Orange Candied Yams and Orange White Chocolate Cookies

Rob made candied yams today, with orange in it.  The recipe asks for a lot of sugar, which he cut, but the orange juice came from a large orange, that is apparenlty South African, since they are not in season here.  Please don't talk to me about food that is grown more than 100km away from home.  That is not a topic to discuss today.

The oranges were beautiful.  So utterly orange.  The zest and juice had an amazingly bright flavour.  The yams were cooked in orange sauce in the oven.  Delicious.

The other day, my daughter announced she had to bake cookies for a contest amongst her friends.  They were standing around, boasting about who made the best cookies, and she said to me, "I just had to get involved!"

So we were allowed to discuss it with her all weekend, but she made the final decision on ingredients, methodology and clean up!  She said she had to do it from start to finish, including cleaning up.  This made me very happy.

She chose to use the classic Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, but instead of semi-sweet chips, she carefully cut a bunch of white chocolate chunks in half to make them the right size, and added the zest of one of those wonderful oranges.  She laboured long and hard.  She shaped them all herself and made 3 batches, each with slightly different baking times, so she could choose the ones with the best texture. 

Rob felt they were on the sweet side, but everyone else loved them.  I generally prefer softer, chewy cookies, but the crunchy ones were great.  A glass of milk made them taste even better.  The younger brother ate all the rejects - and there were quite a few, so he didn't feel so well later.

So what happened?  She won the contest, although in the end there was only one other contestant.  The teacher got to decide.  More cookies were shared out to the rest of the class so everyone was happy.  This may be the start of a number of bake-offs.  They seem to be a competitive bunch at school.  If that's the case, I will start charging for ingredients, just to keep this all under control.  We shall see.

Family Dinner Reprised with Chiffon Cake

Recently, we went back for another dinner at Mom's.  Not a holiday meal, so no celebratory overtones. The parent's household consists of Mom and Pop and my brother with wife and kids.  They also have a housekeeper who started with them recently.

'Ha,' I thought, 'I will bake a coffee chiffon cake since coffee is so popular, and give them no choices!'

"But Mommy," said my daughter, "I thought a coffee cake didn't have coffee in it!"  So there were a few explanations about a coffee cake with coffee in it versus a coffee cake to have with coffee.  Why is life so complicated?

Rob brewed me an extra strong cup of coffee which I left to cool.  I like my eggs to come to room temperature if possible.  If I am in a rush, I put them in a bowl of warm water, straight from the fridge.

One thing I find invaluable when separating a large number of eggs is my trusty egg separator.  I bought it when I was a teenager and rescued it back from my mother long after I married.  Since I like to use those omega 3 eggs, the shells are very brittle and the shards are very sharp, easily poking through the yolk sack and breaking it; a problem when you are trying to get as much white to separate so you get a fluffy, tall cake.

The other device I love so much is my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  The egg whites really do beat up higher than with the hand held mixer.  And I can leave it alone to do the job while I attend to the yolk batter.  This speeds up chiffon cake making incredibly for me, and I'm pretty fast.

The most important instruction to follow is the sifting of the flour.  I prefer using cake flour and I sift it first with a sieve, and then measure it.  I've tried all kinds of cake sifters, and the sieve does a better job.  If I am feeling very energetic, I will sift the flour, sugar and baking powder again after I've measured the ingredients.  Sometimes I will sift it a third time, especially if I have to make do with all purpose flour.

All the cookbooks talk about folding technique.  For me, folding the batter with the egg whites is much easier if the bowl is closer to waist level, not at the countertop.  If there is no alternative, I will put the bowl in the sink.  Otherwise, one tends to stir as the arm gets tired when crooked at an odd angle because the bowl is too high.  The one advantage of the countertop is that if I fold the batter until I feel like my arm will fall off, it's about the right amount of mixing.  At a lower height, I actually have to look at the batter more carefully to see if it's properly integrated.

The oven should be well and truly preheated.  Turn it on at least a half hour beforehand if possible.  I also use the rack which is a touch closer to the bottom of the oven than the one which is right in the middle of the oven.  This makes sense since the cake is so tall that it's really on the high side if you put the bottom of the pan at the centre.  And that rule about not opening the oven door until the cake is almost done is also a good one to follow.  Oh, and turning the cake upside down when it comes out.

In the end, a chiffon cake is mostly following the rules.  It's one of those cakes which simply work best if you don't cut too many corners and do it classically.  It's surprisingly easy to make once you realize that's all you have to do:  follow the instructions.

Well the chiffon cake won them over.  Everyone liked it.  As successive slices wore away the upstanding cake, it looked more tired and stooped.  "I could eat this cake all night!"  declared the housekeeper.  She pinched a small piece from the cake and it quivered.  She reached over and pinched it again.  The cake shook hard.  She reached again...

I couldn't watch.  I had to leave.  I don't know what happened to the cake remains - surely, she eventually put it out of its misery.  The sheer violence of the housekeeper's thumb and forefinger, grasping at that tender, fluffy tower as it swayed to her torture caused my heart to palpitate.  Why didn't the woman simply cut herself a slice and put it on a plate?

Well, perhaps I will go back to trifles for the next holiday.  There is nothing pitiful about trifle remains.  They scream, "Eat me!"  And so we do.

The Kids Turned Down My Jello Creation; A Squash Soup Dinner.

As Thanksgiving meals go, there was too much yummy food and a bunch of boisterous kids.  I brought dessert.  'Ah ha!'  I thought to myself,  I will be the extra popular aunt, because I will bring a fancy Jello creation for the children, and coffee trifle for the adults, and everyone will be happy.

Well, there was an argument with the daughter first, about which colour jello I was allowed to use.  "But," I said, "It would look better if I used the red jello with the green and yellow!"  She pouted, "No!  All the red berry flavours belong together!"  I was distracted, so I agreed to use the orange jello in place of red. 

So.  We all know how to make jello, right?  I very lightly greased a round glass bowl, and made green jello.  Then after some fussing, Rob suggested the silicone spatula (non-skid) to prop up the bottom of the bowl, so I could tilt it while the jello set, getting an angled line.  I sprinkled marshmallows on top.  After a few hours, I looked at it, and there was a fine, grainy powdery looking substance on the bottom of the bowl.  The marshmallows had shed and my green jello had white murky streaks.  'Looks kind of cool,' I thought.  The yellow was next, with the bowl upright, leaving a small wedge of green sticking up beyond it.  This was eventually covered with the orange, which set into a lovely, glassy surface.  I triumphantly covered it with plastic wrap, dreaming of accolades from the adults.  Happy begging from the children.  "More!" they would shout, "We LOVE your jello creation.  PLEASE, give us more!"

Meanwhile, I threw together the coffee trifle.  I made a vanilla custard with low fat milk and omega 3 eggs (whole), some cornstarch and sugar.  Once it had thickened, I added vanilla extract and Tia Maria liqueur and covered it directly on the surface with plastic wrap.  This gets rid of the 'skin'.  When everything was cool, I folded it with whipped cream.  In a glass pan I covered the bottom with savoiardi biscuits dipped in strong coffee.  Layered with the custard cream, I was done.  Into the refridgerator overnight and that was that.  It took very little time.

I showed off my beautiful jello in a bowl to everyone before dinner.  "The orange kind of blends into the yellow and it's hard to tell the layers," said Rob.  Well, what can I expect from someone who is married to me?  "What are those weird white lumps in the jello?" asked my niece.  At least she was happy to find out they were marshmallows. 

After two tries, the jello wiggled and jiggled and came out, more or less intact.  Rob had earlier taught me the importance of breaking the seal but I was unsuccessful the first try, so the jello tore slightly.  Immediately, I was surrounded with eager children with plates and spoons.  They all wanted to try the jello!  They were so happy!  I was so happy!  A few kids did point out the yellow and orange were hard to tell apart, even after it came out of the mold, but what did they know?

I gave some jello to my mother, who promptly said, "I don't like green, so don't give me too much green!"  Fortunately the angles worked in her favour I gave her very little.  Then I pulled out the coffee trifle, and offered her some too.  There was a pause in the noise.  I looked around me.  I was surrounded by munchkins all holding out their plates.  "We want to try the coffee thing too!" they said.  So I grudgingly spooned very small amounts onto their plates.  "You won't sleep at night if you have too much.  There's coffee in it," I said.

I began to move towards the adults, only to find myself confronted by plates held up at my waist level.  "It's really good, we want more!"  they joyfully cried.  "But don't you want more jello?"  I asked them.  "No, the trifle is MUCH better!"  The children chased me around the kitchen all the way to the adult table.  They fought over how much I gave out and squawked long and loudly if they felt unfairly treated.  The adults also enjoyed the coffee trifle.  There was barely enough.  I had to guard the trifle against small hands and arms, reaching for more, more! 

Sadly, there was leftover jello.  My brother said, "The kids will always go for taste over presentation!"  I know he's wrong.  The kids have always delighted in fun looking food, but no longer.  They demand quality too.  The next family gathering will require double trifles - strawberry and coffee.  Bland looking dishes with nothing to recommend their appearance, until eaten.  I will have to rethink my strategy in the future.

+++++++++++++++++

I wish to remember an amazing meal we had the other day, but I had no time to write about it.  Rob makes squash soup in the fall and winter.  He roasts butternut squash with onions and cooks it in chicken broth with seasonings - herbs we grow in the garden, usually sage.  The he uses a hand blender to puree it. 

On a blustery night, we had squash soup with sasquatch bread, toasted and buttered.  The piece de resistance was  the plate of gruyere and ementhal cheese Rob put out.  I love the taste of gruyere, I love the taste of squash soup, and I love the taste of sasquatch bread.  It is amazingly exciting all put together.  If the soup is not sweet enough, Rob adds a little maple syrup.  Just a little bit.  Ahh.

Cheese Souffle From Heaven

Tonight, Rob decided to make a plain cheese souffle.  Most of the time, he will add spinach, or smoked salmon, or something else delicious.  This time, we had some "Snowman" gruyere cheese I had inexplicably not eaten!   I love gruyere cheese, and this was very good quality.  A shame to waste on cooking.

The souffle was probably one of the best I have experienced.  It puffed up wonderfully high since there was nothing else weighing it down.  It smelled heavenly and tasted divine.  I may even sacrifice a future chunk of my good gruyere in the future...

The children wanted a Ceasar salad.  Nothing fancy here - plain romaine, bottled dressing and premade croutons.  However Rob grated real reggiano for it, and one kid added lemon juice to the bottled dressing, and outside of the overabundance of croutons, it was actually pretty good.  And the extra acid was a little nod to that GI thing.

We did not have dessert after such a decadent meal.  But if we did, I wonder what it would have been?

Juicy Peaches, Feeling Orange

Coming to the end of peach season, we got a batch of peaches that were not that great.  Sugared, they languished in the fridge.  Rob will tell you that I go to great lengths to use up ingredients, even if it means going out to buy more ingredients.

This time, I decided to cake the peaches and be done with it.  The biggest challenge was how to deal with soggy peach slices and the decision to shore up the fruit content with frozen blueberries, which would also melt and add more blue liquid to the mess on the bottom of the cake.

When a juicy fruit of any kind is used on the bottom of a coffee cake, the problem is that the batter 'boils' in the fruit juice and becomes soggy.  This is not so offensive if eaten while warm, but I dislike the texture once cooled.  If the cake is left out a few days, then mold grows more quickly in this medium as well.  Yuck.  One must note that I am not talking about a fruit crisp here, where the extra liquid is welcome.

Cornstarch to the rescue!  I simply added a tablespoon to the batter, mixing it in with the dry ingredients, and this did a wonderful job of sopping up the extra juices and producing a cake with a good texture next to the fruit. 

If there is no cornstarch on hand, then some pastry flour mixed with the all purpose flour component is acceptable, but this is more complicated since one needs to account for the fact that cake flour and all purpose flour is not substituted at a 1:1 ratio.  Admittedly, I just eyeball it.  Sometimes, if I wish to alter the texture of a cake, I will mix all purpose and pastry flours, but this is a discussion best left for a different post, since I am very fervent about it.

On another topic, my kids wanted chocolate chip cookies, but my daughter was feeling orange.  I bought her a large orange, and she zested it and added it to her cookie dough.  Such a simple addition, but what a difference it made to the ordinary Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (although she argues that she produces cookies which are far from ordinary).

Comfort food.

"Can you wait at least a half hour?"  I ask the kids, as we troup into the house.  "Dinner won't be ready for up to 45 minutes."  They chorus their assents, and take off to do the sorts of things they do while waiting for food.

After a long, rather difficult day at work, who doesn't crave comfort food?  Unfortunately, Rob was not around to provide it tonight, so I had to rise to the challenge.

Rob claims that every Chinese girl he met at university had a rice cooker.  I refrain from trying to figure out how many girls he became acquainted with well enough to learn this 'fact', but I remain skeptical that his sample size was large enough to create a statistical norm.  The mind wanders.

Anyway, this is a dish I used to make with a friend while we were living in our dormitories, and wanted a late night snack.  In those times, we used canned niblet corn, because we did not always have access to refrigeration, but now, I use frozen corn.  Less sodium, and every bit as good. 

What am I talking about?  A combination of rice, Chinese sausage cut in bite size pieces and corn.  That's it!  You add a little extra water to the rice after you've washed it, and throw the other two ingredients in the pot.  Turn the rice cooker on and walk away for about 20 minutes and check.  When the 'rice cooking' button pops up, you stir the mixture and unplug the cooker.  (Everyone knows that you can't just eat the rice immediately after the button pops up, right?)  Leave the rice mix for at least ten minutes, and spoon out and serve. 

I only cut up 3 sausages, and there was not quite enough with a starting point of 2 cups raw rice.  I should have put in more corn too - probably at least 2 cups.  How was I to know the kids would like it as much as their mother?

Now I know my kids will be fine when they go away to university.  A rice cooker is not just for girls, but Rob probably never spent time checking out the boys.

Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches, Variations, Chicken Wings

Back to school and here we are, rushing to make lunches, eat breakfast and out the door.  But there are a few things we do like about early September.

The tomatoes still taste like real tomatoes.  They are sweet, juicy and flavourful.  And of course, Rob makes his wonderful, to die for, Bacon and Tomato Sandwiches.  No, I am not missing the 'L' for lettuce.  This is no discussion of healthful gastronomy.  This is indulgence.

Rob crisps up the bacon in the microwave.  He uses the ordinary thin sliced stuff, so it is not too filling and difficult to chew.  He slices the tomatoes thickly.  Good cheddar cheese.  Good quality bread, whole wheat or otherwise.  That's it!  He spreads a bit of mayo on the bread, melts the cheese on the tomatoes and assembles with the bacon.  "Daddy has Sandwich Powers!"  say the kids.  How right they are.

Over the weekend, Rob also put together some fresh foccacia with ham, tomatoes and cheese (cacciacavallo), then grilled it all.  It's really the same formula each time, with different actors.  It's like the fashion equivalent of 'uniforms.'  You find something that works for you and then you go crazy on the variations.

I also bought a few bartlett pears.  They were a little hard and quite green.  What a difference it makes, in 3 days!  Sweet, juicy ripeness that explodes as you chew.   There are also a few peaches left.  What a life we enjoy at the end of summer.

But since I haven't posted for a few days, I have to mention the chicken wings.  Rob loves his new grill, and usually I am in charge of marinading the meat.  When he asked me to do it, I refused.  I told he needed to do something new, something different!  So he did. 

He made a rub - salt, garlic, chipotle, chili powders.  When the wings had been almost finished on the grill, he brushed them with molasses and honey to add a little sweetness.  Not much, but enough on the tastebuds.  We were all so happy one kid had a cold.  More for the rest!

Fish Stew

Rob chopped and diced to my directions:  onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and zucchini.  Sauteed in olive oil with paella seasoning I found at the Italian store and dumped in canned tomatoes and chicken broth (no fish stock on hand, or clam nectar).  Yes, I know paella has Spanish origins, but what the heck, there aren't any Spanish stores around, and I like this particular seasoning.  Add some dried oregano, basil, powdered celery (I forgot to buy fresh) and crushed chili peppers and simmer until the vegetables are tender to taste. 

Red snapper was on sale.  Rob spent some while removing bones, although I don't usually bother.  Cut into large chunks and throw into the soup.  Voila, fish stew.  Served with a tomato salad and bread brushed and toasted with seasoned butter (also leftover) and we were very happy.  Low calory too, if you skip the buttered bread, but less omega 3 with the lean white fish.  Lycopenes with the tomatoes.

The kids slurped up dinner and wondered why I didn't have fake crab in it.  Depending on how generous my food budget is, the tomato base holds all kinds of fish/seafood:  canned or frozen or fake crab, clams, salmon, halibut, shrimp, snapper, cod, or whatever I like.  Usually the family or visitors like too.

Oh, the tomato base is generally composed of whatever I find on hand.  The saffron is nice, but not necessary.  I often add thyme from the garden, even when it is in very bad shape during the winter.  If you don't like herbs, leave them out and add more onions.

Tastes good on a cold, wet day.  The yellow saffron reminds me of sun.

Smelling the Seasoning, Ribs.

I had a work gang making apple crisp for me yesterday.  As usual, the children were busy complaining at first, but dug into the task eventually.

We used Braeburn apples, which turned out to have a nice texture - the apples didn't cook to mush, but were very sour.  I had tasted them earlier and adjusted the sugar, but I felt the finished crisp was improved by ice cream, which in fact, I failed to have with the dessert because I wasn't hungry.  I got compliments on the 'crispiness' of the topping though.

As Rob attempted to peel the world's longest strip off a large apple, one kid chopped and sliced, and the other kid was supposed to cut the butter into some flour and sugar.  Unfortunately, she did not understand that "cut the butter into the flour" comes from a time when we did not have pastry cutters - people used two knives to reduced the butter from a large block to small pebbles the size of peas.  

We have a new fangled device.  It looks a bit like a potato masher, with a very sturdy handle, and straight, ridged rows of metal, which can be pushed through the hardest, coldest butter.  My clueless child was using this device to mash the butter into a paste as she tried to twist and push at the same time.  The old semi-circular pastry cutters would often bend and buckle if the butter was too hard.  No particular harm done, but I had to use a table knife to scrape the butter off the pastry cutter, and explain the principle of the task.  We've made crisp many times.  How could she have escaped this basic knowledge?   You also need to make sure you add enough butter.  Otherwise your crisp becomes more of a crumble, but no one minds the difference except for me.

I start by using an old Betty Crocker recipe to make my crisp topping.  It evolves from there.  I use different combinations of brown and white sugar, depending on how sweet the apples are.  (I prefer the old fashioned rolled oats for apples, but will mix in quick oats for blueberries, sometimes, because the finished product is runnier.)  For spices, I like cinnamon and nutmeg as a minimum.  Lots of cinnamon, especially with a tart apple.  From there, I added allspice, and cloves. 

"But Mommy, how do you know how much to add?"  I stuck the bowl under her nose and told her to sniff!  Her eyes crossed, but didn't stick.  She has a nice, orthophoric gaze, my child.  "Mmmmmm!"

For some reason, people don't seem to really smell their seasonings when they are following a recipe.  I always stick my nose in it.  I make the children stick their noses in it too.  When they were very small, I would take them to the spice cupboard, and we would spend a number of minutes smelling the seasonings.  Smelling informs the taste buds.  The aroma changes on heating, and it is the cook's experience which expedites the understanding of this transformation.  The easiest way to learn is by baking.  After a while, one can season many things just by thinking about it, and knowing the smell of the spice beforehand. 

Note:  The quality, age and quantity of a spice all affect its potency when used.  Once the cook knows these factors, very little time is required to adjust the seasoning.  Since I am often in a hurry, I usually don't need to pull out a spoon and actually taste the product (besides burning my tongue on things like spaghetti sauce).  What fun to try new foods, and anticipate the taste from the delicious odours wafting out of the kitchen.  Even more fun later, trying to replicate a new group of spices and smells when first introduced to a new cuisine.

Tonight, Rob made barbequed ribs.  He put a spice rub on them and grilled them at low heat for 3 hours.  Then he slathered on homemade sauce and wrapped them in foil to allow the sauce to steam onto the meat.  Apparently this is not a purist method either.  Well, I suppose I will never be a true gourmet, but I remain ready to appreciate food someone else cooks for me.  The ribs were spicy and tangy and sweet.  Add rice, frozen corn and leftover grilled zucchini.  We ate it all up.

Crusts and Lighter Cheesecakes

The children's eyes swayed with the knife as I made the cut, carefully down the centre, as evenly as possible.  There was a plea for an equal starting time.  Then spoons flashed as each half was carefully consumed to be sure all was fair.  The bone of contention was a small bowl filled with leftover almond cheesecake.  I was in a great hurry when I made it.  Fortunately there was a leftover almond nut crust in my freezer waiting for these kinds of moments. 

Sometimes in suprisingly diverse places, one can find amaretti biscuits made only with almonds.  The majority of commercial amaretti biscuits contain some kind of wheat flour, which makes it off limits for those with gluten allergies.  I found my wheat free stuff in the drugstore food aisle!  The texture is slightly different if it contains wheat.  Different.  Not worse, or bad.

The amaretti biscuits are crushed in a food processor, and mixed with ground almonds.  When I am feeling ambitious, I roast the almonds, cool them, and then grind them. Usually, I just grind them and throw them in because they are roasted when I bake the crust anyway.  The ratio of biscuits to nuts is whatever convenient amounts add to the total for a recipe of graham cracker crumbs and I subtract some sugar.  Okay, to tell the truth, I just eyeball everything. 

It's important to put just enough melted butter to thinly coat the crumbs, because with too little, the crust is too crumbly.  Too much, and the crust is too hard.  The crumb proportions are not that important, but keep in mind what you want the final product to taste like!  I am also looking for a specific textural quality. When mixed long enough, the crumbs sort of stick together, but fall apart easily, until you pack them into the bottom of the pan.

Adjust your ingredients according to how you plan the crust to contrast with the filling.  There are a number of variables:  the size of the crumbs, the type of nut, the sweetness you need, etc.  These all change the feel of the crust when you push your fork through the cheesecake.  You want that crust to crumble into the filling as you bite and chew so everything mixes together to delight the tongue.  Remember that texture is as important as taste.
 
The other very important thing to remember is to cool the crust completely.  Absolutely at room temperature or colder.  Otherwise, it gets soggy.  Many times, I have eaten a good cheesecake ruined by a soggy crust!  A well cooled crust often withstands freezing even when the cheesecake has been cooked on top of it.  If you plan to do that though, add a little extra butter for insurance.  To me, a good crust makes the difference in whether a cheesecake is perceived as merely good, or amazing!
 
Onto the lighter cheesecake.  I don't really believe in "low fat" recipes, per se.  What I want is something that tastes natural, without the feeling that a substitution has been effected, just to lower the fat content.  This means I NEVER use light cream cheese for baking.  I use it for other things, but often you will see that a recipe tells you specifically not to use the stuff.  This is because light cream cheese has a much higher water content, and again, this affects the texture of baking. 
 
Well, I actually want to talk about a no-bake cheesecake today, so I will leave the rest of that discussion for another time.  I still don't use light cream cheese though.  Instead, I add less cream cheese, and fold it into a custard base and I do use gelatin to make sure it all comes to a firm enough texture to cut.  Sacrilege!  Some people do not believe in using gelatin to stiffen a mousse or cheesecake, but then, I never claimed to be a purist.
 
This is how I do it:  I make a custard with 1% milk, sugar, eggs, flavouring and a little cornstarch to thicken it.  Standard.  I beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy, and mix it into the custard.  I can either soften the gelatin and cook it into the custard, or mix it in with the cream cheese.  If I have time, I will let it cool and watch it carefully, so it doesn't set too fast.  Then I take whipping cream, whipped, and fold it all together and pour into the crust to properly set.
 
When I am in a rush, I simply whip the cream and fold into the warm cream cheese mixture.  The result is a runny mess.  Pour into the cooled crust (if newly baked, stick in freezer while doing the filling).  Then get on with the rest of your day.
 
You get a slightly denser version, which still has a relatively light feel on the tongue.   I actually like it this way.  The extra filling went into a bowl, which the children ate after breakfast.
 
I served the cheesecake with raspberry sauce, but it also would have been good with chocolate sauce with amaretto liqueur.

Lemon and Raspberries

"Oh, this is soooo hard!" moans my child.  She is scraping raspberry seeds back and forth over a sieve, to push as much pulp as possible out the other side.  "All the seeds still have some goo on them!  It takes forever!"

I love the taste of raspberries, but I do not enjoy the seeds.  At all.  Rob had been the chief raspberry seed remover in the family, but the kids are growing older and acquiring more responsibilities, right?

I make raspberry sauce a lot, since we have a patch in our back yard which is reasonably prolific.  Once the seeds are removed, it's a simple matter to throw in some lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch to make a lovely, bright tasting sauce.  The lemon juice is key.  The extra acid wakes up the flavour.  As usual I eyeball the ingredient amounts, and often don't even bother to taste the product until serving.  It somehow comes out right with very little adjustment.  The cornstarch is important to the feel in the mouth.  Sometimes, I want it thicker or thinner so I add accordingly. 

Once the sauce is cooked to my desires, I pour it into jam jars and cap it hot.  Then I let it cool to room temperature and put it in the fridge.  Note, I am NOT preserving it this way.  I just find the skin that forms on top is less evident if I cover it warm.  The best way to prevent 'cornstarch skin' on a sauce or custard is to put plastic film directly on top while hot, but I can't be bothered for jars of sauce.

What to put it on?  Tonight, it was a tangy lemon tart.  I made a butter shortbread crust baked in the oven for 15 minutes and pushed down to cool, so it was good and firm.  Then poured in the lemon filling (make it from scratch, it's worth it). 

The trick when having lemon tart with raspberry sauce is to make sure it's not too sweet.  This is really difficult when trying to balance sweet with sour.  The best way to smooth out the conflict is to use a dab of whipping cream served with the two.  Refrigerating the tart also helps, which I didn't do tonight, so it was a bit on the sweet side for me but the sour was perfect.

As an aside, when one must juice so many lemons, it's hard to see all that zest go to waste.  There were the extra egg whites too, from the filling.  Rob will tell you I hate to leave excess ingredients around.  So somehow, this morphed into a lemon poppy seed snacking cake which had beaten egg whites, with a combination of all purpose and cake flours to lighten it further.  I crossed a snack cake recipe with a chiffon cake, because I didn't have enough yolks for a balanced chiffon, and I didn't feel like making a sponge cake.  We will see how it turns out when we get around to tasting it. 

Judgement and Terriyaki Salmon

I asked the kids to make me Greek salad, and they asked how many peppers and tomatoes should be cut up?  I told them to figure it out!  They've only eaten a million Greek salads.  And so they did.  They could see the proportions as they sliced up the vegetables and proudly told me it "looked right."  We, the parents, explained that cooking requires a lot of judgement, which comes with practise.  It's not like baking, which needs a far more rigorous understanding if you want to start substituting and changing amounts of ingredients.   We will continue to practise judgement, not just in the kitchen!

The kids also wanted terriyaki salmon.  This is really easy.  I found a fresh side of salmon, and Rob poured terriyaki sauce (the thin kind) on the salmon and threw it on the grill at high heat.  He carefully removes the fish from its skin and flips it over right on the skin, and finishes cooking it before putting it on a warm platter.  Then he cooks the skin until it is crispy.  For those who think, "Yuck!  Salmon skin?"  You've never tried Rob's. 

Then there was the chicken sauce.  At least, it's included with steamed chicken when you buy it from a Chinese deli.  So simple.  Almost equal amounts of green onions and ginger, very finely chopped (I use a food chopper) and just enough canola or peanut oil to coat everything - or more if you want to be authentic.  Either salt, or soy sauce to taste.  It's prettier with plain salt, but I think it tastes better with soy sauce.  Use with the terriyaki salmon, and it's surprising how much you eat - sauce and fish on plain rice.

We had grilled peppers too.  Such a great time of the year.

Leftovers, Adjusting Banana Bread

Rob felt that we should eat up the remaining leftovers in the fridge.  This family eats a lot of leftovers.  There was the chicken pot pie and corn on the cob.  To add something new, he sliced up some fresh, ripe field tomatoes (beefsteak variety) and tossed it with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic and some ground black pepper.  We fought over the tomatoes and mopped up the juice with sliced ciabatta bread that had a firm, chewy texture.

One of the things I learned about roughly estimating high and low GI is to put a small amount of a food into your mouth and wait for 30 seconds.  If it is mostly dissolved then it is likely to have a high GI, while foods that don't disintegrate would be lower.  How easy is that?  I am quite certain the bread we had tonight would have passed the test reasonably well.

For dessert, I ate the banana bread I didn't have time for at lunch.  I was quite curious about how it would turn out, because I had scaled up quite a large recipe, and did not have enough bananas.  Since bananas (and applesauce) are often used to substitute for fat, I went the other way and added a small amount of extra oil.  I also upped the sugar content slightly (so much for GI) because it helps keep the product more moist - another property I was missing with less bananas. 

Rant:  Many people cut the sugar in a recipe, and then claim it tastes the same.  This is mostly true, but they often don't realize that the lower sugar content makes their product dry out and go stale more quickly.  For me, the quality of a product involves texture as much as taste.  If one desires less sugar, it would be far better to use a recipe that contains less naturally, or to simply eat less.  I've never agreed with the concept of eating more of a lower calorie food.  I hate that idea.  Better to enjoy every calorie I eat instead.

So did I like the banana bread?  Yes, I did.  I often bake after dinner, and leave the hot loaves out all night to cool.  Sometimes I don't have time to wrap and put them away for almost 24 hours, which then gives the flavours a chance to mature before freezing.  What would I do if my product went stale by then? 

The crumb texture was respectable, considering I had to fool around with a mixture of buttermilk and soured milk, since I was also short of the former.  Buttermilk produces a finer, slightly fluffy crumb.  I needed to be careful because I was using half whole wheat flour as well as 1% dairy products, both of which create a more dense product.  I happen to prefer slightly lighter goods in general.

Okay, maybe it's just a very forgiving recipe.  But I really did think about all of these things while I was busy throwing it together with the children's help.  Unfortunately, they failed to mix it really well, because it was in such a large bowl.  I had to quickly stir some floury bits into the batter as I poured it into the pans.  That lack of necessity for good mixing technique is truly where a recipe can be forgiving, or not.  To me, the calculation of how the ingredients interact is the cook's art.

Glycemic Index, Chocolate and Chicken Pot Pie

This morning I was up very early, so I spent some time reading about new thoughts regarding glycemic index and diabetic management issues.  I really like the common sense approach, which is particularly helpful when you don't want to count every gram of carbs and match it against calories.

I had trouble this afternoon when a diabetic brought me a large box of Purdy's chocolates.  He is a big, bluff man with a wild mop of greying hair and very bright blue eyes, which I believe have caused him many women troubles over the years.  When he saw that no one had dug into the treat at the end of his appointment, he ripped the box open, rooted through it and found a maple cream, which he stuffed into his mouth.  Apparently there were no cherries.  When I tried to admonish him, he told me he also drank, and strode out of the office.  We will see who has the last laugh when I tell his 92 year old mother, who will probably outlive him.

Rob asked me what he should use on top of chicken pot pie.  He had been counting on some leftover pastry from some apple pies I made last week, but unfortunately, I had frozen the dough to keep it fresh, so it would not thaw in time.  I suggested making biscuits.  It worked well, except there was a little too much topping.  The pot pie was flavoured with fresh herbs from the garden.

We also had left over fried chicken wings from a weekend dinner at my mother's, fresh corn on the cob and green salad.  Maybe I will steal a peach for later, because I did have a lot of chocolate this afternoon.  Adding acid to a meal slows down the overall glucose absorption, thereby softening out the spike in blood sugar, so fruit for dessert is good. 

An acidic vinegrette over a salad is helpful, so adding lemon juice to ceasar dressing does not decrease the calories, but gets them absorbed more slowly and keeps you full longer.

Why am I so concerned about glycemic index?  Because eating more low GI foods decreases the risk of diabetes.  This is also an easy way to automatically maintain better dietary habits, which in turn makes long term weight gain less of a problem, especially in a family as keen on good food as we are.

Sunday's Pizza Dinner

The kids tell me that using the words yesterday and today are no good as titles.  They probably won't like Sunday either, but I don't think dates matter very much here.

When I walked into the kitchen to get a snack, Rob was throwing pizza dough into the air.  He was looking straight up at the ceiling, and I noted with private satisfaction that he did not appear to have any significant A-V pattern phorias as his eyes followed the dough down into his hands.

The crust he makes has some whole wheat in it, to increase the nutrition quotient and decrease the guilt.  He leaves it in the Kitchen Aid mixer for quite a long time kneading.  Sometimes he gets a kid to hold the machine so it doesn't 'walk' off the counter as it slams the dough round and round in the bowl.  After tossing it up and down, he pushes and pulls it all into a nice, thin layer on a greased baking sheet lined with parchment because it comes out incredibly sticky. 

Today, there was garlicky tomato sauce with leftover roasted peppers, pepperoni, artichoke hearts and black olives.  There was also a thin film of mozzarella cheese on the bottom and finely grated asiago cheese for extra flavour on top.

Our family actually prefers Rob's thin crust pizza compared to the commercial stuff.  Friends who've tried it seem to agree.  They usually eat enough to make me believe they are not just being polite.

We also had lovely, juicy Red Haven peaches from the Okanagan afterwards.  At least, the rest of the family did.  I didn't, because I snacked on 2 of them before dinner.

Today's Breakfast

Rob made omelettes.  Inside, he put avocado, green onion, dill and cheddar cheese.  He said he sauteed the avocado, green onions and dill with a little olive oil first.  The ingredients are all leftovers.  I bought a large bag of avocados recently, and they all came ripe at the same time.

With the omelette, we had a thin slice of Sasquatch bread (some kind of artisan bread from the chain store) with butter.  There were heritage cherry tomatoes - orange, and dark red with green stripes.

Yum.

Yesterday's lunch.

I know my blog title says dinner, but really, it's just about what our family eats for different meals.  I am also learning how to make a blog work, so I am sure there will be many mistakes until I get it sorted out to my liking.

Recently, Rob has been doing the cooking, so I am going to talk more about what he has been making lately.  Also, this is summer, so good, fresh produce is incredibly plentiful, and we are taking full advantage.

Yesterday's lunch was especially memorable.  This is what Rob made for us:  He cut ciabatta buns in half and spread them with homemade pesto.  Inside, there was fresh, ripe tomato, avocado, pitted kalamata olives and bocconcini cheese.  So simple.  So good!  It was incredibly messy and we wolfed it down.  I think it's the freshness of the ingredients - the sweet, juiciness of the tomato, the ripe avocado.  The garlic and basil always makes me want to inhale far longer than necessary.

These sandwiches came about because when we went away to London, I became separated from Rob for about 2 hours at the Victoria and Albert Museum.  When my angry husband found me, we were starving, and rushed out to the museum courtyard, ready to buy overly priced, bad food.  Instead, we found these incredible sandwiches, with the soft cheese, the pesto, the olives and sundried tomatoes.  Priced reasonably (for London)!  We have been making variations since.  All wonderful, and the children are eating them with great gusto.

I could go on and on about the Victoria and Albert Museum, because it is amazing.  Unfortunately, I will restrict myself (mostly) to food, since this will help me when I am desperately looking for meal ideas in the future!

Regarding the pesto - I buy big bunches of fresh basil and hard skinned, organic garlic from a local produce market.  After I have washed the basil and let it dry (sometimes with the help of a salad spinner), I grind it with the garlic in my food processor with extra virgin olive oil and a bit of butter.  Don't ask me how much.  I just do it.  I usually have enough for 2 large batches in the food processor, and then I mix it together in a large bowl.  Using a measuring cup, I pour it into ice cube containers, put plastic wrap on top, and freeze it overnight.  This all gets popped out and stored in ziploc bags for easy access.  One bag per tray.  Needless to say, Rob has been an active participant throughout the steps. 

I wonder what he is making for breakfast.  I can smell it.  I will go and see.