Last night's dinner was Lemon Tarragon Chicken, rice, broccoli, corn and bread. Patrick ate every single bit which had been claimed by no one else, explaining that he's hording calories to survive the fall semester in college. I've made this kind of chicken before, but this time I did it differently. Instead of making a paste of butter and spices, I simply loosened the skin on the bird, crammed chopped tarragon and lemon peel under the skin, then patted the skin back in place, squeezed the juice from half the lemon over the skin, drizzled a tiny bit of oil over it, then salted the bird. With the lemon chopped and placed inside the bird, I roasted it at 350 for a while (which is my favorite kind of recipe and timing....sorry!). I used cornstarch to make a gravy from the pan drippings, and it had a nice tang of lemon to it. 
Plain white rice is a perfect accompaniment to this chicken, because the lemon and tarragon are such vibrant flavors!
Last night was also the inaugural run for the breadmaker. I didn't bake the bread in the machine, of course; I think of a breadmaker as a nice closed mixer, which keeps the flour from puffing out of the bowl and making an obnoxious mess. If you want to use a breadmaker as a mixer, add the yeast into the warm liquids, then follow with the other ingredients and turn it on! This recipe is from Beth Hensberger's Bread Machine Bible.
HONEY WHITE BREAD
2/3 cup warm water
2/3 cup warm milk
6 tsp yeast*
4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp honey
Add the yeast to the water *Note: if you aren't in a hurry to have the bread get itself finished, you can use only 3 tsp yeast; it will take about 60 to 90 minutes to rise instead of 30 to 40. I am simply waaayyy too impatient to wait - and I rarely plan 3 hours ahead PLUS start the work then! I digress; sorry. Stir the flour and salt into the water and milk, and add the oil and honey before it's completely combined. Using a stand mixer, it will take about 10 minutes to knead; by hand, you'll have to knead about 10 minutes after all ingredients are thoroughly stirred in, until the dough is smooth. Either way, let it rise 5 to 10 minutes, then split into two loaves, let rise about 30 minutes, or until it's about doubled in size. Bake at 375 for 23 to 25 minutes. The crust will be dark, and the honey imparts a different flavor to this bread. Since the boys ate more than a full loaf for dinner, I'd say this bread was a hit!
I almost forgot it's Thursday. The food post will wait until later.
Thor was playing with his lobster the other night. He puts his paws together around his lobster to pull it away from himself. I refer to him lying on his back as "full idiot pose".
He was also playing rope with Patrick; those two were tripping over the Calvert boxes. The boys have already peeked in their boxes; I'll look through them over the weekend, I think, and put things away.
This is Thor in the kitchen, while I was cooking last night. No one is allowed in the kitchen while I'm cooking, because one of my daughters, when she was small, ran under and jostled my elbow as I was removing a pan from the stove, causing hot sauce to spill down her back. I threw the pan back on the stove, grabbed her, and ran gallons of cold water through the hose down her back. She wasn't burned, miraculously enough, but the next weekend, I made my dearly beloved rip the closet out which had been between kitchen and breakfast room, and we had cabinets built to create my passthrough. I also issued a Mom Edict: Enter my kitchen during cooking uninvited, start planning your own funeral. It has worked for a decade. So after I took this very handsome picture of our boy, I evicted him from the kitchen, too!
This week, Thor is a happy boy!
Last night, I wanted fish without fuss. What to do? Fish out the ol' skillet, of course, and fill it with fish. This isn't really a recipe, so much as an idea; I make variations of this often, and it sits well. Plus, it was easy to chew, always a plus (although the gums are nearly healed up; now, if only the temporary crown was level....).
Melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan; shave some onion into the pan and saute it a minute. Slice in a carrot and a rib of celery, then toss the fish in the pan and cover it for 3 to 4 minutes. Flip the fish, recover and cook another 3 to 4 minutes, and you're nearly done. Remove the fish from the pan, whisk in 1 tbsp cornstarch and a cup of milk plus a touch of cream, then add a touch of sherry. Return the fish to the pan for a minute, and it's all set! I served this with angel hair stirred with diced tomatoes and cream, plus some nice whole green beans; it was a good meal.
Last night, I also made a batch of homestead bread. Since my bread machine was Kaput, I did it in the mixer again. Try this; it's really good - not too filling, nice and light!
HOMESTEAD BREAD
1-1/2 cups warm water6 tsp yeast
4 cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Soften the yeast in the water and add the sugar. Stir in the flour, salt and oil, then knead for about 10 minutes. Let the dough rise for about 10 minutes; split into two loaf pans, and let rise for another 20 to 30 minutes, and bake at 375 for 22 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Let it cool for a few minutes, and slice. This is a really soft bread, and it makes excellent toast.
I was greatly p
erturbed when my bread machine died Monday, to say the least. (And, Paula, the appliance gremlins had better darn well have left the building, because I will be severely honked if a stove or refrigerator bites the dust!) Anyway, Monday night, I ordered a Sunbeam bread machine from amazon.com for $42, and, of course, I wasn't about to pay $16 for shipping to get it faster. Well, it arrived this morning. I wonder, if I had paid the $16, would someone have trotted to my front door on Monday night? This bread machine has a pretty big footprint (deep, but not terribly wide), but I have a little nook on one counter where the bread machine lives, and this one tucks right in there. So, I'll doubtless give this machine its inaugural run tonight, but if anyone's in the market, this one appears to be a reasonable bread maker at an excellent price! I'll report back tomorrow!
I make bread almost every day. The little guys use it for sandwiches, although the college kids all bellow that they want WonderBread. But recently, my bread machine, a.k.a. great dough mixer, has been developing issues. For one thing, the little seal in the bottom of the bucket, around the mixing paddle, has been leaking lately. (It turns out that it had completely disintegrated.) This weekend, the thing in the bottom of the machine that turns the paddle froze up, but I managed to free it up. Last night, no dice. It wasn't turning. Attacking with pliers or screwdriver didn't do it, even my threat of sending it to the dump didn't do it. So, another one's on order, last night's bread came out of the lovely new Kitchenaid mixer, and all will soon be right in appliance world.
This bread is richer than many. It's got a nice, smooth texture, good flavor, and holds up well for toasting or sandwiches, even Fluff and Nutella!
MILK BREAD
1-1/2 cup warm milk
6 tsp yeast
4 cups flour2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp butter
Add ingredients to bread machine in this order, or soften yeast in milk, stir in sugar & melted butter, and stir in flour with salt. Knead the bread for 10 minutes, then let it rise for 10 minutes. Transfer the dough to 2 greased loaf pans, and let it rise for about 1/2 hour, or until doubled in size. Bake at 375 for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. This crust will get quite dark if left in the oven. And my new bread blanket works really well, although my family still laughs at me for it!
Pie making is not in my DNA. My mother wasn't a splendid cook, to say the least, but at least she sometimes made a cake or nut bread. So I at least understood how to do that. I had pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and never even had a slice of apple pie until about 3 years ago. ("Hmm. That's strange," I can hear you thinking. Yes, it is.) So, a long time ago, knowing that my dearly beloved loves lemon anything, I taught myself to make lemon meringue pie, using, of course, store bought crust. Some day, I may become brave and learn to make crust. Hey, it's more likely than me running a marathon when I'm 82, right?
So, in perusing a cookbook a while back, I discovered a recipe for butterscotch meringue pie. Perfect! We both love butterscotch and meringue. Aw, crud, it needs a crust. Well, I'll weasel my way through it! 
BUTTERSCOTCH MERINGUE PIE
1 pie crust, 9" diameter, baked
Filling:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups warm water1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
Meringue:
3 egg whites
6 tbsp sugar
Line a 9" pie plate with the crust and bake until golden (or use a store bought 9" deep dish crust).
To prepare the filling, in a saucepan mix together the brown sugar, white sugar, cornstarch, salt and powdered milk. Over medium heat, stir in the water with a whisk, then add the cream. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently, and boil one minute, stirring constantly. To the egg yolks in a bowl, add some of the hot mixture, then stir the yolk mixture into the hot mixture on the stove and cook one minute longer. Turn off the heat, add the vanilla and butter, and stir until the butter is melted and combined. Pour into the pie crust.
Meanwhile, whip the egg whites with 6 tbsp sugar until stiff peaks form. Top the butterscotch mixture with the meringue, and bake at 400 degrees for 7 to 10 minutes, until the meringue is golden and beautiful. Cool thoroughly before serving, at least 2 hours, so the filling has time to firm up.
Now, I didn't want to try to make a pie crust. I am very afraid. I may need to conquer my fear, but first I would have to purchase one of those fancy pastry-rolling-out-mats. So, I had some graham cracker crumbs, but only enough to line the bottom of the pan. Well, there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. So I lined the bottom of the pan, and stuck meringue up the sides of it, and then poured my filling in, and topped it with the remainder of the meringue. It looked pretty, it worked well, it tasted superb, and the pie crust was rather nonexistent, having melted into the butterscotch filling. My dearly beloved tried to eat half the pie, although I stopped him at 1/3. He never gains weight, curse him! But guess who was in the refrigerator, hunting pie for breakfast?!
Saturday night dinner here was soup and grinders. I needed soup, since my tooth still isn't really healed (damn electrocautery on the gums!), and my gents won't tolerate a meal without meat. So I made a batch of grinder rolls, whipped up some tuna, and laid those on the counter with ham and cheese, and this lovely soup.
CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP
1-1/2 pounds chicken breast, chopped in small bits
1/2 onion, chopped up
2 carrots, sliced
4 stalks celery, sliced
9 cups water
salt to taste
(optional) 2 chicken bouillon cubes
About 1/3 pound angel hair, broken into 1" long pieces
Saute the chicken and onion with a touch of salt over low heat in a small stockpot or dutch oven until the chicken is no longer pink. Add the water, carrots and celery; simmer about 10 minutes. Note: You can add a couple of chicken bouillon cubes if the flavor of the broth isn't intense enough, but do so before you add salt. Break the angel hair into pieces - there will be somewhat over a cup of pieces - and drop into the soup. Turn the heat up so it will boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
Yes, I know chicken bouillon isn't a really acceptable ingredient, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. And I know chicken noodle soup uses egg noodles, but they weren't in my cupboard, and you still have to do what you've got to do. And in my case, it was feed growling men. Fast. 20 minutes did it for them!
Last week, in the midst of the circus and sorrow which is delivering or sending children back to college, this ray of sunshine arrived in our midst:
Thank you, Annette, for sending these CDs to me. Ryan is jealous that Mark will get to use the Child's History of the World CD, and they are eagerly anticipating using the Ancient Greece CD together. Shockingly, no one seems excited about grammar. What's up with that?
Again, thanks, Annette. I ordered my Calvert boxes on Friday; school starts in about 2 weeks.
Thanks to everyone who sent Thor sympathy yesterday for having no one to play with. He was miserable because Jeffrey had left for college a few days earlier, since he's an RA this year, and we were taking Kellie to college for the first time, with Cass. Patrick was still home, but most of Thor's people left Wednesday night, and Thor was Not Pleased!
Now, before you hear this story, you have to know a couple of things about me: First, I love driving. I do all of the driving in our household. I've done Cheyenne to Peoria in one day (yes, 1000 miles) once. I've driven the 750 miles to Myrtle Beach leaving my house at 10PM, and arriving there for breakfast. So 375 miles is no big deal to me. Second, I hate traffic jams. I've been known to wander 50 miles of back roads to avoid worshipping at a 20 mile long PENNDOT erected shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Road Construction. Single lane traffic on an interstate makes me crazy! Finally, I don't have GPS, and never consult maps. I always know where I am. I'm never lost. I can find my way anywhere.
So, Kellie and Cass filled the back of the Suburban (look at this picture: the bags were 3 feet deep, plus some in the second and third seats), leaving them to watch the back of my "black bus" whenever I needed to change lanes. And off we went at 7:30PM. Not much in the way of construction messes had me very happy. A stop at Perkins for dinner had everyone else happy (except for my dearly beloved, who doesn't like leaving home AT ALL!). So on we went merrily, until Cumberland, Maryland. Around 1:30 AM, at mile 46, there was a flashing sign warning of an accident and "all lanes of traffic blocked" at exit 43A. Oh, c**p! At exit 43D, I ducked off the exit ramp, beside already-parked traffic, and dropped down (literally) into Cumberland.
Cumberland is a very old city with narrow streets (not really large enough for my Suburban), nestled into a hillside, below I-68. As such, the streets don't run parallel to the highway. So I rambled along a mile or 2, until I saw a cab parked in a closed shopping center. I pulled up alongside it, and the driver looked like Santa with a couple of teeth missing, wearing a wife-beater and shorts. I explained the interstate parking lot, and asked if he could direct me to a point beyone exit 43A, and he responded, "Wail, no, ah cain't. But ah'll lead you there!" So I wound around narrow streets, once having to make a u-turn in the middle of a road blocked by a train; the girls were cheering in glee at this turn of events. When he turned into a gravel alley between a white cinderblock building and a bridge, a great roar of joy erupted from the back of my Suburban, and continued for the half mile or so. Bouncing over curbs, ignoring stop signs, it was classic movie chase scene, or as my girls said, "Just like being in a real, live video game!" He got me to a mile from the highway, pointed me in the right direction, and refused my money. Did I mention that I've always been fond of Santa Claus? Anyway, I got back on the highway, and NEVER again saw another car on my side of the highway. Not for another 70 miles. It must have been one heckuva pileup, to have shut down all traffic! But at least I did
n't have to park on the highway. (You now know how much I hate to do that!) My Suburban was acting up a bit in Cumberland, and I did threaten to turn into the next dealership and dump it in favor of a 4WD pickup, which seemed to scare it into better behaviour. (Am I the only lunatic who talks to and threatens my vehicles? Sometimes it works, really, and sometimes they call your bluff.)So we got my daughters moved into their rooms, and Ryan was in tears leaving his sisters and brother behind (Mom hid her distraught feelings well). No car problems after I threatened my "bus" with abandonment, and now my house is far too quiet, empty, lonely....
Edited to add: I just looked at my photo again, and had to laugh at how big this vehicle is. Well, I got 16mpg on this trip (I might have done better had I not exceeded posted speed limits), and all 5 people in this car other than me were stretched out and "chillin'," as the girls would say. I do love big cars (and trucks).
Every Tuesday night, we have "Brownie Tuesdays", which involves Mom making a big ol' pan of brownies, and pudding and whipped cream for topping, and all the kids lapsing into blissful sugar coma. Well, this recipe in the Kitchenaid booklet looked interesting, so I tried it. It was quite pretty, and good, too. Chocolate chips could be substituted for the chocolate squares, as could bitter chocolate, with the addition of more sugar.
CHOCOLATE ALMOND BROWNIE CAKE
Cake:
7 squares semi sweet chocolate (7 oz. total)
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp flour
Glaze:
1 square semi sweet chocolate (1 oz)
1 tsp butter
Topping:
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
sliced almonds
Melt chocolate with butter; cool slightly.
Beat egg whites until stiff.
Beat together chocolate mixture, sugar and almond extract. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the flour and beat just until combined. Fold in egg whites with spatula.
Spoon the batter into a greased 8" springform pan, and bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes, until set in center. Cool completely on wire rack before glazing.Move the cake to a serving dish. Melt 1 oz semi sweet chocolate and 1 tsp butter together, and drizzle over the cake. Sprinkle with almonds. Whip the cream with powdered sugar and almond extract, and pipe or spoon the cream around the edges of the cake. Store in refrigerator.
My brownie cake is rather thin, because my springform pan is 9" diameter, but I don't sweat the small stuff. The kids liked this, although it wasn't sweet enough for my husband's liking. Given my dislike of chocolate stuff other than chocolate, I only tried the whipped cream; it was great!
For my mixer's inaugural dessert, I decided to try - by which I mean mostly alter - a recipe in the Kitchenaid instruction book. Given my great success with the mocha roll a while back, I thought I'd try a more conventional jelly roll type dessert, this with apple pie filling.
I tried to put my filling on waaaaay too thick (note to self: don't put filling in a jelly roll 1/2" thick, you dope!), but the cake was superb, and the concept was sound. I cheated and used canned apple pie filling last night, which I chopped in the food processor, because I simply didn't feel like going out to get apples and make a filling, but the result was fine. Sometimes, canned is just the way to go, although as a generality, I avoid pre-made anything. I'll give you the recipe I've developed for apple coffee cake filling, which I would have used if I'd had apples, but the apple pie filling was good. If I'd been smart, I'd have sprinkled the pie filling with cinnamon before I rolled it, but then, I was not in peak form last night anyway. 
APPLE ROLL
Cake:
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Beat the eggs at high speed until thick and lemon colored, about 3 minutes. Slowly add the sugar and beat for another minute. At low speed, add the water and extracts, then beat in the flour, powder and salt. Beat at medium speed for another minute, then turn into a 10-1/2"x15" jelly roll pan which has been greased, lined with waxed paper, and the waxed paper is greased. Bake at 375 for 11 to 13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a minute, then sprinkle the top with powdered sugar, place a clean towel over it, and invert onto wire racks. Remove the pan, peel the waxed paper off the cake, and roll up in the towel to cool completely.
Filling:
3 cups grated or sliced apples
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp water1/4 cup butter
In a 4 cup pyrex cup, combine the apples, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Stir in the water, cut the butter in pieces and put on top of the apple mix. Microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, stir and microwave again for 2 to 4 minutes, until the apples are soft. Let the filling cool completely while the cake cools.
Carefully unroll the cake, spread the apple mixture in a thin layer (1/4" or less), and reroll the cake. Place on a serving platter and spread whipped cream on the top and sides. Note that I didn't think of adding cinnamon to my cream as I whipped it, so I sprinkled it on top, then sprinkeld the cake with colored sugars for decoration. Refrigerate until serving.
Even though my filling was too concentrated in the center, because the cake refused to be nice and roll properly, it was pretty, and good, too! Remember, learn from my mistake, unless you want your apple roll to be a giant goop of apple filling surrounded by nice, light cake!
This was a sewing weekend. Despite my great joy at getting a replacement Kitchenaid stand mixer, all I made was waffle batter; I wasn't going to be eating anything other than mush, after all. Tonight, though, I'm trying something new, I promise; details to follow tomorrow (after I figure them out).
So, I'm sure some of you will recall the lunatic who bought 10 yards each of 2 different greens and a yellow jersey knit fabric. Yes, that lunatic was me. Now that I'm 
somewhat recovered from 3 hours with Kevin the dentist this morning (and drooling less), this is what the weekend produced:
Yellow princess seamed summer dress. I had a favorite pattern, which has somehow disappeared in the last 2 summers. I don't lose things! This was distressing. I did, however, have one dress which I made from that pattern and hated. The fit was fine, but the fabric looked funky to me. So I carefully chopped it up, and replicated the pattern pieces. This is the blurry result; sorry for the photo quality!
Today I wore a princess seamed, short sleeved top I made from an adapted pattern. The original pattern buttoned down the front; I don't wear buttons down the front. Gap p
roblems, if you get my drift. It worked out well; actually, I've made this about 4 times, and love it. I may try it with long sleeves, but that's a project for September, not August.
I also made this tank top. Nothing special, but fast and easy. I've made this before, so I knew I'd feel good by getting it done quickly.
Last up was this ballerina top. In 1999, I bought a bunch of these in a rainbow of colors. In 2004, I decided I was fat, and these tops were too short. So I took the shortest one apart, made a pattern from it, and I've made a couple of these, too. Good for spring and all wear 
(and my dearly beloved just loves the neckline).
So, now my desire for yellow clothing is somewhat fulfilled, and I still have about 5 yards. This fabric is really, really wide, so it went a long way!
Plain white rice is a perfect accompaniment to this chicken, because the lemon and tarragon are such vibrant flavors!
