I almost wimped out on my first official DB challenge. When they posted that it was going to be French bread I was OK with it. Until I read the 7 pages of instructions! Talk about time consuming. But this last weekend was a big storm and pretty much all of town was hunkering down at their homes expecting huge winds, lots of rain, cold, and power outages. I decided it was a cooking weekend. I made the chili, the chess pie, the cheese bread, and for the cheese bread I used.... the DB French bread.

Putting together the recipe was not that big of a deal. The big deal was the waiting for the triple rises of the bread dough and the fact that my house is cold. The first rise takes at least three hours. Half way through I realized my cold house wasn't cutting it. I did one of the alternatives and plopped the bowl on top of a heating pad and that made all the difference.

The second rise was just the same, except it was during this time that I had read about the online PBS videos showing how to make the bread. Wish I had seen it earlier. It showed how much I should have kneaded the bread and manipulated it to get the best gluten and yeast action. Oh well - at least my bread was rising.

Finally I cut my dough to make two batards and then they had to rise. But I faced a cold kitchen and they didn't budge. So I grabbed a space heater and pointed it at the loaves and that helped.

So you can see my final product above - the better of my two batards. (I wish I could take nicer pictures like other blogs, but I have crappy lighting in my house and end up with flash pictures.) It was a good challenge because I had never made bread from scratch before. But the likelihood of me doing it again when it is so easy to buy a loaf from Il Fornaio? Highly unlikely.

The DB challenges are done by the order you sign up. At that rate it will be 2015 before I get to choose the challenge. But I already know what I want to do, a Filipino dessert. Not telling what it is - but it would be a great challenge for everyone.

The recipe for the challenge is at The Sour Dough.

Most people eat cornbread with their chili. My family was not into cornbread. When I grew up, mom made broiled cheesey onion bread. Now, of course, it's the only way I can really enjoy my chili.

1/2 c mayonnaise
1 onion, chopped
2 t Worcestershire Sauce
1/3 c parmesan cheese, grated
1 loaf of french bread

Mix all ingredients together. Turn on oven broiler. Slice bread in half lengthwise. Spread mixture onto both sides of bread. Place bread, spread side up, onto baking sheet and place a couple of inches under broiler. Broil until bread is bubbly, dark golden brown. Remove. Let cool slightly. Slice carefully with serrated bread knife. Enjoy!

I've always taken the easy route of using chili mixes. This recipe has intrigued me for some time because of the variety of ingredients - coffee, beer, wasabi, etc. The longest part of this recipe was running around getting the ingredients. I don't drink coffee, so I bought a cup at the corner store. I don't drink alcohol and the stores were not letting me buy a single bottle of dark beer. I ended up using Celebration Ale that someone had left at my house. I had to go to two stores to get the three kinds of peppers. I was also leery of the amount of chilis in it. I put in 1.5 Anaheim, the Habanero, and half of the Serrano and tasted it. It seemed pretty spicy, so I left out the other halves. At the end though, I probably could have/should have left them in. After simmering all day in the crockpot, the flavors had really blended together and mellowed out. I don't have palate able to really pull apart flavors, so I cannot say that I tasted one thing or another, like some people have in the allrecipes.com reviews. I did use 2 cans of pintos and 1 of kidney because I prefer the pintos. I also drained the beans because I wanted a thicker consistency and didn't want to add more liquid. All in all it was a nice chili - well flavored, nice consistency, great ratio of beans/meat. Is it great enough for me to make this much effort vs. the chili mixes? Don't think so.

from allrecipes.com
Washabinaros Chili
Submitted by: Aaron Christophersen
Rated: 5 out of 5 by 95 members Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 3 Hours Ready In: 3 Hours 20 Minutes

INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons vegetable oil,
divided
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
3/4 pound spicy Italian sausage, casing removed
1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes with juice
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle dark beer
1 cup strong brewed coffee
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (14 ounce) can beef broth
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon wasabi paste
3 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans
2 Anaheim chile peppers, chopped
1 serrano pepper, chopped
1 habanero pepper, sliced

1. Place 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pot and place the pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onions, garlic, beef and sausage until meats are browned. Pour in the tomatoes, beer, coffee, tomato paste and broth. Season with chili powder, cumin, sugar, oregano, cayenne, coriander, salt and wasabi. Stir in one can of beans, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer.
2. In a large skillet over medium heat, heat remaining oil. Cook Anaheim, serrano and habanero peppers in oil until just tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir into the pot and simmer 2 hours.
3. Stir in remaining 2 cans of beans and cook 45 minutes more.

Today was the final class of the Wilton I classes. We finished learning to do roses and then ribbons and leaves. Not really into writing much tonite, so I'll just add the pictures. Above is m final cake. As you can see below, some people did a lot more homework than me. LOL

This month's Sacramento Epicureans' dinner was Peruvian at Koricancha Restaurant (also named Waffle King) at 2751 Fulton Avenue. For some weird reason this restaurant moonlights as a breakfast waffle house and then a Peruvian restaurant. Whatever. Anyway, the group was large and the $22 feast was quite a deal of authentic Peruvian cuisine - in stark contrast to the nouveau Peruvian I had in Portland last month.

We sat down to a waiting beverage. Chicha Morada (non alcoholic) is prepared from a base of boiled purple maize to which is added chunks of pineapple, sugar, and ice - or so the description says. I didn't see any chunks of pineapple in it. They followed this with an aperitif called Pisco Sour Cocktail. A traditional cocktail which contains Pisco (a regional brandy), lemon juice, egg whites, simple syrup, and regional bitters. I don't drink alcohol, but Paul, the Epicureans host, said it was delicious and kind of eggnoggy.

Appetizers came out next. First were Chicharroncitos de Pescado al Limón - small pieces of fried fish served in a lemon sauce. These were very light and flavorful. Some people chose to dip them in a very hot sauce that was on the tables. It was a very powerful sauce where a 'little dab'l do ya'.

Ocopa was next. Sliced boiled and sliced yellow potatoes covered with a sauce of yellow chili, milk, walnuts, fresh cheese and huacatay. These descriptions were supplied to us, but I did not see or taste any walnuts or cheese, so it must be a very minor blended ingredient.

Everyone's favorite was the Cebiche de Pescado - fresh raw fish, marinated in lime juice and aji limo, served with lettuce, Peruvian corn and julienne red onions. I'm not a fan of Mexican ceviche, but this Peruvian version was delicious. Paul tried to get seconds, with no luck.

Tamalito Verde was a cilantro seasoned tamale with beef inside. We were lucky to sit next to non-beef eaters. More for us! Again, I'm not a fan of tamales, but these were different and good.

Main courses were next. We were given white rice with a few peas and carrots mixed in. Then came the Aji de gallina - shredded chicken cooked in a yellow chilli sauce, marinated in bread crumbs, milk, parmesan cheese and nuts. We all joked that this dish reminded us of chicken ala king. We just needed a piece of toast to spoon it over.



Seco De Carne - beef, simmered in a fresh cilantro sauce. This was basically a stewed beef.



The Carapulca de cerdo was a traditional Inca Peruvian dish. Dried potatoes, pork meat with a special red panca pepper, peanuts and red wine.


The Cau Cau was the least favorite of everyone. Fresh beef tripe, cooked in a Peruvian yellow chili mixed with potatoes,and chef's spices. It was something I would never order, but I tasted it. Not for me. It was very acidic.





The dessert was Mazamorra Morada - jelly-like dessert which takes on the color of one of its main ingredients—purple maize. I had expected, from the description, a kind of cold jello. Instead it was a warm thick liquid with chunks of maize? in it and a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. Different, but tasty.

I enjoyed the event, as I always do. Will I go back again on my own? Probably not. But I may go back for breakfast.

Today is very hard for me. I had to put my 19.5 year old cat to sleep. I had thought she'd make it to 20, but I couldn't bring myself to make her push it.

She's been eating healthily and moving about great with no pain, just a little arthritis and she was blind. Everyone who saw her never believed she was near 20. She was even still able to jump up to my high bed only a year ago. But last month she started going to the bathroom around the house. I took her to the vet and spent a lot of money on tests. They said she had hyper thyroid and probably a urinary infection. After giving her medicine she seemed to improve in that she was at least going in the laundry room, but not getting in her box. But lately she's been peeing around the house again and I decided the meds weren't working. I spent the afternoon with her and gave her some salmon as her last meal. She loved that. It was then that I saw just how blind she'd become. She could smell the salmon and was all over her food area, even stepping in the bowl. But she just couldn't find the bowl under her nose. That pretty much cemented that it was the right time.

This last picture of her was taken today.




I've never experienced death before of any loved person or pet. All my other pets either disappeared or died when I was out of town and my parents handled it. Plus I had TPaw the longest - basically all the years I've been in Sacramento. I even had her longer than I knew Deon (ex-husband), who I met that same summer.

Her litter had a lot of defects - extra toes, etc. I asked for one of those because it made her special. She had big paws from the toes and so I named her TPaw after the toes and Star Trek. In the classic Trek episode "Amok Time", all the women on the planet Vulcan had TP.... names, like TPring. In fact, the matriarch on the episode was named TPau. And so that's where her name is from.

She was a bitchy cat in her younger days and very independent. Pets really are like their owners - LOL. In our first house our bedroom window was about 5.5 feet off the ground. If we didn't let her in each night, she would jump up outside and pound the window until we let her in. We got another cat because I thought she needed company. But in the end, she was more content as a solo cat and was much happier after the divorce and her own home. As she aged she got much friendlier and lovey. She lived the latter half of her life indoors.


I took her in and held her to the end. I had to go through with it til the end. Of course, I was bawling - and still am. It was pretty simple and fast.

So here is to TPaw. You were a good cat, hardly ever had to go the vet, and a very longtime companion. I love you and will miss you.






Thank you to Wayne Ward for taking our pictures last fall.

This week we could bring a cake or cupcakes to class. I decided to take the MLK holiday to make my cakes and a new batch of icing. Last week I also had decided that mixing up all this frosting stinks. So I went to Cake Castle and bought a gallon of pre-made frosting just for icing the cakes. The batches I make I will use for the decorating.

I bought my mixes at Food Source and saw that they have some new mixes out with Splenda. When you think about all the sugar I'm about to put on top in the form of frosting, it only made sense to cut some of it out of the cakes. Besides, I wanted to see how it tasted. So I made my dozen cupcakes and had some left over batter from the first batch. I decided to mix another box up and combine them so that I could make two thicker cake layers, thus having two cakes for the last two classes. Then I frosted the cupcakes and one of the layer cakes for this week's class. I did a much better job of frosting the cake this week - much smoother and flatter.

Tonite's class demonstrated a couple more techniques for flowers, and rounded shapes. You were supposed to make clowns too, but I opted to skip that part. Here Yvette works on her clowns and then this is a cake from one of the other women.






















My photo (up top) doesn't show the yellow details. I tried the two different flower shapes we learned and some leaves. I did a bunch of different things on the cupcakes.

Next week we learn to make roses. Then Course II will probably start the week after that.

Everyone has always said that cake decorating class is fun. So when it was on sale for half price at Joann's, I signed up. The first class was an overview and showing us how to ice our cakes and fill a bag. Today was our first hands on class. But first I had to make an ice a cake. The instructor had said the buttercream icing would last for the course. Who was she kidding? It was only enough for this cake. And buttercream icing doesn't have any butter in it. It's Crisco, water, and powdered sugar - that's it! Luckily I've never been an icing person anyway. I'm a scraper.

My next challenge was the whole thing of not getting crumbs in my frosting and make it nice and flat and bumpless. As you can see, I didn't get it as smooth as I wanted to, but I figured - hey, it's my first attempt.


Today's class was learning to do stars, dots, and writing. Some people brought character cakes to work on or you could do a rainbow design. I wasn't concerned about some beautiful finished product at this point. I just want to get the techniques down first.

Here you can see Tami working on her teddy bear cake. And below is the finished cake.


I'll continue documenting my experiences over the next weeks.

In January there are a group of downtown restaurants who participate in Dine Out Sacramento. For $30 you get a 3-course meal. All of the restaurants sell out. I was able to get the Dining Group a reservation for 12 at Spataro's. Unfortunately it dwindled to 10 and then we had 3 no-shows. (It should be noted that flakers are at jeopardy of being kicked out of the group.) But the seven that were left ate very well. Unfortunately I forgot my camera. Sigh. Here were our choices:

FIRST COURSE:
BLOOMSDALE SPINACH SALAD WITH TANGERINES, BEETS, FENNEL, ALMONDS
or
TUSCAN KALE, VEGETABLE, AND BREAD SOUP WITH NEW PRESS OLIVE OIL

SECOND COURSE:
BRAISED NIMAN RANCH PORK SHOULDER WITH BALSAMIC ONIONS, ESCAROLE,
MASHED POTATOES
OR
TAGLIATELLE WITH FRESH MAINE SWEET SHRIMP, PARSLEY, MEYER LEMON, GARLIC

DESSERT:
QUINCE AND APPLE CROSTATA WITH CHESTNUT HONEY GELATO
or
BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH WHIPPED CREAM AND CARAMEL

Because Dean was with me, we decided we would just select both selections from each group and split them. This was a great decision. The salad was light and fresh with a citrusy dressing. The soup was our only disappointment of the meal. It arrived only warm and was not all that flavorful. I make a Tuscan Ribollita soup every summer with veggies and bread and it is so much better than this version.

Next came the main course. I started with the shrimp pasta. It looked very simple and had the small shrimp in it. But it was delicious. The pasta was homemade and it was tossed with a nice, light sauce. I could have eaten it all but we had to switch. This was a bit difficult because Dean didn't want to give up his pork dish. I finally snagged it and found out why. The caramelized onions were so flavorful! The pork was tender and flaky. There was the creamy mashed potatoes and crunch of the escarole. We enjoyed it.

Last was dessert. I saved chocolate for last. The apple crostata had a nice crust. But the chocolate was oh so much better - because it's chocolate!

We had a lovely time and thought of some future dining events for the next couple of months. I definitely felt we got a great $30 deal.