Blogging isn't my thing

I've been spreading myself too thin.  I want to be a part of everything.  My work suffers when I spread myself out.  I can be really good at ONE job.  Being good at my kind of job is all about the extras, the flourishes.  When I have too much on my mind, I leave out the flourishes.  Right now I should be planning my cake decorating class but I'm doing everything I can to put that off.  

When we decided to close the business I hit the job market like a typhoon.  I solidified three jobs in a matter of two weeks.  I had already made the connection with Martin at the University of Richmond.  When I asked him for all the hours he could give me he seemed relieved.  He has so much on his plate that he welcomed the help.  The problem is that those hours didn't open up until the fall and i needed some scratch so I scoured craigslist and put out my feelers all around town.  

It was June.  I had the fall locked down so I was searching for some part time work to get me through.  I figured that I could pick up a couple of shifts around town and keep the shifts in the fall.  My classes wouldn't interfere, I was making desserts not cooking on the line.  I could make desserts anytime, I didn't have to be there for "set shifts", right?  

Kendra responded right away.  I had already worked for her and she had mercy on me.  She wanted to give up her baking shifts to concentrate on her new venture anyway.  It was perfect timing.  I would bake three nights a week making vegan desserts.  Okay, perfect.  In the meantime I had sent out 50 resumes to random craigslist postings.  

The village cafe, The Cheesecake factory, SHONEY'S!  This is who I was responding to.  Finally I get an email from Russell from a new place on Lombardy.  Mapquest was leading me right to Bogart's.  Bogart's?  When I pulled up to the place it was Bogart's, but not.  I had no idea that Steve and Lannie were working on Balliceaux.  This place was going to be a hot-spot.  I was jazzed.  I was promised a job and was thrilled!  In this economy, my job search was over.  What a relief.  I could work at Ipanema three nights a week, Balliceaux three days, and fill in my other time teaching classes.  What a joke.  Everything came to a head in the second week of august when Balliceaux opened, Kendra is opening a new place, and the semester is just starting.  Needless to say, I've been working all day and night for a month and something has to give.  Oh yeah, Jon Piper's wedding happened to be right at the apex.  HOLY MOLY Damn.  

So this little story is to explain my lack of blogging.  Long story short, I'm no longer home with Clare, but hustling as fast as I can to get home to Clare, and Whitney of course.  

Potato Pierogi

Pierogi dough

2 cups AP flour (I usually use 1 cup each whole wheat and AP)

1/4 t. salt

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup water

1 T. veggie oil

1 egg.  

mix dry, mix wet, mix together and knead for 7-8 min. cover with wet towel, let rest 1 hour.

Potato filling

1 yellow onion.  

10 cloves garlic

olive oil

1.  Boil 2 lbs. potato in salted water until cooked.  

2.  Rice potato, or mash well

3. Put whole peeled garlic cloves in a small pot and cover with oilve oil an cook on low to med-low until soft and light brown.  Drain and reserve oil.   

4.  Get pan hot and add olive oil, about 1 T. 

5.  Slice onion and caramelize over medium heat.  Do not add salt.  Stir from time to time.  Cook until onions are brown and sweet.  

6.  Season with salt and pepper.  

7.  Chop onion and garlic into a paste.  

8.  Mash paste into potatoes.  

9.  Add back in about 1 T. garlic oil.  Save the rest for frying the pierogi and other uses.  

Note:  Don't leave infused oils around too long.  Use them within a couple of weeks.  Infused vinegars are more sturdy and can last much longer.  Don't add whole herbs to infusions unless you thoroughly wash or blanch them first.  

10.  Stir a lump of sour cream and mix in until smooth.  

11.  Check for seasoning and add more salt and/or pepper if needed.  

Stuffing

1.  Flour surface and work dough into a rectangle with your hands.  Cut 16 equal sized pieces. 

2.  Flour surface and work each piece into a circle with your hands.  Use a rolling pin to get them to about 1/8" thick  circles.  Eyeball it, kind of thick for pasta.  

3.  Egg wash the edges of all of the circles.  

4. Make a C with your non-dominate hand.  Pick up a circle and lay it over the "C".  Push down into the center so the dough pushes.  Stretch a little pouch into the dough, into the hole of the "C".

5.  Put a scoop of potato into the pouch.  

6.  Seal pierogi with your fingers being sure to push out any air.  

7.  Lay on floured surface and seal edges with a fork.  

8.  Boil salted water and add pierogi.  Boil for about 10 minutes.  

9.  Drain

10.  Heat a large saute pan and add garlic oil.  Reduce heat to medium. 

11.  Lay pierogi in pan and fry until each side is golden brown.  Don't try to move them around in the pan.  They won't be hard to flip after they fry a while.  Don't check them for a couple of minutes.  

12.  Flip and fry the other side.  

I eat mine covered in more sauteed onion and sharp cheddar cheese.  They are also good with sour cream.  

  

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I wanted to order pizza last night, but it's not in the budget right now so I made one instead.  

This could be whole-wheat dough.  Just replace 1/4 of the flour with WW flour.  The egg is optional, but it makes a chewier and thinner crust.  

2 cups hot water

1 1/2 t. yeast

2 T. olive oil

1 egg

2 t. salt

5-6 cups flour (I use sir galahad flour.  It is high gluten all purpose flour which is less powerful than bread flour, but more so that regular AP flour)

1.  Dissolve yeast in water with a pinch of sugar (or honey if making whole wheat crust)

2.  Add oil and egg if using. 

3.  Add half the flour and salt.

4.  Add the rest of the flour little by little.  You may not need it all.  

5.  Knead until it is soft, smooth, and sticky.  It will be stickier than French bread.  

6.  Proof until it doubles in size.  ( I proof in the microwave with a cup of hot water.  Don't turn on microwave, I just use it as a hot box)

7.  Use when it's done rising or freeze.  

8.  Put cornmeal on a pizza stone stretch dough to a round pie shape, top, and bake at 550ºF for 10-15 min.  Until brown.  

You can top it with anything you want to, I made BBQ chicken because I had a chicken breast I needed to use.  

1 chicken breast.  

1 small onion.  

3 cloves garlic, minced

Your favorite BBQ sauce (homemade is best, bottled is fine)

cheddar cheese.  

Salt and pepper

1.  Mince chicken and marinate in BBQ sauce.  

2.  Slice onion really thin and caramelize.  Cook on low heat for a long time until the onion is brown.  Add minced garlic.  Continue to cook until garlic is soft.  Season at the end.  If you add salt before the onion is caramelized, it will sweat and you won't get good results.  

3.  In a different pan, cook the chicken.  Drain any juice and add a little more bbq sauce.  

4.  Once dough is on the stone, put a thin layer of sauce, onions, chicken and cheddar on the dough.  

5.  Bake 550ºF for 10-15 minutes or until brown and cooked.  

I don't use much cheese, because I don't think it needs much and I'm trying to reduce fat intake. I think a little goes a long way, but by all means, load it up if you want to.  

If you want to use fresh herbs on your pizza, dip them in oil to prevent burning them, or drying them out too much.  

Rice cereal.

We tried to feed Clare her first food besides breast milk, rice cereal.  Of course we got the special, hippy store, all natural kind.  We mixed it up with plenty of breast milk and sat down for an exciting first, solid food.  Well, she didn't like it too much.  She gave it a good try, but all in all she ate about 7 spoons-full.  At first she was alright, she swallowed it without a problem.  After the first couple of bites she started to act like it gagged her a little.  She made the same face she makes when I have to feed her breast milk that has been frozen.  A what the hell is this type face. We saved the rest and will try again later.  I think it's just really new to her.   I'm sure she'll catch on in the next day or two.  

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

What I love about this recipe is you can use any kind of curry paste and it works out.  I love massaman curry and use it most often.  This recipe can use shrimp instead of chicken.  Just buy the shrimp that aren't peeled.  Peel them, and boil the shells and you have instant shrimp stock. Shrimp stock is quick and freezes well.   

1 t. oil

1 1/2 stalks lemon grass, minced

2 T. ginger, minced

1 large clove garlic, minced

2 T. red curry paste

6 cups chicken stock

3 T. fish sauce ( I wear gloves when I touch my bottle, which lives in a plastic bag)

2 cans unsweetened coconut milk.  

shitake mushrooms, or any kind

3 tbsp lime juice

2 chicken breasts, cubed raw 

1.  Heat a heavy bottomed pot and add oil, brown chicken on all sides, remove from pot.  

2.  add a little more oil if needed and saute lemongrass, ginger, and garilc.  

3.  Add curry paste, saute briefly. Add Chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes.  Strain.  

4.  Add fish sauce, coconut milk, lime juice. 

5. add a pinch of sugar if you want it a little sweet.  

6. Add chicken and mushrooms  simmer until both are cooked.  

Black eyed peas

It's winter.  I love soup and  I could live off of beans and rice, and right now the way the economy is, that's a good thing.  I don't really use exact measurements when I make soup or beans.  I just eyeball it and add water if I need to.  If you need to follow exact water to bean ratios, look on the back of the plastic bag.  I used this recipe to make black eyed pea tartettes.  I blind baked brisee for the crust and oil cured some grape tomatoes for the top.  Then I broiled the whole tartlette to slightly brown the tomato.  Then I ate it with rice.  Add more stock and blend and it's a soup.  Get it?  

1/2 lb black eyed peas (don't weigh them, use 1/2 of a 1 lb bag or a big old scoop:-)

3-4 qt's chicken stock (homemade is better, canned will do)

1 yellow onion, 

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

3 stalks celery 1 ham hock

2 bay leaves

a few stalks thyme

1 10 oz can of stewed tomatoes (homemade is better)

Salt.  (always salt the whole way through cooking.  Salt the veg as it sautes, salt the chicken stock, but always taste it first.  The canned stuff is already seasoned some).

1.  Sort through beans to remove any debris or off colored beans.  

2.  Bring beans to a boil, turn off and let sit 10 minutes, drain.  This is a quick soak so you don't have to soak them overnight.  

3.  Heat a large pot, add  a little oil, saute garlic, onion, and celery.  

4.  Add thyme, bay leaves, beans and chicken stock, ham hock and bring to a boil. 

5.  Reduce to a simmer and add tomatoes, cover.  You can add them whole, and break them up as you stir.  I usually turn my beans to low because the lid creates steam makes the water simmer with much less flame.  

6.  Stir every so often and taste.  

The last ham hock I had recently was really meaty and gave off a lot of salt.  I had to remove it about halfway through.  Be involved with your cooking.  I always save ham hocks if I feel they still have some flavor to give.  Just wrap really well and freeze.  

Easy Lentil Soup 1

You can find really good deals at Indian and Pakistani grocery stores in Richmond, VA.  I've been going to Indo-Pak by Books-A-Million on Broad for years.  Those little expensive spice jars at  the grocery store are become obsolete when you can get fresh spices for a fraction of the price. Spices, lentils, rice, jaggery, and all of the latest Bollywood movies.   We also have Tan-A asian market that is great for seafood, herbs, produce, packaged food etc....  Don't get me started on all of the little ethnic markets I had within walking distance in Adam's Morgan, Sigh.  

Any kind split lentil will work for this recipe.  I used split udad dahl, but I never worry about what type of lentils I have.  I just buy a variety and cook all types.  There are lots of ways to do lentils. I have an Indian cookbook dedicated strictly to lentils.   I like this recipe because I can throw it together in minutes, due to the Sambar Powder, and lentils don't take very long to cook at all.  Everything you need for this recipe can be found at a local Indian spice store.  

2 cups split lentils

about 2 1/2 qts. water.  I don't measure the water as explained in the directions.  

2-3T Sambar powber (It's a soup mix of spices and ground dahl, found in the packaged section)

1/4 t. ground turmeric

1T ground coriander, I always toast and grind mine a little at a time and keep it in a jar.  

1 T. clarified butter, butter, or oil.  

2" piece of ginger,  chopped fine

4 cloves garlic,  chopped fine  

1 yellow onion, chopped fine 

4 stalks celery, chopped fine 

2 large carrots, chopped fine 

3 curry leaves

Salt to taste 

Season the whole way through.  Season the veggies, salt the water, adjust to taste. It won't taste good without plenty of salt.  Don't be afraid

1.  Spread lentils out onto a cookie sheet.  Sort through and pick out any debris or odd lentils.  

2. Rinse lentils in a sieve.  Set aside.  

3.  Heat a 4 qt pot over high heat and add your butter or oil.  Let it heat.  

4.  Add ginger and garlic, saute briefly until it becomes aromatic.  

5.  Add veggies and sauté until they are tender.  Reduce heat to medium.  

6.  Add sambar powder and other spices including curry leaves, stir well for a about a minute to toast the spices a little.  

7.  Add lentils, stir.  Pour in water to about an Inch over the  lentils.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cover.  

8.  Cook, stirring occasionally until lentils are done.  Add more water if you need to, bring it back to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Depending on the lentils it will take between 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.  Just taste a lentil to see if it's cooked.  If you want it thicker, cook longer, thinnner, add more water.  Just remember to season more if you add more water.  Taste all the way through.  Don't be afraid to add more spices if you are so inclined.  

8.  Remove curry leaves.  

 

Jumparoo, Jumparoo

A couple of weeks ago we traded out Clare's swing for the Jumparoo.  The first time I put her in it she looked really glum and sat motionless with her arms down and  her head hanging.  Today she really started to play in it more.  She discovered her legs a and can push herself around a little and is even playing with the built in spinning toys.  I swear there is nothing in the world like watching your little one discover, learn, and grow more coordinated day to day. Aw shucks I love my family.  Here she is my happy little daughter in her Jumparoo.  

Little miss coordinated!

Today Clare held her own bottle from start to finish, twice.  She's been holding her bottle one her own, but gives up about half way through.  Today she got halfway through, took out the bottle and looked at it.  She tilted it up and aced the rest of it, let out a sigh, and threw the bottle.  The next time I fed her I tried again.  Sweet!! She did it again.  

So far this week I've made Lentil soup, black eyed pea and tomato tartlettes, roasted veggies in puff pastry, Thai coconut soup, and a strawberry salad.  Recipes to come.  Time is scarce.  

Clare rolled over!!

Clare stayed up late on Tuesday night.  She and Whitney came with me to help with boxing up chocolates for a couple of wholesale customers.  She was up until about 10:00 and ended up sleeping in until 9:30 Wed. morning.  I'm used to her being up before 7:00 and taking a nap by 9:30.  Anyway, she woke up stronger than she went to sleep.  I could tell by the way she grabbed her toys and in her overall focus and deliberate movements.  She was pulling so hard on one of her hanging toys that she was lifting herself up a little bit.  We had a normal day, except for her really short naps.  Right before W got home, Clare started acting really sleepy.  It was a little early for bedtime, but  read her Goodnight Moon and put her in her crib.  She started laughing, then fussing, and then was wide awake.   I though great now W will be able to hang out with her when she gets home.  Tummy Time!  One nano-second after I set her on her belly she flipped herself over.  It seemed so effortless.  Then she fussed and wanted to go to sleep, like she used up all of her reserve energy doing her new amazing trick.                                 This Video is of her second attempt.                     

Chocolates are my obsession

 I am obsessed with making chocolate confections.  In this picture I have several of the types I sell through my catering company, seven hills catering. There is espresso, green chili with pistachio, spicy peanut butter, 60% dark, mocha latte, raspberry, massaman curry, orange, and chai.   I am always trying new flavors I think go well with chocolate.  Right now I'm working on an American classic dessert collection which will include a s'more, NY cheesecake, banana cream pie, and Boston cream pie.  I am also trying not to get too fat while tasting all of these delicious treats so I have started running.  I figure I can eat all the chocolate and pastries I want as long as I exercise regularly, right?  

Cottage Pie

This is a great comfort dish and can be made in large quantities and frozen.  If you are freezing wrap well with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil.  Label clearly and date.  This should last a couple of months in the freezer.  To reheat, let thaw and then bake at 350º until hot, about 30 minutes.  Broil briefly to brown top.  

1 lb chuck roast

1 t. + 1 t. olive oil

24 oz stout

1 T. Worchestershire sauce

1/2 t. granulated garlic, 

5 lbs potatoes

1/2 cup heavy cream, milk, or soy milk (I always have soy milk in the fridge, but hardly ever any real milk.)

2 T. butter

1 cup frozen green peas, thawed

3 carrots, cut into bite sized pieces 

2 yellow onions, cut into bite sized pieces

5 stalks celery, cut into bite sized pieces

1 t. thyme leaves, chopped.  

HP, A1, or some brown sauce to taste.  

1.  Cut beef into bite sized cubes.  Do not add salt at this time.    

2.  Heat pot to medium high heat and add olive oil.  Once pot is hot, add beef in small batches and brown on all sides.  Continue until all beef is browned.  You want the beef to leave brown bits on the bottom of the pot, you may have to adjust the temperature to avoid burning the "fond", or brown bits.  Set beef aside.  

2.  Add beer to the pot and scrape the bottom of the pot to release the fond.  

3.  Season the beef with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, add to pot.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes or until beef is tender.  You may have to add water(or beef stock) if the beer evaporates.  

4.  While Beef is braising, make the mashed potatoes.  Peel, and cube potatoes, boil in salted water until cooked.  

5.  Mash, add butter, milk, salt and pepper.  Reserve.  

6.  Heat a saute pan over high heat and add oilve oil.  

7.  Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute until tender.  Season with salt, pepper, and thyme leaves.  Add peas, saute briefly.  

8.  Mix beef and vegetables.  

9.  Spoon mixture into individual aluminum mini-loaf pans.  I can make about 6.  

10.  Top with some brown sauce, then mashed potatoes.  

11.  Broil to brown the top.  

Lemon penne with chicken

I had cooked chicken breasts in the fridge so I used them.  If you don't have cooked chicken, cook whole breasts in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper.  This could be made vegetarian or with shrimp.  

2 leftover chicken breasts, cooked and diced

1 lb whole wheat penne

2 lemons, zested and juiced

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 T.

1 cup frozen peas

1 yellow squash

1 clove garlic

1 stalk of thyme

1/4 t.  crushed red pepper

feta cheese to taste

1.  Start pasta water, make sure to season with salt

2.  Heat saute pan with olive oil on high heat.

3.  Add crushed red pepper and whole garlic clove, and thyme stalk, saute briefly. 

4.  Add summer squash, season with salt and pepper, cook until tender, about 2 minutes

5.  Add peas, saute until tender.  

6.  Add chicken breast

7.  Add lemon juice and zest, turn off heat.  Remove garlic clove and thyme stalk.  

8.  Drizzle with the extra T. olive oil.  

9.  Meanwhile cook penne.  Drain, reserve a little pasta water.  

10.  Once veggies and chicken is off, add a little pasta water to pan.  Mix pasta in with everything else.  

10.  Serve with feta cheese to taste.  

My new job :-)

So here I am, in my second month as a stay at home dad.  I've been watching Clare during the day ever since Whitney went back to work in early December.  I am finally getting the hang of things with a four month old.  It's kind of quiet.  I like quiet.  I have a feeling that I'll look back at that and laugh in a few months when Clare starts crawling.  We wake up, really early.  Clare is usually in a really good mood in the mornings.  Our routine consists of the same things everyday:  getting dressed, polyvisol with iron, playing, reading, napping, cleaning.  I've always wanted to be a house husband;  I'm living the dream.