Blind Faith, Friendship and Love

I think that the older I get the more amazed I am that time flies without even leaving the ground.  It has been a month since my last entry, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy.  I have still kept up with my recipes, but have slipped on the entry part! Sorry to those who follow…

Two weeks ago I took a mid-winter trip back to my home state, the great and magnificent Oregon!  This wasn’t just any trip.  My best friend got married!  The words here won’t do justice for how happy I am for Aaron and Erin (yes…you read that right!), or the Aaron’s as I call them.  They are a wonderful couple and having only been a together for a little over a year, have a solid foundation of love, trust and compassion for each other.  While watching them interact over the course of my visit to Oregon, I couldn’t help but to think about my future someone.  We are often so rigid in finding “The One” that we become lost in the clutter and mess of it all.  Why is it so hard to stop thinking and put a blindfold on trusting that life will be okay?  We must trust that love will find us in exactly the right place, faithful with our blindfolds on. 

The recipe below is for a Cream Cheese Pound Cake with a raspberry reduction.  Friendship, for me, has been the foundation of my life; much like this cake, it is solid and unwavering (Believe me, the cake came out with a thud!!).  It’s been through some heat and much like its shape, has come full circle.  But despite all the ingredients that have gone into making this amazing friendship, there was something missing within the cake that allowed it to be complete.  Love.  Love that coats, enhances, and just makes life a little bit sweeter.  This was most definitely the most delicious thing I’ve ever made!  I would highly recommend it and the best part is that it wasn’t so time consuming!  ENJOY!

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

By: The Best of America’s Test Kitchen

3 C cake flour (I used All-purpose)

1 tsp salt

4 large eggs plus 2 large yolks @ room temperature

¼ C milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 C sugar

24 tblsp (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 oz cream cheese

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees.  Grease and flour 12 cup non stick Bundt pan.  Combine flour and salt in bowl.  Whisk eggs and yolks, milk and vanilla together in 2 C liquid measuring cup. 

Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat sugar, butter and cream cheese together on medium high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and very slowly add egg mixture until incorporated (batter may look slightly curdled) Add flour mixture in 3 additions, scraping bowl as needed.  Give batter final stir by hand. 

Scrape batter into prepared pan and gently tap pan on counter to release air bubbles.  Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  1 hour 20 minutes to    1 ½ hours, rotating pan halfway through baking.  Let cake cook in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.  Remove cake from pan and let cool completely, about 2 hours.  Serve. (Cake can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days)

Raspberry Reduction

By: AnnMarie Ely

1 1/2 C of raspberries

2 tblsp sugar

1/4 inch of water in the bottom of a sauce pan

1 tblsp corn starch (or flour)

Combine all ingredients and stir on stovetop until mixture is reduced to liquid.  Note cornstarch should be added before mixture is heated.  

Expectations

Since the last post a lot has happened, well mostly I just turned 30!  So unbelievable.  I don’t know about you, but my entire life I’ve always looked to the next milestone and said, “I’m going to be like that,” or , “I’ll be here in my life…” as I got closer to 30 I realized that I was not where I thought I would be growing up.  (Side note: Are you still growing up when you’re 30!?!)  We all set expectations, or dream of what our future will be.  Sometimes our lives exceed our expectations and sometimes we fall short of our goals.  Both prove to be opportunities for us to learn about ourselves and how far we are willing to push our limits.  Do you look at your past and think that you could have pushed yourself harder, or are you content with how far you have come?  As I turned 30, I was determined to set a whole new set of expectations for my life going forward.  My 20s were a time of immense growth, and not just in terms of intelligence and well…ahem…weight…but it became a period of time where I made a conscious decision to be who I am and to be content with that.  There have been a lot of hard days, and some hard years (29 was a doozy!) where things just didn’t turn out right, like the gingersnaps below.  Life was great, spicy (cayenne), soft (12 tblsp butter!!) and somehow in the end came out rock solid-a good thing in life, not so good if you’re a cookie!  

With all this being said, the recipe below was not good!  Great right out of the oven, but as they sat overnight hardened like rocks.  Feel free to try, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you! J

Gingersnaps:

By: The Best of Americas Test Kitchen

2 ½ C All-Purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

12 tblsp unsalted butter

2 tblsp ground ginger

1 teasp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp pepper

Pinch cayenne pepper

1 ¼ C packed dark brown sugar

¼ C molasses

2 tblsp finely grated fresh ginger

1 large egg plus 1 large yolk

½ C granulated sugar

1.     Wisk flour, baking soda and slat together in a bowl.  Heat butter in 10 inch skillet over medium heat until melted.  Lower heat to medium-low and continue to cook, swirling pan frequently, until foaming subsides and butter is just beginning to brown, 2 to 4 minutes.  Transfer butter to large bowl and whisk in ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper and cayenne.  Let cool slightly, about 2 minutes. Add brown sugar, molasses and fresh ginger to butter mixture and whisk to combine.  Add egg and yolk and whisk to combine.  Add flour mixture and stir until just combined.  Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. 

2.     Adjust over racks to upper-middle and lower middle positions and heat over to 300 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Place granulated sugar in a shallow dish.  Divide dough into heaping teaspoon portions; roll dough into 1 inch balls.  Working in batches of 10, roll balls into sugar to coat.  Evenly space dough balls on prepared baking sheets, 20 dough balls per sheet.

3.     Place 1 baking sheet on upper rack and bake for 15 minutes.  Transfer partially baked top sheet to lower sheet until they just begin to darken around the edges, 10-12 minutes longer.  Remove lower sheet of cookies and transfer upper sheet to lower rack rotating 180 degrees, and continue to bake until cookies begin to darken around edges, 15017 minutes longer.  Slide baked cookies, still on parchment to wire rack and let cool completely before serving.  Let sheets col slightly and line with parchment again.  Repeat step 3 with remaining dough balls.  

Growth

The manner of our character changes when one is in hot water.  Will the choices that we make change when we are under a pressing deadline?  Do you become rattled or shaken and come up with excuses for the choices you’ve made, or do you become stronger and grow, cultivating a life grown through hot water situations.  Much like yeast, one of the most complex organisms that I have ever worked with (besides kids…), when put into tepid water yeast makes the most of the situation.  Rising to the occasion, using the right tools at its disposal, to get to the bigger and better things in life. 

This past week I gave up an opportunity to live in a place that I could only dream was possible.  In life, if the water is either too cold or the tools provided are just not right it is impossible to grow.  In order to be the best versions of ourselves we must seek out the hot water opportunities for they are the situations that allow us to become the true versions of our better self. 

 

Facaccia from Novi Ligure

For the Focaccia-

4 Cups (500g) all-purpose flour

1 Tblsp (12 g) fresh yeast, crumbled

1 C, 1 tblsp, 2 tsp (275 ml) lukewarm water

1 ½ tsp. (5g) malt or ¾ tsp (5g) honey

1 Tblsp, 2 tsp (20 mg) softened lard or vegetable shortening

1 tblsp, 2 tsp (25 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ tsp (10g) salt

For the Genoese Brine-

½ C (100 ml) water

3 Tblsp, 2 tsp (50 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp (14g) coarse salt

To make the Facaccia:  Put the flour onto a clean work surface and make a well in the center.  Dissolve the yeast in the water.  Pour the yeast into the flour a little at a time.  Stir in the lard, oil and lastly, add the salt.  Knead the dough until soft, smooth, and elastic.

Cover the dough with a sheet of lightly oiled plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 1 hour. 

To make the brine:  Combine the water, olive oil, and coarse salt in a bowl.  Stir to make an emulsion and then let rest. 

Transfer the dough to a baking pan greased with oil, stretching it gently with your fingertips until ½ inch (1cm) thick.  Prod the surface of the dough with your finger, forming small dimples where the seasoning will collect.  Sprinkle the focaccia with the Genose Brine and let it rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. 

Bake in oven at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Brush the surface of the freshly baked focaccia with olive oil.  

Recipe for Asian Lettuce Cups (or wraps) with Spicy Ground Turkey Filling

(Makes 4-6 servings)

1 T peanut oil or vegetable oil (or slightly more, depending on the pan you have)
3 T minced red onion or shallots
2 T minced garlic (I used minced garlic from a jar but fresh garlic would be even better)
2 T grated ginger root
1 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
4 T soy sauce (I used Tamari)
1 T Chile Garlic Sauce (or slightly more if you like spicy foods)
1 tsp. fish sauce (probably optional, although I like fish sauce!)
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (about 1/2 large bunch)
1/3 cup chopped peanuts (optional, especially for braces wearers!)
1 large head or 2 small heads Boston Lettuce or butter lettuce, or substitute 1 head iceberg lettuce

Chop onion and set aside. Peel ginger root, then grate with the large side of a cheese grater, and chop garlic if using fresh garlic. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan, add onion and saute about 2 minutes, then add garlic and ginger root and saute about one minute more.

Add ground turkey to frying pan (with a bit more oil if needed) and break apart and spread out with turner, then add soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, and fish sauce. Cook until the turkey is brown and crumbling apart, and the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes.

While turkey cooks, wash and chop fresh cilantro to make 1 cup. Remove the core end from lettuce, separate leaves, and wash in salad spinner and spin dry (or wash under running water and dry with paper towels.) Chop peanuts and put in small bowl to serve at the table.

When turkey is done, add chopped cilantro and cook 1-2 minutes more. Serve filling and lettuce leaves in separate bowls, with chopped peanuts in another small bowl. Each person takes a lettuce leaf, fills with desired amount of turkey mixture, adds chopped peanuts, and then eats the mixture from the lettuce cup. I fold the lettuce cup over when I eat it, so it's kind of taco-shaped, but some people like to wrap the lettuce clear around the filling.

Leap of Faith

There is a point in everyone’s life where some level of leap is necessary, from walking, our first, small and probably most significant leap, to mulling the decision to move back across the country, for a second time.  This is the place where I currently find myself (more on that later…).   This may or may not be coincidence, coinciding with the New Year.  I like to have faith that God had His hand in some of it.  Consequently, one of my New Year's Resolutions that I have blindly chosen was not to be a fit, healthy superwoman-been there done that…it was to leap into an unknown world of culinary wilderness.  For the next 52 weeks I will cook (or eat) a new dish or cuisine per week and share the experience.  It may be just words and a recipe, words (if the food was that bad…), or just recipe (if there are no words to describe).  I have always enjoyed being in the kitchen, but this leap is about finding foods that I wouldn’t otherwise eat.  As with any leap of faith, we must trust our past and believe in our abilities use the skills we possess to enhance our future.  Though the thought of it is daunting to commit to this leap, the opportunity to become better as a result is even more exciting.  ENJOY!

The anti-climatic recipe this week is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies…here we go!!!

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Quinoa Cookies

2 cups cooked quinoa

1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut 

         (Can be left out)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine quinoa (Cooking Quinoa), peanut butter, maple syrup, salt, and oats in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer on low/medium speed, combine ingredients well.
Tip: Allow the quinoa to cool before mixing it in. (I buried the chocolate chips in heated Quinoa to make them melted and soft.)

2.     Stir in coconut and chocolate chips.

3.     Scoop and mold dough into round, tablespoon-sized cookies.

4.     Place cookies on parchment-paper-lined baking sheets and bake for approximately 20 minutes, until bottoms are nicely browned.

5.     Allow to cool completely before storing.

**After tasting these they were surprisingly amazing.  Though I would probably add a ½ tsp of vanilla extract to give it a more rich flavor.  Also instead of a ¾ Cup Oats I would only put in ½ Cup with a tad (getting scientific here…) more coconut.  These have not been tested…just my observations.