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i am a curious person.  i like to know how many people visit my silly little blog so when i started it, i added a free counter that gives me information.  i am also a bit cheap and would not pay for the super duper spy version so i only get vague information, but information none the less.  it is fun to see how people find me, what website directs them my way.  even more fun is seeing what country they come from.  mostly, they are in north america, the u.s. and canada.  but some of them come from europe, the middle east and austrailia, south america too.  

as i am blogging on through life, i have encountered many different groups that cook/bake and blog about a specific recipe or theme.  as a graduate of the culinary institute of america and a professional pastry chef, i want to join them all!  i am enjoying the challenges because quite often they are not something that i would normally do at home.  but just because i went to cooking school, and a good one at that, don’t think i can’t screw up a recipe, repeatedly!  this weekend i went above and beyond the call of duty-as far as screwing up a recipe is concerned.  honestly, i have been a little stressed-it is so busy at the cafe right now between sheer volume and catering that i have not been excited about making anything at home.  then there is the rain, it just seems to be stalled here with no end in sight.  and lastly, what working soccermom do you know has nothing but time on her hands?  not this one.  so here goes my sad tale of injera…

first of all, my thanks to breadchick mary of the sour dough for choosing the bread baking babe’s theme of injera this month and to sara of i like to cook for inviting me to join in on the fun as a bread baking buddy when i enquired about participating.

last week for derby day, the husband and i decided we would do the ethiopian theme and maybe invite a few friends over.  well, we didn’t have the time to plan for friends and decided to do it just for the two of us after we watched the race.  we went out and picked up the necessary spices and ingredients.  did you know that not all african grocery stores are equal?  i didn’t, and the first shop we went to only specialized in products and foods mainly from ghana with a bunch of mexican stuff for good measure-the store is located in an area that has many latino residents and businesses.  so off to the indian marked we went and we found every spice we needed and did not already have including the fenugreek.  we chose to make the wot with chicken and the lentils with sweet potato.  the injera was living on the counter for a few days and it was ready to go, or so i thought.  you see, i didn’t start it soon enough and decided to use a different recipe from a book called flatbreads and flavors, a bakers atlas because it seemed so much simpler and quicker.  what a disaster, sometimes recipes work and sometimes they don’t and you can generally tell if it was because you made a mistake or the author made a mistake.  i am going to claim the latter and never use that method again.  the husband whipped up a quick batch of basmati rice and we ate the wot over rice-and we enjoyed it!

onto the next attempt.  i got the recipe on breadchick mary’s blog and started the injera again.  it seemed to be going well, imagine the scary music here, until we were ready to serve the meal again.  i didn’t read the recipe and i mean really read the recipe and i did not realize that you have to make the batter 4-6 hours before you will cook the bread-dinner was in an hour!!!  so there i was, hurrying to get it together so i could salvage my mother’s day meal since my husband had already made the wot and the lentils again.  in my haste, i misread the recipe and added too much flour to the starter and then had to add a lot of water to thin it out.  then i had issues with the pan and the first two rounds did not work out well.  but between my husband-another cia grad and a chef and myself, we were able to get some decent rounds of injera to serve with the wot.  despite the snafu, we enjoyed the meal and will probably do it again sometime or we may even venture into one of several ethiopian restaurants in nashville.  yes we actually have a couple here as hard as it is to believe.

alix was skeptical but she was brave enough to try it out.  eating with her hands was not something she enjoyed and she had her wot with rice instead.

the chicken wot on the injera, my husband and i actually cleaned this plate and we made a second because it was pretty tasty even if i screwed up the batter.

devon enjoying a pizza, she was not willing to try it out but she did have fun watching us and laughing at us as we ate it with our hands.

thanks again and see you next month where i promise i will follow the recipe right down to the last dot of an i and cross of the t…

i bet that got your attention…honestly, you need to clean up your act and get your mind out of the gutter.  what i am trying to say is, it is time for quiche and if it is time for quiche then it must be time for this month’s post for you want pies with that.  this month’s challenge is hosted by natalie of oven love.  the theme natalie has chosen is family favorites.  sounds easy enough except that in my house, we very rarely have pies.  generally, we go for cookies or ice cream with the occasional cake or muffin thrown in for variety.  the only time i bake pies (outside of work where i bake at least 60 per week) is thanksgiving and somehow, pumpkin pie just didn’t seem like something i wanted to bake for this challenge.  i was having trouble deciding on what type of pie to bake so i asked my husband what he thought would be a good choice (why not, he’ll end up eating most of it anyway…)i explained the requirements to him-it has to be a pie, any kind of pie it can even be savory, as in quiche.  the lightbulbs went off simultaneously and he quickly said make a quiche!  and since i had to choose a favorite pie for this family, i went with quiche, spinach and mushroom quiche to be precise.  

first on the list after a stop at the grocery store for mushrooms, cream and swiss cheese was to get a crust together.  luckily, i had some dough in the freezer and i set it out to thaw while i made the filling.  

when it came time to roll out the crust, i grabbed my monster rolling pin and my latest acquisition, a funky scalloped baking dish that is vintage california pottery.  when i wrote my first book, sky high, i had the opportunity to participate in the photo shoot.  it was 5 days in new york city with a top photographer-tina rupp and a wonderful food stylist-allison attenborough but one of the things i enjoyed the most was the prop styling.  there were so many plates, cups, silverware, linens and cake stands that it was mind boggling.  now that i am working on what i hope will be my second book, i have begun collecting pieces that could maybe end up in a book or just be fun to use at home.  this little collection of plates, bowls, lazy susans, glasses, coffee cups and baking dishes just keeps growing, much to my husbands dismay.  

after the crust was rolled out and placed in the dish, i added the spinach which had been sauteed with onions, garlic and mushrooms.  on top of the spinach, i placed a layer of swiss cheese and finally topped it all off with the custard of heavy cream, eggs, salt and nutmeg.  into the oven it went…

pie for dinner, that’s what i’m talkin about!!!  add a loaf of crusty bread and a salad, what more could you possibly need? 

wow, how the time has flown.  days go by so fast that i seem to struggle just to stay in place.  it is that time of the year when everything is in need of attention.  gardens to be planted, pots to be filled, weeds to pull and so much more.  and that is just in my yard, there is also the demo garden to tend to.  school is almost out; just where did the year go and have i blinked and missed it?  hopefully, there will be a book to work on and if not, the business is booming and i am longing for the slower days of january already…funny how that works, in january i can almost taste spring and i can’t wait for it.  while i do not wish for a lack of things to do, i do wish for less to accomplish all in one day.  i suppose what i really want is time.  time to think, time to sleep, time to enjoy the little things; mostly just time for my own family in our little corner of the world.  many say it is better to be busy, no time to worry.  personally, i like time to think, it prevents the worry that something is being neglected or overlooked.  now, it’s time to go, time to sleep, time to dream…

once again, it is time to post for you want pies with that.  this month’s challenge found all of us creating pies that reflect the lifestyles of the rich and famous.  i was stumped, completely.  honestly, i may read the gossip columns on occasion but i really don’t pay all that much attention to celebrities or their antics.  what’s a girl to do in a situation like that?  ask a teenager?  search on line?  better yet, why not call on your good friend bernie madoff and ask him what you should bake.  and that’s just what i did, through his lawyer of course, and this is what he told me to do;  bake an apple pie, bernie madoff’s best ever apple pie…

one thing bernie couldn’t do was give me a good pie crust recipe.  so, i decided to make one from scratch using a combination of corn masa and flour.  it made a nice flaky crust and i will definitely use masa in pie crust again.

what a beautiful apple pie, so easy to make and it went together perfectly.  bernie has the best apple pie recipe, ever!!!

when i pulled it out of the oven, it smelled so good.  we could hardly wait to cut into it.

here is a slice of the pie, so perfect and amazingly delicious.  and about as authentic as a $3 bill or one of bernies investments!  beware of perfect apple pies, especially if they are really made from crackers.  

if you have ever seen the recipe for ritz’s mock apple pie, then you know what i did here.  that recipe has always intrigued me but never enough to actually make one, until now.  what better way to pay homage to a con man.  i actually made this pie twice, just because i was so unsure if i got it right the first time.  the first one, i actually grated half of a granny smith apple and added it along with some additional spices.  we were shocked, it actually tasted a lot like apples, not because of the apple i added but because of the combination of spices, cream of tartar and lemon juice and zest.  for the second one, i used a mashed up over-ripened pear instead of the apple and it too was somewhat convincing.  for both pies, i followed the recipe completely but substituted brown sugar instead of white sugar, added the fruit and the additional spices.

be sure to visit the you want pies with that?  site and check out what all the other members baked.  look for us to be at it again this time next month with a new and exciting theme!!!

if you’ve read this blog before, then you know that i am a member of the daring bakers and you want pies with that. when the members of these blog forums post about the latest baking endeavor, everyone makes an effort to read the blogs of other members.  since i have also done this, i have found a few other forums i would like to join and with this post, i am participating in the bread baking day #18 which is hosted by mansi at the fun and food blog this month.  the theme this time around was quick breads and i immediately knew what i wanted to bake, irish soda bread.  every year at this time, i look forward to a fresh loaf of irish soda bread.  thick slabs of bread, chock full of currants and warm from the oven.  butter isn’t necessary if you remember to plump the currants first.  but this bread also comes with memories and a story and every time i pull out the recipe, it all comes back to me, somewhat bittersweet but welcomed every year.

our mothers were sisters and they both had their first child within a few months of each other. since their mother had died when they were young, the two sisters spent a lot of time together which also meant that my cousin dennis and i spent a lot of time together too.  when my parents finally split up, my brother and i spent even more time with all of our cousins.  so many of my childhood memories are of time spent with them at their house or on group outings.

mom and joan were a lot a like but so different at the same time.  neither tolerated a whole lot of nonsense and we all learned the hard way.   and while mom could cook, pretty well if i must say, she did not do much baking.  if there was a cake to be baked, most likely joan was the one to do it.  this side of the family didn’t have a whole lot of ethnic family recipes  handed down from the elders.  all things considered,  for an irish family, there wasn’t much in the way of irish culinary specialties that we were familiar with except, irish soda bread.

my first memories of irish soda bread are those of an elderly irish neighbor, mrs. mulvahil.   every year as saint patrick’s day approached, she would bake a loaf for my mother.  i am not sure that i truly enjoyed it then but as i became an adult, i learned to appreciate a loaf of good irish soda bread.

when my husband and i opened our bakery and saint patrick’s day approached, i mentioned wanting a recipe for the bread to my mother and she told me that joan had a good recipe and that she made it every year.  being the sentimental person that i am, i asked mom to find out if joan would part with the recipe; i would make it and sell it at the bakery giving full credit to joan for the recipe.

not long after that conversation, i received an email from my cousin mary and in it was the recipe along with some helpful hints.  while it wasn’t the same as getting a hand written copy, it still meant a lot to me.  i printed out a copy of the recipe and took it to work.  i made notes on the copy for a much larger batch and some minor changes.

somehow, i have managed to save that copy of the recipe and 9 years later, i still have it and i still use it.  we closed our bakery almost 5 years ago and this year i pulled out that recipe and prepared it for the country market which is part of the restaurant i work in.  it sold well, very well and i didn’t get to eat any of it.  while i was home on my grand staycation last week, i pulled out the recipe again and made a loaf for me and in the process, i spent a little time with joan.

the loaf, warm from the oven

a thick slab for me

dennis in the pool and me on joan’s lap in the back yard at joan’s house.

we lost dennis to a drunk driver in 1997.  thankfully, mary, who was also in the car at the time, was not seriously hurt.  it was a tough blow to all and while time may have lessened the pain, none of us have forgotten.  joan passed away a few years ago and having the recipe is like having a special gift that i can make and share  each year.  i can hear her dictating the recipe to mary as i make the bread…

joan’s irish soda bread

4 cups all purpose flour

1/4cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

1/4cup (4 tablespoons) butter

2 cups light or dark raisins or currants, soak them in hot water after measuring or they will dry       out the bread-drain out the excess water before adding them to the dough

1 egg

1-1/3cup buttermilk

preheat the oven to 375F.  combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and soda and the caraway seeds in a large bowl.  whisk them to combine them.  with a pastry blender or your hands, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse corn meal.  stir in the raisins.  whisk the egg and buttermilk and stir it into the flour mix and until just moistened.  turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until smooth.  shape into a ball and make a 4 inch cross, 1/4″ deep in the center with a knife.  place the loaf on a baking sheet that is lined with paper or in a greased 9″ cake pan.  brush the top of the loaf  with additional egg or some cream and bake for 1 hour and about 10 minutes.  to test for doneness, tap it on top and it should sound hollow or insert a cake tester and it should come out clean.  allow to cool completely before cutting.

special thanks to mansi at fun and food blog for letting me join in on the fun even if it is a little late!

with the blink of an eye, my big staycation adventure came to an end.  i’ve been back to work for 2 days now and it is as if i never took any time off.  i could easily adjust to a life of leisure.  going to the gym, taking walks, shopping; indulging every whim.  all i need is the money, i already have everything else.

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.