tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80982857610207758782024-02-18T20:16:23.535-08:00Living in Langley - Notes from an IslandGwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-82725147990333331672013-03-03T00:55:00.001-08:002013-03-03T00:55:26.980-08:00Not Just A Pretty Face<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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I adore all things British.
I came out as an Anglophile many years ago, back in the Princess Di
days. My Christmas china is from England. My
stove and pots and pans are from England. I even went there once. (Well, my plane touched down at Heathrow
briefly en route to Italy. Does that count?) I subscribe to British magazines and
fantasize about living in some quaintly picturesque English village where I'll
take tea every afternoon and use words like loo and nappy and jumper. I'll work in a charmingly cozy English
bookstore. I'll stroll through ambrosial
gardens in my wellies and know the name of every David Austin rose. These are the things I daydream about. What I do not daydream about is English food. I mean, why would I? What with their bland boiled cabbages, blood
puddings, and baked beans on toast, it's no wonder they spend all their time
drinking in pubs. They've had to make up delightfully vague
names like bubble & squeak and spotted dick and toad-in-the-hole to
distract people into thinking the food is edible. They can't even manage dessert. One word:
Fruitcake. Just saying.</div>
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Nope, absolutely no interest in British food. Which means no interest in British cookbooks. So when I say I've never met a cookbook I
didn't like, this does not apply to British cookbooks. They don't count. They don't even rate a mention on the cookbook
scale. Hence, when I bought a cookbook
stand for my English country kitchen, I was presented with a real dilemma. Obviously nothing but an English cookbook
would do. But any book that suggested
ruining a perfectly good steak by adding kidneys certainly was not worthy. And steak and kidney pie is pretty much in
every English cookbook ever written. Isn't it?</div>
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One day I was browsing the cookbook section in our
charmingly cozy local bookstore when I happened upon Jamie Oliver. I had heard of Jamie. He was that scrawny blonde bloke who cooked
up boring British fare.</div>
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But here he was looking out at me from the cover of his
latest book, <i>Cook with Jamie, My Guide to
Making You a Better Cook</i>, out just in time for Christmas. Wow! Jamie had grown up. Filled out.
And he was <b>lookin' good</b> in
that t-shirt of his. Oh, yeah, I'm pretty
sure he was looking straight at me. And
I was looking back. Right then and there
I decided I wanted to keep trading meaningful glances with Jamie and that he
would be the chosen one to grace my cookbook stand. Straight onto my Christmas list went that
cookbook while I counted off the days on my Advent calendar til Jamie could
join me in the kitchen.</div>
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December 25th finally arrived and I tore off the wrapping
and set Jamie carefully on the cookbook stand in my English country
kitchen. Perfection. Jamie and I exchanged a few soulful looks at
each other as I went about my Christmas activities the rest of that day, and
over the next few busy days he and I settled into a flirtatious conviviality. Life was merry indeed!</div>
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Things eventually slowed down enough that I found myself with
a few minutes to spare, which inevitably led to me and Jamie snuggled up
together on the couch. Just a peek under
his covers, so to speak, was what I had in mind. Cuz I really didn't think I was going to be
all that interested in his brain. And
that's when I discovered – Jamie Oliver is not just a pretty face. Jolliver (as I've taken to calling him) clearly
knows food and is passionate about it.
And he wants us to be passionate about it too.</div>
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Jamie's writing mirrors his cooking – straightforward and
completely genuine. His manner, like his
recipes, is easy and honest. With this
book, he's taken on the challenge of making all of us better cooks, and he
knows better than to bombard. He's
simply taken seven categories—salads; pasta, gnocchi and risotto; meat; fish;
vegetables; desserts; and some 'bits and bobs'—and goes into just enough depth
to educate without overwhelming. </div>
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For instance, in the third chapter, he delves into
risotto. He talks a little about
risotto, gives the basic risotto recipe, and then gives 8 mouth-watering
variations (thankfully none involve kidneys), each with yummy photos. There's no way after reading that section
that one would not be inspired to rush right into the kitchen to whip up one of
these risottos and maybe even improvise using their own favorite ingredients. And thanks to Jamie's guidance, one can do so
confidently.</div>
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Jamie is one of the good guys. All the profits from this book go to his
Fifteen Foundation which inspires and trains young cooks from all over the world,
giving them a much-needed chance of making it in the culinary world.</div>
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It's been several years now since that fateful
Christmas. Jamie's still keeping me
company in the kitchen and gazing out at me with his Mona Lisa smile. And I am definitely a better cook for it.</div>
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Squash Risotto, Jolliver Style<br />
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3 pints vegetable or chicken broth , divided<br />
2 T olive oil<br />
8 T butter, divided<br />
1 large onion, finely chopped<br />
4-5 stalks celery, finely chopped<br />
1 lb 6 oz arborio rice<br />
9 fl oz dry white wine<br />
1 medium squash<br />
1 T marscarpone cheese<br />
7 T butter<br />
1-2 handfuls grated parmesan cheese<br />
sage leaves<br />
bacon, cut into small pieces and fried til crisp<br />
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Cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds, brush with oil, and roast at 450 degrees until done. When done, cool and scrape the flesh from the skin; then set side.<br />
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While the squash is roasting, bring the stock to a simmer and keep hot.<br />
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In a large pan, heat the olive oil and 1 T butter. Add the onion and celery and cook over low heat for about 15 minutes until soft. Stir in the rice and then the wine.<br />
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Add 1-3/4 pints of the stock a bit at a time, stirring and waiting until the liquid is absorbed before adding more. Keep the heat medium low. You don't want the rice to cook too quickly or too slowly. It should take about 15 minutes to add in the first portion of stock.<br />
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At this point, you can cool the risotto and set it aside or store it in the fridge until ready to continue. When you are ready to continue, heat the remaining 1-1/4 pint of stock. Put about one half of that into a large pot and add in the risotto mixture. Continue adding the remaining stock a little at a time, again stirring between additions until the liquid is absorbed before adding more.<br />
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Toward the end, you can add in whatever flavors you want, in this case the squash. After all the liquid is added and absorbed, remove from the heat and add the marscarpone cheese, remaining 7 T butter, and parmesan cheese.<br />
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Fry the sage leaves in a bit of olive oil until crisp and drain. <br />
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Finish the risotto by stirring in the bacon and crumbling the sage on top.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "GoodDog Plain"; font-size: 22pt;"><br /></span>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-27348652829264846822012-07-01T19:27:00.003-07:002012-07-01T19:27:49.891-07:00Pesto Pasta<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's fun to experiment with all the different types of pesto. Last year I made 'nesto' - pesto from nettles. Lucky (or not) for me, there is no nettle shortage here!<br />
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For tonight's dinner, I chose a pesto recipe with a few atypical ingredients - thyme, cilantro, and nutritional yeast. There is always a question of how packed the leafy ingredients should be when measuring out. I think I could have used more of both the basil and cilantro - this turned out really creamy. However, since it's going on pasta, I think creamy will be great!<br />
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1/4 cup walnuts<br />
1/4 cup pine nuts<br />
3 cloves garlic<br />
2-1/2 cups basil<br />
1/2 cup cilantro<br />
2 Tablespoons fresh thyme<br />
1 teaspoon salt<br />
1/4 cup water<br />
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast<br />
1/4 cup olive oil<br />
1 Tablespoon lemon juice<br />
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First I toasted the nuts. I pre-heated a cast iron pan for a bit, then tossed in the walnuts. I toasted them, stirring from time to time, for 5 minutes. Then I added the pine nuts and, again stirring, toasted them for another 5 minutes.<br />
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In a food processor with steel blade, process the nuts and the garlic until it's all crumbly. It will smell super garlicky and yummy. Then add the basil, cilantro, thyme, salt, water, and nutritional yeast and process it all until you have a smooth consistency. Scrape down the sides at least once to make sure it's all incorporated.<br />
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Next stream in the olive oil. I had some lemon olive oil on hand and so I used half of that and half regular olive oil. Last, blend in the lemon juice.<br />
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This makes about 2 cups of pesto, maybe a little less. As I mentioned, you could easily add more of the leafy stuff to make it less creamy. Another cup and a half of basil and cilantro would not be too much.<br />
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For the pasta, I used some delicious homemade garlic parsley noodles that I bought this week via our home delivery produce guy, <a href="http://www.whidbeygreengoods.com/" target="_blank">Mike Nichols</a>. The noodles, tossed with the pesto and then sprinkled with freshly grated black pepper and Parmesan cheese, and served with salad (lettuce, spinach, spiced walnuts, blue cheese and fig balsamic vinaigrette) and toasted <a href="http://www.tree-topbaking.com/bread.html" target="_blank">fromage et lardons</a>, was a perfect quick and easy Sunday supper for this slightly chilly first day of July.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbjiOzoGlTHrkjBn9hh2ecRDmHtsMwHE2rpElDfpRQJpwch_KQMHhYu25yzwYRN8Ln1Dhgaf3Ym71CN9eVzptNxMOZNDjzRE1DUojZ5p5mGkXx12HlBy5i33rtdsrU1oQPCWrAwBSEz4/s1600/IMG_0721.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbjiOzoGlTHrkjBn9hh2ecRDmHtsMwHE2rpElDfpRQJpwch_KQMHhYu25yzwYRN8Ln1Dhgaf3Ym71CN9eVzptNxMOZNDjzRE1DUojZ5p5mGkXx12HlBy5i33rtdsrU1oQPCWrAwBSEz4/s640/IMG_0721.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-47774956589368044062012-06-11T11:15:00.000-07:002012-06-11T20:51:14.326-07:00Smokin' in Seattle 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Saturday was the 6th <a href="http://www.pnweggfest.com/" target="_blank">Pacific Northwest Eggfest</a>, put on by the PNW Egg distributor, <a href="http://www.aes4home.com/contact.html" target="_blank">AES</a>, in Kent. Another great event with so much great food. The best part is seeing old friends, making new ones. All my favorite AES staff were back, working as hard as ever. They just keep getting more organized every year and do such an amazing job. They make it look effortless, but I know how much work it is!<br />
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This year they supplied us all with aprons (green of course) and added a live band, which was so great - it really added to the festivities. They also had added a sponsor, <a href="http://en.sofinafoods.com/products/fletchers/fletchers-fine-foods-usa.php" target="_blank">Fletcher Fine Foods</a>, who was there handing out meat for anyone who needed something extra to cook. How cool is that!?!<br />
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<b>Bacon-Wrapped Tater Tots </b><br />
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I started off the morning with my usual bacon-wrapped tater tots, always a big hit. Very simple to do: Wrap one-half strip of bacon around a frozen tater tot and place on a large circular perforated grill pan that you have sprayed with cooking oil first. Press the bacon into itself where the end meets; it'll stick just fine. No need to figure out how to stuff a toothpick through a frozen tater tot! Cook indirect at about 375 degrees. They take quite a while to cook, maybe 45 minutes. Basically you're waiting for the bacon to crisp up. Some people like to sprinkle a bbq rub over them, such as <a href="http://www.dizzypigbbq.com/" target="_blank">Dizzy Pig</a>, but I prefer to have them just as is.<br />
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<b>Roasted Balsamic Green Beans</b><br />
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Next up on my agenda were roasted green beans with balsamic vinegar, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese.<br />
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1-1/2 Tablespoons olive oil<br />
1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar<br />
1 pound green beans, washed and trimmed<br />
salt and pepper<br />
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced<br />
2 Tablespoons Parmesan cheese<br />
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Combine the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and add the green beans; mix them to coat. A plastic baggie worked great for me in the outdoor environment, but a bowl would be a little more eco-friendly. Put the green beans in a perforated grill pan. I used a square one with sloping sides. Cook over indirect heat at 450 degrees. Cook until the beans are the way you like them - I like them pretty well roasted. Then put the mushrooms into the bowl/baggie and toss them around to coat them with what's left of the oil/vinegar mixture; then add them to the grill pan and continue grilling until the mushrooms are roasted, which doesn't take nearly as long as the beans. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese and close the lid for a couple minutes to melt the cheese a bit. That's it. Very yummy as a side dish and serves about 6 to 8 people.<br />
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<b>Roasted Fingerling Potatoes</b><br />
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The package called these fingerlings. They were completely round and I always think of fingerlings as being long and narrow. Whatever they were, they were delicious grilled with some salt and pepper. And very colorful too! These would be a great appetizer while you're waiting for the main course to cook. They work fine as a side dish and I can see roasting them, then making them into mini 'crash' potatoes too. I contemplated sprinkling them with herbs after they were grilled but in the end went with just the salt and pepper seasoning. I wanted to show that simple can be delicious.<br />
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I tossed these with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper, again using a plastic baggie for convenience. Then into my square perforated grill pan and grilled them over direct heat at about 400 degrees until they were cooked through. They didn't take long, maybe 15 to 20 minutes.<br />
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<b>Eenie Meenie Potato Casserole</b><br />
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Since my earlier experiment with <a href="http://livinginlangley.blogspot.com/2012/05/potato-casserole-eenie-meenie-style.html" target="_blank">Eenie Meenie's Potato Casserole</a> was such a big hit at home, and since it could be prepped the night before, transported, and put onto the BGE with no additional work, I made it for Eggfest this year. It was a very big hit. I did three layers since I was feeding such a big crowd, and I used the mozarella cheese specified in the original recipe.<br />
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Jim was disappointed I didn't bring any of it home, so I made it again last night for dinner. I do like the flavor of goat cheese mixed with whichever other cheese you choose, so I added that back in last night.<br />
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<b>Coffee-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with BBQ Peach Drizzle</b><br />
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For my last recipe, I did a pork tenderloin recipe from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Big-Green-Egg-Cookbook-Celebrating/dp/0740791451" target="_blank">BGE cookbook</a>. This recipe was provided by <a href="http://drbbq.com/" target="_blank">Ray Lampe, aka Dr. BBQ</a>. Since that cookbook is still in circulation and since I made it exactly as is with no changes at all, I will not post the recipe here. But if you were to google the name of the recipe and click on the first link that comes up, you might find it on the web. ;)<br />
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This was very good. The peach drizzle reminded me of the sauce that goes with plum pork. That might be because I may have accidentally used some yellow plum preserves rather than peach preserves - I'm not sure. I know I used at least 3/4 peach preserves. I'll have to make it again. And I was talking with some of the cooks who were near me at the fest, and we decided it would be good using Greek coffee since that has more of a powdery texture, so I want to try that next time. But you can just never go wrong with a grilled pork tenderloin. They turn out perfectly every time - I've never been disappointed. And they're easy and fast to do. I should make them more often!<br />
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In between all this grilling, I had plenty of time to walk around, talk with people, and sample some of the food coming off other cooks' Eggs.<br />
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This was hands-down my favorite 'unusual' recipe on the BGE. So unique. They called it Roast Cabbage Stuffed with Bacon Jam, and it was cabbage, bacon, onions, bbq sauce, and butter. They hollowed out the cabbage, stuffed it with the bacon, onions, and bbq sauce, then dotted with butter. Covered it with foil, set it on the egg onto little foil rings for stability, and cooked it indirect. It was on there for a while. You could contact them at grillography@gmail.com if you wanted to ask them specifics. Really a fabulous grilled vegetable.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here it is all cooked up and ready to dig into!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Just one of the many amenities AES provides. Here are Everett, my favorite Egger in the world, along with Art's daughter serving up sno cones and popcorn.</div>
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Had my first taste of pig candy - bacon with sugar and who knows what else - it was great! Thanks, Sean, James and Jason for this tasty treat!</div>
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No eggfest is complete without a pulled pork sandwich.</div>
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Delicious meatball sandwich provided by my neighbor cooks Dean, his wife, and son William who does not eat vegetables. They cooked a ton of stuff, all of it great.</div>
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My new favorite Seattle dance band - <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/woodiesband" target="_blank">The Woodies</a><span id="goog_1437268149"></span><span id="goog_1437268150"></span>. These guys rocked; they played all my favorites.</div>
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These little cuties enjoyed the band, too, along with some nonEgged snacks.</div>
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Seattle's hottest firemen cooked up some yummy stuff.</div>
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Sadly I did not get to taste these stuffed baby bellas after they were cooked - the lines were just too long. Guess I'll just have to make some of my own.</div>
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These two strapping young fellows cooked up pancakes to order all day long - your choice of bluberry or chocolate chip....or a combo of both!</div>
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Pancakes and beer - the breakfast of champion eggers</div>
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Carnival area for kids of all ages, complete with balloon darts...</div>
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...egg bean bag toss...</div>
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...and photo opps!</div>
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(Me and Everett)</div>
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Besides working their butts off and providing all the generous raffle prizes, AES donated all proceeds to <a href="http://www.firstharvest.org/" target="_blank">Rotary First Harvest</a>. That's what I call putting your money where your mouth is.</div>
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<h2>
<b>Another very fun day with friends, food, and fun - thanks AES - you guys are the greatest!</b></h2>
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<span style="font-family: 'Microsoft Sans Serif','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt;">For more photos, go <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/105370481384685818982/albums/5752906269671897185?authkey=CL6Lpbm83O_RFg" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-12724856217265882182012-06-07T16:15:00.002-07:002019-11-13T18:02:38.562-08:00Art of the Pie<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10bkwJ5MTCP8xNI8bzeUC7HE4teI0tteUoukoK9G_UsnG2eFR_1LFQNXoZq4e1BM9fzHla-xItNqdZ__lVtBFFthZTG9WQ_3qXYzpFs_pHJLIqdaZW2-6BdMvIIPjxf6qSAK1eAzbaeA/s1600/IMG_9890.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj10bkwJ5MTCP8xNI8bzeUC7HE4teI0tteUoukoK9G_UsnG2eFR_1LFQNXoZq4e1BM9fzHla-xItNqdZ__lVtBFFthZTG9WQ_3qXYzpFs_pHJLIqdaZW2-6BdMvIIPjxf6qSAK1eAzbaeA/s320/IMG_9890.e.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
A couple years ago I had the opportunity to hear <a href="http://artofthepie.com/artofthepie/About_Kate.html" target="_blank">Kate McDermott</a> from <a href="http://artofthepie.com/artofthepie/Welcome.html" target="_blank">Art of the Pie</a> speak at a <a href="http://foodportunity.com/" target="_blank">Foodportunity</a> event. Ever since, I've been wanting to take one of her <a href="http://artofthepie.com/artofthepie/Classes.html" target="_blank">pie workshops</a>. Early in March this year, I finally had the chance to do just that. All I can say is do not wait as long as I did to take one of her classes. I've always been a decent pie maker, but I didn't love my crusts. The recipes for crusts seem somewhat similar to me, but I was definitely lacking in technique. I was also lacking confidence. Confidence appears to be one of the main ingredients in pie! And love. It is necessary to put love into your pie. Take one of Kate's classes - you'll walk away with not only a delicious pie, but also crazy mad pie-making skillz, and you'll have had a fun and memorable experience. I learned more than I
would have believed possible in Kate's class. I've taken many many cooking
classes over the years and besides being a pie virtuoso, Kate is a
wonderful, wonderful teacher.<br />
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That's me second from the left. I didn't bake up my pie that day. I wanted to bring it home and freeze it for a cooking with fruit class I was teaching at <a href="http://islandcountymastergardeners.com/wgw_2012/" target="_blank">Whidbey Gardening Workshop</a> the following weekend.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Participation classes are so much fun. One of my favorite activities is cooking with other people.</td></tr>
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So I'm not going to post the entire <a href="http://artofthepie.com/wordpress/crust/flour-salt-fat-and-water/" target="_blank">crust recipe</a> because you can go to her <a href="http://artofthepie.com/wordpress/" target="_blank">blog</a> to get it, along with all her hints for making great crust. But here are some of the tips I picked up from Kate:<br />
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Have everything chilled. Yes, we know this and have done this in the past. But I mean really cold as in freezer cold. The cold is your friend. (Finally, living in the PNW comes in handy for something!) Put your bowl and flour in the freezer ahead. I now keep a bag of flour in the freezer just for pie making. If it's a warm day (like that ever happens around here), cool off your hands in a bowl of ice water as you work. Obviously the butter, and leaf lard if you use it (and I highly recommend that you do), should be straight from the refrigerator. While leaving it out on the counter to soften up ahead of time may work for some recipes, it does not work at all for pie crust. cold Cold COLD is what you want.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
All the bits and blobs of butter and leaf lard are what will make your crust tender and flaky.</div>
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Use your hands. First of all, it's just easier. Second of all, there's a lot of love in those hands and it transfers to the pie. When mushing the flour, butter, and leaf lard together, you want different size pieces at the end--some grains of sand, some pea size, and some pecan size. Don't work it too much. If you don't want to use your hands, a pastry blender works too. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJlEN6fLPb1LvJGB-T_xIHBNre7-96yNeftzIbHXVI46ZtnxzXZu9SjG51dB6dZYyI72Klsa8HE-DtE-eFuy2VDtmaVtjuylGWEhteRRDK3tE1gOx_FMu_b-r9Os96AMx-RQRPC2jNfU/s1600/IMG_9808.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXJlEN6fLPb1LvJGB-T_xIHBNre7-96yNeftzIbHXVI46ZtnxzXZu9SjG51dB6dZYyI72Klsa8HE-DtE-eFuy2VDtmaVtjuylGWEhteRRDK3tE1gOx_FMu_b-r9Os96AMx-RQRPC2jNfU/s320/IMG_9808.e.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate had the same penguin ice bucket we have. We inherited it from Jim's parents.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Amount of water to add--start with 3 tablespoons. (Ice water.) Then add one tablespoon at a time. My pies usually take 8 tablespoons. It depends on factors such as humidity, type/brand of flour you're using, and probably the moon phase. Who knows! But go slowly with the water. You want just enough to hold the dough into a ball. It's going to sit in the fridge for an hour after you make it, and it'll relax a bit while it does that.<br />
<br />
Now, about that leaf lard. Leaf lard is the fat from around a pig's
kidneys. It makes for very clean, neutral-tasting fat, and is perfect
for pastries. It has less saturated fat than butter. Personally, I
don't worry about either. It's not like I have pie every day or even
every month. Everything in moderation. And remember my number one
motto: <i><b>Fat is what they put in food to make it taste good.</b></i>
If you're not going to have a great-tasting end result, why bother?
Kate has put together an informative post about leaf lard, so read it <a href="http://artofthepie.com/wordpress/pie/leaf-lard/" target="_blank">here</a>. And if you live on Whidbey, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scottys-Local-Farm-to-Market/285396614857603" target="_blank">Scotty's</a> can get it for you. (Isn't he the greatest?) It will be unrendered, but it's easy to render yourself. It's very easy and there are lots of web pages on how to do it. <br />
<br />
Work quickly (so things don't warm up) and don't worry about perfection. If the crust tears a bit here or there, you can patch it up before putting in the filling. Once the pie is baked, it's going to look and taste fabulous, so don't worry about little problem spots. Don't even worry about big problem spots. Trust that it will turn out, and it will.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Don't wash your bowl between making the crust and the filling. The
left-overs from the crust will add thickner to the filling. This is my
favorite bowl I inherited from my aunt Helen. Pies made in this bowl
always taste better. It's because of the extra love.</div>
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Use the very best ingredients you can find. Make sure your fruit is pie worthy. Local, organic, and seasonal is always best. For my berry pies, I've been using frozen, but I get the organic stuff in the clear plastic bags where you can see the fruit you're buying. The berries are huge and have been individually frozen so they're not all frozen together in big clumps. There's no need to thaw the berries ahead of time.<br />
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Kate showed us how to measure out the amount of fruit by putting it in the empty pie plate first. Berries and other fruits that may turn very juicy while baking should be a bit below the rim of the pie plate. Otherwise you may end up with a mess on the floor of your oven. Since my oven is completely self-cleaning, all the time, I don't really care if it bubbles over and I have been putting my berries up about to the rim of the pie plate. With apples, you want them mounded up high in the pie. Pile your whole apples in the pie plate ahead of time and you can get a good enough idea of how many to use by just doing that. So you don't have to worry about how many of your apples are large or medium or small.<br />
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Variety is the spice of life, so use many different apple varieties for your apple pies. You want some that will bake up firm and some that will bake up softer, some that are tart and some that are sweet. If you only have one kind, that's perfectly fine. But if you have a variety, even better.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwdTw2U9RUjLp_5uR3dzIEKgsr0mhT1aKxicfjPEbypTvqmzKGioAbA7MkVsPD0s0UjpaX5U4vmBDgY_ijtBWoOcruYdaSOk60p-Np41xbS8h5FyY3gujD76-UEQTDufvCiqY-a38h4U/s1600/IMG_9826.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOwdTw2U9RUjLp_5uR3dzIEKgsr0mhT1aKxicfjPEbypTvqmzKGioAbA7MkVsPD0s0UjpaX5U4vmBDgY_ijtBWoOcruYdaSOk60p-Np41xbS8h5FyY3gujD76-UEQTDufvCiqY-a38h4U/s320/IMG_9826.e.JPG" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate uses a vintage Veg-O-Matic to chop apples. I scored one from Ebay for $20 including shipping!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
You do not have to peel your apples. I quit peeling apples for other dishes a long time ago. But I still would peel them for pies. Kate gave me permission to not peel apples for pies ever again. That alone was worth the price of admission.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDb6tq-_zZnoB-bYXFAdZBi8an2fhJ0R3XApQp06AEpg0kqte-sdKeivUs58x12Bmz7S37K5rdwSqOlVawHN0hhVasrVtbyGYblp6xplaByBGbhTiMeN7i2vNNSRtiWVRNRCOzsX3JzXI/s1600/IMG_9832.e.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDb6tq-_zZnoB-bYXFAdZBi8an2fhJ0R3XApQp06AEpg0kqte-sdKeivUs58x12Bmz7S37K5rdwSqOlVawHN0hhVasrVtbyGYblp6xplaByBGbhTiMeN7i2vNNSRtiWVRNRCOzsX3JzXI/s400/IMG_9832.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate shows us how to measure one 'oops' of Calvados brandy to flavor the filling.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Liquor in the filling adds a nice touch. I
always keep the airplane size bottles of liquors in my cupboard for
cooking and baking purposes. That way you can always add a splash of
Grand Marnier or brandy without having to give up a lot of cupboard
space for big bottles of booze, not to mention the cost factor. Unless,
of course, you normally drink a lot of that stuff. In that case, go
for the big bottle! And invite me over.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFhKv0bKM3d4gyjmekXC3s5fyPGZ6k-tBdyTfIWN_lOdywpszH9NRpS3zPhZFHUhF5ETdn_JoIjbRVHxnop5BlihoxB29tRFY61goPxGwwHG9wURDiKh5CFxiOOjaC9Zj0mmRC7jhF1Yo/s1600/IMG_9835.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFhKv0bKM3d4gyjmekXC3s5fyPGZ6k-tBdyTfIWN_lOdywpszH9NRpS3zPhZFHUhF5ETdn_JoIjbRVHxnop5BlihoxB29tRFY61goPxGwwHG9wURDiKh5CFxiOOjaC9Zj0mmRC7jhF1Yo/s400/IMG_9835.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It would be easy to eat the filling before it even gets into the pie!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Now that the filling is ready, get your dough out of the fridge. It
should have been in there about an hour. You've made enough for a
double crust pie, so divide it in half and return one half to the
fridge. Lay the other half out on a floured pastry cloth (keep it in
the freezer so it's cold too) and give each side a good whack with the
rolling pin.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Roll from the center outward, rolling in one direction only. Turn
the dough as you go. It should be sliding around on the pastry cloth as
it gets bigger. Otherwise, flip it over and dust with more flour.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8aiTybhJyNwAZ7VT__RqVHKQ9PwlMquWposnxT2Zz1v4NZfairxbrgQZ4tynU6gSa4-wpVrThU50OoCm0NXRVEjijxJ5w9u0N8Jcxkdzj39HwQNODKLVwQqTTsNRlbWD8iK-8dMaeWk/s1600/IMG_9841.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit8aiTybhJyNwAZ7VT__RqVHKQ9PwlMquWposnxT2Zz1v4NZfairxbrgQZ4tynU6gSa4-wpVrThU50OoCm0NXRVEjijxJ5w9u0N8Jcxkdzj39HwQNODKLVwQqTTsNRlbWD8iK-8dMaeWk/s400/IMG_9841.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A french rolling pin gives you more control and allows you to build a more circular pie crust.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVb0lTYCA-sQLgMttUDsaCE0erAE0_Z2Gy7V3eFzD4_CFdWuuEgAOcflk9a1ypwQbzXxAhNhQhaNgITMdXsRYY2Ic6rM0Q9BafTpSDTMl4Bp-Hzn8LqYpytXoKh6PuL4v8-6PqDlPRI8/s1600/IMG_9842.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVb0lTYCA-sQLgMttUDsaCE0erAE0_Z2Gy7V3eFzD4_CFdWuuEgAOcflk9a1ypwQbzXxAhNhQhaNgITMdXsRYY2Ic6rM0Q9BafTpSDTMl4Bp-Hzn8LqYpytXoKh6PuL4v8-6PqDlPRI8/s640/IMG_9842.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Use lots of flour so the crust won't stick.</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Shape doesn't really matter too much as you're going to be trimming
it...and using your trimmings to make little cinny rolls to snack on
while you wait for that pie to bake.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Make sure you've
rolled it out large enough. You'll want about a half inch overhang
AFTER you've pressed it down into your pie plate.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bRUtsWu5nlqyRv5sZBbnrrU3BPENupbtaQhp0bJvluTRsHEkppfF_KAUVQnjI13fxWEF7TUF11jH9jbjOKNMywuAEnz_QawaelhxRLKmBD0yVTOnE0AXYaJxh1LY0ecOn2OU1d5EhFY/s1600/IMG_9844.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_bRUtsWu5nlqyRv5sZBbnrrU3BPENupbtaQhp0bJvluTRsHEkppfF_KAUVQnjI13fxWEF7TUF11jH9jbjOKNMywuAEnz_QawaelhxRLKmBD0yVTOnE0AXYaJxh1LY0ecOn2OU1d5EhFY/s400/IMG_9844.e.JPG" width="375" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Use a brush to brush off the excess flour.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-JWqfXJ2KILBF6wxhtHeMQBb6MYiAUNPYHFS4KaEy5UEopGTF2OP7VA2cNM8Ie1UDi3YZtQQc4caqW3WvziaVrMNpYJnODfnlBfPGud2pgVJIai1Y-Pr61X2ibNHYT-7ifhVLLMS52M/s1600/IMG_9845.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-JWqfXJ2KILBF6wxhtHeMQBb6MYiAUNPYHFS4KaEy5UEopGTF2OP7VA2cNM8Ie1UDi3YZtQQc4caqW3WvziaVrMNpYJnODfnlBfPGud2pgVJIai1Y-Pr61X2ibNHYT-7ifhVLLMS52M/s400/IMG_9845.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roll it over your rolling pin to help transfer the dough to the pie plate.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4PYiRyBAJuFUrX5IJ85yn6zVrovwBwAZOh13epFe73fr5QjKYO-Zx_wqoGloXtliPdZklb8ZURdLkzu_K5LA9xW5iq-NWHc9QDDMSGkHIZfryxVFI2NO-riEpf1HxHcU9I0ItgJTHKY/s1600/IMG_9846.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK4PYiRyBAJuFUrX5IJ85yn6zVrovwBwAZOh13epFe73fr5QjKYO-Zx_wqoGloXtliPdZklb8ZURdLkzu_K5LA9xW5iq-NWHc9QDDMSGkHIZfryxVFI2NO-riEpf1HxHcU9I0ItgJTHKY/s400/IMG_9846.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brush the excess flour from the underside of the dough.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEn-6TNQOR-3KhvxP774vgEevzlDsBL0BBY1aPLqigxFaUmGsioYrHWL0AWcQMyTBM7Rz0avqILXW_9FFCCVjUPNVcwl9b31biUwOX6tq3Alkyi835-EVR88fm1DX1cdmRVSWD1nZ9DGI/s1600/IMG_9847.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEn-6TNQOR-3KhvxP774vgEevzlDsBL0BBY1aPLqigxFaUmGsioYrHWL0AWcQMyTBM7Rz0avqILXW_9FFCCVjUPNVcwl9b31biUwOX6tq3Alkyi835-EVR88fm1DX1cdmRVSWD1nZ9DGI/s400/IMG_9847.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And transfer it to your pie plate.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga19whDJ4NPjnL6cTJ6cNxfdtZ7Vx7HwSEFrrJZDrOGN6mYBGQvPdWKIkbBJrV7OQyVZxqrnYSKx2c141iFNkhMh3NxvcKV5lIZrG7jlJlDRbe6W37iAxZrkUPGR_3kNCouRo9UhRUeKA/s1600/IMG_9848.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga19whDJ4NPjnL6cTJ6cNxfdtZ7Vx7HwSEFrrJZDrOGN6mYBGQvPdWKIkbBJrV7OQyVZxqrnYSKx2c141iFNkhMh3NxvcKV5lIZrG7jlJlDRbe6W37iAxZrkUPGR_3kNCouRo9UhRUeKA/s400/IMG_9848.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gently push it down into the pie plate.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQksqbf2RNsTHGUlxokdOc1_SMA237XhYffIJxbOfQL-OUoFjtED4-smBUZFkevm6Bq_5pWdXUNhNkw0MTwqvbr9ayfgvoGbbQPKKq7swr4BKNOuiweeh9pHGp0fIyTRmpQa9rpgA6N8/s1600/IMG_9851.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoQksqbf2RNsTHGUlxokdOc1_SMA237XhYffIJxbOfQL-OUoFjtED4-smBUZFkevm6Bq_5pWdXUNhNkw0MTwqvbr9ayfgvoGbbQPKKq7swr4BKNOuiweeh9pHGp0fIyTRmpQa9rpgA6N8/s400/IMG_9851.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkCkquuSeIqjik9506VuZjad1WSrFIXDjZgPLb7iq3cbK5InW4WK5zodQM5qD4VI-xZWGdsvX5Y5l1rxM7yNZKjFvg3JxiqG_lAVw3OQAxnUzWSPKo3DPM3voLVN9aAhaVPlLZl8OVkk/s1600/IMG_9852.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkCkquuSeIqjik9506VuZjad1WSrFIXDjZgPLb7iq3cbK5InW4WK5zodQM5qD4VI-xZWGdsvX5Y5l1rxM7yNZKjFvg3JxiqG_lAVw3OQAxnUzWSPKo3DPM3voLVN9aAhaVPlLZl8OVkk/s400/IMG_9852.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Use an upside down tin to press lightly on the fruit to compact it a bit.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVd1m2Aqp90GycaDYejluBTmWWDebsJea6SCuf8F9zE_gGQhemuW6GPkPAWmE-NNQ77ulnc5auN-VLadjOq7UYuUR_o4XFGBK0PyJzef8me0BHIyCHD3VrpJu1BFRwb6vDHqQVb7JNXw/s1600/IMG_9853.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWVd1m2Aqp90GycaDYejluBTmWWDebsJea6SCuf8F9zE_gGQhemuW6GPkPAWmE-NNQ77ulnc5auN-VLadjOq7UYuUR_o4XFGBK0PyJzef8me0BHIyCHD3VrpJu1BFRwb6vDHqQVb7JNXw/s400/IMG_9853.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After you put the top crust on, trim the crusts to about 1/2 inch from the edge of the pie plate. Don't forget to save them to make cinny rolls. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdb9-KFM1HrYae_4Iq3SBCHhvkqA9D7fhVp3iGpnDTNbTu3hzgMjjkuSbjOTX_x5hN-2BR3s9wyf5OIb6ZjUqfBAkDtZ7KCPmahhd_GjY-5i8ODBTnk18pU4BfkVnxtYm0aRDH9lxWEM/s1600/IMG_9858.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvdb9-KFM1HrYae_4Iq3SBCHhvkqA9D7fhVp3iGpnDTNbTu3hzgMjjkuSbjOTX_x5hN-2BR3s9wyf5OIb6ZjUqfBAkDtZ7KCPmahhd_GjY-5i8ODBTnk18pU4BfkVnxtYm0aRDH9lxWEM/s400/IMG_9858.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now roll the edges of the pie crust inwards and then press with a fork or crimp to make an edge.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrawjMpARI1_5a30ec3ltdfDNpCC95CCZFBHV-SKxTJVgJoTSGum7iC2EHypwP6n807J0jjjstA511lET-bPx1hm2qGvGiZGd5P1Xnct0nd3Xm7Pbp9lQ-gHf2HqsIjG-EfQ5hHfmXjBg/s1600/IMG_9860.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrawjMpARI1_5a30ec3ltdfDNpCC95CCZFBHV-SKxTJVgJoTSGum7iC2EHypwP6n807J0jjjstA511lET-bPx1hm2qGvGiZGd5P1Xnct0nd3Xm7Pbp9lQ-gHf2HqsIjG-EfQ5hHfmXjBg/s400/IMG_9860.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut some slits to let stream escape.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6BCk4yPolE3sI-OepYbpLu7U4qgZRT_w-zKWI2URH_13V0EEoS1fn0208tVz3ZlYGeLLJ9W2JLDHRsGO1vouKgo2TnK_qACRmf1PRzu5N6pZ1CZIplGaBRIszp9ae_iJ2BDJwPksxS8/s1600/IMG_0297.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6BCk4yPolE3sI-OepYbpLu7U4qgZRT_w-zKWI2URH_13V0EEoS1fn0208tVz3ZlYGeLLJ9W2JLDHRsGO1vouKgo2TnK_qACRmf1PRzu5N6pZ1CZIplGaBRIszp9ae_iJ2BDJwPksxS8/s400/IMG_0297.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClOcLOK7IH7BE3mt23EAs0CCe0PAtR9E4aZfcthGSCxrXH7riqblOdbVdaexSfHF5IW19WFbnyZ8AJwrJc_nOlzW8TS2zwF7Mvuc5fX0DQ0Y3w0aS0jO7UgtIWqlaWaoFWP0jO007tTU/s1600/IMG_9877.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiClOcLOK7IH7BE3mt23EAs0CCe0PAtR9E4aZfcthGSCxrXH7riqblOdbVdaexSfHF5IW19WFbnyZ8AJwrJc_nOlzW8TS2zwF7Mvuc5fX0DQ0Y3w0aS0jO7UgtIWqlaWaoFWP0jO007tTU/s640/IMG_9877.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We learned how to tell when the pie was done by using all the senses, including hearing.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Within a week of taking Kate's class, I turned out a delicious blueberry pie with lattice crust! I've also made a couple marionberry pies as well as pumpkin pies. I cannot wait for peach season as I have several peach pie recipes to try out. Pie has become my new favorite thing to make!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTH9mc_Hoa0-_i0JLFLahourfRKzQ6eq9CUn7-Lml4uZOHROC1PJCiASwMEBM8lqBrZ6FdkXquL1d4_rOVWuakPRP0KsxpRzDaGwM8i4yy4TkDjJfW_l_HN9nPNdhdY4spJcVHqX4TKV4/s1600/IMG_9908.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTH9mc_Hoa0-_i0JLFLahourfRKzQ6eq9CUn7-Lml4uZOHROC1PJCiASwMEBM8lqBrZ6FdkXquL1d4_rOVWuakPRP0KsxpRzDaGwM8i4yy4TkDjJfW_l_HN9nPNdhdY4spJcVHqX4TKV4/s400/IMG_9908.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
I now know that it's so much more than just a
recipe--it's a combination of love, confidence, ingredients and technique combined with
the knowledge of what to look for every step of the way--it is truly an
art.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>Blueberry Pie</b><br />
<br />
2 bags of organic frozen blueberries (no need to defrost them first)<br />
1 Tablespoon tapioca<br />
2/3 cup sugar<br />
splash of Grand Marnier<br />
splash of lemon juice<br />
pinch of nutmeg<br />
2 Tablespoons flour <br />
1 teaspoon kosher salt<br />
optional - small amount of chopped lemon verbena or lemon thyme <br />
<br />
Mix all of the above together in the same bowl you used to make the crust. After laying the bottom crust in the pie plate, pour in the blueberry filling. This makes enough for a 9-inch pie. Dot the filling with small pieces of butter. Then lay your top crust. I like a lattice crust on blueberry pies. There are a lot of youtube videos on how to crisscross a lattice crust. Here's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ysJhFas9uE" target="_blank">one</a>. It's really easy. Flute the edges after you've laid out the lattice. Then beat in a small bowl one egg white and 1 Tablespoon of water. Brush that on top of the crust. Sprinkle sugar over the crust.<br />
<br />
Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; then lower the temp to 350 degrees and bake 30 - 40 minutes more. It's always tempting to pull the pie before it's ready. I almost always bake the pie for longer than the time called for. For the first phase, I bake right on the floor of the roasting oven. For the second phase I bake either in the middle of the baking oven or near the top, depending on what temps are called for in the recipe.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>Pumpkin Pie</b><br />
<br />
3 beaten eggs<br />
2 cups canned or cooked pumpkin<br />
1 cup evaporated milk or coconut milk<br />
3/4 cup sugar (use half white sugar and half brown sugar)<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt <br />
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon<br />
1-1/2 teaspoons ginger<br />
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg<br />
1/2 teaspoon allspice<br />
1/4 teaspoon cloves<br />
splash of brandy<br />
<br />
Mix all the above ingredients either in a stand mixer or by hand. Pour into pie crust. This makes enough filling for an 8-inch pie. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 425; then bake at 350 until the custard filling is nearly set. The total time is usually about 1 hour. Cool completely. Serve whipped cream on the side.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNTgQ0boLF0ILaCO5-Q8GRi8Hb_-HNZDJzrs6HzB8xuu67Z630F1OlT5J4JeBilfAAnLIZg1pe0CMz9vJ8H6EsdGoQg2bizqk-lh-SzzA9FzcDuxshTF5jPvSXZKdAiOosoyEgxvUD7Q/s1600/IMG_0538.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSNTgQ0boLF0ILaCO5-Q8GRi8Hb_-HNZDJzrs6HzB8xuu67Z630F1OlT5J4JeBilfAAnLIZg1pe0CMz9vJ8H6EsdGoQg2bizqk-lh-SzzA9FzcDuxshTF5jPvSXZKdAiOosoyEgxvUD7Q/s400/IMG_0538.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Berry Pie</b><br />
<br />
1-1/2 pounds frozen or fresh berries (no need to thaw if frozen)<br />
3/4 cup sugar<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt<br />
pinch of nutmeg<br />
splash (1 capful) of lemon juice<br />
splash of Grand Marnier or other liquor<br />
1 Tablespoon tapioca<br />
2 Tablespoons flour<br />
<br />
Mix the filling ingredients together in the same bowl you mixed the crust in. After laying the bottom crust in the pie plate, pour in the berry
filling. This makes enough for a 9-inch pie. Dot the filling with
small pieces of butter. Then lay your top crust. Cut vents in the top crust and flute the edges. Then beat in a small bowl one egg white and 1
Tablespoon of water. Brush that on top of the crust. Sprinkle sugar
over the crust.<br />
<br />
Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; then
lower the temp to 350 degrees and bake 30 - 40 minutes more. It's
always tempting to pull the pie before it's ready. I almost always bake
the pie for longer than the time called for. For the first phase, I
bake right on the floor of the roasting oven. For the second phase I
bake either in the middle of the baking oven or near the top, depending
on what temps are called for in the recipe.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b>Cinnamon Rolls</b><br />
<br />
When I was growing up, my mom always made tiny cinnamon rolls with the leftover pie dough. Just roll the leftover dough out in a rough rectangular shape. Spread softened butter on over one side, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar, then roll it up. Cut into little pieces and bake on a small cookie sheet type of pan. You can put them in right along with the pie, but they'll only take 10 or 15 minutes. Now you have something to eat while you wait to dig into that pie!<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-76136483470157989032012-05-28T09:55:00.000-07:002012-05-29T09:56:07.718-07:00Potato Casserole, Eenie Meenie Style, + Grilled Asparagus & Pumpkin PieOne more barbecue to wrap up the Memorial Weekend. We had two New York steaks to grill, plus some asparagus. I had intended to do a potato recipe I've been wanting to try, but then I read about <a href="http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1244817&catid=1" target="_blank">Eenie Meenie's (aka Rebecca) potatoes</a> on the Big Green Egg forum and decided I needed to do those instead. And I got to use the mandoline, which I haven't used in a while. It's always kind of exciting to use it--will I or won't I walk away with all my skin intact? Just kidding. It has a safety guard on it and unless I do something really stupid, it's pretty safe. It's always a good idea, though, just to be on the safe side, to save the drinking for after all the mandolining has been done!<br />
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Here is how to make the potatoes in Eenie's own words:<br />
<br />
<div style="color: orange;">
Basically, rub garlic around a pan ( I usually use ceramic or Pyrex), then
smear bottom and sides with olive oil. Thinly slice potatoes (use a mandoline if
you have one) about an 1/8 of an inch or slightly more. Then rinse them and dry
them (it would be better to not rinse them then to not have them dry). Then
very thinly slice an onion (I use a sweet onion). If it's a large diameter
onion, then further cut up the round rings so that they are about two to two and
a half inches. Slice some tomatoes about 1/4 inch thick and salt them and set
them aside to drain. If you do not have ripe and tasty tomatoes you can drain
some canned tomatoes.....drain them well. Remove any seeds. If they are whole
tomatoes, just break them up with your hands or cut with scissors into big
chunks. Chop up some fresh basil, parsley, and oregano (mostly basil and
parsley, just a little oregano) and set aside. Mince some garlic and set
aside..</div>
<div style="color: orange;">
In a ceramic or Pyrex, or baking dish, layer a layer of
overlapping potatoes, then a layer of tomatoes, then a layer of onions. Then
sprinkle on some chopped basil, parsley, garlic, oregano and salt and pepper.
Repeat this entire process one or two more times depending upon the depth of
your baking dish. Don't worry if it goes to the top.....it will shrink down
considerably. <br />
<br />
Top with several pats of butter, then top with foil. Bake
at around 350 or so for an hour to an hour and a half (until the potatoes are
almost done. Then top with shredded mozzarella until it is melted. If it
doesn't brown, then place it under the broiler. <br />
<br />
It is important not to
serve this immediately......the potatoes need to soak up some of the juices.
Let it rest for about 15 - 20 minutes or whatever. <br />
<br />
Basically use the
herbs you like and the proportions you like. I go heavy on the basil and
parsley and light on the oregano.<br />
<br />
This can be made ahead of time, up
until the cheese part and refrigerated. Let it warm up almost to room temp,
then reheat. After it is reheated, top with cheese.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard%20func=view%20id=1075886%20catid=12#" target="_blank">Here's</a> a link to the
post, if that's of any help.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
If you have any flavored oils, now's a good time to break them out. I used this on the inside of the casserole after I rubbed it with garlic.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
First layer of sliced potatoes.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Then the onions.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Tomatoes are next.</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Then the chopped herbs. I didn't have any oregano, so I used parsley, basil, and thyme. </div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
I had a wee bit of Kerrygold herb butter, so I used that to dot over the layers. This was 1 tablespoon worth.</div>
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I used two potatoes, three tomatoes, and one onion. I would have liked more onion, but only had the one on hand. I did two layers since it was just myself and Jim. Also, I used a ceramic casserole with a lid and I cooked them on the BGE instead of in an oven.<br />
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I forgot to get mozarella cheese, so I used a combination of cheddar, Parmesan, and goat cheese. It was really good. Jim loved it.<br />
<br />
While the potatoes were resting, we grilled the steaks at 275 degrees for 15 minutes, then flipped them and laid some sliced mushrooms on top. Finished off grilling until they registered 135 on the Thermapen, which was another 5 to 10 minutes. <br />
<br />
We put the asparagus on at the same time as the steaks, but pulled the asparagus when it was finished. After peeling the asparagus and snapping off the tough ends, I tossed it in my flavored oil, sprinkled on some salt and pepper, and put it in the grill pan. I love roasted veggies and grilling them is even better.<br />
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This is my handy-dandy asparagus peeler. It's one of my favorite kitchen tools because it makes peeling asparagus so easy. It looks pretty innocent laying there on the cutting board, but it's actually quite wicked! </div>
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In the grill pan and on the Egg. For best texture, grill at a hot temp so it gets very roasted without getting mushy.</div>
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We decided that we were not fans of New York steak. They were cooked perfectly with just the right amount of pink, but they were still tough and blah tasting. Buddy lucked out because he got most of both our steaks!</div>
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The asparagus was my favorite part followed closely by the potatoes. Dessert was also tasty. We ended the meal with a pumpkin pie. Jim accidentally bought a can of pumpkin pie filling instead of regular pumpkin (Buddy is on a doggy diet and pumpkin is great for dogs trying to shed a few pounds), and I opened it up without looking at the label, so we needed to get it used up. I'll be putting up a full-on pie tutorial in the very near future, but here's the recipe I used for this pie:</div>
<br />
<b>Pumpkin Pie</b><br />
<br />
<u>Crust</u><br />
2-1/2 cups flour<br />
1 teaspoon kosher salt<br />
6 tablespoons leaf lard<br />
9 tablespoons European-style butter <br />
8 tablespoons water<br />
<br />
<u>Filling</u><br />
2 cups pumpkin pie filling<br />
1 cup coconut milk<br />
3 beaten eggs<br />
extra spices - allspice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg<br />
<br />
Preheat the oven to 425. When you put the pie in the oven, turn the heat down to 375. Bake for 50-60 minutes. If you're baking the pie in an Aga, put it on the floor of the roasting oven for 15 minutes. Then move to the top rung of the baking oven for 45 minutes. Pie perfection!<br />
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Mix the dough so that the butter bits vary in size. </div>
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I found this little 'cheater' thing a few years ago. You put the floured dough inside this pouch, zip it up, and roll it out. It makes it almost perfectly round. It's small, though, and so I have to then remove the dough and roll it larger. If you have a french rolling pin, which I do not, you can achieve a very round dough without this gadget. Still, it's a pretty fun and handy thing to have. </div>
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I like to vary how I crimp the edges. Here I used two fingers to push pieces together and twisted it slightly to one side.</div>
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This pastry scraper is another handy tool. If the dough sticks to your rolling surface, you can use it to scrape the dough up without tearing it.</div>
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Pie perfection! </div>
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I'm already looking forward to a piece for breakfast tomorrow!!!</div>
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A pretty tasty dinner in remembrance of our fathers, who both were in the Navy. My dad died back in 1980. He was 54. He had a heart attack in his sleep. Jim's dad died of brain cancer in 1986, three months before our wedding. He was 65.<br />
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On this Memorial Weekend, I am eternally grateful to all the men and women who serve and have served in the military and am very sad that so many have had to give their lives doing so. Today my thoughts and prayers go out to all deceased and living veterans as well as their families who have also sacrificed so much for our country.<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-1855465565216325252012-05-26T22:21:00.000-07:002012-05-26T22:21:08.126-07:00Grilled Salmon & Artichokes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAy3hNr8C_v6GOsRJALOlmkXfxv-uzdXJ-kKYjMp_yWDphZoHEhZuBuVyjFgxqY6lbf4jffA4LhUe8TjeSJz3fHAjjpUsK9MTICyBmuDopVWuxwP2EL8D1JR3DEKfAQ9n5NZh41sTKaE/s1600/IMG_0470.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAy3hNr8C_v6GOsRJALOlmkXfxv-uzdXJ-kKYjMp_yWDphZoHEhZuBuVyjFgxqY6lbf4jffA4LhUe8TjeSJz3fHAjjpUsK9MTICyBmuDopVWuxwP2EL8D1JR3DEKfAQ9n5NZh41sTKaE/s400/IMG_0470.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Being that it's a holiday weekend (Memorial Weekend) and also that the weather was gorgeous, we decided to do some grilling tonight for dinner. I sent Jim to the store to decide what to have and he came home with steaks, <a href="http://gonw.about.com/od/fooddrink/a/copperriver.htm" target="_blank">Copper River salmon</a>, artichokes, and asparagus. We decided to do the salmon and artichokes tonight.<br />
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Jim is a great cook and his salmon recipe is my favorite way to have salmon. I actually don't care for it much cooked any other way, but if he cooks it, I could eat the whole dang thing! So I put him to work on the salmon while I tried out a <a href="http://prouditaliancook.blogspot.com/2011/06/thrill-of-grill.html" target="_blank">grilled artichoke recipe</a> I had seen on <a href="http://pinterest.com/gwendalou/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>. A salad rounded out the meal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPT-2ej5JgD67WUolWW3wdscDQ9DcGeVoxJbpvAxdFzvxZXDUYz2ShW8aikFvNKOiY2kSb06SBQrEjDF4izd9i99U-DEu07PtHaZkDWaFFpU4NFleoWKT1emf5D-9uCxIfCc70LxjJjo/s1600/IMG_0439.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPT-2ej5JgD67WUolWW3wdscDQ9DcGeVoxJbpvAxdFzvxZXDUYz2ShW8aikFvNKOiY2kSb06SBQrEjDF4izd9i99U-DEu07PtHaZkDWaFFpU4NFleoWKT1emf5D-9uCxIfCc70LxjJjo/s320/IMG_0439.e.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Jim marinates the salmon for a while. Two hours is good. The more you marinate, the more the teriyaki flavor comes out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsW51tKwT4DAFGi2uzNX61urfYZRoeplMNxrO03rwxz_qoI1w37ZlXiNp2n9ApsnsPYH_F5YgkF_ORD25x8Yc4XFo7p_6SjCRqVIxNEoDztwXf4NDEDBqEeymR4Rs5W5SutqiU6pR5yI/s1600/IMG_0453.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnsW51tKwT4DAFGi2uzNX61urfYZRoeplMNxrO03rwxz_qoI1w37ZlXiNp2n9ApsnsPYH_F5YgkF_ORD25x8Yc4XFo7p_6SjCRqVIxNEoDztwXf4NDEDBqEeymR4Rs5W5SutqiU6pR5yI/s640/IMG_0453.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Then it goes on the Big Green Egg griller skin side down on a piece of aluminum foil.</td></tr>
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The Egg fluctuated between 350 and 400 degrees. After about 6 to 7 minutes, he flipped the salmon over.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWq1RkkHfb9-j51a1G8l9poLJ7E4MqJGj2GEZDtiNxm3styeevpWukcFZ_cQRTgoduqwH2WozaJSpbBMb9jgEvqWzMWQwCOKn5uHZb0BoF9ZwBkUQDY10oHcdzW_TVmujYNVeq_9DcDHE/s1600/IMG_0454.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWq1RkkHfb9-j51a1G8l9poLJ7E4MqJGj2GEZDtiNxm3styeevpWukcFZ_cQRTgoduqwH2WozaJSpbBMb9jgEvqWzMWQwCOKn5uHZb0BoF9ZwBkUQDY10oHcdzW_TVmujYNVeq_9DcDHE/s640/IMG_0454.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slip the spatula under the salmon but above the skin so that the skin stays on the foil. It basically sticks to the foil.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbXq68EhJAE9UFsWHqqkRoaYhivEX3h_F3F86CYrR-fqOjb2aAP12gV5Bs8q4-2FHA0Yetxy7emGr-wJ1umNeQOPIHNEFQmUCuGl9H1e3FwoZQlc7xGzCQpPYQxGICH6Uy6Gw0txvh1w/s1600/IMG_0456.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbXq68EhJAE9UFsWHqqkRoaYhivEX3h_F3F86CYrR-fqOjb2aAP12gV5Bs8q4-2FHA0Yetxy7emGr-wJ1umNeQOPIHNEFQmUCuGl9H1e3FwoZQlc7xGzCQpPYQxGICH6Uy6Gw0txvh1w/s640/IMG_0456.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When you flip it, place it back onto the skin that remained on the foil. Grill another 4 to 5 minutes.</td></tr>
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That's it! Very easy and so tasty.<br />
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The artichokes are a little more involved but not by much. I trimmed the artichokes the way I usually trim them. I pull off the bottom row of leaves, trim the remaining leaves with scissors, cut off the top 1/2 inch or so, and cut off most of the stem (don't cut it all the way off or the leaves start falling off). Use a serrated knife for trimming - it's much easier. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjJlca9VyrKfFbLGRiUhnm4ca_O1QquMmyL-cOlepfsM-rguCWyQB6K6AtCSibDL-HbiF_sJUKCQFDlTuCQqEy3Klnkcs-seZfcn_j3AHqubtx9V42EEbrqepAzVxodJsd3z1usee5zo/s1600/IMG_0448.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbjJlca9VyrKfFbLGRiUhnm4ca_O1QquMmyL-cOlepfsM-rguCWyQB6K6AtCSibDL-HbiF_sJUKCQFDlTuCQqEy3Klnkcs-seZfcn_j3AHqubtx9V42EEbrqepAzVxodJsd3z1usee5zo/s400/IMG_0448.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For this recipe, I then quartered the artichokes, again with the serrated knife.</td></tr>
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Then wash your hands with soap. Handling artichokes leaves a bitter taste on your skin. This is not a problem unless you then get something tasty on your fingers that you want to lick off. The bitter taste of the artichokes completely ruins that!<br />
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I cooked the artichokes in boiling water til they were tender. A knife inserted into the artichoke stem will tell you when they're cooked through. I let them cool a bit and then removed the prickly parts.<br />
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I chopped up some garlic, grated some Parmesan cheese, and mixed that together with some salt and pepper. I stuffed that mixture in between the leaves. Then grilled them for a bit. The cheese didn't really melt the way I wanted it to. I saved back a couple of the quarters to grill tomorrow; I want to see if they are just as good prepped the day before grilling. So I'll grill them a bit longer tomorrow and/or over a hotter fire. Mine weren't as 'charred' as the ones in the original recipe, although they were very tasty.<br />
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For the salad, I used the Tastefully Simple Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing that I love. Tossed that with some greens, chopped hard boiled egg, and shrimp. I love this salad no matter how many times I eat it!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYToS2P6WR7tof5A9umbR4Yp8j-ZkFsueksudeBihMPaSYm8XjdzWMO1Bb85MvblxZTLXLB2SM-Z9hwrt8JV434Mu-WZa63aHX4mhQrNQN5F7x_4cCicdfqOB5_DJLkmVTzhetYbzOds/s1600/IMG_0461.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimYToS2P6WR7tof5A9umbR4Yp8j-ZkFsueksudeBihMPaSYm8XjdzWMO1Bb85MvblxZTLXLB2SM-Z9hwrt8JV434Mu-WZa63aHX4mhQrNQN5F7x_4cCicdfqOB5_DJLkmVTzhetYbzOds/s400/IMG_0461.e.JPG" width="278" /></a>Salmon Recipe<br />
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Salmon<br />
Roughly 2/3 part soy sauce to 1/3 part brown sugar<br />
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(Jim used about 2/3 cup of soy and 4-5 tablespoons of sugar tonight for a 1/2 lb piece of salmon and it was about 2x what was needed.)<br />
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1 or 2 chopped scallions<br />
1 to 2 mushed garlic cloves<br />
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Mix all ingredients well, in a blender if available. Marinate +/- 2 hours in the fridge.<br />
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Grill temp at about 350. Place salmon fillet skin side down on aluminum foil and cook about 6-7 minutes; then slip a metal spatula between the skin and the salmon to flip. Cook another 4-5 minutes depending on heat and desired doneness (thickness of the salmon may require increasing this time). Remove to platter and keep warm or serve at once.<br />
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And that was our dinner. Pretty simple, quick and easy to prepare, and delicious. We ate it out on the deck, beneath the blooming wisteria. Life is good!<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-35769638297620375492012-05-11T17:33:00.003-07:002012-05-11T17:33:48.959-07:00Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chips<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I wanted to take something in to work today for our monthly staff meeting and decided on a coffee cake. I didn't have all of the ingredients for any of the coffee cake recipes I had on hand, so ended up taking a part of a recipe and making a few substitutions and additions that I hoped would work. It ended up working out great - the streusel topping was perfect, and the cake was moist and delicious. I decided that chocolate chips really don't belong in a coffee cake. Although they tasted fine, good even, in the future I'll leave them out. Maybe blueberries next time?<br />
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<b>Sour Cream Coffee Cake with (or without) Chocolate Chips</b><br />
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Batter:<br />
1 stick (8 T) butter<br />
1-1/2 cup sugar<br />
2 eggs<br />
3 cups flour<br />
1 teas salt<br />
4 teas baking powder<br />
1 cup milk<br />
1 cup sour cream<br />
2 caps worth of vanilla<br />
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)<br />
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Streusel Topping:<br />
1/3 cup flour<br />
4 teas cinnamon <br />
2 cups brown sugar<br />
1 stick (8 T) butter<br />
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray your largest Pyrex or casserole dish with cooking spray or coat it with oil. My pan is 15 x 10, but anything close to that should work. You can also cut this recipe in half and use an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.<br />
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Cream the butter and sugar together. The butter does not have to be soft. Mine was straight from the fridge. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Add in the flour, salt, and baking powder, alternating with the milk and then the sour cream.. I sifted my dry ingredients together before adding them in, but you can probably get away without doing that. Add in the vanilla and then the chocolate chips.<br />
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Spread the batter into your prepared casserole dish.<br />
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Pulse all the streusel topping ingredients in a food processor until crumbly. Spread half over the batter and swirl it in with the tip of a knife. Then spread the remaining topping over the batter.<br />
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Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.<br />
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If you like nuts, spread a cup of chopped nuts over the streusel topping before baking or mix into the batter.<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-61728241789283165872012-04-29T14:46:00.002-07:002012-04-29T14:46:48.949-07:00Chocomint Cookies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I realized the other day that I had pinned so many recipes on <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> that I really needed to get started on making some. So let's start with the desserts! I made a list of all the desserts I had pinned and came up with 104! And that was before the desserts I've pinned since then. If I make two every week...<br />
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Okay, I know that's not gonna happen, but I needed something to take to a potluck on Thursday evening, had limited time this week, and <a href="http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/04/andes-mint-cookies.html?showComment=1323739192245#c8874412180426553846" target="_blank">these</a>, which have been pinned a lot lately and have only four ingredients, looked super easy. <br />
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I sent Jim to the store for the cake mix and the Andes mints. Of course he brought back a different version of the mints, so I didn't think mine would look as nice as the ones pictured over on Six Sisters. I was worried they'd be too green, but in fact they were not green at all. They ended up looking identical except that theirs were smaller so the frosting covered more of the cookie.<br />
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I also experimented with using small squares of Hershey's milk chocolate bar on the cookies in place of the mints, but they didn't melt the same and tore the cookie when trying to spread them. There are probably other candies which would work nicely, and experimenting sure would be tasty!<br />
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I had some Andes baking chips left over from Christmas baking so I tried those on top too. They wanted to roll off the cookie before they melted properly and didn't look as nice. So in the end I used the Andes on all but the few cookies I experimented with. I also tried a couple plain with no frosting. Boring! In fact, even with the Andes, the flavor was all in the frosting and the cookie was a bit dull. So for the second batch, I poured the left-over baking chips right into the batter and YUM! Now we had some minty chocolate yumminess going on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4QRUx1Ysyd6iZ99RXm9tBk-biV46nlceFXuFWYz_Q8UcfmNpHkR5YMKCQhyphenhyphen_nDcUeMhsuOnfF8naSIR7ho-QqNzR_lhGmIEjn2gj4FUI1dkyzO3o8EfsBhWyxtEEgoiQjkWvNiNpIJxI/s1600/IMG_0270.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4QRUx1Ysyd6iZ99RXm9tBk-biV46nlceFXuFWYz_Q8UcfmNpHkR5YMKCQhyphenhyphen_nDcUeMhsuOnfF8naSIR7ho-QqNzR_lhGmIEjn2gj4FUI1dkyzO3o8EfsBhWyxtEEgoiQjkWvNiNpIJxI/s640/IMG_0270.e.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I placed them too far apart; they could have been much closer. This is a batch that didn't have the mint baking chips.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And this is a batch that did have them!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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The recipe doesn't make very many, at least not if you're going to a big potluck, so I ended up making two batches. I meant to count how many I ended up with, but of course in my chocolate-induced coma, I forgot. I also made mine a lot larger than the ones pictured on Pinterest. I used a cookie scoop to portion mine out. I probably had at least 24 per batch and they were about two inches in size.<br />
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One down, 103 to go. Head over to my <a href="http://pinterest.com/gwendalou/just-call-me-when-it-s-ready/" target="_blank">Pinterest recipe board</a> and let me know which dessert you want me to make next!<br />
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<u><b>Chocomint Cookies</b></u><br />
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1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix<br />
2 eggs<br />
1/2 cup oil<br />
1/2 cup (or more!) Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips <br />
Andes Mint candies, unwrapped <br />
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Mix the first four ingredients all together in a bowl and drop or scoop onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.<br />
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Bake at 350 degrees for 6 to 9 minutes, depending on how big your cookies are. Mine were two inches and baked best at exactly 9 minutes. <br />
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As soon as you pull the cookies out of the oven, place an unwrapped Andes mint on top of each cookie. Let it sit for about five minutes til melted and then use a knife or spatula to spread the 'frosting' around on top of the cookie.<br />
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The cookies need to sit for a bit and firm up or they'll fall apart when you try to pick one up and eat it. So try and be patient and wait. <br />
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I made these on Wednesday evening. On Saturday evening they still tasted great. The cookie is very soft and does not go stale, even when left sitting out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLk1i9rKSwv_xLWILaU9nuOOuw9MzzA9wh88unuaKvXHQnhAkEezo21PfxjUvTNVE4iPpzdOlwV30ta3Z3HpPw3XeKIH44WhF08Mv1DYqKnrhQ2fmvrOVy9ts5VBNDrojOZ5mdPZMsxA/s1600/IMG_0196.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkLk1i9rKSwv_xLWILaU9nuOOuw9MzzA9wh88unuaKvXHQnhAkEezo21PfxjUvTNVE4iPpzdOlwV30ta3Z3HpPw3XeKIH44WhF08Mv1DYqKnrhQ2fmvrOVy9ts5VBNDrojOZ5mdPZMsxA/s400/IMG_0196.e.JPG" width="400" /></a>These were super easy and would be a great cookie to make with small children. Can't wait to make them with this precious boy....just as soon as he's old enough to unwrap the candies by himself!Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-71917607221651364892012-04-15T11:39:00.000-07:002012-04-16T11:43:05.873-07:00Minestrone Soup and a Brilliant TipToday is Sunday, and I made minestrone soup even though technically minestrone soup should be reserved for Thursdays. I was inspired by a blog post from <a href="http://willowoodfarm.net/" target="_blank">Willowood Farm</a> listing what they were bringing to market yesterday. I decided I needed some of their kale, which I have never purchased nor cooked with before. (I can now cross 'cooked with kale' off my bucket list.) I had been thinking about minestrone soup, and I know that many recipes for it call for kale, so I figured I'd give that a go. The kale was soooo pretty. I think I'll plant some this year among the flowers. I think this variety may be winter red kale, although some of the pieces looked like rainbow lacinato kale. The variety of the textures and colors is what makes it so pretty.<br />
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To be honest, I don't like the taste of plain raw kale. I only bought it because I like to support our local farmers and our markets, it makes me feel like I'm eating healthier, and it's soooo pretty!<br />
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I also picked up some leeks which looked good, as well as some of their limelight beans. I've not tried this particular variety, but I've had their <a href="http://willowoodfarm.net/rockwellbean.aspx" target="_blank">Rockwell beans</a> and those are excellent. Really excellent. If you live somewhere you can buy these (anywhere that you can get to Whidbey and home again within 12 hours is close enough), rush out to get some and make the recipe on the package. But be prepared to be spoiled for life as you'll never eat processed canned baked beans again without wishing you were eating Georgie's Rockwells instead.<br />
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As I was growing up, we had a restaurant in our town called Shadows. Every night of the week they sold a different soup, which my mom often bought as take-out. Thursday night was Minestrone, and that was my favorite. (Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week, and I think it may be because it was Minestrone Soup Night, although it may be because it's also Grey's Anatomy Night and also used to be Bones Night until just recently. All I know is I really do like Thursdays.) Shadows clearly used the same base in all their soups, and this minestrone was unlike any I've ever had. I've been searching for the recipe online ever since the invention of the internet, but alas, have never come across anything even remotely similar.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWyvMsTjSRMWSGuziSU5EFK5FXKF7pqaqwgGEuI_sO7kNtoJSb5S37FLANNow1I9Kbhnu5tDGK0rTZ1XGJ18DOyjKXYy7XuDt632b0ujVNY6ZjczqPR7IiINqOn1F4o9EkgM0WppGTZU/s1600/IMG_0217.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWyvMsTjSRMWSGuziSU5EFK5FXKF7pqaqwgGEuI_sO7kNtoJSb5S37FLANNow1I9Kbhnu5tDGK0rTZ1XGJ18DOyjKXYy7XuDt632b0ujVNY6ZjczqPR7IiINqOn1F4o9EkgM0WppGTZU/s320/IMG_0217.e.JPG" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
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What stands out in my memory, other than the thickness of the soup, was that it was brown, tasted strongly of Parmesan cheese as in the stuff from the green can, and had really great-tasting white beans. I believe it also had some very small shell type pasta. I'm a big believer in using what's already in the pantry, so I was going to use egg noodles and break them up, but at the last minute, I discovered I did have the exact right amount of small shell pasta, so ended up using that. It obviously was meant to be!<br />
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Guess what! Fake Parmesan cheese no longer comes in a green cardboard can! When you pull off the plastic around
the top, the entire label comes off. I don't know about you, but I'd
rather have my food come in cardboard packaging than plastic.<br />
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And although I really try not to use processed foods (in fact, I'm on a <i>quest</i> to get all packaged processed food out of our pantry), I sent Jim to the store for a can of the green stuff. And I'll freely admit to loving the taste of it. Especially on spaghetti. But let's get back to the minestrone.<br />
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What I really wanted to duplicate was the flavor and thickness of the base. The rest of what went in there was not so important to me. I don't remember potatoes as being in Shadows' minestrone, but as potatoes are a great thickener, I decided to make up a base using the beans and potatoes, along with tomatoes, carrots, and the leeks, and then puree some of it to put back in as a thickener and see where it got me. I would add the kale and pasta at the end. And I might add some cream, although I was trying to make this lactose-free, except for the cheese. Although really, how much lactose is in fake cheese? I would also add in fresh herbs to give an extra layer of flavor beyond what the dried herbs provide. And because I have fresh herbs growing in pots outside our kitchen door and I feel so farm-girl cutting and using home-grown herbs.<br />
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So here's what I did:<br />
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I washed all the produce. We always buy organic produce and I wash it all using produce wash solution purchased at the grocery store. I used my Cuisinart to chop everything, and it was chopped quite small.<br />
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I chopped the onion and sauteed it in the butter to soften. While the onion was cooking, I chopped the celery, then added that to the onion. While that was cooking further, I chopped the green pepper, then added that to the pot. Finally, I chopped the leek (whites and very light green part only) and added that. Cooked it all for another couple minutes and then added the beef broth, beans, chopped potato, chopped carrots, whole tomatoes and tomato paste. Now it's the exact brown color I wanted! I'm feeling very encouraged. In a farm-girl sort of way.<br />
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And here's a very useful tip about canned tomato paste. I used to hate trying to get every last bit out of the can with a rubber spatula. Then I hit upon a great idea. I use a can opener to cut through the lids from both ends of the can. I remove the lid from one end. Then I use the other lid to push the paste out of the can into my pot. It gets almost every last speck out. What's that you say? You've been doing this for years? I don't want to hear it. It was MY idea and it only took me half a decade to come up with it. It's brilliant, don't you think!?!?!?! I wish I could patent this idea and retire to a life of cooking and blogging. And shopping.<br />
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I added the garlic and dried spices, plopped on the lid, and put it in the simmering oven for an hour and half. Then I made an espresso drink and sat down to work on this blog, play spider solitaire and watch Hulu. Don't you just LOVE Hulu? I do. Our kids got us Roku for Christmas, and now we can watch Hulu on the big tv screen. Why anyone bothers to pay for satellite or cable service is beyond me.<br />
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I also whipped up some bread because I had a super easy recipe for baguettes I wanted to try out, and everyone knows that soup needs bread to go with.<br />
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After the hour and a half, I took out a portion of the soup and used my immersion blender to puree it until it was smooth and thick. Then I put that back into the soup pot. During the cooking time, it had gotten a little more red in color than the brown I was going for, but let's face it--taste is more important than color and it was tasting pretty darn good. I added in the rest of the stuff I wanted in there, including a small amount of red wine because--guess what--I had some I needed to use up! And because the soup was so thick, it could stand with a little thinning out. Then I put it back into the simmering oven for another half hour or so.<br />
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The soup was super thick and hearty and didn't really need any cream, but I felt I had to try out a small amount with cream, so I made a separate little bowl and added in a small amount of heavy cream. It thinned it out just enough and brought the color back to what I was going for. Adding in even more of the fake Parmesan got me the flavor I wanted. Success! Possibly using freshly grated Parmesan and adding salt to the recipe would get a similar result, but I didn't want to take any chances. <br />
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Here's the exact recipe:<br />
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<b>Almost Shadows Minestrone Soup</b><br />
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<u>Ingredients</u><br />
4 tablespoons butter<br />
1/2 onion, chopped<br />
5 ribs celery, chopped<br />
1 green pepper, chopped<br />
1 bunch leeks, chopped*<br />
1 qt carton beef broth** <br />
1 14.5 oz can whole peeled tomato***<br />
1 6 oz can tomato paste<br />
1 potato, chopped<br />
3-9 cloves of garlic, depending on size and your taste preference****<br />
50 carrots***** <br />
1 tablespoon dried parsley (trying to use this up or I would not have put it in there)<br />
1 teaspoon dried marjoram<br />
1/2 teaspoon ground oregano (also something I'm trying to use up...husband bought by mistake)<br />
3 bay leaves<br />
1 zucchini, chopped or sliced<br />
1/2 bunch (2 - 3 cups) kale (or more), cut or torn into bite-size pieces<br />
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (or more, to taste), either fresh shredded or the 'green can'<br />
8 oz uncooked pasta<br />
1 tablespoon or more fresh oregano<br />
1 tablespoon or more fresh marjoram<br />
1 tablespoon or more rosemary<br />
1/4 cup fresh parsley (I used cilantro cuz I had some I needed to use up)<br />
1/3 cup red wine <br />
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*I got my leeks at the farmer's market, and it's early spring, so they were small. I used only the whites and light green parts. There was maybe 1/2 cup worth after being chopped quite small. If you don't want to use leeks, just use more regular onion.<br />
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**You could use veggie broth or chicken broth. You could also use bouillon cubes and make your own broth. Or you could use water, but then you might want to add meat to this soup to give it added flavor. I think sausage would be very good in this soup. I'm a big believer in using what you have on hand. The more you use what you already have, the faster you go through things and so the fresher your ingredients are. Ideally you would use homemade broth you had in your freezer, which I do have, but there's that pesky <i>quest</i> I'm on...<br />
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***Again, I just happened to have a can of this I wanted to use up. If I was buying specifically for this soup, I would probably get diced tomatoes. Or if I was lucky enough to live somewhere I could get fresh tomatoes that actually tasted like tomatoes are supposed to taste, I would definitely use those. But here in the PNW, we make do. And most of us have forgotten what real tomatoes even taste like.<br />
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****Our garlic is from last summer's harvest and is all over the map as far as size. We save the big cloves to replant, so all I ever have on hand are small and medium-ish sized garlic. I used 4 small cloves and 3 medium-largish cloves. It came out to about 3 garlic-press-fuls. I love garlic and never can get too much. I always get bored peeling the garlic way before I get to the point of thinking I have enough in the recipe. Once I bought a jar of the pre-mushed garlic. Very dangerous as you can so easily keep adding spoonful after spoonful. It's really best to stick with the kind you have to manually peel and press/chop yourself.<br />
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*****Before you fall off your chair reading <u>50</u> carrots, these are very small. The package says "Earthbound Farm Organic Mini Peeled Carrots" on it, and mini they are. They are varying sizes and some are mini mini. I just counted out 50 and it looked about right, seemed like a nice round number, and in they went. I really like carrots in soup. You decide how much you like carrots in soup and add accordingly.<br />
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<u>Directions</u><br />
Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Saute the onions for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add in the celery and saute another couple minutes. Add in the green pepper and saute another couple minutes. Finally, add in the leeks and saute one or two more minutes.<br />
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Pour in the broth. Then add in the tomato products, the potato, garlic, carrots, and dried spices. Bring to a low boil and then set either in a simmering oven or on a simmering burner for 1-1/2 hours.<br />
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Remove the 3 bay leaves and discard. Take out about 3 cups of the soup and blend it either with an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food processor. Be careful because when mixing hot liquids at high speeds, you can have an 'explosion.' You might get burned, and you'll most definitely have a big mess to clean up. After it's pureed, put it back into your soup. The soup should now be pretty thick. Add in all the rest of the ingredients except the pepper and additional cheese, and return to the oven or simmering burner for another 30 to 45 minutes.<br />
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To serve, grind some pepper over the soup, pass additional Parmesan cheese, and enjoy with homemade bread and a glass of wine!<br />
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This made a nice-size pot of soup. The pot is a 5 liter size and was about three-quarters filled with soup. It would definitely feed a family of four or five, and you'd likely have leftovers.<br />
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If you want to make extra to freeze, freeze it after the initial hour and a half and then add in the remaining ingredients on the day you are serving. I find that pasta in soups becomes very mushy when freezing and reheating.<br />
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The recipe for the baguettes can be found at <a href="http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2010/04/baguette-2" target="_blank">The Sisters Café</a>, where you can find loads of other yummy recipes as well.<br />
<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-85865708874657611592012-04-07T21:22:00.001-07:002012-04-07T21:22:53.476-07:00New Hat and an Apology to BarbIt all started with just a brief pop in to one of my favorite Langley shops, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQt1ESdWN3I" target="_blank">The Cottage</a>. They have super cute clothes and have been a motivation for me losing weight. Having finally gotten down to normal store sizes, but not yet willing to spend money on clothes in a 'between' size, I decided to just quickly stop in to see what they had for some further motivation. I wasn't even going to take my purse in since I didn't plan to spend any money.<br />
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Then I remembered I was out of wine and needed my weekly bottle for my nightly glass of wine. I can pretty much make a bottle of wine last the whole week if I have just one small glass per night. So I grabbed my purse with the intention of hitting the grocery store across the street after I was through looking around The Cottage.<br />
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First I found a cute little peasant blouse on sale from $28 to $19. I mean, who can resist that? Plus it was something I could wear for a long time, even as I continue to lose weight. The owner of the store has a collection of very cute summery straw hats that she had out on spring display. After assuring me she did not want to sell any of them, they were just for spring display, I was almost ready to pay for the blouse and scoot out the door when I saw another hat, the cutest one in the store! I could tell she was getting a little annoyed with my incessant pestering, "Is this hat for sale?," "How about this one?," "Not this one either?"<br />
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So I very cautiously inquired, "I don't suppose that one's for sale?," and lo and behold, she said it was! (This is why it pays to keep asking.) Not even daring to hope it was a hat I could afford, I got it off the shelf to try on. Right away I knew it was out of my price range when I saw the Daria Wheatley label, and sure enough, it was $250! Luckily, it did not fit my big head, not even close. The owner said one of the nice things about Daria Wheatley is she makes her hats adjustable and showed me how to make it larger. It fit perfectly. Oh dear. Sooooo cute! Sooooo out of my price range. To be honest, even $25 would be out of my price range at the moment.<br />
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I told the owner I loved it, could not afford it, but maybe I would save up for it. (Or win the lottery.) She said she was willing to lower the price since she had had it for a very long time and felt it was time for the hat to find a good home. I'm thinking, "You could lower the price to just about anything and I still wouldn't be able to afford it," when she offered it for $50. !!! How could I not buy this hat? It was obviously meant to be mine and had just been waiting in her shop all these years, unnoticed by everyone, including me, until the very moment when I was thinking how much I needed an Easter bonnet.<br />
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I purchased the hat and ran home with it to admire myself in the mirror for quite some time before ransacking my closet for something to wear it with. I will have to make do with beige slacks and a light blue sweater. I have one dress that it would look smashing with (the dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner) but it's still way too small and plus is quite out of style, not to mention too youthful for my current advanced age. Perhaps one day I'll give the dress and the hat away to some deserving young girl, but in the meantime, the hat is mine and I can't wait to wear it on Easter!<br />
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So that is the new hat part of my story, and you're probably wondering about the apology to Barb. Well, after buying the peasant blouse and the hat, I could definitely not afford to go across the street for my weekly bottle of wine. I figured the hat was going to cost me 5 weeks of wine. But I've gone 5 weeks without wine many times and I was willing to trade wine for cute hat. And, in fact, I did make it through Friday night just fine with no wine.<br />
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But then this afternoon I was rummaging around in the pantry for something and stumbled upon a forgotten bottle of wine I had purchased after a wine tasting at the <a href="http://www.celebrityclassic.net/vinoamore/2010_vinoamore.html" target="_blank">local wine store</a> and put away to enjoy with my friend Barb the next time she came to visit. And I just <i><u>could</u> <u>not</u></i><i> <u>resist</u></i><i>.</i><br />
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So I'm sorry, Barb, that you're not here to enjoy the wine with me or admire me in my new hat. Neither is near as much fun without you, but I must draw pleasure where I can. And you can bet I'm toasting you with each sip I take. Happy Easter!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXeBwCkegOU-f6mGyoAbVR6pXOACUH4FwvZgbybnHPfgv2lth3vPb5K0un_f8LwzXYxRO5-y1oKdVUMlnPdfwp-JRbqvEdVt4j5mj8nRWJpP0NH5dX-01p6jQbMIT4tgFUkcPbWwpA3PE/s1600/IMG_0109.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXeBwCkegOU-f6mGyoAbVR6pXOACUH4FwvZgbybnHPfgv2lth3vPb5K0un_f8LwzXYxRO5-y1oKdVUMlnPdfwp-JRbqvEdVt4j5mj8nRWJpP0NH5dX-01p6jQbMIT4tgFUkcPbWwpA3PE/s640/IMG_0109.e.JPG" width="500" /></a></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-46810747911697955332012-04-03T18:16:00.000-07:002012-04-03T18:16:13.945-07:00Saucy Asian MeatballsI sure am having fun pinning all sorts of delicious-looking foods over on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>. Saturday I decided I needed to make one of the recipes I'd pinned. So I looked through a few to decide what I was in the mood for, picked four, and then let Jim have the final say. Being a meatball guy, he picked Saucy Asian Meatballs.<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Saucy Asian Meatballs</span><br />
<br />
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and have a pan ready. I used a jelly roll pan.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzc8yJ6x7A0JKeBULAFivK6M0_GPPrsGo49BQgI7zQ0nZRrEEiwpXgXTU1rA1syFR14sqTYHMowpSLPzJlDawEsm1ioL4p_oUaHQ7bVHzwi0WcJKW6atVWtht7g9XIZofpiuEEzyDaao/s1600/IMG_0066.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZzc8yJ6x7A0JKeBULAFivK6M0_GPPrsGo49BQgI7zQ0nZRrEEiwpXgXTU1rA1syFR14sqTYHMowpSLPzJlDawEsm1ioL4p_oUaHQ7bVHzwi0WcJKW6atVWtht7g9XIZofpiuEEzyDaao/s320/IMG_0066.e.JPG" width="320" /></a><em>Meatball Ingredients:</em><br />
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">2 lbs. ground
beef</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">2 tsp. sesame oil</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">1/2 rounded tsp. ground ginger</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">2 eggs</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">4 cloves minced garlic</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;">5 thinly-sliced green
onions</li>
</ul>
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Mix all of the above. I find it easier to mix everything except the beef first and then add in the beef. But I always forget and put the meat in the bowl first. So this time I pushed the beef off to the side and mixed the other ingredients together with a fork, and then used my hands to mix the beef in. I had my baking pan all ready to go, so I just formed the meatballs while my hands were still yucky.<br />
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I used a cookie scoop to form the meatballs. It was one of the Pampered Chef scoops and is about 1" in diameter. I got 40 meatballs. They were pretty crowded in the pan but were not touching each other.<br />
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I poured one cup of beef bouillon over the meatballs and baked them at 400 degrees for a little over 10 minutes. I baked them on a rack at the bottom of the roasting oven for the first 10 minutes and then took the rack out and baked them directly on the floor of the roasting oven for another 3 or 4 minutes. At that point my instant read thermometer was reading in the 155 range for all the meatballs I tested, so I pulled them out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOLSsE3US5kMtsU8bu4XMxx03S8-iES1mQlK-tib7P3tqULNNIOUga9zQWWiDX6wApr5JOQFT7hDUppjTdd6sRde5bsQeuUvKe9TKxgG6Il03hGbrSFVNtAOoU5jZJjTccVvoqpOzng9M/s1600/IMG_0069.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOLSsE3US5kMtsU8bu4XMxx03S8-iES1mQlK-tib7P3tqULNNIOUga9zQWWiDX6wApr5JOQFT7hDUppjTdd6sRde5bsQeuUvKe9TKxgG6Il03hGbrSFVNtAOoU5jZJjTccVvoqpOzng9M/s320/IMG_0069.e.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
While they were baking, I made the sauce.<br />
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<em>Asian Sauce Ingredients:</em><br />
<ul>
<li>1 jar hoisin sauce</li>
<li>1/4 cup rice vinegar</li>
<li>2 garlic cloves, minced</li>
<li>2 Tbsp. soy sauce</li>
<li>1 tsp. sesame oil</li>
<li>1 tsp. ground ginger</li>
<li>1 Tbsp. roasted sesame seeds </li>
</ul>
Boy, I love the smell of sesame oil. I could smell that stuff all day long. Anyway, just mix all the above together. Very easy! In fact, this entire recipe came together very quickly and can be made ahead, so I'll definitely be doing this one again for parties. You can either use the sauce to dip the meatballs into or you can dress all the meatballs with the sauce and serve them over rice or noodles. My husband had his over noodles. I save carbs for special occasions, but if I were going to eat these over rice, I would have them over sticky rice - it would be delicious.<br />
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I'm planning a lady's luncheon in the near future and am thinking about serving chinese cicken salad. These will be perfect as one of the appetizers. I'm guessing you could easily make the meatballs ahead and freeze them. Although honestly they were so easy to make, the most time-consuming thing was forming the meatballs.<br />
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Give them a try - I think you'll be pleased with them. I couldn't stop eating them and had to take some to my co-workers at the theater just to get them out of the house!<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-5502667549984021312012-02-22T16:02:00.002-08:002012-02-22T17:27:51.122-08:00Any Way You Slice It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For quite some time, I've been wanting to have a pizza party. Some friends were coming to visit last weekend, and this seemed like the perfect excuse!<br />
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I sent out the invites via an email attachment. I love clip art.<br />
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I then headed down to <a href="http://archiemcpheeseattle.com/" target="_blank">Archie McPhee</a> in Seattle to pick up some fake mustaches for everyone to wear.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ3j7ZciWGDobaSxTygfjd61wzF-TAb8Op4nh9yS_iL91bYPHMTzNxKIphuzgmurGa9uC9fioKD382rHvrYZfKNT01_EYn8g4o-JEkVQ3Bq9Xmn5M7uwyO0EDdr4xgP7y4Q92kh9x4n0/s1600/IMG_9646.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ3j7ZciWGDobaSxTygfjd61wzF-TAb8Op4nh9yS_iL91bYPHMTzNxKIphuzgmurGa9uC9fioKD382rHvrYZfKNT01_EYn8g4o-JEkVQ3Bq9Xmn5M7uwyO0EDdr4xgP7y4Q92kh9x4n0/s400/IMG_9646.e.JPG" width="376" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A couple of the guests already had their own mustache and didn't need one. Guess which guest here is wearing the fake one!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwasLayTczUzTsOCQNNEx_Si1K4HpKYl7n9wV1rY3CdPu4-Mo5y_HJ3RI7wBS78w0bQyR3Usf2BGizSeo4Jv_SRKkLsbXb9XHOEJmqfONXQf1ooHZ97BUhNrNomVwq_9oEOw7yXpf1Xk/s1600/IMG_9713.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwasLayTczUzTsOCQNNEx_Si1K4HpKYl7n9wV1rY3CdPu4-Mo5y_HJ3RI7wBS78w0bQyR3Usf2BGizSeo4Jv_SRKkLsbXb9XHOEJmqfONXQf1ooHZ97BUhNrNomVwq_9oEOw7yXpf1Xk/s200/IMG_9713.e.JPG" width="200" /></a>I wanted to get chef hats for Jim and myself to wear, and while perusing
the chef hats at Archie McPhee, I came across this fabulous must-have pizza hat! Jim and I
argued over who would get to wear it. Can you tell who won?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7r4OGB2HNfk0QAQedzm1xiCbQ6lC10_2JxRg-jMIyTj8i0Kk-J54oSeX44jvB0bxEYjFP6cJU761ygHDLnLd8Abt61gFPGrw4PuAjTmBWZ8g89JJnV4h7hRbMkB_8tYsQoB8zKYV1nIw/s1600/photo2.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7r4OGB2HNfk0QAQedzm1xiCbQ6lC10_2JxRg-jMIyTj8i0Kk-J54oSeX44jvB0bxEYjFP6cJU761ygHDLnLd8Abt61gFPGrw4PuAjTmBWZ8g89JJnV4h7hRbMkB_8tYsQoB8zKYV1nIw/s320/photo2.e.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK558kr6PqDk27P6v5tHSsswBZerOASwk3y54xUUWQNfU60AF0pvgUeDcBAIlkLlVxjSk3uDXn8WK06zCCaQgJT6uNmaCLqNqBv6JjgQdaSXgSAVa_6KDdWGvv9g3kns6ueQ4urSXG9Dw/s1600/IMG_9654.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK558kr6PqDk27P6v5tHSsswBZerOASwk3y54xUUWQNfU60AF0pvgUeDcBAIlkLlVxjSk3uDXn8WK06zCCaQgJT6uNmaCLqNqBv6JjgQdaSXgSAVa_6KDdWGvv9g3kns6ueQ4urSXG9Dw/s200/IMG_9654.e.JPG" width="195" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No, honey, that hat does not make your ears look big. Really.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyA8wZyI831dEzeD-G6ibRrwFABr1kH__9lAExZ2kaFX82OwfT-c4HL35NENUqYXoQ6_15Wwozfd4st3k1N9lN41sCBrk1C1J-BeUAsLJPzMJ9XeP-94hsGkxXD155iEgudU97vRW9Y6c/s1600/IMG_9718.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyA8wZyI831dEzeD-G6ibRrwFABr1kH__9lAExZ2kaFX82OwfT-c4HL35NENUqYXoQ6_15Wwozfd4st3k1N9lN41sCBrk1C1J-BeUAsLJPzMJ9XeP-94hsGkxXD155iEgudU97vRW9Y6c/s200/IMG_9718.e.JPG" width="200" /></a><br />
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I also found some cute mustache charms, bought two, and took them to our local jewelry store, <a href="http://www.lindsjewelry.com/" target="_blank">Linds</a>, where the nice woman there put them onto earring wires for me.<br />
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Now that my outfit was complete, I just had to figure out a good dough recipe plus dessert. I've been experimenting with dough recipes for years now. I won't bore you with all the details, but I wanted one dough I could bake in our oven at a lower temperature (about 425 degrees) and another I could bake on the <a href="http://www.biggreenegg.com/" target="_blank">Big Green Egg</a> at much higher temps, 800+. I ended up making about 5 dough recipes. One of the guests, John, is also into homemade pizza and he offered to bring some dough. So we had plenty of dough!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wqOfMedk1MurUuYPQfqw1k2U0or3_vN_U-Jy6mquTtQgzb3lP2pIVTa4XV_skQDBaYXPrYZkEITlh9qaNFhv2WhA5xqxgVV3MKlMqsdD26pF60FebBP_4miPvz-9U4U_P17ODyo6ACU/s1600/photo5.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wqOfMedk1MurUuYPQfqw1k2U0or3_vN_U-Jy6mquTtQgzb3lP2pIVTa4XV_skQDBaYXPrYZkEITlh9qaNFhv2WhA5xqxgVV3MKlMqsdD26pF60FebBP_4miPvz-9U4U_P17ODyo6ACU/s400/photo5.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John likes pizza almost as much as I do!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
John also surprised me by bringing along a flashing neon pizza sign, which we set up outside on the porch near the Eggs. I unfortunately do not have a photo of it, but it was way too much fun and is now on my list of things I really don't need but must have anyway.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P646RZqr66JGKoLCOrCZEr87yzZTgw7rlShvy3YVfmVtSNbp-zJ-cwLjjaht1ba34qa5EdaMsE90Rj3SeW_1GWUNNZWSdm0eI9mVjZ0RC4gC2tGVoGf1x9MyepEy8eSTIfpYw8cT2Zc/s1600/IMG_9638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9P646RZqr66JGKoLCOrCZEr87yzZTgw7rlShvy3YVfmVtSNbp-zJ-cwLjjaht1ba34qa5EdaMsE90Rj3SeW_1GWUNNZWSdm0eI9mVjZ0RC4gC2tGVoGf1x9MyepEy8eSTIfpYw8cT2Zc/s400/IMG_9638.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flower arrangement for the kitchen windowsill</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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To start things off, I made up an antipasto platter of proscuitto, sopressata, roasted red peppers, marinated olives, assorted cheeses, bread sticks and crackers and had a red wine to go with that. As people arrived, they helped themselves to the appetizers, a mustache, and found their personalized wine glasses.<br />
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I started up the Eggs an hour before guests were due to arrive so that the pizza stones would be plenty hot. John also brought an infared thermometer (this goes on the list of things I absolutely do need and must have), and we were able to check the temps inside the house oven and the pizza stones on the Eggs. While the dome temps on the Eggs were in the 700 to 800 range, the pizza stones were closer to 650, but we went with that anyway. I have to say, this party would not have been nearly as much fun if John hadn't been there. He really knows his pizza stuff and did a lot of the organizing and work. It would have been a lot harder for just one person to run everything since we had pizzas going on two Eggs as well as in the oven.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmBBJZtW69PWKItHUTN5K80d09Ufot1iZHZnTOcoNYpjcUdbatTCb_hSt8Wb_2G4GElWdMUInVCAPDR2AI2BeB4uLDUUP9cUr3USl5txzytWcVvPMWCmyX7JgkoeQ9RJGircE0-fEWQI/s1600/IMG_9645.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmmBBJZtW69PWKItHUTN5K80d09Ufot1iZHZnTOcoNYpjcUdbatTCb_hSt8Wb_2G4GElWdMUInVCAPDR2AI2BeB4uLDUUP9cUr3USl5txzytWcVvPMWCmyX7JgkoeQ9RJGircE0-fEWQI/s400/IMG_9645.e.JPG" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing with dough is fun!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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We started bringing out the dough and one by one people put their toppings on and we baked up the pies. We then cut the pies up into enough pieces so that everyone could have a sample and we served it up with tastes of the wine that each couple brought to accompany their pizzas.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dsM0szv99uYp3pOShVpDbRFUT3Jb08xZnq9QNf5Y7HLRFyHt612KA7PIaHlCpx2kc_kD3cfUC7OtGb27b_1tQsvox2X-YFILqQfLh6_O6FGE014HEPYT0c_jFBeXTk5wQn7T3oyGGo8/s1600/IMG_9644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1dsM0szv99uYp3pOShVpDbRFUT3Jb08xZnq9QNf5Y7HLRFyHt612KA7PIaHlCpx2kc_kD3cfUC7OtGb27b_1tQsvox2X-YFILqQfLh6_O6FGE014HEPYT0c_jFBeXTk5wQn7T3oyGGo8/s640/IMG_9644.JPG" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelli and Rob went first, and I have to say, they set the bar pretty high. All the pizzas measured up though - it was pretty impressive what people came up with.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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There were a lot of artichoke hearts, but everyone did something different with them. The pizza varieties included:<br />
<ul>
<li>artichoke hearts, tomatoes, pine nuts, basil, olives, red sauce and mozzarella</li>
<li>artichoke hearts, tomatoes, pine nnuts, basil, olives, pesto sauce and mozzarella</li>
<li>mushroom, pepperoni, red sauce and cheese</li>
<li>artichoke hearts, sausage, mushrooms, red pepper, red sauce and mozzarella</li>
<li>artichoke hearts, chicken, olives, peppers, tomatoes, red sauce, and mozzarella</li>
<li>caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and Italian white cheese</li>
<li>marinated artichoke hearts, bacon, fresh grated parmesan, red sauce and cheese</li>
</ul>
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For the red sauce, I used my homemade roasted tomato sauce that I make every summer and freeze in small containers. I like a very basic pizza sauce. I would normally use canned tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes and then add some garlic, onion powder, oregano, and marjoram. Basil if I had any. When I roast my tomatoes in the summer, I also add into the roasting pan garlic, onions, peppers, and basil. All that gets roasted and then put through a food mill. So pretty much all the stuff I want in the pizza sauce is already in the tomato sauce and I just use it as is. I typically do not reheat the sauce as it's going to be cooked on the pizza, no need to heat it further. And with red pizza sauce, less is more - you really don't need much.<br />
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As the evening wore on and more of the wine was sampled, some mustaches began to slip while others defied gravity. <br />
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We ended the evening with chocolate chip cookies and a frozen dessert I adapted from a recipe for Sgropino from the book Fabulous Parties. It was sooooo easy to make and delicious too.<br />
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<b>Sgroppino *, Gwen's Version</b><br />
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4-1/2 cups heavy cream<br />
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice<br />
2-1/4 cups sugar<br />
grated zest from 3 lemons<br />
Prosecco or other sparkling white wine, chilled<br />
blueberries to garnish<br />
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Mix the cream, lemon juice (I used the juice from the 3 lemons I zested and then topped off the measuring cup with a little bit of bottled lemon juice), sugar and lemon zest. I mixed this in a mixing bowl and then poured it into a shallow casserole dish, but there's no reason I could not have mixed it right in the final casserole dish, which I will probably do next time.<br />
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Cover and freeze overnight or for however many days until you need it. I used a casserole dish with a glass lid. What I did was put saran wrap over the dish and then put the lid on. I wasn't sure the lid alone would give it a tight enough seal and I didn't want any freezer burn or ice crystals.<br />
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When ready to serve, dish it up in small serving dishes (I used a cookie scoop and made little round balls), pour some of the prosecco over each serving, and top with a few blueberries, or whatever other berry you'd like to use. Depending on how hard this mixture freezes up for you, you may want to let it soften a little bit before scooping into the serving bowls. But pouring the prosecco over it softens it up quickly, so the harder it is when you scoop, the better.<br />
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We had about 15 people at this party and this made plenty. I even have some left over. <br />
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* I have no clue how to even pronounce that. Need to make up a new name for this dessert!<br />
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Everyone said they had a good time. I hope so because I thought it was
one of the funnest parties we've ever had, and I definitely plan to do
it again!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvzm_9P7w6H-U2N6yfpYOwsEX1O0GYLfZhNs2t_c1BrO1zhnUTEec9trIBWp157q6iiaMIIKYafJXVqQOleru6dtMqsqx8d5znTCnWwjgGXguMcYTboalLANtpeadmymTB6EdB6CEQSM/s1600/photo3.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJvzm_9P7w6H-U2N6yfpYOwsEX1O0GYLfZhNs2t_c1BrO1zhnUTEec9trIBWp157q6iiaMIIKYafJXVqQOleru6dtMqsqx8d5znTCnWwjgGXguMcYTboalLANtpeadmymTB6EdB6CEQSM/s640/photo3.e.JPG" width="595" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My #1 pizza son Jesse and his girlfriend Melanie making their own pizza out of all the left-over ingredients</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Pizza Dough for a home oven (bake at 425 - 550 degrees, the hotter, the better)</b><br />
<br />
1/2 cup warm water<br />
1 envelope (about 1-1/2 teas) instant yeast<br />
1-1/4 cup room temp water<br />
2 T olive oil<br />
4 cups (22 oz) bread flour, plus more for dusting<br />
1-1/2 teas kosher salt<br />
<br />
Sprinkle the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water and let stand til dissolved.<br />
<br />
Mix
the flour and salt and then start adding the liquids. Start with the
water/yeast mixture, then add in the oil, and then slowly add in the
remaining water until the dough begins to form a ball. You may not need
to use the entire 1-1/4 cup of remaining water.<br />
<br />
Let sit
for 15-20 minutes, then knead either by hand or with a dough hook to
form a smooth ball. Put the dough into an oiled bowl and cover. Let
rise on the counter for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. At that point, you can either
use it straight away or put it in the fridge overnight. Pizza dough
oftens improves from sitting overnight in the fridge, so if you have
time, try and make it a day ahead. Makes enough for 2 to 3 pizzas,
depending on the size.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Pizza Dough to use with high cooking temps (650 is good, 800 is better)</b><br />
<br />
This recipe is adapted from the <a href="http://pizzamaking.com/">pizzamaking.com</a> website. There are a lot of recipes on that site and some of them get pretty complicated.<br />
<br />
<br />
22 oz flour (use regular flour, bread flour, 00 Italian flour, or a mixture)<br />
13 oz water<br />
1/2 teas instant yeast<br />
2 teas kosher salt<br />
1.5 T oil<br />
2-1/4 teas sugar or honey<br />
<br />
I used my Kitchen Aid mixer with a dough hook to mix this all up.<br />
<br />
Mix
together the salt, sugar (or honey), and water. Add in the oil.
Gradually add in the flour and yeast on low speed, using a spatula if
necessary to scrape down the sides of the bowl so that the flour is
directed into the path of the dough hook and forms a rough ball. Adjust
the quantity of flour so that you end up with a slightly tacky dough.<br />
<br />
<br />
Let it sit 15-20 minutes.<br />
<br />
<br />
You can then knead by machine for 2 minutes at the slow speed.
Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead for an additional 5 to 6
minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand to form a
smooth round ball. Divide the dough into 3 equal parts, wipe the three
dough balls with a small amount of oil, and place in a bowl or other
suitable container. Cover and refrigerate for 24-48 hours.<br />
<br />
<br />
When you're ready to make pizza remove the dough from the fridge,
place it on a work surface, lightly dust it with a bit of flour, and
cover with a sheet of oiled plastic wrap. Let the dough warm up for 1
to 2 hours or until the dough reaches an internal temp of 60 to 65
degrees.<br />
<br />
<br />
Dust a pizza peel with semolina flour and shape one of the dough
balls into an approximately 12-inch round. If you're worried about
sticking, you can shape the dough on a piece of parchment and slide the
parchment right onto your pizza stone to bake it. The parchment will
slide right out from under the pizza in a minute or two.<br />
<br />
<br />
Bake until the crust is nicely browned and the cheese is melted.
The baking time will vary depending on your baking temps. Obviously
the hotter the oven temp, the faster the pizza bakes. The quicker you
can get your pizzas baked up, the more tender the crust will be.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you are grilling your pizzas, you'll need to buffer your pizza
from the direct coals. When I cook on the Egg, I use the platesetter
feet down, the three little Egg spacers on top of that, and then the
pizza stone on top of the spacers. Some people even add an additional
pizza stone in there, but I have not found that necessary. If you're
having problems with the crust burning, parchment will help somewhat
with that. <br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-77880603093448343012012-01-25T22:47:00.000-08:002012-03-04T23:13:17.774-08:00Wild About BooksEarlier in 2011 we found out we were going to be grandparents. Of course I had to plan a baby shower for the mom-to-be, and of course it had to be book-themed. One of my cousins had given my younger sister a book shower when Jan was pregnant, and it was the best, most fun baby shower I've ever been to.<br />
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I love books, love to read, have an extensive children's book collection myself started when I was a child and continued to this day, and reading to our own children was one of my favorite activities to do with the kids. I've spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours reading to our children and have always looked forward to the day when I would read to a grandchild.<br />
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Our mom-to-be, Justine, had decided to decorate the baby's room in a safari theme, so I felt that would be a great theme for the shower. There just happens to be a children's book called <i>Wild About Books</i>, and a theme was born!<br />
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Safari stuff was in all the stores last year, so I slowly gathered things to use as decor at the shower, knowing that afterwards I could send it all home with Justine for the baby's nursery. Over the course of the year, I found myself in California, Oregon, and throughout Washington, and believe me when I say no baby store went unexplored for safari-themed items!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-b0uFIGklRsMewp_bgeM1TqV7FKR6K_X8k97CtKluPSZHFTTycs78uIIJzpDYkPKUZmTj-9pKwiBbFpSYC6o-V5ctdsEXBrCw708R9rlk_XZRYaFF-53-YGtpHn1xJWmWF_KyjPD8F-U/s1600/DSCN3111.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-b0uFIGklRsMewp_bgeM1TqV7FKR6K_X8k97CtKluPSZHFTTycs78uIIJzpDYkPKUZmTj-9pKwiBbFpSYC6o-V5ctdsEXBrCw708R9rlk_XZRYaFF-53-YGtpHn1xJWmWF_KyjPD8F-U/s400/DSCN3111.e.JPG" width="400" /></a>I had a blast doing the invites. Invitations are one of my favorite parts of party planning. It's usually early enough in the process that you have lots of time to think about what you want to do, look for papers and embellishments, etc., without feeling frazzled and out of time!<br />
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It was also my first time using Zazzle for custom-made stamps, and the few dollars extra it cost me was well worth it in terms of how delighted I was with the results! I'm sure there were people who didn't even notice them, but I thought they were the most fun ever.<br />
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Of course I had my menu going early on and tweaked it as time went by. For this party I was guided by the book theme. I wanted each food item to correspond to a children's book. It was surprisingly easy to find books to go with the foods I wanted. Once I decided to serve olives, I just googled "children's book about olives," and voila, there it was!<br />
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Although I ended up not using it when I ran out of time the day of the party, I even found a book about beets - Edgar, Allen, and Poe and the Tell-Tale Beets. I didn't buy the book, but it looks like it's actually quite entertaining, and I plan to get it one of these days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjloc1pkcAjQfeymrw_FXsEflQWrVRb2-mhgOmlxFttQRpb3BOTiX6ezssqRmBWnDiRIqnxoX_l2rJmsoUowuT0ZkQ_wxK-JXAoZjVDERX_xDqHl4unWwgPg9975lrhDnihc26VY2aMFCA/s1600/IMG_8634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjloc1pkcAjQfeymrw_FXsEflQWrVRb2-mhgOmlxFttQRpb3BOTiX6ezssqRmBWnDiRIqnxoX_l2rJmsoUowuT0ZkQ_wxK-JXAoZjVDERX_xDqHl4unWwgPg9975lrhDnihc26VY2aMFCA/s400/IMG_8634.JPG" width="266" /></a>I downloaded photos of all the books that went with my menu, photocopied two copies of each book, glued them onto skewers of varying heights, and stuck them into pieces of See's Candy. After the party, I saved the little signs and got to eat the See's. Decorations you can eat after the party - does it get any better than that?<br />
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Here is the final menu, along with the corresponding children's book: <br />
<br />
In the kitchen I served Blueberry Lemonade (<i>Blueberries for Sal</i>).<br />
<br />
On the dining room buffet table:<br />
<br />
Applesauce meatballs - <i>Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs</i><br />
Crudite platter - <i>The Vegetable Alphabet Book</i><br />
Turkey wraps (purchased at Costco) - <i>The Tortilla Factory</i><br />
Hot artichoke dip served with sliced baguettes - <i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Rosemary nuts and Thyme nuts - <i>Nuts to You</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Egg salad tea sandwiches - <i>Sheep Out to Eat</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Fancy grilled cheese sandwiches (made with peaches, fig jam, and La Tur Cheese - these were the surprise hit of the party foodwise) - <i>Grilled Cheese, Please!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Assorted cheese platter - <i>Heidi</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">ABT dip with Scoop Corn Chips - <i>Don't Forget the Bacon</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Peanuts in their shells - <i>Peanut</i></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtGiMOdU8ihj8dh7MfC5Aeg3ldBDapz9vk0LIEEec_u_UYnq7DTwd3jcJqzNeT2Io2xdpjx-ej8MGytTBHgN2fMdFR8jw9FRtHY-XOc5v7Iu9Fce3QpD3kRYd3nK7YMsdmI6MZ4g1XVM/s1600/IMG_8638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOtGiMOdU8ihj8dh7MfC5Aeg3ldBDapz9vk0LIEEec_u_UYnq7DTwd3jcJqzNeT2Io2xdpjx-ej8MGytTBHgN2fMdFR8jw9FRtHY-XOc5v7Iu9Fce3QpD3kRYd3nK7YMsdmI6MZ4g1XVM/s320/IMG_8638.JPG" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Plum pork with plum dipping sauce - <i>The Three Little Pigs </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Marinated olives - <i>I Have an Olive Tree </i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><i></i>And in honor of my son, Jesse, the baby's father and a big pizza lover: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Pizza breads (from Sanitary Bakery in California, frozen, and driven home to Washington on dry ice) - <i>Pete's a Pizza</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><i></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglra1xWt16avn_4hpq1QxVao6uBho0shnloYLzxDMrMwJqA1YtFGg6NqRCmRAcOq6IuEwCJX2gusz9_86XhJ8oGBdyzHajP_AuhoGbyUCbK-nlRXRTeMzOVuO9CsgF4h1Mhqi9yhY3F-8/s1600/IMG_8648.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglra1xWt16avn_4hpq1QxVao6uBho0shnloYLzxDMrMwJqA1YtFGg6NqRCmRAcOq6IuEwCJX2gusz9_86XhJ8oGBdyzHajP_AuhoGbyUCbK-nlRXRTeMzOVuO9CsgF4h1Mhqi9yhY3F-8/s320/IMG_8648.JPG" width="213" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">On the dessert buffet: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Chocolate chip cookies and frosted brownies - If You Give a Mouse a Cookie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">See's Candy - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Strawberries with Kaluha dip - The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Raspberries and blackberries over goat cheese and honey - Jamberry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsLbBFRC1Ircd8WEpEb6DMUaXgZuMoPvNS_SBBRFGpTL9NIxk4jTniZw1aC01c2wQ9bbLf2HEzCOl7P_uchaxJS-dZq4MbOW_766_HqAsq8m3Kx37Vv8vDoHtal-aMv0YG71oTf7HQoM/s1600/IMG_8629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVsLbBFRC1Ircd8WEpEb6DMUaXgZuMoPvNS_SBBRFGpTL9NIxk4jTniZw1aC01c2wQ9bbLf2HEzCOl7P_uchaxJS-dZq4MbOW_766_HqAsq8m3Kx37Vv8vDoHtal-aMv0YG71oTf7HQoM/s400/IMG_8629.JPG" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">See's typically will give you "It's a Boy" or "It's a Girl" stickers when you buy chocolate cigars or their suckers to hand out. I asked for a roll of the "It's a Boy" stickers when I bought the candy. I removed the candy from their paper wrappers, stuck a sticker onto each wrapper, and replaced the candy. So when a guest picked up a candy to eat, the sticker was revealed. A very small gesture, but one which thrilled the guests - they love the little touches!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Of course one does not take on a party of this magnitude without a little bit of help. I was fortunate to have two very good friends pitch in to help out with much of the last-minute detail. My friend Barb flew in from Montana for the shower, and my friend Shelley whom I can always count on to help with anything I do came over early the day of the shower. And the first few guests who arrived got put right to work as well!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">The very talented and creative Eve placing orchids onto food platters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> Shelley and Barb slaving in the kitchen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">I wish I could take the credit for arranging this amazing crudite platter, but I have to confess: Barb did it. The colorful carrots are from a local farm; so are the baby boiled potatoes. The cherry tomatoes were from Pike Market in Seattle and stuffed with mayo, bacon, and green onions, a recipe from the Palo Alto Junior League Cookbook, one of my most favorite cookbooks ever.</span></div>
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The food was yummy...</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">...the company divine.</span></div>
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We lined the gravel roads leading up to our house with fun balloons... </div>
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...and this little guy welcomed guests at our front gate.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KOqTcFu2n4UiIg54Wt6khvy3_i5l-bf7GkrWcldP1JNUUHvkYALE51ZVds_Qt1njhN14gKiRumoyJDSGDPej2xUcPmi3BfPkVgUKZuDo8yqwCskcSAC2UI0XXXZgoxSYr9cjVlJ8XgQ/s1600/IMG_8626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6KOqTcFu2n4UiIg54Wt6khvy3_i5l-bf7GkrWcldP1JNUUHvkYALE51ZVds_Qt1njhN14gKiRumoyJDSGDPej2xUcPmi3BfPkVgUKZuDo8yqwCskcSAC2UI0XXXZgoxSYr9cjVlJ8XgQ/s320/IMG_8626.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">The nice things about baby showers is that you have nine months to plan! I decided to learn how to make tissue paper flowers. Of course I didn't want them to be just one color. I experimented with shades of blue, other colors I was using in the party decor, and some fun animal print tissue paper I found. Some of it worked better than others, but I used them all. We have bay windows in the dining room and the living room, and I hung the flowers in the push-outs of those windows.</span><br />
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We have a little pine tree that I leave up year round and decorate seasonally and for parties. I got photos of Justine and Jesse and hung them on the tree. I asked Justine for photos of her as a child. For each photo she gave me, I was amazed to be able to find one of Jesse at the same age in almost the exact pose.<br />
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For one of the party favors for guests to take home, I made up bookmarks that I tied with ribbon and hung onto some lighted branches I have. There were six designs, each design with a different picture and a different quote, and guests got to choose which to take home. Justine got one of each, plus all the left-overs. Hayden is set with bookmarks for life!<br />
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I also had bookplates made up with Hayden's name. I asked the guests to fill them out and place them in the books they brought for Hayden. I contemplated sending them out with the invitations but felt that if they were adhered to the book, then Justine wouldn't be able to return any duplicate books she received. She did end up receiving a couple duplicates and one triplicate, so it worked out well to save them and have them filled out at the shower.<br />
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I LOVE party favors. In addition to the bookmarks, each guest got a favor bag that contained a box of animal cookies, a sleeve of <a href="http://www.bookdarts.com/" target="_blank">book darts</a>, a votive decorated with animal print ribbon, and a See's sucker.<br />
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The mantle was decorated with stuffed animals - elephant, giraffe, lion, and a monkey - and silk flowers as well as fresh flowers. This photo was taken before I added in the fresh lowers at the last minute.<br />
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Of course no shower is complete without at least one game. We played "Alternative Titles." Guests were given 30 "alternative titles" and had to figure out the correct name of the children's book. Such as The Distributing Topiary (The Giving Tree), Excessively Wondering Jorge (Curious George), and Sweet Dreams, Lunar Orb (Goodnight Moon). One of Justine's friends, Savannah, won - with nearly 100% correct! This girl knows her books - very impressive!<br />
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I asked each guest to bring their favorite children's book as their gift to Justine and Hayden. As part of my gift, I also got her an antique rocking chair, an adorable safari-themed children's bookshelf, and a cute little safari lamp she had registered for. As guests arrived, we put their gifts on and around the bookshelf.<br />
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Justine actually sat on the opposite side of the room as she opened gifts and they got passed around for guests to oooh and aaaah over before being arranged by party-helper extraordinaire, Barb, on the bookshelf.<br />
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I think someone needs her own book shower!</div>
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As Justine opened the gifts, the giver told us why they had chosen the book or books she brought. It was so much fun to hear everyone's stories. Justine was really touched to receive Wynken, Blynken and Nod from my mom (who was not there). I told Justine that Eugene Fields is one of my mom's favorite poets. Unbeknownst to my mom, and to me, Justine loves this poem and even sang the lullaby as part of her high school senior class project. My mom often gives this book as a baby gift. It's a fairly unusual book and quite hard to find. So how odd that this is the book Justine got in triplicate!!!<br />
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Justine's mom Shari, Hayden's other grandma, got her own little book, Grandma's Brag Book for baby photos.<br />
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So many fun books and adorable baby gifts awaiting Hayden's arrival... </div>
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...and is she not the sweetest, most beautiful Baby Mama ever?!?!<br />
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Post Script - On October 6, 2011, Hayden Alexander was born.</div>
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He's just the most precious, most scrumptious grandson ever, and Gigi (Grandma Gwen) has already started reading to him.<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-88726966315067654292011-12-23T22:54:00.000-08:002012-01-23T12:57:38.624-08:002011 ANNUAL CHRISTMAS UPDATE<br />
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2011 BRASS FAMILY ANNUAL UPDATE</div>
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So when we left off last year, Jim was very poor and Gwen was stylishly on bed rest. Jeff was in Walla Walla, Tim had a nice tan, and Jesse was – well, Jesse was busy being Jesse. </div>
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We postponed our Christmas so that Jeff and Danielle could join us. They arrived on Tuesday night and we pretended it was Christmas Eve. On Wednesday we awoke to snow so we truly did have a white Christmas. I highly recommend postponing the holiday until it's convenient for you. Not only do you get another chance at a white holiday, but there is loads more time for decorating, baking, shopping (and you can take advantage of post Christmas sales if you want to brave the crowds), and you have all that extra time for procrastinating. It worked out just great for us, so I've declared a new holiday, Brassmas, where you just celebrate whenever you darn well feel like it or get a round tuit. </div>
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I started off the new year with a trip to the cardiologist where I was declared heart-healthy. Tests showed that I had not had a heart attack and the 'damaged' spot in my heart had healed completely after the angioplasty. I'm on an impressive array of meds. It was a sad day when I realized I was taking more pills each day than my mother. And an even sadder day when I realized my memory was so far gone that I couldn't remember from one moment to the next what I was doing and had to resort to one of those little pill cases with the slots for each day. I hit rock bottom on a trip to visit my mom and found she had a shirt almost identical to one of mine. And hers was cuter.</div>
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We were only a few weeks into the new year when I slipped and fell down our stairs. I managed to bruise myself from head to toe inside and out (taking blood thinners makes for some spectacular bruising) and twisted my knee. This injury allowed me to lie in bed watching tv for several days and further postpone taking down the Christmas decorations. I gave some thought to just leaving them up all year but in the end started taking them down the last weekend in January. I managed to drag this out til the end of March, when I decided to get it done so I could put up Easter decorations. Except for the one tree upstairs which didn't get taken down til September when we had overnight company coming and I was embarrassed for them to see that tree.</div>
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In the meantime, I had not even recovered from the twisted knee before being given the news that Jim and I were going to be grandparents. Yes, 2011 was getting off to an exciting start!</div>
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Jeff and Danielle spent the year in Walla Walla. Danielle received her Master's in Sociology in August and went back home to Hawaii. Jeff stayed in Walla Walla to work a couple months more, which turned into him deciding to stay there a while. He lives with a bunch of people he works with and enjoys both his friends and his work. He came home for a visit in early November with his head shaved. This is the first time since he was two years old that he has had short hair. Quite a shock!</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Last known photo of Jeff with long hair.</span></i></div>
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Tim stayed down in Forest Grove for the summer and worked on campus in their Convention Services department, which was a job that Jeff had done when he was there. During training, they learned how to make beds properly. They were given a photo on how not to make beds and as it was passed around, Tim was informed, "This is one of your brother's beds." I'm sure Tim's beds were meticulous and now they have "do" and "don't" photos from the Brass brothers. This is Tim's last year at Pacific. He's majoring in Business Accounting and really likes it. He works on campus during the school year building sets in the theater department.</div>
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Jesse finished up his freshman year at Washington State University and came home for the summer. He worked for a contractor helping with painting and minor construction. In September he transferred to Seattle Central Community College in order to be closer to home. He lives in a 6-bedroom house in the Beacon Hill area with 7 other males. It is surprisingly clean and it doesn't even smell bad. A lot of kids from his high school class attend the same college, and he's enjoying Seattle a lot. He just got a part-time job yesterday at a steakhouse, which I'm very excited about!</div>
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On Thursday, October 6, Jesse and Justine Coomes welcomed Hayden Alexander into their hearts. Hayden is adorable (which one would expect from a Brass baby) and so sweet; Justine is a wonderful mom; and Jesse had Hayden's hair combed into a mohawk within the first 24 hours. Jesse was a really good baby and very easy, and it looks like Hayden is following in dad's footsteps. </div>
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We all have to grow up sometime. (Except for me, of course.) Jesse has had maturity handed to him in the form of a sweet little 7 pound 14 ounce, 20 inch package and has taken to being a dad with surprising ease. There's definitely something to be said for young parents. </div>
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I finally got back to work court reporting this year (although it has been very slow going), and besides working in Washington, I took several trips down to the Bay Area and did some work for firms down there while visiting my family. After one trip, my friend and traveling companion <s>Thelma</s> Shelley flew down and drove back up with me. We stopped in Healdsburg on the way home and visited an old high school friend Linda and had a blast. I fell in love with Healdsburg and can't wait to go back. Then we drove up 101, had dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse (which did not quite live up to the memories I had of it), and ended up in Brookings, Oregon, where we spent the night at Sue's, another high school friend. We next headed to the cabin for a night and ended the trip in Walla Wallla where we went wine tasting and out to dinner with Jeff and Danielle. It was a great trip with lots of wine consumed and purchased.</div>
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On another of my trips to the Bay Area, my niece Sawyer and I cooked at a Big Green Egg Eggfest, Eggs by the Bay. We cooked up a number of things, but our hit of the day was definitely "You Had Me at Marshmallow," cedar-planked Twinkies topped with Nutella, crushed Oreos, mini marshmallows, and crushed Heath bars.</div>
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In September 5 friends came to visit me for an extended weekend. We were quite the international group. They came from France, Connecticut/New York, Ohio, Texas, and Australia. Only Catherine from France had been to Seattle before, so we played tourist a bit, consumed lots of wine, and lounged around our house having a great "girls' weekend." (Jim was banished to the cabin for the duration.) Notice the cute tablecloth I made for the occasion. We really did have a lot of laughs and a lot of fun.</div>
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When not palling around with friends, I've been a busy little worker bee. I've been doing some floral work for Farmhouse Flowers, a local florist here in Langley, which I really enjoy; and, of course, I continue to work at The Clyde on Tuesdays in the ticket booth and in the snack bar whenever Mindy goes on vacation. At the end of November I decided that 5 jobs weren't enough, so I started working for Greenbank Farm. I'm their facilities rental manager. Basically I handle all their rentals for events that are held on the property, including a lot of weddings, which should be a blast. Keeping track of 6 part-time jobs is a full-time job, so I'm pretty busy these days. But it's all fun and you know what they say – variety is the spice of life. As reporting picks up for me, I'll be dropping some of the other jobs. My goal is to get it narrowed down to court reporting, the movie theater, Greenbank Farm, and doing flowers.</div>
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Jim continues to enjoy his only (slacker) job at Evergreen Construction in Auburn. He works from home two days a week and commutes down to Auburn the other three. Sometimes Buddy goes to work with Jim if I'm not around. Everyone there loves Buddy, but Buddy is not overly fond of riding in the car and has figured out that if Jim gets up really early and I'm not around, then maybe he should go and hide from Jim in hopes of avoiding the car. So then Jim has to go in search and there is a lot of coaxing involved when he finally locates Buddy. On days I work at Farmhouse Flowers or at the bus barn for the school district, I take Buddy with me if Jim isn't working from home that day. Again, he's not thrilled to go, so he hides from me too. He's a funny pup. But we love him to pieces.</div>
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We're down to three chickens now, and they have quit laying eggs except for two piddling eggs we got in November. Which is really a drag because we (Jim) have to take care of them and feed them, all the while going to the store to buy eggs. It was <i>so much</i> fun just going to the coop to collect the eggs. I don't care for this new arrangement at all.</div>
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We had Jesse, Hayden, Justine, Tim, and our friends Robert and Shelley with us for Thanksgiving and had a great time eating turkey and consuming lots of wine. So much fun to have a baby in the house again! Baby smells are even better than turkey and gravy smells.</div>
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Yesterday I drove down to Oregon, picked up Tim, and brought him back for the holidays. Jesse came over from Seattle this afternoon. Jeff will come home on the 26th and we'll celebrate Brassmas. Jim and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary on December 27, so it'll be a combined Brassmasversary. Hayden will be with us on the 25th and 26th when I hope to get more baby nuzzling time in.</div>
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Today is the 23rd and I haven't baked a single cookie or even put up a tree. We might venture outside to see if we can find something in the yard tomorrow. I went out there looking the other day and they all looked pretty spindly. I think that's because I hadn't had enough wine yet, so I'll get an early start on that tomorrow and see what I can come up with.<br />
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Happy Bralidays to
all of you! We miss you and think of you
often.</div>
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</div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-26272171904862060672011-12-23T19:35:00.000-08:002012-03-04T23:13:52.241-08:00She's Not Mad at Me Spaghetti CarbonaraMy husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. The first time I served him pasta after we were married, he took one look at his dinner and said, "Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?"<br />
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For the most part, he'd prefer beef and mashed potatoes over just about any other meal. Taking their cue from their father, our sons weren't wild about pasta either, although occasionally the youngest would eat it plain. Imagine my surprise when I found a pasta dish they not only would eat, but eat with enthusiasm. I have no idea why this pasta dish was such a hit when all others failed; I was just so happy to have finally found something the picky boys would eat. And it's super easy to make too!<br />
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Spaghetti Carbonara</div>
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1 pound bacon<br />
1 large onion, cut in half and thinly sliced<br />
1/4 cup dry white wine<br />
2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese<br />
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt<br />
freshly ground peper to taste<br />
1 pound spaghetti or other pasta<br />
freshly grated Parmesan cheese<br />
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Fry the bacon, remove from pan and drain on paper towels. I cut it into pieces first, but you can fry it in strips or any way you like.<br />
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Look at all that bacony goodness!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIj-RMJ-mlF9c7QAIbxlb04SpC1MhZM0rKpb2QEGhzGCiwQERNf06-TEVSS9MYZ8CAxGH9Uk_bSvAf0B1Ix6A2fTvWGebsuPbAUaKxPtsH20jBZjwsBPQ-z4KICZB4DpPG3dVRWbhstCY/s1600/IMG_9096.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIj-RMJ-mlF9c7QAIbxlb04SpC1MhZM0rKpb2QEGhzGCiwQERNf06-TEVSS9MYZ8CAxGH9Uk_bSvAf0B1Ix6A2fTvWGebsuPbAUaKxPtsH20jBZjwsBPQ-z4KICZB4DpPG3dVRWbhstCY/s320/IMG_9096.e.JPG" width="320" /></a>Sautée sliced onions in bacon fat until onions are golden, 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You can cook the bacon and onions in the same pan at the same time if you want, but you'll have less control over how much the onions cook because you'll need to stop when the bacon is done. So I like to do it in two steps. When the onions are to your liking, add the bacon back in, add the wine, and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes. Tonight, I was out of wine so I used tequila instead. Maybe I should call this Spaghetti Carbonara Olé! It's better with the wine. I really couldn't taste any tequila flavor. Darn!<br />
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Oh how I love the smell and taste of sautéed onions.</div>
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A side note on the onions: Did you know that if you breathe only through your mouth when you chop onions, it will usually keep your eyes from burning and watering?! It depends on the type of onions and how fresh they are, but it almost always works. Just be sure you don't breathe through your nose!<br />
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Okay, back to the recipe. But you're gonna thank me for that little tidbit, see if you don't.<br />
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Combine the 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper in a small bowl.<br />
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Cook the pasta in salted water according to package directions and drain. I like to put the pasta back into the pan and back onto the burner to get any remaining moisture out. You need to stir continually while doing this.<br />
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Add the Parmesan cheese and parsley mixture to the pasta and toss well. Then add in the bacon and onion mixture and toss again. Sprinkle the remaining bit of parsley on top. Serve immediately on warm plates and pass the extra Parmesan cheese.<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-83673150049523373462011-12-09T22:31:00.000-08:002012-01-23T12:56:13.070-08:00Soup for Supper - Italian Chicken Soup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last night was our annual holiday potluck for one of my gardening groups -- <a href="http://northwestperennialalliance.org/" target="_blank">Northwest Perennial Alliance</a>. We get together for some holiday cheer and make wreaths. Several of us have wreath-making machines, one of the best birthday gifts I ever talked my husband into giving me! I've had so much fun with it over the years. If he had known the amount of greenery I'd strew all over the porch and deck for the entire month of December, I'm sure he never would have bought it. Or that after every storm, I'd be out there driving around looking for downed branches, which I then bring home and strew all over the porch and deck. I need a bumper sticker that says, "I brake for pine boughs." Every year he says, "Can we not have so many branches this year?" But then I see a little fir tip laying there looking so perfect I just have to pick it up and drag it home. It's a sickness, I know. One year a friend and I drove around looking for lichen-covered twigs, which are a particular favorite of mine (and hers). I'm ashamed to say (ok, not really ashamed at all) that we went onto some private property and cut some. One of these days my shenanigans are going to land me in the pokey. I wonder if they'll let me decorate with wreaths during the holidays...<br />
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Anyway, back to the food part of this story, I decided to make soup and eggnog as my contribution to the evening. I wasn't in the mood for any of my usual soups, so I went in search of something new on the web and found one on Pioneer Woman's site for <a href="http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/soups/italian-chicken-soup-2/?print=1/#" target="_blank">Italian Chicken Soup</a>. I had to change up a few things. One of her ingredients was a can of whole tomatoes. You are supposed to take the tomatoes and dice them, then return them to their juice. Helloooo, do they not have diced tomatoes in your neck of the woods, Ree? Being limited in time this week, I simpified the recipe a teensy bit. It turned out delicious.<br />
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For the eggnog, I had planned on just buying cartons of eggnog, dumping them in the punch bowl and adding booze and grated nutmeg. Like I said, limited time this week. I was looking around to see what kind of booze to dump in and how much when I came upon <a href="http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2009/egg-nog/" target="_blank">this recipe</a> that seemed easy enough. So I made some of that just to try it out. It was really good and quite easy. Definitely a keeper recipe.<br />
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Sorry, no photos of the food for this one. Did I mention I was super swamped?<br />
<br />
<u><b>In-A-Hurry Italian Chicken Soup</b></u><br />
1 box Detalini Pasta (very short macaroni-type pasta)<br />
2 T olive oil, divided<br />
1 whole cut up cooked chicken or the equivalent (I cooked up some breasts and used that), shredded<br />
8 cups chicken broth<br />
1 medium onion, diced<br />
2 green bell peppers, diced<br />
2 stealks celery, diced<br />
2 jalapeno peppers, diced<br />
1 T olive oil<br />
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes<br />
2 cups heavy cream<br />
EVOO <br />
4 T minced fresh oregano (or the equivalent dried)<br />
salt and pepper to taste<br />
parmesan cheese shavings for garnish<br />
<br />
Cook the pasta according the package directions. The timing on the pasta package is usually very accurate. Drain it, toss in 1 T olive oil, and set it aside.<br />
<br />
In a very large pot (everything has to fit) and using about 1 T olive oil, sautee the onions, green pepper, celery, and jalapenos over medium heat until tender and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Add in the oregano and cook for just a minute or so more, stirring.<br />
<br />
Add in the chicken broth, shredded chicken, and diced tomatoes. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add in the cooked pasta and cream and drizzle with a small amount of EVOO. Serve with the parmesan on top.<br />
<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-7996162937722208772011-12-05T01:56:00.001-08:002011-12-05T02:09:58.042-08:00Book Review - The Kitchen Diaries<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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I check out a lot of cookbooks from our library.<span> </span>Some of them I even cook from.<span> </span>That sticky spot on page 26 of Tartine
Bread?<span> </span>Nope, that wasn't me!<span> </span>At any given time, I have four or five or
more in my stack of library books.<span> </span>This
is just to say, I read a <b>lot</b> of
cookbooks.<span> </span>I never really met a cookbook
I didn't like.<span> </span>But I haven't met very
many that I really <u>love</u>.<span> </span>I can't
even remember what prompted me to check out <i>The
Kitchen Diaries</i>.<span> </span>It wasn't easy to
get.<span> </span>It had to be ordered on a special
Interlibrary Loan because our system doesn't carry it.<span> </span>(When I return it, I hope to convince them of
the error of their ways.)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSnWbgv9273M9sN4_zWvTe_vOKuDT0ffNnv4nzFglmEm0nOEBQ7kdFgQpju-1ia6Ne0E-Ke60XIkkkMPbWrAAGQD6nDzrROXUgn0hx-TfTm2Cdzcro-XJcYVlFxqnDP1PtCBuq5L5chr0/s1600/nigel_slater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSnWbgv9273M9sN4_zWvTe_vOKuDT0ffNnv4nzFglmEm0nOEBQ7kdFgQpju-1ia6Ne0E-Ke60XIkkkMPbWrAAGQD6nDzrROXUgn0hx-TfTm2Cdzcro-XJcYVlFxqnDP1PtCBuq5L5chr0/s1600/nigel_slater.jpg" /></a><i>The Kitchen Diaries, a
year in the kitchen with Nigel Slater</i>, written by British cookbook author and
columnist Nigel Slater (photographs by Jonathan Lovekin) is the quintessential
slow food cookbook.<span> </span>The first sentence
of the book—"Right food, right place, right time"—sums it up
perfectly.<span> </span>Slater goes on to say,
"There is something deeply, unshakeably right about eating food in season…Learning
to eat with the ebb and flow of the seasons is the single thing that has made
my eating more enjoyable."<span> </span>For me
personally, chocolate is the single thing that has made my eating more
enjoyable, but I do agree—eating food at its peak of perfection nourishes the
soul as well as the body.</div>
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As the title implies, the cookbook is laid out in diary
form, starting with the obvious January.<span>
</span>He chronicles his year of eating with 15 to 18 entries each month.<span> </span>Some of them are complete recipes; some are
merely descriptions of what he ate and how he fixed it.<span> </span>All are written in a friendly and inviting
manner that makes one want to cozy up and settle in for a long winter's read.</div>
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I really love his writing style.<span> </span>He's so much more than just a cookbook
author.<span> </span>His writing is intimate and works
splendidly with the diary format of the book.<span>
</span>He welcomes you into his kitchen and his life, and you feel as if you're
sharing the meal with him.<span> </span>Some of the
delicious meals that Nigel and I shared:<span>
</span>A really good spaghetti Bolognese in January; Shrimp and cilantro rolls
in March; Clams with ham and sherry in June; An extravagant supper of rare
beef, red salad, and cheeses in August; and last, but definitely not least!,
poached pears with ice cream and chocolate sauce in November.</div>
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The Kitchen Diaries makes the perfect Christmas gift for
your favorite slow foodie.<span> </span>Did I mention
I don't have my own copy yet?</div>
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<b>Poached Pears with
Praline Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce</b></div>
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4 pears</div>
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2 T golden caster sugar</div>
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1 vanilla pod</div>
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200 g fine dark chocolate</div>
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Praline ice cream</div>
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1 T lemon juice</div>
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Pour a litre of water into a deep wide pan, add the sugar,
vanilla pod and lemon juice and bring to a boil.<span> </span>Peel the pears, tug out their stalks, then
halve them and scoop out their cores.<span>
</span>Drop them into the sugar syrup and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the
pears are translucent and tender.<span> </span>Leave
in the syrup to cool.<span> </span>During this time
they will become silkily soft and soaked through with syrup.</div>
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Get the ice cream out of the freezer.<span> </span>Chop the chocolate. Bring 200ml of water to a
boil, then whisk in the chocolate, removing from the heat as soon as it has
melted, just a matter of seconds.<span> </span>Place
two pear halves on each of four dishes, add the praline ice cream, one ball per
person should be ample, then pour over the warm chocolate sauce.</div>
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<br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-36136506826787710952011-11-16T00:48:00.000-08:002019-11-13T17:53:01.379-08:00"I Do" Love Chocolate Apple Cake!Holidays often revolve around traditions and traditions often revolve around food. We always went to Aunt Chrissy's house for Christmas while I was growing up. Lots of family and lots of food. That's all the tradition I really need. (Although I do really like family traditions.)<br />
<br />
Phone calls ahead of time assured that Dottie's applesauce meatballs and Chrissy's chocolate apple cake would be waiting for me. So when I got engaged and we set our wedding date for December, and when it came time to pick out our wedding cake, I knew exactly what I wanted - chocolate apple cake!<br />
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Since this was a bundt cake recipe, and since I wanted a tiered wedding cake, I was a little nervous about how this would be accomplished. Armed with my recipe, I visited my wedding cake vendor of choice and was delighted to discover she would be happy to adapt the recipe to a tiered wedding cake. I was even happier to discover that the cost would be less than one of her own cakes because this recipe uses oil rather than butter and she felt that was a cost savings she wanted to pass on. Oh happy day - how often does something like that happen?!<br />
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<i>My sister gave me the little kissing angels on top of the cake.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>I still have them and put them out every Christmas.</i></div>
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Without further ado, cuz I know all you want are the photos and the recipe, here you go.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #e69138;">
Chocolate Apple Cake...suitable for Christmas, weddings, or just anytime you need a really yummy cake! </div>
<br />
Cream together:<br />
3 eggs<br />
2 cups sugar<br />
1 cup oil<br />
1/2 cup water<br />
1 Tablespoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon orange extract + 1/2 teaspoon vanilla <br />
<br />
In a separate bowl, sift:<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt<br />
2-1/2 cups flour<br />
2 Tablespoons cocoa (unsweetened, powdered)<br />
1 teaspoon baking soda<br />
1 teaspoon allspice<br />
<br />
(I'm lazy. I don't always sift when I should. I often do not sift this when I make it. Although I did sift it this time.)<br />
<br />
Mix the sifted (or not) ingredients into the creamed mixture. Then stir in:<br />
<br />
1 cup chopped English walnuts<br />
1/2 cup chocolate chips (sometimes I use a little more!)<br />
2 medium size cored Pippin apples (with peels on), diced<br />
<br />
(I leave the nuts out because we don't like nuts in cake here at our house. And if you can't find Pippins, just use any cooking type of apple. I used Braeburns this time. I dice them small, but not too tiny. But I honestly don't think it matters. It just depends on if you like big chunks of apple in your cake or teeny ones.)<br />
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Mix thoroughly. Pour into a greased tube pan (springform pan with a hole in the middle). Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or 1 hour or until done. Sometimes this takes a really long time to bake. Maybe it depends on the moisture content of the apples. But I've noticed over the years that the cooking time really varies. Also, you can make it in any type of pan. I usually make it in a regular cake pan. You'll just need to adjust the baking time.<br />
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Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.<br />
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<div style="color: #e69138;">
My Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting</div>
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Cream together: <br />
4 oz cream cheese<br />
3 Tablespoons softened butter<br />
<br />
Add:<br />
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar (maybe a little more or a little less, in order to get the consistency you like)<br />
<br />
Beat until creamy. Then stir in 1 teaspoon of orange extract and some grated orange rind. Or, if you're using a fresh orange, you can just add in fresh squeezed orange juice.<br />
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What, you were expecting an actual cake? Well, I was planning on an actual cake. But when I went to get the bundt pan out of the baking cupboard, I saw the cupcake tins. It was easier to get to them! <br />
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And I've never made these as cupcakes before, so I wanted to give it a try.<br />
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And it also occurred to me I could eat one, have a few to share with my Tuesday-night-at-<a href="http://theclyde.net/">The-Clyde</a> co-workers, and freeze the rest for a holiday meal, thereby having a holiday dessert already done and the added bonus of removing all temptation for me to eat an entire chocolate apple cake for breakfast some morning this week.<br />
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I baked the cupcakes for about 40 minutes, which I think was about 10 minutes too long. The Aga is very forgiving. But these were just a tad dry and I would bake them less next time. Also, they didn't come out of the tins very neatly, as you can see, so I would try cupcake liners next time.<br />
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<i>Come join the fun at the <a href="http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/holiday-recipe-exchange-rules/">My Baking Addiction</a> and <a href="http://www.goodlifeeats.com/holiday-recipe-exchange-rules" target="_blank">GoodLife Eats</a> Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by <a href="http://www.chicagometallicbakeware.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chicago Metallic</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-48128972832605431732011-11-09T17:03:00.000-08:002011-12-05T23:24:16.023-08:00Nancy Pearl and The Book ListAnother entertaining afternoon listening to the always delightful <a href="http://www.nancypearl.com/">Nancy Pearl</a> review some of her favorite books of the past year. As always, I race home to be the first to put some of them on hold at the library. I put 6 on hold, bringing my total holds up to 19. Fingers crossed they don't all come in at the same time.<br />
<br />
And great news - one of Nancy's recommended books I've already checked out. Never mind that it's overdue. Our fabulous <a href="http://www.sno-isle.org/?ID=1">library system</a> never charges a fine and they don't even put a block on my account until it's more than one week past due. By my calculations, I'll have 8 more days to read <i>The Tragedy of Arthur</i> before I'm forced to return it and other overdue books. Yay!<br />
<br />
If you missed today's event, here's Nancy's list for 2011.<br />
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<i>On Canaan's Side</i> by Sebastian Barry</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>In Zanesville</i> by Jo Ann Beard</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Hare with Amber Eyes</i> by Edmund de Waal</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Erasure</i> by Percival Everett</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Next to Love</i> by Elen Feldman</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>A World on Fire</i> by Amanda Foreman</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Memory of Love</i> by Amanita Forna</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Art of Fielding</i> by Chad Harbach</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Blind Sight</i> by Med Howrey</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn</i> by Lucette Lagnado</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Apothecary</i> by Maile Meloy (young adult novel)</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President</i> by Candice Millard</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>To Be Sung Underwater</i> by Tom McNeal</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Tragedy of Arthur</i> by Arthur Phillips</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Summer of the Bear</i> by Bella Pollen</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>A Pet for Petunia</i> by Paul Schmid (children's picture book)</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>There But For The</i> by Ali Smith</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>By George</i> by Wesley Stace</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Vaclav & Lena</i> by Haley Tanner</div>
<br />
In the course of her talk, and during the question-and-answer period afterwards, the following were also suggested as being worthy.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Brothers K</i> by David James Duncan</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Must You Go</i> by Antonia Fraser</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto</i> by Joan Reardon</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Tempest Tost</i> by Robertson Davies</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Stone Arabia</i> by Dana Spiotta</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend</i> by Susan Orlean</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The Orchid Thief</i> by Susan Orlean</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>The True History of the Kelly Gang</i> by Peter Carey</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Cloudstreet</i> by Tim Winton</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Dirt Music</i> by Tim Winton</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Divergent</i> by Veronica Roth (young adult novel)</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Legend</i> by Marie Lu (young adult novel)</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #fff2cc;">
And a personal recommendation Nancy gave me in the lady's room...</div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #f6b26b;">
<i>Witches on the Road Tonight</i> by Sheri Holman</div>
<br />
It always pays to go to the bathroom.<br />
<br />
Off to read I go. Maybe I'll have pizza for dinner and read my book at the table.<br />
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So glad I had parents who let me read at the dinner table. Fond memories... </div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-57023905009348633132011-11-02T01:47:00.000-07:002011-11-02T11:39:36.694-07:00A Near Kitchen Disaster = Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It all started when I read a <a href="http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1165158&catid=1">post on the BGE forum</a> about roasting pumpkins. Then I read about <a href="http://www.boulderlocavore.com/2011/10/perfect-pumpkins-and-pumpkin-bars.html">Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze</a> over on the <a href="http://www.boulderlocavore.com/">Boulder Locavore</a> site and decided I needed to make them. So I got a couple pie pumpkins, cut them in half, sprinkled cinnamon on the cut sides, put them cut side down in a roasting pan, and slid them into a 450 degree oven. And promptly forgot all about them. Some two and a half hours later, I remembered and found this waiting for me:<br />
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Aaaack! What a mess. Don't cha just hate it when that happens? I couldn't even get a spatula under it to scrape it into the garbage. So I sat the pan on the counter to cool off and went on my merry way.<br />
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Some time later, passing through the kitchen, I decided to just take a taste of the insides to see what they tasted like. Lo and behold, I had some seriously sweet pumpkin goop going on! This wasn't going in the garbage can after all! Don't cha just love it when that happens? <br />
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So I proceeded to take the skin off--it just lifts right up--fun!--and scraped whatever wasn't completely charred into the Cuisinart to puree it into creamy pumpkiny goodness.<br />
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Into the fridge it went until it was time to make my pumpkin bars. <br />
<br />
In the meantime, I had found the same recipe on several other sites. They all appeared to be pretty much the same and all had one serious flaw: The recipe didn't make nearly enough! One small 9x9 pan of pumpkin bars with orange glaze just wasn't going to cut it. So I doubled the recipe. I also added salt. My mom always says that if you don't put in salt, your cookies, cakes, or pumpkin bars will taste 'flat.' I don't know what the heck that means, but I sure wasn't about to have my pumpkin bars taste 'flat,' so I added salt. Cautiously. A very small amount. I also doubled the amount of pumpkin. I'd like to say I did this because I'm a culinary genius and I knew that adding extra pumpkin would make my recipe superior. But I cannot tell a lie. The truth is that I made a mistake. Aaaack! Dont cha just hate it when that happens? But you know what?! The pumpkin bars turned out great. And, in fact, I didn't even realize I had doubled the pumpkin until I was typing this up. And did I mention the pumpkin bars turned out great? Serendipitily great. Dont cha just love it when that happens? <br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #b45f06;">Pumpkin Bars with Orange Glaze</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
1 cup butter, softened</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2 eggs</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
2 cups (or less) roasted-just-right pumpkin puree</div>
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3 cups flour</div>
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2 teaspoons cinnamon</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1 teaspoon ground ginger</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
1 teaspoon mace</div>
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1 teaspoon baking soda</div>
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1/2 teaspoon salt</div>
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1 cup raisins</div>
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1 cup pecans</div>
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Cream the butter; then add in the brown sugar and beat well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each. Add in the pumpkin, mixing well.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Measure out your flour, spices, baking soda, and salt and stir together. Slowly add the dry stuff into the pumpkin mixture, beating until well combined. Stir in the raisins and pecans.</div>
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Grease a very large Pyrex type casserole dish. Mine is about 16 x 9 or 10 I think. It's really big. It's the biggest I've seen. Scoop the batter into the pan and smooth it out to get it as even as possible. </div>
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Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ZDxneN9sttcNBu5ly64WqLG4DrR5uL6J5krOa3tzTiYS1Cpg8lG7G6GDMC37R7vj8TAk68e8yJROhLDOxjlYoHBLsE5gw0mZpwUtsf1qk-FZK0R-2MqoF51GHTM1T2W7NW3pQHn3y-Y/s1600/IMG_8889.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ZDxneN9sttcNBu5ly64WqLG4DrR5uL6J5krOa3tzTiYS1Cpg8lG7G6GDMC37R7vj8TAk68e8yJROhLDOxjlYoHBLsE5gw0mZpwUtsf1qk-FZK0R-2MqoF51GHTM1T2W7NW3pQHn3y-Y/s400/IMG_8889.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Just before the bars are due to come out of the oven, prepare the <span style="color: #b45f06;">Orange Glaze</span> by whisking together:</div>
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2 cups powdered sugar</div>
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5 tablespoons orange juice</div>
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When the bars are done, drizzle the glaze over them immediately while they're still warm. It helps to use a silicon pastry brush to distribute the glaze evenly. A lot of it runs to the edges of the pan, but I just swept it back toward the center until it all looked even.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72xkmJRc5ZlVcqrqnHJ5LN0kj-2h8IJu33wX9xKhBmFv5ioQeU4vjporWoQrjXcyCNhOngmQiOrVVc2Vot7gvQplmS7TPvCwu9kOkrZPpABX1E08ia7Nuksf-wI86YcHxdXDUyXas_o4/s1600/IMG_8890.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72xkmJRc5ZlVcqrqnHJ5LN0kj-2h8IJu33wX9xKhBmFv5ioQeU4vjporWoQrjXcyCNhOngmQiOrVVc2Vot7gvQplmS7TPvCwu9kOkrZPpABX1E08ia7Nuksf-wI86YcHxdXDUyXas_o4/s400/IMG_8890.e.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Allow the bars to cool. Very important to let them cool completely because like brownies, they're hard to cut if you decide you can't wait. Using the edge of a spatula gets a cleaner cut than using a knife. This is especially true if you can't wait til they're cooled off. (This trick works with brownies too.) This recipe made 36 very decent-sized bars. If you cut them smaller, you'll get quite a few more.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlIvQVZqCdlMS-ffNOna5Jub1Tb2vXRnPpcqoL_yTREjaINf0qXc20wJOqGgzBAWM4Bhx9GxE_bhkbhz4KE2LBt1-vCtTKV6LTu_IMgv5IjSJG6_u7gKi4vuuPn8myEm5i7JrAv700q4/s1600/IMG_8896.e.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIlIvQVZqCdlMS-ffNOna5Jub1Tb2vXRnPpcqoL_yTREjaINf0qXc20wJOqGgzBAWM4Bhx9GxE_bhkbhz4KE2LBt1-vCtTKV6LTu_IMgv5IjSJG6_u7gKi4vuuPn8myEm5i7JrAv700q4/s320/IMG_8896.e.JPG" width="320" /></a>These are super yummy and are perfect for fall and holiday baking. Everyone I shared these with loved them. They stayed moist for several days, even when cut. <br />
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<br /></div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-82786391841508560202011-10-25T16:21:00.000-07:002012-03-04T23:15:40.540-08:00A Literary DinnerI started this post over a year ago. This is actually a party we threw in the spring of 2010. But I never got around to finishing it and since I can't remember any other details of the evening, I'm just going to post as is! And try to be better about completing my drafts in the future.<br />
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<b>A LITERARY DINNER</b></div>
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Last night we had four other couples over for a 'literary' dinner. I asked everyone to bring a recent favorite book or an all-time favorite book or any book at all.<br />
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Originially I wanted to use iron-on transfers and print food quotes from novels onto some white napkins I never use. But when I went to get the napkins out, I discovered I didn't have enough. So I ended up making bookmarks that the guests could take home.<br />
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I also made a floral arrangement using pages from an old book wrapped around the vase, as well as leaves made from pages from the same book.<br />
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Along with this menu, we also had stuffed mushroom and a roasted red pepper dip with bruchetta that some of the guests brought for appetizers.<br />
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All in all, it was a really fun evening. Recipes below.<br />
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<b><u>Guava-Smoked Meatloaf</u></b><br />
In a large bowl, lightly beat 3 eggs. Add worcestershire sauce, chili sauce, salt, pepper, minced garlic, onions that have been sauteed, and any spices you like. I typically use thyme, oregano, marjoram, and parsley. If you're going to make a free form meatloaf and cook it on a pan, continue on to the meat part. If you're going to put it in meatloaf pans, add 1/3 to 1/2 can beef consomme.<br />
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After all that is mixed together, add 3# ground beef (half of which should be ground chuck) and mix together with your hands.<br />
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Pat into 2 or 3 small tinfoil meatloaf pans. Poke holes in the bottom. (Or you can just make a big mound and put it on a rack on a pan, if you're going to cook it in the oven. But if you don't want to use the little tin meatloaf pans, leaf out the consomme because it'll be too wet to hold its shape.)<br />
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I cook these on our <a href="http://www.biggreenegg.com/">Big Green Egg bbq</a> indirect (platesetter) at about 300 to 325. I use guava wood to add a little smoked flavor. I purchased the guava wood a long time ago from Guava Greg on the <a href="http://www.greeneggers.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=55&func=showcat&catid=1">BGE forum</a>. I haven't seen him there in a long time. After one hour, I turn the meatloaf out of the pans onto the grill. I continue cooking them until they read 155 or just under on my <a href="http://www.thermoworks.com/products/thermapen/splashproof_thermapen.html?gclid=CLG0_Ij2hKwCFYsaQgodgTRjBQ">Thermapen</a> thermometer.<br />
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<b><u>Crash Potatoes</u></b><br />
There are recipes all over the internet for these potatoes. I used the one from <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/?s=crash+potatoes&submit=">The Pioneer Woman</a>.<br />
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<u><b>Roasted Broccoli</b></u><br />
I just threw some broccoli in the roasting pan, drizzled a little olive oil over it, and roasted til it was starting to turn that nice dark roasty color.<br />
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<u><b>Grilled Asparagus with Pancetta</b></u><br />
This one is easy peasy and oh so good. Peel and trim your asparagus, toss with olive oil and fresh ground pepper. Then wrap them with pieces of pancetta, and grill on the bbq. Grill over direct heat cooking anywhere between 350 and 400, turning until pancetta is golden brown in spots and the asparagus is crisp-tender. It doesn't take very long and it needs to be watched so it doesn't burn.<br />
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<b><u>8-Hour Cheesecake </u></b><br />
I'm going to save the cheesecake recipe for another post. I make Maida Heatther's 8-Hour Cheesecake, mainly because it's so easy to do with the Aga, comes out super creamy, does not have to be refrigerated, thus freeing up room in the fridge (although it can be, it just changes the texture), and is crustless, since I'm not a huge fan of graham cracker crusts paired with cheesecake. If you can't wait for me to post later about this, this recipe can easily be found on the 'net.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-85983828088705288242011-08-04T19:26:00.000-07:002011-08-05T00:29:09.670-07:00Zucchini Relish, Part DeuxFinished up the relish today. Oh, it's sooooo good!<br />
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Here's the recipe for day two: (See <a href="http://livinginlangley.blogspot.com/2011/08/zucchini-relish.html""target=_blank">here</a> for day one.)<br />
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5 c white sugar<br />
2-1/4 c vinegar<br />
2 t turmeric<br />
2 t celery seed<br />
1 T dry mustard<br />
1 t nutmeg<br />
1/2 c corn starch<br />
1/4 t hot chili pepper (dried)<br />
1green pepper, minced<br />
1 red pepper, minced.<br />
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Cook 30 minutes. Use a large pan, it will boil up. Add drained zucchini/onion mixture and heat all to a boil. Set clean hot jars in a pan of water and add relish. Seal with new lids and turn upside down for 5 mins. Turn back upright.<br />
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Between yesterday and today I had emailed back and forth with the woman who gave me this recipe. I asked her about the pulp thing. She said don't worry about it, this recipe is very forgiving. I like forgiving.<br />
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As I made this, I wondered about a couple things: <br />
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* Wow, that's a lot of sugar!<br />
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* What kind of vinegar? Since it called for a lot, I used white vinegar because I keep large jugs on hand for cleaning purposes. (Not that I ever actually clean, so it doesn't get much use.) <br />
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* Wow, that's a lot of cornstarch<br />
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* Hot chili pepper, dried, what the heck is that? I used red pepper flakes.<br />
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The only changes I made to the above recipe were I used 2 c white vinegar and 1/4 c balsamic vinegar. And I used 2.5 t celery seed just cuz I really like celery seed.<br />
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For you Aga owners: </div>
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I cooked the mixture on the BP til it came to a boil and then I put it in the SO for the remainder of the 30 mins. I didn't do the hot water in a pan and upside down thing. I put all the jars in the SO for 15 mins and then pulled them out. I didn't feel there was a big need to process this due to all the sugar and vinegar and I've read you can dry process jams and such in the SO, so I've done that a few times with good results. The lids all popped after I pulled them out.</div>
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I ended up with 11 and a half jars of relish. Most of the jars were the regular size jars you always see in the grocery store. One was shorter and stockier and 2 were slightly larger. So that's a good amount of relish. I absolutely love Love LOVE the way all the filled jars look after I can something.<br />
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I decided to go in search of other zucchini relish recipes on the web to see how they compared to mine. Wow, they are all over the place in regards to quantities of ingredients. Most call for pretty much the same as my recipe, altho some leave out a few items. The most interesting was similar to mine ex it added in 2 cups of chopped red mango. Now that sounds like some relish! I'll probably add in mangos next time.<br />
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There was a huge difference in the amounts of sugar. One called for 6 cups, several called for 5 or 5.5, and many called for less. I will definitely use less next time. And I'm so tempted to try canning with Splenda. Has anyone had good results with that?<br />
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While some called for 'vinegar' or 'white vinegar,' most called for apple cider vinegar. Duh! Next time I will use that and save the balsamic for something you can tell the difference in.<br />
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Nutmeg was only listed in one or two of the other recipes I checked. I like nutmeg. It doesn't seem to really make a difference in this relish, meaning I can't taste it, but since I like it, I'll keep putting it in!<br />
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Corn starch - none of the other recipes came close to this quantity of corn starch. I haven't decided, but I may cut back on the amount next time I make this.<br />
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All the recipes called for using enamel or earthenware utensils, not aluminum.<br />
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Here's the range I found:<br />
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10 - 12 c zucchini, minced, diced, or shredded (one called for ultra thin slices)<br />
3-5 c onions, yellow or red<br />
2-4 bell peppers, red, green, or a combination<br />
5 T salt or rock salt (a couple called for 1/2 c rock salt but the vast majority stuck to 5 T)<br />
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Leave for one hour before the drain/rinse/drain or 3 hours or overnight. Some say to refrigerate it overnight, some don't. <br />
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2.5 c to 6 c white sugar or brown sugar<br />
2 c to 5 c vinegar (seems like anything over 2-1/4 would make it too liquidy), white or apple cider or both<br />
3/4 t to 2 t turmeric<br />
1.5 t to 2 t celery seed<br />
1 T dry mustard or 4 T to 1 c (!!!) mustard seeds<br />
1 t nutmeg<br />
1 t to 1/2 c corn starch or arrowroot or flour<br />
1/4 t hot chili pepper (dried) or 1 t coarse black pepper<br />
1 to 2 green pepper, minced<br />
1 to 2 red pepper, minced<br />
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Variations as in extra things you could add in:<br />
2 c diced red mango (yum!)<br />
1 c flat leaf parsley<br />
15 T dried dill weed<br />
5 bunches of green onions, chopped<br />
garlic - anywhere from none to a whole lot<br />
3 roasted green chili peppers<br />
1 t grated ginger<br />
1 t wasabi powder<br />
1 t lemon basil or cilantro<br />
hot sauce/tabasco<br />
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Cooking time was all over the map. Some say cook it all, including the zucchini and onions, for 30 mins; some say cook for only 5 or 10 mins. One called for an hour and a half cooking. Overkill I say. Some got complicated about mixing the thickener with water or vinegar and then adding it in. Not necessary I say.<br />
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Some say to process in a water bath for anywhere from 5 to 15 mins. Some don't mention processing. One says originally this recipe didn't call for processing but since the new rules came out, it now calls for processing. As far as I know, no one has ever died from eating unprocessed zucchini relish, but if you're worried about that sort of thing, then process away. If I planned to give this away as Christmas gifts, I probably would have processed because I like to err on the side of caution when giving food gifts. I suppose I should be more concerned with my own family! (Sorry, guys.)<br />
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The simplest of the recipes I looked at said to simmer the whole mess for 30 mins, put in hot clean jars, seal, and be done with it. Now that's easy!<br />
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Bottom line - this relish recipe is not only delicious, it's beyond forgiving. It's completely foolproof and it sounds like you couldn't mess it up if your tried. You can really go to town and make this your own. Really my favorite kind of recipe! And so colorful - using a mixture of yellow and green zucchini, red and yellow onions, and red and green peppers makes for an appealingly colorful relish.<br />
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<br />Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-9698844189881509312011-08-03T11:43:00.000-07:002011-08-05T00:27:58.257-07:00Zucchini Relish<div class="mbl notesBlogText clearfix">
<div>
Starting my zucchini
relish today. I gave away a desk on <a href="http://www.freecycle.org/target=_blank">Freecycle</a> last summer and the woman
who came to get it brought me a jar of her zucchini relish. It was
eat-out-of-the-jar-with-a-spoon delicious, so I begged the recipe from
her. The only thing I'm planning to change is to add in a little bit of
balsamic vinegar in place of the regular vinegar. This recipe is a
two-dayer. Today:<br />
<br />
5 cups finely chopped onions<br />
10 cups finely chopped zucchini, seeds and pulp removed<br />
Sprinkle with 5 T rock salt and leave covered overnight.<br />
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Thanks to my handy-dandy food processor, day one was a breeze. I bought 5 organic onions thinking each would yield about a cup. Each was about 2 cups, so I only used 3 and now I have about a cup of onions in my freezer for the next time I need diced onions. I love that!<br />
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Did you know that if you breathe only through your mouth when you chop onions, it won't sting your eyes. I wore contact lenses from the time I was in high school until about 9 years ago. At several intervals, I used glasses instead of contacts. Never once in my life did my eyes ever sting from working with onions. In 2002 I had lasik eye surgery and after boy oh boy, now I know what everyone has talked about! Isn't it odd that the surgery would change that?! Then I learned the breathe through your mouth trick. Works like a charm.<br />
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I don't really know what zucchini pulp is. I halved the zucchinis lengthwise and used a little <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joie-Stainless-Steel-Strawberry-Huller/dp/B004NYB53U/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1312405175&sr=1-3target=_blank">strawberry huller</a> I have to scrape down the center. I barely took out anything, because the seeds were miniscule to nonexistent, so I may have more pulp than I'm supposed to. Guess we'll find out tomorrow! My zucchinis were in the 270g - 350g size. I used two green and 3 yellow, all organic.<br />
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An interesting fact I recently learned from one of our <a href="http://www.bayviewfarmersmarket.com/vendors/pams-place-produce.html""target=_blank">local farmers</a> (who I bought the zucchini from): Zucchini should be shiny. It doesn't matter how big it is as long as it's still shiny. She also says you can extend the life of zucchini by rubbing oil on it, thus keeping it shiny. I have no idea if this is true or not. I couldn't find anything else on the web about it, altho I did find places where it said to always look for shiny zucchini.<br />
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Stay tuned for day 2! </div>
</div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-47978872367871980682011-05-01T21:09:00.000-07:002012-01-01T21:10:26.860-08:00Prom Time<br />
It's always so much fun to do the prom flowers for all the kids. Here are some from the past couple years<br />
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.Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8098285761020775878.post-49926086244168309512010-12-23T19:48:00.000-08:002012-01-23T13:04:37.223-08:00Merry Christmas!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #339966; font-size: 14pt;">**</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> TWO GRADUATIONS & A FUNERAL </span><span style="color: #339966; font-size: 14pt;">**</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> MOM GETS
STYLISH </span><span style="color: #339966; font-size: 14pt;">**</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> DOUBLE TROUBLE IN WALLA WALLA </span><span style="color: #339966; font-size: 14pt;">**</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> BRUTAL ATTACK BY 'DEAD-LY' MOLE </span><span style="color: #339966; font-size: 14pt;">**</span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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ALL THIS AND MORE IN 2010's CHRISTMAS NOVELLA</div>
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(Brought to you this
year in electronic format because <s>Scrooge</s> Jim said college tuition was
more important than printer ink, Christmas cards, and stamps.)</div>
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<span style="color: red;">GRADUATION #1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TOLgkrQ6eSsKv-pccn8vsct5UHRgaDS3_G1Gg00z4002gJz70Hnht7vapCrXR4Hf5gyl6fLVYnaOe2aheO91fDQjQ-s0UbOAE4t_kRHAe4-98iy2Pd6Wsm9n5cvOtq5qwrLxI21vhhI/s1600/IMG_1631_edited.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-TOLgkrQ6eSsKv-pccn8vsct5UHRgaDS3_G1Gg00z4002gJz70Hnht7vapCrXR4Hf5gyl6fLVYnaOe2aheO91fDQjQ-s0UbOAE4t_kRHAe4-98iy2Pd6Wsm9n5cvOtq5qwrLxI21vhhI/s320/IMG_1631_edited.JPG" width="240" /></a>Jeff is 22 and graduated in May. He graduated cum laude and we're very proud of
him. Danielle, his girlfriend, also
graduated, and Jim and I met her parents when we were all in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Oregon</st1:state></st1:place> for their graduation. The ceremony was outdoors and it was a rainy
weekend, but there is a God and he bathed us in warmth and sunshine for the
entire ceremony. It began raining as we
walked out of the stadium and by the time we reached the reception, we were
drenched. This made for some wet
graduation photos, but by then no one cared.
We learned that the Hawaiian tradition is to heap leis on any and
all. We could barely see the grads. Since 30% of the students at Pacific U are
from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:place></st1:state>,
there were a <u>lot</u> of leis in the room.
After the reception, we went out to lunch with Danielle's family. Later that night we met up at McMenamin's Grand
Lodge for music and snacks. We had a
really great time until we got home and discovered that leaving Jesse at home
alone is a very bad and expensive idea*.</div>
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Jeff and Danielle spent the summer in Forest Grove; Jeff
worked on campus and Danielle worked with children in the foster care
system. They came here for a visit in
August and then went over to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:state></st1:place>
to visit Danielle's family. In September
they moved to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Walla Walla</st1:place></st1:city>. Danielle is doing a one-year grad program
there. Jeff started working graveyard
restocking grocery shelves while he looks for a daytime job. He would like to work for the airlines and
has recently interviewed for a part-time job with Horizon Air, so he's hoping
that will work out.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">PNWer
DISCOVERS SECRET TO YEAR ROUND TANNING<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Tim is 20, in his junior year at Pacific, and looking
forward to turning 21 in February. He
yet again spent the summer life guarding and working on his tan at Useless Bay
Golf and Country Club. He has a season
pass at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Hood</st1:placename></st1:place> for the ski season and can't wait
for snow. Not sure if it's because he
really enjoys snowboarding or just wants to work on his winter tan. Maybe a little of both. In addition to his classes, he works on
campus building sets in the theater department.
He's decided to major in business with anemphasis in accounting.
He loves coming home to visit (and we love having him), and in recent
years has really gotten into tv sports, so he and Jim spend a lot of time tuned
in.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">GRADUATION #2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jesse is 19, and our sweet
baby boy graduated from high school in June.
We collaborated with our backdoor neighbors and threw a joint graduation
party for a number of families. Then the
kids went off to grad night and I tagged along as a chaperone. Jesse did an excellent job of making sure we
were never in the same area for more than 1.25 seconds. In August the boy who couldn't wait to get
away from home and his parents went off to <st1:placename w:st="on">Washington</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Pullman</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Washington</st1:state></st1:place>.
He was home twice for visits before Halloween even came around. (Not that I'm complaining.) This entails a 6-hour car ride to get home and
a 9-hour bus ride to get back, but he said it's worth it. At least until the third bus ride home for
Thanksgiving, and now he's sick of spending all day on a bus, so I imagine we
won't be seeing him as often unless he can find a car ride both ways.</div>
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I've spent the last year gearing up to return to the court
reporting field, practicing on my new equipment and shopping for a new business
wardrobe. I have not actually gone out
and taken any depositions yet because life keeps getting in the way. I hope to soon. If only because I want to wear my new
clothes! Of course I continue to work at
the movie theater on Tuesdays taking tickets and sub throughout the year in the
snack bar. I did corsages and
boutonnières for the prom last May, and in August I catered a small picnic for
Island County Master Gardeners, which I am a member of.</div>
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Jim is still working for Evergreen Construction in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Auburn</st1:place></st1:city>. He upped his commute to three days a week and
then works from home two days. He
doesn't really do a whole lot aside from working and writing tuition
checks. Unless you count cleaning up dog
poop, grocery shopping, and ironing. I
for one am getting really tired of his hedonistic lifestyle.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">A FUNERAL<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8TOzy5U9Uli5HStIWZpDqY4OB9bsJ6sVkjpob556uPnbBFtPeM9Bpc1cNAwuYFP3ub60ZJKgHICU8V1AU4gIHuvwYWMbJVSckNEziioXsqoYfSLbEymVAclk8yUJkfaIL0DlvDJcxso/s1600/P9240697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8TOzy5U9Uli5HStIWZpDqY4OB9bsJ6sVkjpob556uPnbBFtPeM9Bpc1cNAwuYFP3ub60ZJKgHICU8V1AU4gIHuvwYWMbJVSckNEziioXsqoYfSLbEymVAclk8yUJkfaIL0DlvDJcxso/s320/P9240697.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
Kenzie started having seizures early in the year and as the
year progressed they got worse until finally we were not able to control them
with meds anymore. So Buddy is now an
only dog and is loving that. He is my
constant and faithful companion and is unbelievably well-behaved. Finally I have someone who listens to me.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_4IicvFaco8-j7gpjzdLx-DyFN4PCyjp43k_csRb_ZN3hVIuIX5AspleweTVo0hNR9gPAmc4ZJukkcq3v9UE_CE02uMZaUUYnlVC9amhvuJAYwceQeB2Vb4j3ggUtvQ-huotEcb-iZI/s1600/IMG_3149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX_4IicvFaco8-j7gpjzdLx-DyFN4PCyjp43k_csRb_ZN3hVIuIX5AspleweTVo0hNR9gPAmc4ZJukkcq3v9UE_CE02uMZaUUYnlVC9amhvuJAYwceQeB2Vb4j3ggUtvQ-huotEcb-iZI/s320/IMG_3149.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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Charlie is still
gainfully employed keeping the vermin population at bay, and we have our little
flock of 6 hens. (We started out with 7
but 'Gracie' (barred hen in the background) sadly became a hawk's dinner the
day before Thanksgiving). Turns out I didn't need to be worried at all about
chickens, dogs, and cats coexisting peacefully.
I wish I had a video of the two hens racing, and beating, Buddy for a
piece of popcorn I threw on the ground. 'Nina
C' (buff hen in the foreground) has turned out to be a handful. She routinely wanders off and either gets
lost or just decides to not return to the coop for the night. We find her the next morning either back at
the coop or stranded in the rose brambles.
She never seems to learn her lesson.
I have written her off as a goner many times, but she always
reappears. She has more lives than a
cat. Too bad the same couldn't be said
for 'Gracie.'</div>
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In July Jim, Jesse, Buddy, and I drove over to <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Montana</st1:place></st1:state> to visit our
friends, the Kosloskys. Some of my PNW
gardening friends also made the trip over so we could all meet up with a member
of the group who lives not far from Keith and Barb. We had a good time visiting friends, gardens,
and nurseries and playing in Steve's massage chair.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BVCb6NcsVwfXiNSXsPScR2C8rf9ITnK2S50XyHhlDJTcq_VoETiVc9IpoY9JWvxthPyPdO_AvtQTBN7QMi6dlClrjtKvkBKuYOuINLMjbTA6zi5276p_SPp4rlUGSHabmImclVyvZZ4/s1600/IMG_3194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BVCb6NcsVwfXiNSXsPScR2C8rf9ITnK2S50XyHhlDJTcq_VoETiVc9IpoY9JWvxthPyPdO_AvtQTBN7QMi6dlClrjtKvkBKuYOuINLMjbTA6zi5276p_SPp4rlUGSHabmImclVyvZZ4/s320/IMG_3194.JPG" width="320" /></a>Jan, Sawyer, and Tristyn
came for a quick visit towards the end of July.
There was lots of trampolining and endless trips to the chicken coop to
chase and fondle the hens. By the last
day of their visit, the hens went on strike and quit laying. It was the only
time since they started laying that we didn't get any eggs. Sawyer and Tristyn declared 'Dottie' their
favorite. In truth, poor 'Dottie' was
the slowest and therefore, the easiest to catch.<br />
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We had a gorgeous fall – beautiful sunny days, and with no
frost the dahlias just bloomed their heads off.
It more than made up for the summer we never had. (Rain, rain, and more
rain.)<span style="color: red;"></span></div>
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Our annual apple
pressing was our most successful yet. It
took us four years to figure out, but caramel apple martinis will be on the
menu henceforth. There were about 20 people
in all. Besides our Whidbey
apple-pressing regulars, Jim and MaryAnn Nahmens, Barb and Keith Koslosky, and
Mike Roantree came in from out of town to spend the weekend with us.<br />
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A great time was had by all, except for
Jim. While out on dog poop patrol, he
thought he was picking up a dead mole that Charlie had killed when suddenly it
came alive and bit him in the finger.
Naturally much fuss was made over this pitiful and miniscule wound with
a great deal of beer drinking necessary as a painkiller. The unfortunate creature grew larger and more
vicious with each beer consumed.
Somewhere on <st1:place w:st="on">Whidbey Island</st1:place> there is a
zombie vampire mole leaving a trail of victims in its wake.</div>
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We had a nice Thanksgiving with our friends Jeff and Barb
Ewing at their home. Jeff and Danielle
weren't able to get the time off to come up and the passes were too snowy for
us to make it to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Walla Walla</st1:city></st1:place>,
so we joined the Ewings along with other
friends for a great feast that included turduken. Don't you have to wonder about whoever was
sitting around one day and decided to start stuffing various birds inside each
other?!</div>
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<span style="color: red;">DAD'S IN THE POORHOUSE BUT MOM IS STYLIN'!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jim is eagerly awaiting 2011. 2010 was the year of unexpected expenses and
he would like to put the spending to rest.
All three vehicles have needed extensive and expensive repairs – new
engines, new radiators, new doors*, new tires, more new tires when the brand
new tire was damaged (a very bitter pill to swallow), new window rolling mechanism, new brakes,
and the list goes on. </div>
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Then there have been the vet bills, the most recent being
today when Charlie Cat had to go in to be sedated so he could have a five-and-a-half-inch
blade of grass extracted from his nasal cavity, which had resulted in swelling
and infection. It perhaps would have saved us $287.26 if someone had just mowed
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And my late night visit to the ER (see next paragraph)
followed the next morning by a visit from the fire department when the dryer
caught on fire. Turns out a previous
owner rerouted the venting incorrectly.
The fire chief said we were very lucky.
We weren't feeling real lucky as we paid a contractor to come out and
reroute it all according to code.</div>
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Medical expenses have run high and we haven't even gotten
the bills for my recent angioplasty.
After about a month of chest pains, the run-around from doctors, and news
that I may or may not have had a 'silent' heart attack, I had an angiogram last
week that revealed a 95% blocked artery.
So they stented that and I'm now good as new. Even better than new because upon arrival
home from the hospital, I checked out my incision in the mirror and discovered
that I was sporting a new 'do.' Surely
it qualifies as the most expensive Brazilian ever. I'm on restricted activities for a month or
so, which to me means no housework and no lifting anything heavier than a wine
glass. Red wine, of course. </div>
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So as we head into 2011 much poorer but at least one of us a
bit more stylish, I raise my wine glass to all of you and wish you a very merry
Christmas and happy holiday season.</div>
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Jim, Gwen, Jeff, Tim,
& Jesse</div>
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<span style="color: red;">LATE BREAKING NEWS – AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Just when I thought the hawk was gone and it was safe to let
the chickens out – he returned and got 'Mary Lou' (white chicken in above
photo). Very sad.
So it looks like we'll be putting up some sort of 'roof' over the
chicken run in the near future. I wish
chickens came in green or camouflage. </div>
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</div>Gwenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02673557746416513339noreply@blogger.com2