sausage that I'd rather not discuss. . .) this fabulously fantastic treat was in fact a popover. We sadly haven't seen our cousins on Christmas day in several years however I have since carried on the Christmas morning popover tradition for whoever is around. I've gone through maybe three or so popover pans since I started making them (back in high school?) usually because I scratch them up for whatever reason. My mother-in-law reminded me this past Christmas of one a few years back when I was apparently in between popover pan purchases. . . and we made popovers with a muffin tin. I don't recommend trying this at home, but I DO recommend getting yourself a popover pan, buttering it well, measuring your ingredients well, and not over-mixing your batter. Whether it's for Christmas or just a special kind of Sunday at home, they are certainly delicious:


I really hate to post this, especially right after Jenni's last post, but do keep this in mind. . .

After Jenni's first roulade, I thought, Hey, if Jenni's not afraid, then maybe I could give it a try too. I had that new Ina Garten book (and signed!) which had a great-looking recipe. It was a Pumpkin Roulade with Ginger Buttercream. I figured Christmas would be a great time to try this, and so I did. It was truly a scary experience, which thankfully turned out well, but seriously. . . you roll the cake up as soon as it comes out of the oven, let it cool, unroll it, fill it, and re-roll it. You're taking a lot of chances there, right?! So I'm sure if I try it again, I won't have as much luck. . . right, Jenni?! (For the record, Jenni, I think that in the end, YOU won, not the cake -- it sounded delicious, and didn't completely fall apart. You were still able to eat it, so there you go). So now, again, I really hate to post this, but I still kind of. . . sort of. . . want to share :/


Happy Holidays!!!

Let the good times roulade

I admit that maybe I've become obsessive, but the pumpkin roulade was seemingly so easy that I just had to try again.  This time I was inspired by this recipe.  A red velvet cake with white chocolate mousse and raspberries inside.  Mmmmm mmmmm!  It sounded delicious and perfect for our Christmas dessert.  The results fell short of my grand expectations.  I submit to you people's exhibit A:

The problem was after the cake was cooked and rolled and cooled it completely cracked when being unrolled. I was left with about 5 long strips of cake. I proceeded to fill them and "roll" them back up the way they should be rolled. I wrapped it quickly and tightly in saran wrap and aluminum foil and put it in the fridge overnight where I hoped it would heal itself. It did not. I think that some pieces sunk further into the filling, and thus it looks all rolled back up on itself - although I can't really seem to figure out how it should have gone together.

It looked a little better when sliced, I submit people's exhibit B:

And, it tasted delicious!!

I think that perhaps the cake part was cooked too long, I'd attempt a shorter time the next time. It also seemed a little dense, I'd maybe go to 3/4 cup of flour or substitute cake flour instead.

It's my turn

I had two tasks on my "to-do" list tonight: clean the kitchen and bake cookies.  I began by scrubbing the fridge, some of you may groan, but I totally loved pulling out the drawers and shelves and washing them down in the tub and practically climbing in to the fridge itself with some clorox wipes.  I'm about to head out of town for a bit (yay New England!) so my fridge is more empty than usual.  Once that was done, I set out to make some cookies.

I tried a new recipe, one that's making its way around the interwebs (and country) faster than a desperate housewife on Sunday!  It was originally displayed here by my friend NH's sister CNHB on the east coast, subsequently it was made here by my friend VC on the left coast.  And now, I've joined the masses and made them down here on the third coast!

I must start with, this was the messiest recipe I've made in a while - flour, cocoa powder, creamed butter and sugar sprayed everywhere.  Ok, I won't blame the recipe.  I likely could have found a bigger bowl to mix it in.  But the dough was really thick, in fact I'm fairly certain I've burned out my hand mixer motor, it sure smells funny right now.  But holy, GOODNESS!  With due respect to the original cookie-master, I won't publish her secret recipe here, but I'll be sure to bring it home with me so I can make them again...and again...and again.

I plan to bring these, and one other type of cookie, to my department area's Expensive Scotch party tomorrow night.  I'm one of two girls in the area currently, and this is the first time we're being invited to scotch night - and I just know that what co-ed Expensive Scotch night needs is a plate of Christmas cookies!  Thanks CNHB, NH, and VC for relaying this recipe so quickly.

Disco Ball Cake

I'm SO glad that I'm done making this cake! It was a little stressful, but in the end, I think it came out alright. The disco ball looks a little more like Epcot Center than an actual disco ball, but what are you gonna do? That's thanks in part to my limited cake supply resources. . . had I been able to find silver fondant (rather than the white that I used) it probably would've looked a little more like the real thing.

So fondant -- that was a new experience! It was really easy to work with actually. It's stiffer than cookie dough, but doesn't break apart as easily when you roll it out. It's just sort of hard to roll out until you work with it a bit to get it a little more pliable. It got just a little dry toward the completion of the disco ball so I brushed some clear vanilla extract onto it to get it to soften a little and to also help the silver sprinkles stick better. The recipient really wanted a chocolate cake, so I made the bottom, large cake chocolate and the disco ball yellow chiffon. I filled both of them with chocolate mousse and frosted the outside with a simple buttercream (the recipe on the package of Domino's confectioner's sugar, not my favorite because I think it's really sweet, but it's easy to make and was a request). The pink, orange, and green stripes are also buttercream that I just died (instead of decorator's frosting). I figured that it would've been a lot of decorator's frosting, when the taste of it is artificial-like to me (but good as far as your typical decorator's frosting goes). More importantly though, the buttercream spreads more easily so that was the hands-down winner. Now it's late, my feet hurt, and I want to go to bed, so that's all you get. Oh, and a bird's eye view which I think is kind of neat:

Christmas Baking Madness

I've been pretty busy over the past week or so, and most of my business has involved BAKING, so I figured I'd write about it! Of course we're all busy around this time, trying to find time for holiday cards, gift shopping, seeing your friends and family, etc. On top of this, throw in baking five different kinds of holiday treats, fighting with your dishwasher, breaking your only large microwave-safe mixing bowl, recital time kicking in, and you've got my week. Oh, did I mention the disco ball cake? That's another post. . .

Let me fill you in on the baking because that's probably the most exciting of the above list. Several years ago, Scott and I journeyed to the White Mountains' annual Inn to Inn Christmas Cookie Tour (yes, I said COOKIE TOUR!) We checked in to whichever Inn we were staying at for the weekend, and they gave us a map of all of the other Inns. We went around to each, via car, and it was really fantastic. They were all decked out for the holidays (haha, pun intended). There were Christmas trees, wreaths, Nutcrackers, and of course they also had two or three different signature COOKIES to sample! So my point is, a few of the cookies I've made for the holidays since this memorable trip have been from the little cook book that they give you at the Cookie Tour for FREE. It's nothing fancy on the outside, but it's really all about the little treasures inside. This year I'm making the Peppermint Crunch Cookies (thanks to the Tamworth Inn), Inn at Crystal Lake's Crystal Lake Everythings, and Lavender Flower Inn's Pecan Balls. My own personal additions will include sugar cookies, Jenni's two-bite brownies with my mom's brownie recipe, and my own simple creation of white chocolate bark with sliced almonds and dried cranberries. I'll take a picture once I have a Christmas tin of these assembled for your viewing pleasure! Happy two weeks before Christmas!

hold the cheese, please

It's no big secret, I love cheese. I put it on everything, most meals I cook include some form of cheese, and often times I'll just eat cheese slices as a snack. Totally delicious? yes. Healthy? no. My definition of a meal has morphed into "must include cheese" and I've made a conscious decision to try and change that back to something more normal.

The other night, an impromptu get-together to decorate my christmas tree resulted in our making dinner as well.  I had some veggies we needed to use and ry-guy had some chicken to bring, so we decided on a simple rainbow stir-fry.  It ended up being quite good.  I had some broccoli, a yellow squash, red pepper, and red onion (which really look purple).  We cut all of these up and put them in a big bowl with some marinade. Meanwhile, we attempted to thaw the frozen solid chicken breasts - first in a pan of water until mostly soft, and then some in the microwave. By the time the chicken was thawed enough to be cut up we were starving, so I tossed it in the bowl with the veggie marinade, and then threw the chicken only (yes, I had to pick through the bowl to find it all) into the frying pan. When it was mostly cooked I threw in the veggies, and started the rice (of the Jasmine variety). It was a deliciously colorful meal, without any cheese in sight.

This afternoon I was looking for something to eat, and I decided to make a pasta primevera. The same veggies (minus the yellow squash) plus some oregano, thyme, cracked black pepper, and a can of tomato sauce gave me another colorful cheeseless meal - just as tasty!!