Recently I was blog hopping and came across this dessert. I had never heard of semolina pudding before and the combination of blood orange and ginger intrigued me. In fact, I highly recommend you read the blog I got it from because she goes into how she got this combo of flavors together and has tried it in different recipes. It's blood orange season right now, so I figured I should do it before they were gone. I also happened to have a small amount of extra semolina lying around.

One thing you'll see in Linda's blog is a much nicer picture/presentation. I had poured my pudding into my PC prep bowls and could not flip one out so that it kept its shape. So I left the other three in the bowls and put the sauce on top.



The oranges I got were very red and delicious. They were also very small. I had gone to the farmers' market on Sunday and found only one person who was selling at $3/lb! And his oranges turned out awful. Later in the day we had gone up to Ikeda's in Auburn and they had them for 69 cents/lb. I got a bag of these small beauties and they were so much better. I had hoped, though, to get a couple that weren't absolutely red. I really love the look of blood orange sections when they have a kind of bleed from light orange through to the dark red 'kernels' (is that the right word?).

The pudding itself was a new texture experience. Semolina flour is a grainier than baking flour, so the pudding had the slight grainy texture. But it was not unpleasant. The pudding itself had a very subtle flavoring of the orange/ginger. I definitely enjoyed it better with the tart sauce with each spoonful.

I later researched semolina pudding on the internet and saw many other flavor variations. I think I will be trying some of them in the future.



Blood Orange/Ginger Semolina Pudding

400 ml (1 ⅔ cup) milk
100 ml (3 ⅓ fl oz) whipping cream
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
1 tbs (blood) orange zest
50 g (1 ¾ oz) semolina
40 g (1 ⅓ oz) sugar + extra
6 cut out blood orange segments

Heat the milk, cream, ginger and orange zest until nearly boiling. Turn off the heat and let it steep for 15 minutes. Strain the milk and cream mixture and fill it up with milk until you have 500 ml in total.
Mix the semolina and sugar. Add the mixture to the hot milk whilst stirring. Bring to a boil and allow to cook. Cook and stir for 3-5 minutes. Rinse a non-stick muffin pan with cold water and pour the mixture in 6 of the cups. Sprinkle with sugar to prevent the forming of a crust. Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill in the fridge for a few hours.
Unmold each pudding by turning the pan upside down and massaging it in a circular motion. Let the pudding slide onto your hand and place it on a slighty wet soup plate. Correct the position if necessary. Place an orange segment on top. Pour blood orange sauce around it.

Blood orange sauce

225 ml (1 cup) blood orange juice
25 ml (1 tbs + 2 ts) lemon juice
1 tbs ginger syrup
5-10 g (¼ oz) potato starch

Bring the blood orange juice, lemon juice and ginger syrup to a boil. Mix the potato starch with a little bit of water until lump free.
Add the potato starch water mix to the juice whilst stirring. Allow to cook for 1 minute. Allow the sauce to cool down completely, stirring occasionally.


Blood Orange

Cleaning up my archives, I found this old post (2008) and decided to repost because I had forgotten about it and need to remake them myself. I love looking at other food blogs and discovering new things. I stumbled across hoddeoks at My Korean Kitchen. Hoddeoks are Korean street food, pancakes with a brown sugar/cinnamon filling. They looked interesting and easy, so I figured I'd give them a try. Tips for next time: more filling, try chocolate shavings.


Ingredients for 6 pancakes


* All purpose white flour - 1¼ cups
* Salt - 1/4 tsp
* Milk - 90 ml (6 tbsp)


Fermented yeast water (mix these well in bowl 1)


* Warm water (40℃) - 45 ml (3 tbsp)
* White sugar - 1/4 tsp
* Dry yeast- 1/4 tsp


Stuffing (mix these well in bowl 2)


* Cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
* Crushed walnuts- 2 tbsp (you can use peanuts instead, but I prefer walnuts)
* Dark brown sugar - 90 ml (6 tbsp)


Leave the mix of fermented yeast water in a warm place (30-40 ℃) for 10 minutes. Add the flour, salt, and milk. Mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for two hours.





Oil your hands and then split the dough into six equal parts. Take one and flatten it into a pancake in your hand. Put a spoonful of filling in the center and then seal the dough around it.





Heat a skillet with a little oil. Place a pancake in and flatten with a spatula.





Brown both sides and serve. Here is a cut one to show you the inside. The brown sugar should be melted in the center. Yum.

I decided that it was the perfect time to try my hand at a baked cheesecake. I had the wine/cheese party (above) coming up and I certainly didn't need an entire cheesecake in my frig. Although I would love every bite, I'm sure my scale would not. So here was my chance to bake one and share it for an event.

I chose a raspberry cheesecake recipe from Cooking Pleasures magazine. It was pretty easy, although I didn't have any raspberry jam. I cheated and put a bit of black currant jam on the bottom - which didn't spread well. So then I gave that up and just poured the cheese mixture on top. I paid attention to every cheesecake tip sheet out there and took it out of the oven when it was still a little jiggly. I'm proud to say it came out perfectly and was a hit.

Raspberry Cheesecake

CRUST
1 (5.3-oz.) pkg. pure butter shortbread cookies, crushed (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup raspberry preserves, melted

CHEESECAKE
1 (10-oz.) pkg. frozen raspberries, thawed
3 (8-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 eggs

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Wrap outside of 9-inch springform pan with heavy-duty foil. Combine crushed cookies and melted butter in small bowl; press into bottom of pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until slightly darker in color. Cool slightly; gently spread preserves over crust.

2. Puree thawed raspberries in food processor or blender until smooth. Strain through medium strainer, pressing with spatula to remove seeds. Reserve 1/2 cup puree. (Save remaining puree for another use.)

3. Beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter at medium-low speed until smooth. Beat in sugar and flour just until blended. Beat in sour cream, reserved raspberry puree and lemon juice. Beat in eggs one at a time. Pour over crust.

4. Place springform pan in large shallow pan. Add enough hot tap water to come halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until edges are puffed and top is dry to the touch. Center should move slightly when pan is tapped but should not ripple as if liquid. Remove cake from water bath; remove foil. Cool completely on wire rack. Refrigerate overnight.

5. Garnish with raspberries. Store in refrigerator.

16 servings

I got this recipe on allrecipes.com and it's another 5 star winner. It is SOOOOOOO EAAASSSY and delicious. Nice and smooth and creamy and flavorful. I put some candied peel on top for decoration.

3 cups heavy cream
1 cup white sugar
3 lemons, juiced
1 T lemon zest
3 T additional heavy cream for topping (optional)

In a saucepan, stir together 3 cups of cream and sugar. Bring to a boil, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. Pour into serving glasses, and refrigerate until set, about 5 hours. Pour a little more cream over the tops just before serving.


Lemon

Dutch baby fresh from the oven

Oregon has a lot of pie houses and pancake houses. Near my college in Portland there was an Original Pancake House that had hour-long waits on the weekends. One of the items they were known for was their Dutch Babies. Thing is, DBs take at least 20 minutes to bake, so if you ordered them, you had to be patient. You were then rewarded with this glorious pancake puff.

I soon learned to make them myself. They only have 3 real ingredients. I like to eat them with a lot of powdered sugar and fresh-squeezed lemon juice on them. So they are a great Sunday breakfast to have with my crazy lemon tree in season. The size here is good for two people. If you have a large enough pan/pot, you can increase by an egg and 1/4 c of each item at a time.

2 T. butter
4 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. flour

The butter is just to grease your pan. You need a souffle or stoneware bowl for a good baby to climb up the sides. But I've read that some people use a cast iron skillet and I've used my stoneware square pan, like I did for this one. Again, the higher the sides, the more dramatic the climb of your baby. Anyway, heat your oven to 425 degrees and put your pan in with the butter as it heats. The butter will melt in your pan.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl. Beat in the milk, and then beat in the flour. When your oven, pan, and butter are hot, open the oven and quickly rotate your pan so that the butter is evenly melted around the bottom and a bit up the sides. Immediately pour your batter into the hot pan and close the oven.

Dutch baby, add lemon juice and powdered sugar

Let the baby cook for about 15 minutes. It's a kind of souffle, so don't open the door! You'll see it start to climb the sides. After about 15 minutes you can turn the heat down to about 365 to finish it off. The full cooking time is only going to be about 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve right away. Dust heavily with powdered sugar and then use the topping of your choice. Some people like jam or syrup, but I just like the lemon juice. Enjoy!

This stew is fab! Especially if you sprinkle the feta cheese and mint on top before you eat it. I'm sure it would be even better if you added the wine, but since I don't drink, I don't have wines sitting around my house to add to cooking. This time I did the stovetop bits and then transferred everything to the crockpot for the day. I would suggest doubling it because we chowed and finished it all between the two of us!

Greek-style Lamb Stew

2 lb lamb stew meat in 3/4 inch cubes
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper
2 c reduced sodium beef broth
2 t olive oil
3/4 c chopped onion
3/4 c chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c red wine or additional broth
3/4 c canned diced tomatoes
1/4 c tomato paste
1 t fennel seeds
1/2 t cinnamon
1 T flour

Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick skillet on medium high until hot. Add lamb in two batches, cooking until browned, stirring frequently. After each batch, add 1/4 c of broth to skillet to deglaze. Transfer lamb and liquid to a heavy medium pot.

Now add oil to skillet and heat til hot. Add onion and celery and cook until tender, stirring occassionally. Add garlic and cood for 30 seconds. Add wine. Bring to a boil, deglazing pan.

Transfer onion mixture to lamb pot along with rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat. In a small bowl whisk together flour and 1 T of broth. Whisk into stew to thicken. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until lamb is tender.

Serve with crumbled feta and chopped mint on top of bowls.


Lamb

Repost for Unprocessed month. Why not make your own power bar instead of buying Cliff and Luna's which have additives?



On my quest to find healthy but quick breakfast options, I got the below recipe for Power Bars from good ol allrecipes.com. I would recommend you DOUBLE the recipe because it either spreads really thin, or will only fill half your pan. I ate a square an hour before my spin class and I think it really helped. It was a 70 minute class and I needed every bit of energy.






Cook Time: 30 Minutes Ready In: 40 Minutes
Yields: 12 servings
"These power bars are delicious and much more nutritious than most granola bars. They are very filling, too. Instead of using dried mixed fruit, feel free to substitute any of your favorite dried fruits. Same goes for the nuts."

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat and barley nugget cereal
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 (7 ounce) bag chopped dried mixed fruit

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, flour, cereal, and cinnamon. Add the egg, applesauce, honey, brown sugar, and oil. Mix well. Stir in the sunflower seeds, walnuts, and dried fruit. Spread mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
3. Bake 30 minutes, or until firm and lightly browned around the edges. Let cool. Use the foil to lift from the pan. Cut into bars or squares, and store in the refrigerator.

Repost from archive

Update 10/08: Attention diabetics! I made this recently with stevia! For those that don't know, stevia is a natural plant product that is molecularly structured so that it doesn't enter the bloodstream and mess with your blood sugar levels. I substituted 1/4 cup of stevia for the 1/3 cup of sugar. Also, because this is flourless, you don't get the blood sugar change from the carby flour either!

Today I tried a new recipe and it was a hit. Chestnut Chocolate Truffle Cake - flourless. I was especially thrilled because my best friend's sister is a 5 star pastry chef and she declared it delicious. The recipe, below, is European and in metric. But I've supplied the American equivalents next to it.



Another important aspect is the chestnut piece. You'll see that it is labor intensive with roasting and boiling fresh chestnuts. But my Romanian coworker saved the day. She told me of a European market that sold the chestnut puree in a jar (Marconi and Fair Oaks Blvd.)! Now I can make this cake any time!

The texture of this cake is really light and smooth. And with the chestnut puree, it is a very easy recipe.

REPOST


I got this recipe from allrecipes.com and it is great! So easy to do and faster. I have my own lemon tree and so I'm always looking for things to do with the lemons. I make candied peel also. Anyway, I took the candied peel and made great biscotti with bits of it in it. Then serve those with this lemon curd. Yum!

1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 cup fresh lemon juice
3 lemons, zested
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter. Cook in the microwave for one minute intervals, stirring after each minute until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the microwave, and pour into small sterile jars. Store for up to three weeks in the refrigerator.
Tip: If you over cook the mixture a little, or forget to stir, you can pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the bits of cooked egg.


Lemon

This is a repost of the original article/recipe with a new update of making it gluten-free.

As I delve into gluten-free baking, I've started with perhaps the most adaptable recipe to play with - brownies. I think they lend themselves so well to gluten-free baking because they don't call for much flour at all - only one cup.

So if you choose to do the GF version, instead of the cup of flour, mix together 3/4 cup potato starch, 1/4 cup tapioca starch, 1 cup rice flour, and 1 teaspoon of xanthum gum. This will make two cups. Use only one cup for the brownie recipe (equal 1-1 substitution) and save the other cup for next time.

They taste and feel exactly the same as the original recipe. Enjoy.

Original post:

There are two important elements involved in this recipe. First is that I took a brownie recipe from Cooks Illustrated and then altered it by adding kahlua. I figured if alcohol keeps cakes nice and moist, surely it would do that for brownies. Second, I've sold Pampered Chef for over 10 years and am a true believer in Stoneware and love the fact that you can cook in the microwave with it. But even though I tend to make these brownies in the microwave because I'm impatient, you can bake them in the regular oven if you want. I like a fudgy, moist brownie versus a cakey brownie, so the microwave does that great.

This is what I say at shows to demonstrate the benefits of Stoneware:

How many times have you made a brownie in a metal or glass pan and when the timer rings you open the oven door to find a brownie cooked around the edges, but still goopy in the middle? Then you add another 5 or so minutes, check it again, and do the finger test - touch the center to see if it is set. You pull it out and you look at it and you have a sinkhole brownie. The edges are higher up, but the center is sunken in. That's because metal and glass cook from the outer edges in. Stoneware cooks evenly throughout so that when that timer rings and you open the door you have a perfectly cooked brownie, even across the pan - no sinkhole! Also, those sinkhole brownies might have a nicely cooked center, but those edges are dry, crunchy, overcooked. Because a stoneware brownie is evenly cooked, you don't have to worry about that. Martha Stewart once said she cuts the edges off and then uses them for ice cream sundae toppings. Whatever! I'd rather have beautifully baked, moist, chewy brownies I can proudly take to the office!

Catherine's Kahlua Brownies

5 oz of semisweet chocolate
2 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate
1 stick butter
3 T cocoa
3 large eggs
1 1/4 c sugar
2 t vanilla
1 c flour
1/3 c kahlua
walnuts - optional

Spray a Stoneware Square Baker with oil (I prefer Bakers Joy spray). Set aside. Melt the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate with the butter in the microwave set on low. Blend until smooth. Add cocoa. Let cool slightly. In large bowl mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, and kahlua. Add cooled chocolate mixture and mix well. Stir in flour. Add walnuts if desired. Pour into baker and level off. Bake on high in microwave for 7-8 minutes or bake in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes. Toothpick should come out with a small amount of sticky crumbs on it. Cool on rack.

You gotta love when you go to the sale table at the bookstore and find a great deal. I got a nice cookbook that included recipes from Spain, the Mideast, and Africa for just $5. Big and full of pictures. It had a recipe for apricot bundles that I had to alter for size.

With apricots at their peak right now, this is a great recipe and super easy.


Apricot Bundles

6 apricots, halved and pitted
1/2 c almond meal
1/4 c sugar
1 T rose water
4 sheets of phyllo dough cut into squares
honey

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, mix together the almond meal, sugar, and rosewater to create a paste. Take a tablespoon of the paste and sandwich it in the middle of two apricot halves. Place a filled apricot in the center of a phyllo square and pinch/twist the ends together to create a boat around the apricot. Place on a baking sheet. Drizzle the bundles with honey. Bake bundles for 20 minutes. Serve hot with ice cream.


Apricot

Flan is one of those recipes that is really very easy, but I had never bothered to make it. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com and liked that it had the addition of coconut. It also used a combination of sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk. It came out very good, although I'm not sure I'm liking having coconut in my flan.

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1/2 cup milk
6 eggs
1/2 cup fresh shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook gently, without stirring, but shaking occasionally until the sugar has melted. Continue cooking until the sugar has completely melted, and turned golden brown. Pour into a large, glass baking dish. Spread the caramel evenly over the bottom of the dish, then set aside to cool for 15 minutes before proceeding.
3. Once the caramel has hardened, pour the condensed milk, evaporated milk, milk, eggs, and coconut into a blender. Blend for 3 minutes until smooth. Pour into baking dish over the caramel.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes until set. When done, remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the dish to separate the flan from the sides. Refrigerate overnight.


Coconut Milk

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.

They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

"SO, what is a French Yule Log and how is it different from a Buche de Noel that most people are familiar with?

In France you can buy two kinds of Yule log, either the Genoise and Buttercream type that most people are familiar with as Buche de Noel, or, what is more commonly purchased, which is a frozen Yule Log very reminiscent of an ice cream cake, only often it’s not made of ice cream but rather frozen mousse of some sort. In French this is called an entremets which is sometimes loosely translated in English as simply a cream dessert. This also means that this recipe is not holiday-specific, it is also just a scrumptious dessert recipe."

This challenge was supposed to be done as a log, but I did not have the pan and so I did mine as a round cake. The picture above, though, illustrates all the different elements that were required in this cake. I chose to make mine with a vanilla mousse to cut down on the chocolate overload and I made the dacquoise layer with coconut, which I am really glad about because it really gave it extra umph.

I took the cake to my BFF's. They were having a combo birthday for her father (70) and brother-in-law (40), thus the 'Happy Birthday'. It was also my first time playing with gold leaf. Since I wasn't too happy with the gold leaf I kinda wished I had left it off. But people commented on the extra touch. The chocolate cookies I used to ring the outside were some wafer cookies that I had received from a gift exchange. Because my sides were uneven they seemed the perfect solution to tidy up the whole cake and embellish it at the same time.



Here I show you my coconut dacquoise layer which is made with almond flour and egg whites. It's like a meringue.



This is the praline feuillette. Basically you bake a gavotte which is a crispy, flaky pastry. You crush this up. Then I grated up some of my leftover hazelnut praline from a few months ago. Take both these and mix them with melted chocolate and then press into a wafer.



Here you can see the interior of my dessert.

The good and the bad of this recipe? First, I don't think I will make it again. It wasn't hard overall, but it still took two days with all the different elements. Plus, I wasn't all that impressed with it. It was just OK. I chose a vanilla mousse to cut down on the chocolate, but the recipe given to us was really thick and clumpy and not my idea of 'mousse'. My praline feuillete was too thick and difficult to cut through. I had never used gelatin before and the instructions in the recipes were very unclear on just how much water to use to soften it. And I would just make a ganache as the final icing instead of the icing recipes that were given to us.

Still, everyone oo'ed and ahh'ed over it when it came out and were excited to try it. Compliments were nice enough as well, but it boils down to how did I feel about it... Just OK.

I stumbled across this recipe for making homemade poppycock. Some people know it as caramel corn, or the brand names of Crunch n Munch or Moose Munch. I popped the popcorn in the microwave in my Pampered Chef Batter Bowl with lid. Then I mixed it with peanuts and homemade caramel. You can put whatever kind of nuts you like. The recipe is not hard, just messy trying to mix it in a pan that's large enough. Because of the mess factor I'm not sure I will make it again. Taste-wise, though, it's great.

from Allrecipes.com

2 1/2 cups unpopped popcorn
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil for frying
1 cup peanuts
1 cup butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. In a 4-quart pan, add 1 tablespoon of the oil , and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add 1/2 cup of popping corn. Keep pan moving constantly. When corn stops popping, remove from heat. Spread freshly popped corn on a large shallow sheet pan. Put it in a very slow oven, 250 degrees F (120 degrees C), to keep warm and crisp. Place popped corn in oven to keep warm. Repeat until all corn has been popped, for a total of 5 quarts popped corn.

2. Cook and stir peanuts in 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine, about 5 minutes. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Fold peanuts into popped corn.

3. Combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a heavy 2 quart saucepan. Place over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Continue to boil to the firm ball stage, 248 degrees F (118 degrees C), about 5 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Syrup will foam. Take popped corn from oven and pour hot caramel mixture over it in a fine stream. Stir to mix well. Return to oven for 45 to 50 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Cool and serve, or store. Store in an airtight container and set in a cool place.

I know. Thanksgiving was last week. But I didn't have any pumpkin pie! I went to my ex in-laws and their pumpkin pie isn't the same because they make it lactose free - with orange juice. I was requested to make it since we didn't get any and I had been wanting to try out the recipe from Cook's Illustrated.

I love Cook's Illustrated and Good Eats because they get into the science of cooking and why this works better than that, etc. Cooks will make hundreds of versions of a recipe until they get what they consider to be the perfect recipe. The current issue had a recipe for pumpkin pie. Because it is a copyright issue, I can only steer you to it.

Their version has distinct differences. First, they throw in a can of candied yams along with the can of pumpkin puree. Second, they cook the spices and the pumpkin/yam mixture on the stovetop in order to enhance the spices and reduce the moisture content. Lastly, they cook at 400 degrees and then reduce to 300 so that the custardy filling will not curdle.

I really like it and recommend it. It's not that much extra work compared to a regular recipe. I didn't even bother with one step where you are supposed to push the pumpkin mixture through a sieve to get rid of lumps. Anyway, grab the current issue before it leaves store shelves so that you can make it for Christmas.

First, I'll explain the picture. I made these lamb meatballs and then packaged them all up for work lunches before I remembered that I needed pictures for the blog. Thus, the not so attractive presentation.

This recipe comes from the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. I liked it, but think it could use a bit more bite. BUT>>>> it might be because I had to do a workaround. It calls for ground cumin and I only had cumin seed. They are too little to put in my mini food processor and I don't own a mortar and pestle. (Note to self to get one now!) Veena suggested that I try crushing them on my granite countertop. She had me roast them in a pan for a couple of minutes first and then we put them on the counter. I remembered I had my Pampered Chef meat tenderizer.



This tenderizer is reversible and so I had it on the flat size and used that to mash the seeds as best I could. But it still wasn't a great solution. Suffice it to say, I went to the store a couple of days later and bought ground cumin.

All in all the meatballs were tasty. I did leave out the flour coating and I ended up baking them on my stone versus cooking them on the stovetop. I also made sure I got European style yogurt, which is zingier than the American stuff. I put lots of mint in the yogurt and really enjoyed it. I also no longer cook rice at home and so I served them with quinoa.


Lamb

My best friend was throwing a 40th birthday party for a friend. The friend wanted a fruit basket birthday cake. Dari has been impressed with my baking projects of late. She decided to ask me to make the cake instead of ordering one from a bakery. My first official commission.



I made the Picture Perfect Party Cake again since it was perfect for the request. The party was going to be large and I was concerned about the cake not being enough for everyone. I made a second batch and made mini-cakes instead. One thing was different between the two batches. I used cake flour for the cake and regular, all-purpose flour for the mini-cakes. Interestingly, the people who tried both cakes actually commented on the difference between them. They felt that the mini-cakes were denser and more biscuit-like. The frosting was the Swiss buttercream recipe from last month's challenge. You'll find it below.


The birthday girl was thrilled and I got plenty of compliments once again.This cake really is a winner.

Swiss Buttercream


4 lg. egg whites

¾ cup sugar

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm

1 ½ -2 Tbsp. Rum
1 tsp. vanilla

Place the egg whites in a lg/ bowl of a electric mixer and beat with the whisk attachment until the whites are foamy and they begin to thicken (just before the soft peak stage). Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with about 2 inches of simmering water, making sure the bowl is not touching the water. Then, whisk in the sugar by adding 1-2 tablespoon of sugar at a time over a minutes time. Continue beating 2-3 minutes or until the whites are warm (about 120 degrees) and the sugar is dissolved. The mixture should look thick and like whipped marshmallows.
Remove from pan and with either the paddle or whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and sugar on med-high until its a thick, cool meringue – about 5-7 minutes. *Do not overbeat*. Set aside. 


Place the butter in a separate clean mixing bowl and, using the paddle attachment, cream the butter at medium speed for 40-60 seconds, or until smooth and creamy. *Do not overbeat or the butter will become toooooo soft.*


On med-low speed, blend the meringue into the butter, about 1-2 Tbsp. at a time, over 1 minute. Add the liqueur and vanilla and mix for 30-45 seconds longer, until thick and creamy.


Refrigerate 10-15 minutes before using.


Wait! My buttercream won’t come together! Reheat the buttercream briefly over simmering water for about 5 seconds, stirring with a wooden spoon. Be careful and do not overbeat. The mixture will look broken with some liquid at the bottom of the bowl. Return the bowl to the mixer and whip on medium speed just until the cream comes back together. 


Wait! My buttercream is too soft! Chill the buttercream in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes and rewhip. If that doesn’t work, cream an additional 2-4 Tbsp. of butter in a small bowl– making sure the butter is not as soft as the original amount, so make sure is cool and smooth. On low speed, quickly add the creamed butter to the buttercream, 1 Tbsp. at a time.


Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days, or can be frozen for up to 6 months. If freezing, store in 2 16-oz. plastic containers and thaw in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for several hours.