I May Have Done Something Right....

The holidays are a baker's time to shine--it's our time to do it up big and show off and wow everyone's pants off and then sit back and grin. We plan for a month or two ahead of time and stockpile supplies and bake at night and hid our concoctions until the moment arrives and *POOF!!* there are goodies and candies and confections and yule logs and pies and you totally didn't know we could do all this.  Bakers are like little elves only we have social security numbers and can reach the gas pedal in the car while steering....well, most of us can.




Every year, that's my deal. I revel in that sort of thing.  I start baking the day after Thanksgiving. I use every available piece of tupperware available to me. I fill the freezer with so much stuff, we don't have room for real food.



I show off.  And I get to live out that principle my mother taught me to go no where during the holidays empty handed. It's about hospitality and generosity and good will.



I didn't do that this year.



Instead, we moved to a new house. And I spent enormous amounts of time cleaning the place and trying to figure out the best way to make my little family feel at home. And my in-laws came from the Old Country (Pennsylvania) and they really helped the kids feel like this was home and warmed our home with their love. This was the first time they could hold their new grandson and nothing beats the love grandparents exude.

paparazzi

After all that, we finally managed to shop for Christmas and put up the tree and join in on the feeling that everyone else seemed to already be enjoying-like coming late to a really good party. Holiday specials on tv and hot chocolate and kids in footie pj's and Christmas music and the church choir at Mass....

I don't know why...

And I did bake. I just didn't squirrel away goodies. I didn't stay up late at night isolated in my kitchen. I DID however, stay up late at night and rock babies and sing songs and tickle children and tell them stories of my childhood. I spent time with my family. I was in the moment with them.  And I don't think a big pile of goodies for my husband's associates or the neighbors can really replace that. (In fact, the neighbors brought US stuff instead!)






So we made cookies for Santa and goodies for class parties and cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and I cooked some glorious meals but I also got down on the floor and played with my kids and went on a date with my man. And smiled. And laughed. And felt like a real human being.





Yule log that.

We have the saddest tree

school party treats

Here are a few pics of the last month. I pray the New Year brings you joy and happiness and many fabulous meals with people you love.

her future's so bright...

dreaming of a white Christmas

she took a bite out of each of them

this was supposed to be
for Thing 2's dress up....

she loves these...
I was worried they came with
a pole

legomaniacs

my mom said it looked like
King Tut's face but, Honey,
it sure as hell didn't
taste like it...

that's right-I wrapped a turkey
in bacon....

seafood stuffed mushrooms

crepes for dinner...why not?
we never got out of our pj's
that day

quiet wonder. perfection.

hand made gifts are
the kindest

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Easy-Peasy Chocolate Buttercream

I hope you weren't waiting for this, like with the cake all baked and hoping I'd get on with it and post the recipe. Because I don't think I can handle any more pressure right now--especially on my body! Oh dear! This child is weighing on me something fierce.....

But I did say I had an easy chocolate buttercream recipe for you and a promise is a promise. This recipe is actually one I got from Martha Stewart (not, like, directly or anything--people like her don't know people like me....for example, I don't have to be plugged into a wall at the end of the day).

This recipe makes about 3 1/2 cups of frosting (nearly enough for a regular round layer cake but not exactly enough, in my opinion, for decorating with a piping bag). The good news is, it doubles and triples easily and whatever you don't need now, you can freeze for later.



Also, you don't need to do any sifting. I would, however, let my butter soften to almost room temperature before starting. If you forget to pull your butter ahead of time, warm it slowly in the microwave 10 seconds at a time until it yields to being pressed gently. You want the butter to be able to hold it's shape because you want to dice it up into cubes.



In your mixer bowl, combine:

3 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar
1 cup of cocoa powder


Just mix until they are a little more evenly distributed before adding in 1 1/2 sticks (that's a cup and a half) of butter, diced. Don't turn the mixer up on speed or anything. In fact, I wrap a dishtowel around the top of the bowl to keep anything from flying out and getting everywhere.

You won't really be able to tell that anything is happening just yet and you'll wonder if you did it right. You did.
 Add 2 tsp of vanilla (or almond if you're feeling daring) to
1/2 cup of milk

and add this to your mixing bowl.


Within a few moments, the frosting will moisten and change color. First, it will be a dark, lumpy mess but within a minute or two, the lumps will disappear and the color will lighten. So will the consistency of the buttercream. The longer you beat it, the lighter and looser it will becomes so don't be over-zealous, Love.



Use a large rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl to be sure you mixed everything properly. This frosting spreads easily and nicely. If you find your kitchen is a bit hot to work in, give the bowl a chill for 5 minutes or so and stir again before using. The butter will harden fast so don't forget about it for long.




Ok, so finally, I got you the recipe. Hopefully I won't be so long with another post but that's kind of up to my stamina so bear with me....7-9 weeks to go.....

Festival Food: Deep Fried Oreos and Other Such Killers

Summer is almost here and the festivals have started to pop up around the region for everything from strawberries to the Renaissance. May the clogging of arteries begin! Personally, I don't feel it's been a complete experience without a big ol' hot sausage sandwich with a ton of mustard and a deep fried snickers bar while the Dev's needs a round of deep fried oreos. Yes, yes we are going to die.

God save the Queen!

When it was just the two of us, the extravagance of paying $4.50 for someone else to kill me slowly was no big deal but now that we have our own little village to support, it seems like a terrible waste of money. So now, we go to the festivals and then come home and do terrible things to our aging bodies for much less money.

The batter I like to use is actually a good one for meats and vegetables as well so if a fried Milky Way isn't your thing, try this on shrimp or zucchini instead. The process is basically the same.

You'll need either a fryer set up according to the manufacturers instructions or a large pot with at least 3-4 inches of vegetable oil (not ever olive oil) or peanut oil heated to 375.

If you are frying candy bars, pop them into a freezer at least an hour before you plan to fry them. Everything else should be at normal temp (chilled if it's meats or shrimp for instance; clean and dry if veggies).

While the fryer heats up, pull out two bowls and mix up the batter. You'll need the following:

In the larger bowl, whisk together

1 cup AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cornstarch

In the second bowl, whisk together

1 cup water

2 Tbs oil

2 Tbs of a beaten egg (this is about 2/3 of an egg that's been whisked)

Now, if you like a really thick batter, just whisk the wet into the dry. If you like a lighter batter-more tempura like, add a couple of tablespoons more of water to the wet ingredients and whisk everything together. Personally, I found the lighter batter to be really great. It would work really well for fish-n-chips too.

Now you have batter and hot oil--go crazy! 

Oreos are simple- just drop in a cookie and coat it, shake it just a bit to lose any drippies (*technical term) and place (don't drop) into the hot oil. When one side looks golden, be sure to flip it over. Remove onto a draining rack that has paper towel under it. Never place fried foods directly onto paper towels; all that happens is you are basically laying a food that is cooling into cooling oil that is trapped and thus just making the food soggy with the oil you are trying to drain away--silly, huh?

aw yeah!

For candy bars, once frozen up, it's about the same process but once you place them into the oil, keep an eye on them. A candy bar doesn't need to stay in the oil very long to cook the batter and you run the risk of the chocolate leaking out into the oil (just make sure you change out that oil before frying onion rings, ok?). I used a thicker batter for the bars and then added a little water to the batter before doing the oreos an that really seemed to do the trick.

3 Musketeer-because they
less fat, you know?

It might not look like much
but your mouth will thank you

I'm not saying this is something we do every weekend but every once in a while it's fun to make the "bad  stuff."  Happy festival-going!

A Little Something For My Beloved....

When I used to work in a certain university bakery, I would occasionally bring home a little some thing for Mr. Devlin, who was studying hard at the same said university (man, was that a dream job!)

It might have been an eclair that wasn't quite the right length for retail but still perfectly edible or a slice of cake.

The point was, I wanted him to know I was thinking of him.

And now that I'm "just" at home and "just" taking care of the house, I still try to find ways to let him know that I appreciate that he is working hard, and  even though we haven't been on a real date since December, I still think he's pretty cute.

The easiest little goodie for Mr. Man is chocolate covered strawberries and this is the right time of year to make them, with strawberries plentiful and cheap.

air drying the fruit

Look for fruit that is uniform in shape, red and ripe all the way up to the stem and without blemish. If you have a soft, leaking spot on the fruit, the chocolate won't be able to set up there. Also, you never want to introduce a liquid into straight chocolate as it has the potential to make the chocolate seize (that's when the chocolate gets all clumpy and gross-there is a way to fix it* of course but it's still not desirable).

When you are ready to dip, first wipe down the fruit with a damp paper towel, just as you would wash a mushroom. If you submerge them in water, you again run the risk of introducing water into your chocolate and being an unhappy camper.

Let the fruit air-dry-this also allows the fruit to come up a little bit in temperature which I prefer when dipping fruit.

In the mean time, let's melt some chocolate.

Honestly, a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips works fine. If you like a darker chocolate, like a 70%, try melting down a few candy bars. Or maybe your special person likes white chocolate best. The process is the same. Chop the chocolate (if not using chips) into smaller bits and place in a heat-proof bowl (I prefer  glass myself). Make sure the bowl fit well over a small saucepan that contains a couple of inches of water. The bowl should never ever ever touch that water (that could case the chocolate to scorch--you know, burn? You can't fix that).   Instead, the bowl should rest over the water. This set up is a double-boiler or water bath.

Turn your heat to a medium heat, not high. Chocolate is not to be man-handled, ok? Love it gently and it will do what you want every time. You aren't trying to bring the water to a hard boil, just enough of a simmer to cause the steam to heat the chocolate from underneath. If you have a bunch of steam escaping around the sides of the bowl, lower your heat (a lot). Again, steam being water, you could cause the chocolate to seize.  Keep stirring the chocolate and you will get a nice, shiney melty pot of yum soon.
As soon as the chocolate is about uniformly melted, cut the heat. Remove the bowl from the heat altogether as soon as you have stirred it smooth. Let the chocolate cool some before dipping.





Now you can factory-line assemble some strawberries. Fruit, then chocolate, then bake sheet covered with parchment or waxed paper. (If you're a lefty, reverse the order).

down and in

up and over

Holding the stem of fruit, dip it in the chocolate, nearly to the top. Now pull up and over to the side of the bowl, to lightly scrape the excess from the side that will be the bottom. Tip the bottom of the fruit up a bit to cause the chocolate to catch at the tip instead of dribbling every where and place the fruit on the sheet at the farthest point from you.

scrape back side and tip

 As you move along, you never want to move a new piece over an old piece because you could dribble on the older fruit and it won't look pretty; so move from the farthest edge towards yourself.











The chocolate will set up--unless your house is a bit warm, in which case place the sheet in the fridge for a couple of minutes to help out the process.

If you would like a little drizzle of dark on your white or white on your dark, melt the chocolate in the same way as mentioned above and spoon the chocolate into a small piping bag (or paper piping bag which can be made with a bit of parchment that you have made into a funnel shape). If you are intimidated by that idea, put the chocolate in a ziploc bag and snip a bit of the corner off.

Drizzle the chocolate over as desired and continue to let them set up.




Whether you are placing them on a cake as garnish or serving them with champagne once the kids are (finally) asleep, keep the fruit in a cool place until service. Generally, you don't want them sit around for more than a day (as if, right?)

*If your chocolate seizes, stir in a tablespoon of solid shortening to the chocolate and stir smooth. Add a bit more shortening if necessary but the fat will counteract the liquid.