Hi folks:
Well, for the moment, the baby is hypnotized by one of her favorite TV
shows while Mommy works on a personal project and I clean the kitchen and try
to recreate what I originally wrote this morning. Let's hope it really works
this time. I know I haven't been very active on the list in recent months,
but I'd like to do a bit of catching up now. First, I found a little Italian
market here that just happens to sell the type of yeast that professional
bakers prefer. Sadly, it is no longer widely available in grocery stores, but
my understanding is that it once was. It is called compressed or cake yeast
because the yeast is compressed into a moist, crumbly cake or block.
Unfortunately, this yeast is usually sold in blocks that weigh one pound, so
that means that even though more cake yeast is required to make the same amount
of bread, one block is equal to about 22 envelopes of yeast from the store.
The owner of this little Italian market says she is trying to find a supplier
that will sell it in small packets of one ounce, but as of when I was there a
couple weeks ago, she hadn't found such a supplier yet. This yeast is said to
be especially good for making doughs that begin with a sponge or starter, or
that have long proofing and fermentation times. I have not made such a yeast
dough yet, but the items I have made with this type of yeast have performed
very well. Sadly, the shelf life of this yeast, even under refrigeration, is
only about two to three weeks. I hope the smaller packets appear soon.
As far as new things I have tried making lately, there are more than I can
remember at the moment. My most recent success was the steak tacos I made for
us and our friends for dinner last night. I don't have the recipe typed out
yet, but essentially, the flank steak is cut into four long strips, with the
grain, and marinated with a paste made up of fresh cilantro, cumin, garlic, and
jalapeno. I didn't have the jalapeno, so I used canned chipotle peppers.
This paste sits on the meat for no more than an hour before being scraped off.
The meat is then dusted lightly with salt, pepper, and sugar, then browned on
all sides until well-browned and medium rare in the center. And please trust
me; flank steak does not eat well if it is cooked more than a little past
medium rare. The steak is then sliced across the grain as thin as possible, as
all flank steak should be, then tossed with a small amount of reserved cilantro
paste, lime juice, and additional salt and pepper, if needed. Serve the meat
in warm corn or flour tortillas with your favorite toppings and fillings, and
you're in business. Our friends commented that it kicked the pants off the
carne asada they often buy already prepared in the store, and since Emily's
friend has a lot of major food issues, that comes as quite a compliment.
The other fun food happening lately came on Valentine's Day when Emily
kicked me out of the kitchen for the afternoon and made perhaps the best beef
teriyaki I have ever had, served with jasmine rice and steamed assparagus.
Emily has come a long way since we were first married almost four and a half
years ago.
As to the next menu plan I am drawing up, the new recipes I intend to try
are a Buffalo chicken salad and a taco salad, both of which come from my "30
Minute Recipes" book. I also found an interesting recipe on the King Arthur
Flour website for what they call pull-apart pizza bread. It sounds essentially
like monkey bread, except the dough is a typical pizza dough, and any toppings
are mixed in with the balls of dough. I am looking forward to trying that one
soon. Another new recipe that I have not yet made is one I caught on the
"Cooks' Country" TV show several weeks ago for a whole roasted chicken made in
the skillet, and stuffing that is cooked outside the bird in the same skillet.
It looked and sounded great, but I have not yet made the bread I will need to
make the stuffing.
I have also been trying new recipes from my two books for the slow cooker.
While most of them have been good, only one was a genuine disappointment. The
chicken with 40 cloves of garlic was a dismal failure. Chicken breasts, with
the skin and bones in tact, are browned lightly, then the skin is removed
before being placed in the slow cooker with a sauce which contains all the
garlic. I was suspicious of the idea of removing the skin, but went ahead and
did it anyway since I knew it would just get soggy in there anyway. In the
end, the meat was under-seasoned, overcooked, and the sauce was not up to par.
To date, the best recipe I have come across for chicken with 40 cloves of
garlic is the one Alton Brown made on his "Good Eats" show on garlic, except I
don't cook mine quite as long.
In other news: We got our Spring garden in last weekend, and most of what ;
was planted are herbs. I am only growing two basil plants this year as
compared with three last year, which was far more than even I could keep up
with. I also replanted the English thyme, lemon thyme, and sage. Newcomers
this year include taragon, mint, and lemon verbana, which has a
wonderfully-fragrant, lemony herbal aroma that aparrently works well in both
sweet and savery aplications. The only plants in our garden that are not herbs
are the jalapeno, which we tried a few years ago and had some success with, and
cherry tomatoes, which also did well for us a couple years back. Most
varieties of tomato plants do not do well here, but the cherry tomatoes seem to
be the one exception for us. The dill, parsley, and cilantro are all thriving,
and the only herbs to survive our gloomy but extremely-dry winter season. I am
looking forward to a bountiful harvest of all these plants in a couple months.
Heather is 22 months old today, and definitely has her Daddy wrapped
tightly around her little finger. Sleeping through the night is slowly
becoming the norm, even though she has been fighting a sore throat the last few
days. She has an easy-going, cheerful, affectionate, caring, and playful
personality that makes for lots of laughter and smiles and happy moments. She
loves bath time, walks around the neighborhood and exploring, anything having
to do with dogs, playing with other kids closer to her age, blocks, Legos, and
even helping me cook or do laundry. Her language skills are excellent and
continue to improve every day. Few things make her happier than jumping on the
bed or piggyback rides on Daddy's shoulders, and she loves to both tickle and
be tickled. The difficult moments become fewer each day as her communication
and my parenting improve. We always seem to have far more month at the end of
the money than we'd like, but all in all, life is good. I'm not crazy about
how early Spring has come this year and how very dry it has been, but at least
we're not into the really hot weather yet. If I manage to get any new videos
of Heather, I'll pass them along to anyone who is interested.
Please remember to share your recipe successes with us when they happen,
and let's keep the conversation going.
Jon
