Happy Belated Pi Day!

Saturday was Pi Day, and it was the ultimate Pi Day: 3-14-15.

I know you've all been listening to me tell you about Pi Day for years now, and so you all celebrated, right?  Right?  OK, maybe Mango Momma celebrated.  The rest of you are not engineers or number fans; I understand.

Jeffrey came home to see Ryan, and brought a friend, so, of course we had to celebrate Pi Day.  And we celebrated in style.

I made my "classic" chocolate mousse pie, which is really a chocolate cream pie with extra whipping cream in the custard, but "mousse" sounded ever so much more exciting when my children were all yea high.  Plus, I piped the whipped cream into cute little flowerets or whatever those round things are called, so I'm sure I get extra credit for that.

See?  Ryan gives me extra credit!

The other pie was a Lemon Angel Torte.  Jeffrey "hates" meringue, but he sure did love this, as did his father.

LEMON ANGEL TORTE

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 tbsp butter

4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or lemon extract

Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar, 1/2 cup sugar and the extract until stiff peaks form.  Spread in a well greased 10" pie plate.  Bake at 275F for 45 minutes to 1 hour, then turn off the oven and leave the torte shell in the oven until it cools (or at least an hour, until you get impatient).

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, lemon juice and lemon extract in a saucepan.  Whisk in the egg yolks, then cook over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens and bubbles.  Remove from the heat and whisk in 1 tbsp butter, and let cool before spreading in the torte shell.

Top with whipped cream, if you wish (I did wish) and serve.

This came from my "Complete Family Cookbook", an old trusty standby, and is my entry for Cook Your Books in March!

So, Happy Belated Pi Day, everyone!  If you didn't celebrate on Saturday, it's not too late!

Book Review: Just Add Watercolor

Just Add Watercolor
by Helen Birch

 I don't really know what I expected when I selected this book.  It's a fairly small volume, about 5"x7", hardcovered, with very nice coated pages.  Each page has a contemporary watercolor, with notes about the way the artist created the picture.  I'm not entirely sure what I expected from this book.  Perhaps a little more detail?  This is what the author says in her introduction, in part: "Accompanying each work is a short exploration of the artist's approach and the techniques used, so you can try some of the ideas out too."

Each pair of pages contains a picture to the right, and a paragraph or 2 on the left page briefly discussing what the painting is, and perhaps what the artist intended to create.  Other than the pages about making blooms and similar special effects, there isn't much on how the paintings were created - paper, paint, ink, whatever - in most cases.  It's a pretty little book, and a nice review, but isn't as helpful to the artistic process as I might have hoped.  3/5

Note: I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my review.  Opinions are my own.

Strawberry Angel Torte

I don't know if this is actually a torte.  I know it's not a tort, because that's a legal action.  But I remember making something basically like this, but with lemon, and I'm pretty sure the cookbook involved called it a torte, so I'm going with that.

Before my food delivery last Friday, I had a pesky dozen eggs remaining that I had to use.  And I had a husband who was wailing that there was nothing good to eat.  (That's actually the most common refrain in my house - "There's nothing good to eat!"  By "good" they all mean "instant" and not cold cereal.)  So I dreamed this up.

STRAWBERRY ANGEL TORTE

4 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound frozen strawberries, partially thawed
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp strawberry extract

Whip the egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy.  Add the vanilla and beat until soft.  Sprinkle the sugar in bit by bit and beat until stiff peaks form.  Spread in a greased 10" pie plate.  Bake at 275F for 45 minutes, until lightly browned, then turn off the oven, leave it closed and leave the meringue shell in the oven for an hour or so, until it's cooled down.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch; stir in the water and cook until it starts to thicken.  Slice the strawberries and add them to the sugar mixture, along with the extracts (strawberry optional, because it's hard to find, but does add a little flavor).  Cook until thickened, then refrigerate until it's cold.

Remove the cooled meringue shell from the oven, spread the strawberry filling over it, and top with whipped cream when serving, if desired.  (I didn't desire.)

My dearly beloved ate half of this pie the first night, when I served it for dessert.  He finished it the next morning for breakfast.  Enough said?

And I had too much filling for the pie.  I saved the remainder, and put it between layers of yellow cake a couple of nights later.  Ryan and his father loved it; indeed, Ryan ate it for dessert following breakfast and lunch for a couple of days.  At least we slowed his weight loss for this week.

Happy Weekending, everyone!

English Muffin Bread

A few weeks back, I showed you this bread machine cookbook.  You remember; it's the one that fell apart so I bought a 3 ring binder and punched the pages to hold it together.

Well, with the new bread machine, I've been making an old favorite recipe from this cookbook: English Muffin Bread.  If you enjoy English Muffins, this bread is for you.  Crunchy crust, super soft insides, on the salty side, great with lemon curd, jelly, peanut butter, or just plain butter.

ENGLISH MUFFIN BREAD

1-1/4 cups warm water
3 cups flour
4 tsp gluten powder (optional, but good)
3 tbsp powdered milk
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp yeast

Put the ingredients in your bread machine bucket in the order listed, set it for a 1.5 pound loaf, turn on your delay timer, and go to bed.  The fresh bread aroma will wake you up the next morning; it's much nicer than any alarm clock.

If you want to make it and wait for it, you can use milk in lieu of the water/powdered milk combination; warm the milk and sprinkle the yeast over it, then add the other ingredients and proceed as shown over there-------->.

Note that the top of this loaf will be a little sunken.  The cookbook even makes note of this.

I've been making this every day since I got my new bread maker, and my dearly beloved is in a constant state of bread bliss.  Of course, if/when the pounds creep up on him, that will be my fault, but I can live with that.  Ryan's been enjoying English Muffin Bread this week, too; the two of them have been finishing a loaf every day.  That's testimony enough for you all to want to make this.

I suppose this even qualifies as a Cook Your Books entry!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Cookbook Wednesday: Another Present!

I promised you last week that I'd show you the other cookbook Louise sent me last week.  It's a beauty.

Not only is it a cookbook, it's also a history of the 20th century - both in the furnishings of the kitchen and in cooking!

There are many reproductions of new things available for your kitchen, like this cupboard.  There were no kitchen cupboards prior to the early 20th century.  I presume everything was kept on shelves in a pantry.

Canned soup, anyone?  Or maybe a few words about soup?

 How about combining cans of soup to make another flavor?  Seems like a useful tidbit.

 Reproduction of a magazine cover, along with a little history, including the introduction of corn flakes, and the invention of the Hershey's Kiss!

 Cheesecake!  Who doesn't love a good cheesecake?  And the story of cheesecake? Bonus!

 Tales of Twinkies.  Gotta love it.

 And the legendary origin of the Chocolate Chip cookie.

 It's truly a wonder that Louise sent this to me, instead of keeping it and reading it herself.  I've scanned it pretty well now, and there is always something new to read, and there will be plenty new to cook.  Thank you, my friend, for such a wonderful surprise!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Pop on over to Months of Edible Celebration and see what everyone else has to offer (and scroll down farther to see tons of scrumptious meatballs!

Garden Tuesday Plus Musings

It's been over 40 degrees for the past 2 days.  Can't you just see the melting?

Well, OK, maybe not.

Weekend musings:  Ryan came home for spring break.  Followed his GPS, left the interstate highway, and got lost for 3 hours.  Kids these days!

The 3 sisters went wedding dress shopping, and I tagged along, this weekend.  We found The Right Dress.  Spoiler alert: it is white, and long.  Updates in months.

Am I the only person in the world averse to ever moving my furniture?  Hubster and the girls moved around furniture in our library this weekend, and I am distraught.  They love it.  I now have to figure out how to make it work for me again.  Crap.  I did that 25 years ago, purchased all the furniture for each specific spot, and now it's disturbed.  You'll all probably overwhelmingly tell me I'm either (a) boring or (b) nuts. Or maybe both.

Ryan is overjoyed to have home cooking.  He's lost 50 pounds since August.  He could have stood to lose maybe 30 or 40, but by May, he's going to be positively anorexic!

See you tomorrow for Cookbook Wednesday.  I have to go make a cake so Ryan will have dessert, plus snacking for tomorrow!

Happy Less Snowy Tuesday, everyone!

Cookbook Wednesday, At Last!

Oh, I know this is Thursday.  But this week has been busy.  Indeed, in about an hour, I have to rush around like a crazy woman to get to yet another appointment!  But I couldn't let the week go by without participating in Cookbook Wednesday, could I?

AUNT BEE'S MAYBERRY COOKBOOK

Mark trudged out to the mailbox at the end of last week, and came back bearing a big manila envelope.  It was a present from the lovely and gracious Louise, our hostess at Months of Edible Celebrations.  She sent me a gift for carrying on with Cookbook Wednesday; I was delighted!  This is the first present, and it's a lot of fun.

We all grew up with Mayberry RFD.  And even if it wasn't our favorite show, it was great for a few laughs; there were plenty of characters on the show who were, at their cores, just like people we all knew, no matter whence our origins.

Louise knows me well; this is a general cookbook, with recipes from all varieties of food, which is my favorite type.

At the beginning of this cookbook, there are menus, some of which are not things you cook (soda pop and crackers)...

There are photos from the show, along with excerpts (presumably) from the script, interspersed with the recipes....

And pages of just recipes....

Along with things like this, which are more of a curiosity to city folk like me!

This is a fun cookbook, and a fun entry to Cookbook Wednesday, once again, properly hosted by Louise at Months of Edible Celebrations!

Happy Thorsday, everyone; I'll probably see you again on Monday!

Chocolate Peanut Cookies

Since Ryan has been at college, Mark announced that he hates cake, pie, quick bread, and just about every confection save ice cream, brownies and cookies.  This is one cookie I made during this massive cold snap.  They were gone in a day, even with only 2"starving" gents to consume them.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT DROP COOKIES
adapted from the Red Plaid Cookbook

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 egg whites or 1 egg
1 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp milk
1/2 cup chopped peanuts

Cream the butter and sugars; add the egg/egg white and beat until fluffy.  Stir together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda, and add to the creamed mixture.  Add the vanilla and milk, and beat until smooth.  Stir in the peanuts.  Drop on greased cookie sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  I used my smallest cookie scoop, and so got about 4 dozen from this recipe.

Using margarine, nonfat milk and egg whites makes these cholesterol-free and heart healthy.  But even with real butter, they only contain 3mg of cholesterol per cookie if you use egg whites, so that's pretty healthy, right?  Still, I won't call these health food cookies.  They are not too sweet, more like a semi-sweet cookie, which is very nice.  I also didn't chop my peanuts much, because that's too much like work; I just fed them through the slicing blade of my food processor.  Naturally, my youngest fussbudget announced that he hates peanuts, and picked them out, but my dearly beloved consumed them like it was the end of the world.

My conclusion is that you all need to make these cookies this weekend!  And have a great weekend.

Expired Milk Rolls

Do you have problems with kids in the house who refuse to drink milk beyond the "sell by" date, despite the fact that the milk is still good?  That attitude is epidemic around here.  So, a couple of days ago, Mark announced that our milk was 3 days past the sell by date, and despite the fact that I was still drinking it, including in my hot beverages (which will bring out the curdle in milk that's not quite ready to curdle), it was considered "rotten."  What to do?  Use it for baking, of course.  After all, plenty of recipes call for sour milk!  So I came up with these rolls when I was making broiled chicken sandwiches for dinner the other night.

EXPIRED (OR SOUR) MILK ROLLS

1-1/2 cups expired or sour milk
1 or 2 tbsp yeast*
3 cups flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp gluten powder

Heat the milk to about 100F, then pour it in your mixer or bread machine bucket.  Sprinkle in the yeast, then add the other ingredients in the order given.  Mix in the bread machine or mixer for about 20 minutes, or as according to my directions to the right --------->  Let rise until doubled in size, form into rolls and let rise again.  Brush with warm milk, and bake at 350F for 18 to 22 minutes.  Makes 10 large (3-1/2 ounce) or 16 medium (2-1/4 ounce) rolls.  Perfect for sandwiches or burgers, and delicious just for nibbling.

*Note: Use 2 tbsp yeast for fast rising; you'll have your rolls in under an hour.  1 tbsp yeast allows you to proceed at a more leisurely pace, but I never plan that far ahead.

The white whole wheat makes these rolls higher in fiber, but no one will notice.  Use nonfat milk, as I did, and these are a heart-healthy alternative to store bought: no cholesterol!

Happy Thorsday, everyone!

Cookbook Wednesday: Bread

In answer to Karin's musing about our temperatures, I've been baking bread.  Oh, cookies and brownies, too, but lots of bread.

Along about October, my bread machine decided it didn't like me any more, and was no longer going to function correctly.  Well, that was OK, because I only use it as a mixer anyway, and I do have a Kitchenaid.  But then, a couple of weeks ago, my dearly beloved wondered why I wasn't using the bread machine to knead my bread, and I reminded him that the bread machine had decided we were no longer friends.  So he ordered me to get a new one.  (And, really, who has trouble complying with an "order" such as that: buy yourself something!)

In honor of the new bread machine, this Cookbook Wednesday focuses on the biggest bread machine cookbook out there - and it's useful even if you don't have a bread machine!  It's Beth Hensperger's Bread Machine Cookbook!

The table of contents barely gives you an idea of the scope of this book.

You can see by my ribbons and whatnot that I have some favored recipes in this book.  To be fair, since I got it for Christmas in 2004, I've had time to try out a recipe or 2.

I like the fact that when a recipe calls for an odd ingredient, she gives you assistance in obtaining or creating it.  This description of sprouting wheat berries is an example.

She also has many things related to how you use your bread dough, such as this page about making pizza sauces and cooking pizza.  I read it eagerly, but usually buy my pizza sauce anyway.

Her recipes for jams are great, too.  Who knew a bread machine could be so versatile?  I think my dearly beloved needs this strawberry jam for his breakfast bread.

There are plenty of other goodies in here, too, including making spreads for breads, using stale breads, gluten free breads, creating your own bread recipes, and too much else to list.

If you want pictures, this is not the book for you, because there aren't any.  But that's OK with me, because my creations are never as pretty as the pictures.  Anyway, I probably need to spend more quality time reading and absorbing this book!

Once again, I'm hosting Cookbook Wednesday for the lovely and talented Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations!  She will likely be back next week, but if life is still overwhelming, I'll continue to carry the torch for her.

If you want to be added, leave me a comment, and I'll list you below.

Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations posted a booklet of Mexican recipes on Frozen Margharita Day.  I'm happy to list her as the first link!

Poppy's Surplus Recipes, including the delightful sounding Split Pea Bars and Bean Pudding Cake!  Poppy finds the humor in every cookbook. 

Debbie's Ground Beef Recipes with the bonus of her making meatballs for us!  Happy to have you join us, Debbie! 

Nellie's Breakfast Cookbook gives me more baking ideas!  It's a very well loved book, judging by her pictures.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

This is what 9 degrees and sunny looks like.

 No wind, at least for the time being..

Note that Mark has simply given up shoveling, because either the snow drifts back in to the path, it snows again, or, most often, both occur.

Let us hope the -7 overnight is the coldest we'll see for the rest of this season!  Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Monday Book Review

I know - how unusual!  I went with Shannon to a wedding dress try-on on Saturday, down near Philadelphia.  Of course, you all know it's been bitterly cold here for weeks.  So, on Friday, my dearly beloved announced that I'm "too stupid" to drive 250 miles alone in the cold, so he hired me a driver.  It's nice to be loved, isn't it?  Anyway, that 4 hour ride gave me time to read a book, so here's your review!

THE MARAUDERS
By Tom Cooper

This is set in the bayous of Louisiana, 5 years after Hurricane Katrina, and after the BP oil rig explosion.  There are a fair number of parallel stories, which intersect through the book, not necessarily at the same time.  Almost everyone in the town is a shrimper, and the haul is nothing but meager, small shrimp this year.  Wes Trench, 17, works with his father, both mourning for and blaming his father for the death of his mother when she slid off the roof of their house into the floodwaters following the hurricane.  One day he became irate and quit, finding himself a position on a trawler captained by Lindquist.  Lindquist's wife left him, fed up with his lifelong obsession with finding Jean Lafitte's treasure; he's out there every night hunting for that gold, using maps that he has meticulously marked up.  Then there are the Toup twins, who grow great weed on an island in the bayou, and shoot anyone who gets near their hydroponic greenhouse.  Cosgrove and Hanson, who became acquainted while in jail for petty crimes, and drifted into town for jobs cleaning oil coated birds, and stumbled into the Toups' operation.  Then there's Brady Grimes, born and raised in Jeanette, who couldn't wait to get away.  Then BP sent him back to Jeanette to get people to take petty settlements so they couldn't sue BP.

The settings were very well described, and the characters felt real.  The book was dark and funny at the same time, and completely "politically incorrect" in the way folks talked and thought.  There really weren't any happy endings, merely some contented endings, and some not so contented, much as in real life.  I very much enjoyed this book, and was sorry to see it end.  5/5

Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Happy Monday, everyone!  Stay warm!