I cannot believe that it has been 10 days since my birthday and since I last wrote. An update on my birthday cake. I have to admit when it first came out of the oven I immediately cut a piece and poured myself a cold glass of vanilla soy milk. I am not lactose intolerent but my boyfriend is and when I realized that this creamy thick milk had 10 fewer calories than my skim milk I decided that I would now be a soy milk drinker. I was not crazy about the soy milk with my chocolate cake, maybe it was the vanilla, but it was cold and it was milk so the desired effect was achieved. I also felt that the cake was a bit dry, I am not sure why. It took awhile to bake the mousse-like batter, maybe I should have put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven to add some humidity to the dry heat. Once I cut into the center or about an inch in from the edges it was very moist and the chocolate chips melting on top were inspired. I cannot imagine topping this cake with anything else. Ok, well, now that I think about it maybe some of the german chocolate frosting would be divine or even a thick layer of fudge frosting. I initially felt that it was not very chocolatey (sp?) I think that is because I used the unsweetened chocolate squares I had available in my freezer. I think next time I will use sweetened chocolate. The funny thing is that we ate on it for a week and about the second day it sat out on the counter it began tasting fantastic. It seemed moister and more delectible. I actually threw it out yesterday because I could no longer take any more of it. It did make a 9x13 pan and that was way too much for two people. We were actually eating double sized pieces.
Today is the last day of my garden as it is supposed to be our first frost of the season and I have tons of green tomatoes outside I need to pick and do something with. The thing I am dreading most about this is that today the wind is blowing fiercely and it feels like 40 degrees. I know... in a few weeks 40 degrees is going to feel warm, but right now I do not feel like going outside and standing in a garden with no shelter to speak of in the wind.
The question is what am I going to do with all these tomatoes. I resorted to my old stand by ask.com which gave me several variations of how to ripen them using bags and boxes and bananas. I was originally looking for a green tomato salsa recipe and then I started wishing I could make something other than salsa and found a recipe for green tomato apple pie. This was on emeril's page of the foodnetwork.com there is a note at the bottom that a guest or some non-cook celebrity gave him the recipe and that it had not been tested. I am thinking first of all if it made it to the page he has to have some confidence that it will work well. I am still on the fence if I will try it or not.
If you remember a few weeks ago we had to pick our apples early and I sliced some into pie slices and then I put others into storeage under the cupboard. Well, the ones under the cupboard lasted about a month longer, but we started to lose them so after throwing 9 of them in the garbage I sliced them up into pint bags with my 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon and froze them for pies.
Potato update. A few weeks back we picked a hill and put them in a dark colored pillowcase and placed them under the cupboard. As of yesterday only one small one was getting soft. About 3 weeks ago Don dug up tons of potatoes and gave about half of them to his brother next door. IN my mind the ones I get in the grocery store last forever so it should be a no-brainer that the ones fresh from our garden should also. I think it is just because we had them in a box and on the dryer in the laundry room.. maybe too much light ? Anyways we noticed that they were getting a bit soft so we decided to can them. We cleaned them and cut off any green toxin-parts, quartered them and boiled them for 10 mins before putting them in the prepared jars. I think next time we will just cold pack the potatoes into the jars and not boil them. I read that if you cold pack them then a lot of the water will be absorbed by the potatoes and while it will be ok, there will not be as much liquid in the jars. I don't know why, but I felt there should be more liquid in the jars so I decided to hot pack them and boiled them 10 mins. then put boiling water in the jar to fill in the cracks around them. as we were packing them into the jars don commented that they were a lot like mush; so I think next time I will put them in the jars hard and cold, then add the boiling water then process the 40 mins at 10 lbs of pressure. They look really nice in the quart jars, I am proud of them and it will take next to no time to prepare them.
At the beginning of the week I finally made the basil jelly I have been talking about for months. It is quite similar to the jalapeno jelly and went relatively quickly. I was trying to use up all the basil that I have been collecting in my freezer all summer and ended up having about 2 cups too much liquid for the amount of dry fruit pectin I had on hand so I saved the liquid knowing that I should have more basil on friday or saturday or sunday morning. Well... with the freeze expected tonight I am going to have to go pick what is left and hope it is enough. The plan is that I have 19 half pint jelly jars. The strawberry jam that I made back in june that I was trying to hide because I didn't think it turned out right turned out to be a big hit amongst don and his grandkids and his son in law so I am hoping strawberries are a good price tomorrow when i go to the store because I want to make enough strawberry jam to use up the last of the half pint jars. my goal is to have no jars sitting in my kitchen or in storeage when this weekend is over. I want the salsa done, the peppers chopped and all jellies made. I have put off almost everything (scrapbooking which I love love love... and my son's quilt for his wedding is now on hold til I can get it done for christmas) so .... I want it all to be done this week. DONE DONE DONE! I have 82 days til christmas and I have gift baskets to make out of all the jams and justards and salsas I have been making all summer and I am psyched to get started. If I can ever figure out when the thrift store is open I think I can find some amazing baskets for my sisters. I don't wnat to spend a fortune because I am wanting to spend the bulk of my money on my daughter and don's gifts. I don't want to put a lot of time into these gifts because I need the time for dj's quilt.
today's recipes are the basil jelly, strawberry jam and a pot roast recipe that is my absolute favorite. I found it by accident one time in a book I somehow ordered from one of those cookbook clubs where you could buy like 4 and get one for 99 cents or so. They never give you a description of the books so you have no idea what you are getting. I was in my first year of chef school and was all excited thinking I would need to acquire tons of cookbooks because most chefs take their own recipes to the kitchens as they are not provided for you. So I ordered this book, "What's For Dinner" to my knowledge this is the only recipe I have ever made out of this book. This recipe is worth the price I paid for the book even if I never make anything else out of it. It was not traditional to me, but the chef writing it, Michael Roberts, put it in the comfort foods section in the 1950's era recipes. I had never had a roast that just used a rich broth instead of immersing it in a gooey gravey but I am very in love with this recipe. I was nervous about using the instant coffee because it was back in the days when I was being the good latter-day saint woman who didn't drink coffee. I also never developed a taste for coffe because when i was growing up, my father worked in a body shop. Back in the 1970's and early 80's in the part of colorado where I grew up it was apparently not a problem for the shop to house a refrigerator that held beer beer and more beer. Any time of day when we stopped in to visit the guys would be drinking a beer while they were working. Whether at work or home I remember my dad with a cup of coffe in his right hand a beer in his left and a cigarette haning out of his mouth. These scents mingled with body sweat from working in the shop or mowing the lawn has influenced how I feel about the taste of beer and coffee. I cannot drink either one or smell cigarette smoke without experiencing the sickening memory of all of them mingled. So I followed the recipe to the letter and it turned out to be the most amazing pot roast I have ever tasted.
POT ROAST AND SWEET BAKED CARROTS
2 TBs flavorless vegetable oil
1 2lb beef chuck roast or eye-of-round roast
1 medium onion, roughly chopped, plus 1 (peeled) onion stuck with 3 cloves
2 TBs instant coffee powder
1 TBs tomato paste
2 1/2 cups chicken stock, canned low sodium chicken broth, or water (I only had 2 cups of canned broth and no instant coffee, but I had made coffee for don that morning so I had a bit in the pot. I added 1/2 up of the prepared coffee to the broth ..a bit nervously... but it turned out perfectly)
3 bay leaves
salt
1/2 tsp black peppercorns (I am used to being able to go to super walmart and getting anything I could imagine including spices most people don't have so black peppercorns should be a no brainer.. but not so in our local walmart, or the grocery store ..so (sigh) I had some pickling spice at home that I have not hardly used and there are peppercorns in it so for 5 minutes I stood at the counter picking out 1/2 tsp peppercorns, but it was worth it for this taste)
3 cups thinly sliced carrots (about 10) ... I bought a 32 ounce bag of baby carrots because I didn't want to go thru the work of cleaning and slicing.
2 TBs butter or margarine.
Preheat oven to 325. (I didn't want to use a lot of propane on a warmish day so I planned to use the crockpot).
Heat the oil in a dutch oven or oven proof cassarole over high heat. Add the beef roast and brown well on all sides. Remove the roast and pour off the oil. (I used a skillet and did not pour off the oil because there was not that much and since I was going to transfer the roast to the crockpot I didn't feel like the grease was going to be an issue sitting around the roast while it baked).
Place the pot over medium heat, add the chopped onion, and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in the instant coffee and tomato paste, then add the broth, 1 1/2 tsp salt, bay leaves,and the peppercorns and bring to a boil. Return the roast to the pot, add the whole onion, cover, and transfer to the oven and cook for 2 1/2 hours, or until very tender. (I ended up getting the roast into the crockpot at 2:30 p.m. and we didn't actually try it until around 9 pm but it melted in my mouth. We did not eat it til lunch the next day so it sat over night in the fridge but it was not compromised taste-wise in any way whatsoever).
Meanwhile, place carrots in a baking dish. Season with salt and pepper to taste and dot with the butter. Covefr and bake for 45 minutes. (YOu will not believe how sweet these carrots are!)
Remove the meat from the pot. Skim the fat off the cooking liquid and strain (I do not do this) Arrange a bed of the carrots on a serving platter, ( I just serve mine from the dish I baked them in). Slice the roast and arrange the slices on the carrots. spoon some of the cooking juices over the meat and serve.
Since I had so many delectable fresh potatoes I cut some up when I put the roast into the crock pot (just quartered them) and let them sit on top of the roast and steam (mmmmmm!)..so delectible with a bit of margarine and some of the beef juice on them!
BASIL JELLY
4 Cups water
2 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1 pkg (1-3/4 oz) powdered fruit pectin
3 drops green food coloring, optional
5 cups sugar
In a large saucepan, bring water and basil to a boil. REmove from the heat; cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Strain and discard basil. REturn 3 2/3 cups liquid to the pan. Stir in pectin and food coloring if desired. Return to a rolling boil ovr high heat. Stir in the sugar. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; skim off foam.
Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. REmove air bubbles, wipe rims and adjust lids. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.
Yield 6 half-pints
FRESH STRAWBERRY JAM
(Makes about 8 cups jam)
4 1/2 cups crushed fresh strawberries
(wash and stem before crushing)
1 box (1 3/4 oz) powdered fruit pectin
7 cups sugar
Place berries and pectin in 3 quart cassarole. stir well. Cover. Place in microwave oven and cook (high power) 8 to 10 minutes until mixture is at a full rolling boil.
Add sugar to boiling mixture and stir well. Return uncovered to microwave oven and cook mixture 8 to 10 minutes stirring after 5 minutes, until mixture reaches a full rolling boil. Then, time for 1 minute of boiling. REmove from oven and skim off foam with a metal spoon stirring jam about 5 minutes before ladeling into prepared glasses. Seal. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.
Wow! I have been working on this since 2 pm and it is now 5:15 p.m. Don is going to come home from swathing and think I have done nothing with my day. Anyone who does any cooking knows that to do a day of canning or cooking like it seems like always happens with me. It seems like I can't just make a grocery list or walk in and make a meal .. it always involves menu planning and organizing like I would in the restaurants or catering it is just second nature with me. I do feel however that if I take today to find the recipes and make the lests and organize what I want to do when then everything just flows. You will see when thanksgiving comes .. I will start 24 hours before and start the preparations and make a chart of what to do first and when to put what in the oven and when everything comes out it is like a play or some sort of production.. all working in harmony. So tomorrow when i roll out of bed I will be all organized and know what I am shopping for and get home and just start cooking. I think a lot of this is because of my ADD to deal with not taking medication I have learned to make lists. If I have taken the time to map out my day I am focused and everything gets done and then some. NO list and I am lost. Ok I am off to the garden to gather the green tomatoes and pick what is left of the basil. hopefully there will be enough basil to finish the jelly. I really wish I had more time to write. I really want to post the green tomato apple pie recipe and the green tomato salsa. I am hoping to write sooner and more regularly now that the garden is about to be destroyed and I am ending things. I see I have 9 people reading regularly, if anyone has anything that might help me figure out what to do with all these green tomatoes I would love to hear from you. I do not know why in the 25 years of professional cooking I have only made fried green tomatoes. I cannot believe these are the only green tomatoes I have come in contact with, but honestly I have no idea what I am going to do with them. Ok, have a great time in your kitchen, I know I will!
