Author: alisahuntsman

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande.  They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

my husband and i both like to cook with spinach and we always have a bag of it in the freezer.  i thawed some and proceeded with the recipe.  the dough seemed a bit like cement after kneading it so i made it a second time.  

after allowing both balls of dough to relax for about 4 hours, i pulled out the old atlas pasta machine, hooked it up to the counter and began to roll out the sheets.  this was so easy to work with.  the first batch actually worked out better than the second.  both were a little dry and required water but i will attribute that to egg size.  since all i had were large eggs, i used water to make up the extra moisture.

currently, we have a small zoo living with us-3 cats and a dog, so i opted to lay out the sheets on parchment and keep them in the fridge until i could cook them rather than hanging them to dry.  the next day, i made the bechamel but opted not to make the ragout.  instead, i sauteed off additional spinach with onions and garlic and also sauteed off some sliced mushrooms.  to assemble the lasagne, i followed the directions except for cooking a couple sheets of pasta at a time and then assembled the lasagne by alternating a layer of bechamel with a layer of spinach, mushrooms and a pizza cheese blend. 

my husband is an amatuer mycologist-he’s into mushrooms.  recently, he gave a lecture at a lawn and garden show and this box of dirt was part of his display.  it is a ready to grow kit that if handled correctly, it will produce portobellos and white buttons.  you can see some of them in the box.  

since the kit has only just begun to produce fruit-mushrooms are actually the fruit of the mycelium which grows under ground and when the conditions are right, they produce fruiting bodies or what we call mushrooms, i had to buy some to make the lasagne.

the finished product, it was very green and similar to a white pizza in flavor.  we enjoyed it but if i ever do it again, i will most likely add a little tomato, perhaps some diced tomatoes to the spinach layer to balance out the flavor-it needed something to cut the richness, a little acid to brighten it.

my thanks to the hostesses, it was a stretch for me but i had fun and the pasta machine made it into the kitchen for the first time in years!  check out some of the other blog entries by visiting thedaringkitchen.com and if you like italian food, check out the splendid table by lynne rosetto kasper.

today is day two of my fantastic staycation-yes even i have fallen into the trend.  this morning was all about me, after partying until 9pm with 200 perspective beekeepers, i was ready to get it on.  after taking devon to school, i arrived home to find that i was not going to get a newspaper today.

it has finally arrived, my big 6 day vacation from work.  i had a few days to use or lose and i decided to take them this week so i could do all of the things i have been wanting to do.  my first morning found me sipping coffee in front of the tv, at 5:30am.  what a party animal, next time i should try staying up until 5:30 rather than crawling out of bed to start the day.  

crazy as it sounds, i was looking for a way to fill some spare time.  hard to believe that i actually have any with all that goes on at home; large garden and many beds to tend to, the master gardeners association, the possibility of another book, the girls…the list goes on. but really, i was looking for a way to amuse myself and do something that i like to do-bake.  not just random baking for consumption, but baking with a purpose.  when i wrote my book, i learned a lot about baking even though that is what i do for a living.  baking is a lot of chemistry and physics and it is never so obvious as when you are configuring recipes and testing them for the resulting baked product.  in order to keep myself entertained, i joined two baking forums, the daring bakers and you want pies with that.  recently, i posted my first challenge with the daring bakers and now it is time to do the same with you want pies with that.  the daring bakers pick a specific recipe for a baked good-any baked good and everyone prepares that recipe.  each member adds a little tweek of personality but bakes the same thing and the result is hundreds of examples of how the same thing could be executed.  for you want pies with that, a theme is chosen and everyone bakes a pie or a tart to fit the theme and this results in many different things but all are technically pies.  for my first pie challenge, the theme was herbs and spices.  how seemingly vague but never the less, very challenging.  after all, what do you choose to do with a theme like that?  sweet or savory, yin and yang, classic or crazy-foodie?  what’s a soccer mom to do?  i gave it some thought and settled on a pear pie.  how dull, says you!!! but not just any pear pie, my pear pie had the yin and yang as well as the herbs and spices and the results were fabulous.

lets start with the herbs and the spices.  on this plate is a collection of herbs and spices that when blended makes up a moroccan blend called raz al hanout.  the spices pictured are; cinnamon sticks, green and black cardamom, mace, star anise, nutmeg, peppercorns, turmeric, cloves, hot chilis, coriander and cumin.  the herbs in the picture are lavender and rose petals and not in the picture are ginger and anise seeds.  

while in K&S world market, i found a bag of black sugar.  it is from south korea and it is raw sugar with caramel.  it has a larger grain than brown sugar and it tasted a little like caramel and not like molasses.  

i peeled a bunch of ripe d’anjou pears, zested a lemon and tossed it all with the black sugar, raz al hanout and some corn starch to fill the shell.  now for the yin to the yang of the filling, a pie crust that was made with a combination of butter and apple wood smoked bacon fat which added a hint of smoke flavor to the crust as well as some flakiness.

here is the pie after it came out of the oven

i love warm fruit pie, so does my husband.  we cut into it just as soon as possible and we savored every bite!  for more info on the raz al hanout, check out my other blog-will travel for food.  it is a blog devoted to restaurants, food and markets of all kinds.  here’s to pie in the sky and next month’s challenge!!!

i spend my day at work among many people who speak either very little english or very bad english.  not a problem because the people in question speak spaninsh and my spanish is just as bad as their english.  it makes the day interesting.  we spend time playing a version of charades that only people who don’t speak the same language can understand.  my favorite part of all of this is the “glaze over”.  it’s that point when the eyes of the person you are attempting to speak to suddenly glaze over and they just agree with you.  even funnier is the point afterwards when you realize what you just told them and why it didn’t make any sense to them.  this is when the dictionary comes out and both of you start searching for and pointing to the right words.  

haven’t you noticed that it isn’t the major things that happen that will affect you the most?  it seems to me that it is always the little things that will make you react the strongest.  it’s amazing how your temper can flare or your patience can evaporate over the most trifling of details.  on the other hand, sometimes, the most inane occurrences can get you out of your seat for a victory dance.  

even though i am a creature of comfort, i enjoy challenges too.  it seems that i get bored easily.  this combination generally has me multitasking to get through things as quickly as possible so i can move onto new things.  one of the things i find myself doing is following food/baking blogs to see what people are up to in the culinary world.  this habit ultimately led me to the daring bakers, a baking forum that holds a monthly baking challenge.  i just had to join.  what better way to entertain myself, stave off the boredom and do something i enjoy.  of course, my family gets the benefit of a freshly baked dessert.  when the challenge for february was announced, it would be my first to participate in; i was off and running to get started.

The February 2009 Challenge is hosted by Wendy 

of WMPE‘s blog and Dharm of Dad~Baker&Chef.  

We havechosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by 

Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm

and a Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe from Wendy as 

the challenge.

this month’s recipe comes from the book, Chef Wan’s

Sweet Treats and it is available on amazon, follow the link above to see it.

since the theme was valentine’s day, darry and i decided to make a nice valentine’s day dinner for the girls and their dates; a fancy dinner for 6 at chez huntsman.  on the menu was a lovely roasted beef tenderloin, mushroom sauce, scalloped potatoes and green beans almondine.  very classic, very simple and very tasty!  the night before, i baked off the cakes, made the sauce and froze the ice cream.  

before i could do anything, i had to decide on a chocolate to use in the flourless chocolate valentino cake.  if you’ve shopped for chocolate recently then you know that it can be a challenge to choose from the many types available.  i looked at so many.  some were flavored with caramel, nuts, coffee or chili.  others had cacao contents of 65-80% making them dark and bitter.  then there was white and milk chocolates.  oh, the choices…keep in mind, i haven’t gone anywhere but the local grocery store, never mind the internet where i could have found so much more.  in the end, i made a trip to an international grocery store in search of ibarra, a mexican chocolate.  they did not have it so i chose corona, a columbian chocolate that is flavored with cinnamon and cloves.  if you’ve ever seen ibarra, then you are familiar with the grainy-sugary consistency of the chocolate.  corona is much the same but it does not have the almonds that ibarra has.  in the end, the chocolate gave the cake a mild flavor, not too dark and nicely fudgy with a slightly spicy finish.  if i ever use this recipe again, i will add sugar to the egg whites to stabilize them and allow them to fold in to the batter more smoothly.  for visual impact, i baked the batter in individual hearts and using the instant read thermometer did not help.  next time, i will go by feel instead-25 years of experience must be good for something.  

all of the ingredients measured out on the counter, ready to be made into little heart shaped cakes.

for the ice cream, i chose to make a coconut milk ice cream.  it was simple to put together and it was a delicious match for the chocolate.  to complete the dish, i made a syrup from both sweet and sour cherries with a little sugar and cinnamon to punch up the flavors.  cherries and cinnamon compliment each other very nicely and if you combine that with chocolate and coconut-WOW!!! for visual purposes, i added a little purchased caramel sauce so i could do some sauce painting.  

we ate well; from start to finish, all was savored and enjoyed.  at the end of the meal, there was a large stack of dirty plates but not many left overs.  it was fun to use my training to entertain the family. even better was having it so well received.  so bring on the next challenge, i’m ready for just about anything.  look for my next culinary adventure on march 14, when i post my first challenge with the other forum i joined-you want pies with that.

in 1997, we opened a small wholesale bakery.  it was a lot of work but it was a great little business.  we  were the only wholesale biscotti bakery in the area.  we quickly picked up about 40 clients around town and a few out of the area that we shipped product to.  in 1999, we expanded to include a second location, a retail bakery cafe.  in 2002, we dumped the first location and just concentrated on retail, no more deliveries or wholesale accounts  we were doing great for the time being, then the economy began to tank.  it was dying a slow death and it was taking businesses like ours with it.  in 2004, we sold the contents of the business to the owner of the location and walked away.  we both had jobs with other companies and with reluctance, we set about paying back the loan on the business we no longer had.  it wasn’t easy and the bank made it worse.  when we told them that the $1600 monthly payment was unmanageable, they advised us to “just make the payments…”  we were finally able to negotiate a second loan with them and that brought the payments to $460 a month.  not an easy sum to part with, but better than the previous payment.  today, i paid off the loan!!!  

it’s thursday, again.  the days are flying by and soon it will be spring.  actually it is only 29 days until spring.  here’s to hoping the change in seasons also means changes for me.  my wish list, 

all of my life, i have always felt like i needed to be responsible.  seems my mother did a good job of drilling the sense of responsibility into me.  combine that with stray cats and it is a good chance i will befriend them if i can.  when a neighbor moved out last summer, she left behind at least two cats.  we did not realize that the desperate little cat that was howling outside in our carport was one of them until another neighbor informed us.  shortly after that first starved cat showed up, another arrived.  one was friendly, one was not.  both were hungry and abandoned and we couldn’t help but feed them.    we quickly grew attached to them, and they were more than happy to stay out in our carport sleeping on the cars or in the little bed that darry made for them.   it was also obvious just how attached to each other they were.  they would follow darry and sugarbear every time they went for a walk.   it was a common sight to see the little parade of man, dog and cats strolling down the street.  the neighbors would watch shaking heads and laughing as the procession passed.  those two cats were a sight to see;  they would bump heads with tails entwined as they walked together.  

lubie on the left and patches on the right.  they would love on each other continuously.

such sweet kitties

two best friends, both victims of an irresponsible pet owner and the over population of coyotes.

my favorite picture of lubie, sitting beside the herb garden.  most likely, she was watching the songbirds since she was quite the hunter.  even though i know that i did what i could for her, i still feel like i should have done more.  perhaps if i had let her in that night or if i had taken her to the shelter when we realized that she had been abandoned.  but as they say, hindsight is always 20-20 vision and there isn’t anything i can do now.  but if i ever see that coyote… he better not be standing in the road when i am driving and who knows, maybe we will get a gun.  after all, it is open season on coyotes in tennessee and it is perfectly legal for us to kill one any time and any place.  but any one that knows us also knows that we could never do that, but there are people who would and we may just call them…