Show us the food dishes you've prepared.

[Kim_B]

Chocolate Covered Cake Drops

and

Blackberry muffins

 

[goldwyn girl]

Kim_B, oh yum!!! I'm drooling, how did you make the cake drops ? if you don't mind telling.

 

[Kim_B]

I don't mind at all!

It's really simple, but it does take quite a bit of time. Just bake a cake as directed on the box...let it cool completely.

Then, crumble the cake into a large bowl. Mix one container of cream cheese frosting (store bought it fine) into the cake - might need to use your hands to get it thoroughly mixed. Form into little balls - melon baller works great, but you can use a regular table spoon. Chill in fridge for several hours (I left mine in overnight).

Melt chocolate (I use the milk chocolate almond bark) as directed, thin as needed (one tablespoon of vegetable oil). Coat the cake in chocolate, and allow to set on parchment/wax paper. Decorate as desired - sprinkles, colored frostings, etc.

You can serve them room temp, but they taste the best when they're chilled.

Best part is, you can mix and match any kind of cake and frosting combinations you like...german chocolate with the coconut frosting, devil's food with a cherry frosting, spice or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...Mmmm....cake!

 

[conrad5157]

A couple loaves of my cinnamon raison.

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[goldwyn girl]

Kim_B, thank you so much for the directions. I'm going to the store today and will get everything to make these. And the taste combinations are endless
conrad5157, your loaves are perfect.

 

[conrad5157]

Thank you goldwyn but when I look now I probably should have rotated that front loaf 180 to hide that overlap.

 

[Baron Kern]

you guys will enjoy this youtube channel. Its a cooking "show" hosted by a 91 year old woman who prepares dishes her mother made during the great depression. She has been featured on some news programs and is working on a cook book. They are pretty neat to watch and listen to.

http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

 

[goldwyn girl]

Thank you goldwyn but when I look now I probably should have rotated that front loaf 180 to hide that overlap.

I didn't notice that, just how fabulous they were.

Kim_B, cake drops were made and devoured, yum

 

[CherryRed]

Lemon Meringue Pie

 

[Mike in Seattle]

With St. Patrick's day a week away, one of our friends reminded me of this picture of bread I made for our party a few years ago. This was the day-after corned beef sandwiches and leftover mashed potatos with celery & carrots in it:

I'm still making green bread every year for some of the friends. The "fun" part is that it looks "normal" from the outside.

And not that green's a favorite but when we were involved in a local production of Seussical a few years ago, I couldn't resist making this for a matinee brunch with leftover Easter ham:

 

[Foofoogal]

http://www.seussville.com/lb/bio.html

aw. perfect for Dr.Seuss birthday. lol

 

[Laura Chase]

Oooh, some nice looking sweets here!

My dinner tonight, this along with pan-fried salmon with crispy skin, mmmm:

Asparagus with olive oil, lemon juice and the best Swedish mustard ever:

Apples and strawberries with white balsamic vinegar, honey and pepper:

 

[BeBopBaby]

Most of the recipes came from Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, published in 1747. My favorite has to be the carrot puffs. You boil carrots, mash them up, make a dough similar to a fritter and fry them up. Delish.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Most of the recipes came from Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, published in 1747. My favorite has to be the carrot puffs. You boil carrots, mash them up, make a dough similar to a fritter and fry them up. Delish.

Lovely presentation! Someone has been studying those plates showing how to arrange a banquet table.... I'm sure it tasted as good as it looks. Congratulations!

 

[fortworthgal]

Earlier this week, my homemade sourdough bread:

 

["Skeet" McD]

Robert Mays' "Best French Bread," 1660

Two loaves; one glazed with egg, one not. Raised upside down, as per recipe, in wooden bowls. A lovely bread, by the way...
http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF0240

 

["Skeet" McD]

Starter?

Earlier this week, my homemade sourdough bread

Dear FW Gal, Lovely loaf....what starter are you using? Home-grown or commercial? My day-to-day is Carl's, which is available to anyone asking for it; it has passed down from eldest son to eldest son in his family and travelled from Missouri to Oregon via the Oregon Trail in 1847. After Carl's death, his tradition of giving it away has been carried on by a group of microbiologists who are also sourdough enthusiasts. Here's the URL...all you have to do is send a SASE...
http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/

Again,lovely looking loaf...and good to eat, too, I'll bet!

"Skeet"

 

[fortworthgal]

Hello, Skeet! Technically I didn't use a starter. I'm using the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day." It is super simple and so far the bread has been pretty tasty and quite easy. Essentially you whip up a batch of dough, let it rise for 2 hours or so, then let it sit in your fridge for up to 2 weeks. When you want to make a loaf, you just take out a ball of dough, shape it, let it rise, then bake. I work full-time, so when I get home in the evenings it works out nicely to still have time to bake a loaf of homemade bread rather than 4-5 hours of kneading, letting it rise, etc. Save that for the weekends! When you run out of dough, you just make another batch. There isn't any starter involved. Some of the basic recipes can be found free online, if you want to try it without purchasing the book.

I actually baked the loaf above in an enameled cast iron dutch oven - worked out pretty well!

I am very interested in Carl's! What a neat story. I have been looking for a good sourdough starter recipe, so I'll check out the website you posted.

Btw your loaves are lovely! What is the cheese I spy?

 

["Skeet" McD]

Hello, Skeet! Technically I didn't use a starter....Essentially you whip up a batch of dough, let it rise for 2 hours or so, then let it sit in your fridge for up to 2 weeks. When you want to make a loaf, you just take out a ball of dough, shape it, let it rise, then bake....I actually baked the loaf above in an enameled cast iron dutch oven - worked out pretty well!....Btw your loaves are lovely! What is the cheese I spy?

Dear FW Gal,
Well, not to get too "technical" myself...but your loaves aren't actually sourdough, although the method you're using (saving a bit of dough from one batch to leaven the next) is pretty much the old, standard method of leavening dough used by both professional bakers and housewives in the days when baking was a daily or frequent occurence (this is what is being referred to in the New Testament, BTW: "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened"; and "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"). The advantages of this method are the maintenance of a consistent and proven leaven, and of course, cheapness. The refrigeration just allows the interval between bakings to be longer; although that's not quite true: you're actually getting an extra added advantage--when you slow down fermentation, the flavor of the dough actually improves, so that's great, right?

The difference between this and true sourdough is....age and chemistry, really. Sourdough is the same thing (flour; water; yeast) but allowed to fully ripen. The excreta of the particular yeast will create a soup with a pH that favors it, and discourages other things from moving in (as most bacteria are very picky about where they will live). Once the colony is strong, if it is fed constantly to keep it from going dormant, it will live on uncontaminated for...just about forever. Unless you are very, very unlucky. (If you don't want to feed your sourdough starter constantly--because we rarely bake as frequently as our ancestors did--just refrigerate it. Pull it out a day before you want to bake, feed it, let it get active again, and off you go). For our eating purposes, the excreta of a particular strain of yeast will provide a unique flavor, as well....and that's what gives sourdough its "sourness." Your saved lump is still a "sweet" dough.

Good for you for baking in a dutch oven...and the results speak for themselves. This was much more common in the past, and not only used by campers and those living in the out-of-doors: the amount of fuel necessary to bake in a small container is much less than that needed to fuel a full oven, and (to state the obvious) you don't need a purpose-built beehive oven to bake.

The Carl's thing is really amazing--and the culture is a nice, trustworthy strain of really quite mild sourness. And--with every bite, you are eating a bit of American history, at no extra charge!

Thanks for the compliment on my loaves; the cheese is a Double Gloucester with chives, an absolutely delicious English semi-aged cheese. If you can find it, try it!

Best regards,
"Skeet"

 

[fortworthgal]

Thanks, I knew it wasn't technically a sourdough loaf, but over the course of several days the dough does "sour" somewhat, giving a light sourdough flavor. For some reason I have not had good luck in the past keeping starters going, but I want to try it again.

I'll look for the double gloucester w/chives - I'm sure our local Central Market carries it.