Fruit sodas (p. 39) and Citrus juice medley (p. 38)

The "beverages" chapter in TJOC is just not very exciting to me. I really feel like I'm just powering through them. Maybe it's because I don't require much in the way of fancy drinks. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out who I'm going to pawn the "Lemonade for 100" off on when I get to that recipe.

I was hopeful about Fruit sodas (p. 39). I combined club soda, pineapple juice, and sugar syrup:



It was tasty! It was pretty close to soda, which I liked. I really love club soda--and I drink a lot of it--so that was great. I think I would rather have another juice, maybe cranberry or grape juice or something. And I think it would be absolutely perfect for juices that are really sweet (too sweet for me, at least) like apricot nectar.

I also made Citrus juice medley (p. 38), which Josh got to enjoy. I combined grapefruit, lemon, and orange juices with sugar syrup:



It was REALLY sour. If you like sour drinks, this is the one for you. If you don't, steer clear. I recommend using sugar syrup instead of sugar in these drinks, since sugar doesn't dissolve very well in cold liquids.

There really isn't a whole lot to say about these drinks, they are juice blends, that's that, right?

Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) and Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738)

When I bake, I prefer to bake as much as possible at once. My thought process is as follows: if I'm going to make the whole kitchen a giant mess, might as well make more items and only have to clean once. So since I already knew I was going to make Yellow cupcakes (p. 737)--might as well make Black bottom cupcakes (p. 738) too!

I beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth:



I then beat in an egg and added chocolate chips:



In another bowl, I mixed flour, sugar, non-alkalized cocoa powder*, and salt:



I added water, vegetable oil, distilled white vinegar (strange!), and vanilla:



I filled each cup about half full with the chocolate batter mixture:



I placed a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of each cupcake:



They were then baked:



These were good! The middle was creamy and tsty, the different types of chocolate (chips and cake) lent a note of interest, and I really liked the idea of a filled cupcake that didn't take much extra effort. The cupcakes were also really moist and remained moist for quite a while. They were so rich they didn't even need to be frosted! Perfect. I really recommend these.

Yellow cupcakes (p. 737) isn't a very exciting recipe. I essentially just made Lightning cake and poured the batter in to a cupcake pan.

I whisked together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. I added eggs, milk, and vanilla, beat the batter for a few minutes, and then beat in some butter.



The batter was delicious. I poured the batter in to cupcake cups (I use a cookie scoop, it makes it much more simple):



And baked:



I actually have more pictures of this process but they don't seem very important. It's so frustrating to me how differently the cupcakes rise. I'm still not dealing with the altitude and baking well. These cupcakes were good but nothing special. In fact, they reminded me of boxed mix cupcakes, which isn't a real compliment. I don't know if I'd bother with this recipe again.

Random facts:

• *Non-alkalized cocoa powder: Alkalized cocoa powder is referred to as "Dutched". It has been treated with an alkaline substance and raises the pH of the cocoa. It results in a cocoa "with a milder flavor and darker color" (On Food and Cooking, p. 705-706).
• If you use alkalized and non-alkalized cocoa interchangeably in recipes, it can really screw them up.
  

Technorati Favorites">

Hummus (Chickpea and tahini dip) (p. 74)

Ah, Hummus (Chickpea and tahini dip) (p. 74). There are about a thousand variations of hummus and I wasn't very impressed by TJOC's previous hummus recipe (Half moon hummus), which was far too lemony for my liking.

I took my (canned) chickpeas, combined them in the food processor with lemon juice (way less lemon juice than the HMH recipe, thankfully), tahini, garlic, and salt:



Drizzled a little olive oil on top, sprinkled a little paprika, and done!

This was a tasty, simple hummus. Was it my favorite hummus recipe ever? No. But it was super easy. I think it would be a good base recipe for creative cooks--I see myself adding a ton more garlic or black olives or something. It's nice to have hummus on hand since it's a nice, filling snack. And it always seems like a waste to buy since it's so easy to make.

Any favorite hummus recipes out there? Favorite add-ins?

Random facts:

• Hummus comes from the Arabic word for chickpea (Wikipedia). Simple right?
• Chickpeas have much more oil than most other legumes (On Food and Cooking, p. 491)
• Chickpeas and garbanzo beans are the same thing. The word "chickpea" comes from the Latin name and "garbanzo" comes from the Greek name (On Food and Cooking, p. 491)

Chocolate icebox cookies (p. 776)

I have been eying the giant list of icebox cookies for some time. I know exactly why they haven't been made, too. I really hate when I have to refrigerate cookie dough. Usually it means I'm in the mood to cook when I start but then have to take a break and I'm usually not in the mood to bake when I need to finish the cookies. This is also why I never make sugar cookies.

Even so, there are seven icebox cookie recipes in TJOC. I read them to Josh, he picked the chocolate chip version which requires tiny, expensive chocolate chips. Instead of making his choice (much to his dismay), I decided to make Chocolate icebox cookies (p. 776). Same thing, right? RIGHT?

So I mixed flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl I beat butter and sugar until fluffy, finally adding in an egg, melted chocolate, brandy, and some vanilla.



I rolled the whole thing up with parchment paper and popped it in the fridge:



The dough was really sticky and did not like rolling up. The next day it was extremely hard. I cut it in to slices:



And baked them:



These are odd cookies. They are thin and crisp. I think they would be an absolutely delicious ice cream sandwich. This particular version was chocolate-y without being overboard. The addition of brandy was excellent--it added some depth to the chocolate. That all being said, I hate making the dough and then having to finish the cookies hours later so I doubt that icebox cookies will ever be at the top of my list of favorite cookie recipes.

Caramel corn (p. 866)

I've been looking at the Caramel corn (p. 866) recipe for a long time, because it is on the randomly selected list. It is the reason my mom originally gifted me the magic popcorn pot that always makes perfect popcorn. You have to make caramel corn with "real" popcorn, not microwave popcorn, because microwave popcorn is too fragile. I am always going to be grateful to this recipe, because it reminded me how far superior stovetop popcorn is to microwaved popcorn.

I melted butter in a saucepan and then added light brown sugar and water. I brought it up to a boil:



I kept it cooking, without stirring, until it was to the soft-ball stage. I then poured it over my popcorn:



Amazingly delicious. Almost unbelievably good. It would have been even better with nuts, though, so I recommend mixing nuts into it. I also recommend spreading the whole thing out on parchment or wax paper because it was really difficult to chisel off of the bowl. But homemade caramel corn definitely figures in to the "win" category. It was super easy, too, so if you are afraid of making candy, don't let that worry you.

Instant coffee (p. 31) and Kai (p. 37)

I know absolutely nothing about coffee. I swear that I am the only person in the world who doesn't know how to make coffee (every time I try is a failure). So Instant coffee (p. 31) seemed right up my alley. I took my Folger's crystals, added boiling water, and voila!



Coffee. Sort of. Is that what coffee is supposed to look like? I thought it tasted okay but, as I said before, I don't know anything. So why did I make instant coffee?

I've been intrigued by Kai (p. 37) for a while. It looked good and I wanted to try it but I needed coffee. I have lots of coffee drinking friends and family but I never thought about Kai when I was around them (and most people don't have heavy cream and malted milk powder on hand--other than me, of course). It occurred to me that I could use instant coffee! So that's what I did.

I mixed sugar, malted milk powder, and unsweetened cocoa powder together. It was challenging because the malted milk powder was lumpy for some reason:



I microwaved some heavy cream and added my sugar mixture:



Hmmm. Not promising.

I then added my hot, strong coffee.



It was delicious! The only way I can enjoy coffee is if it's creamy and sweet and the chocolate was delicious. It was a real pick-me-up up, too, due to the double dose of caffeine (cocoa and coffee) and all the sugar. TJOC says it was used by the British Royal Navy to keep men awake on night duty and I totally believe that. Next time I just need to iron some of the chunks out!

Random facts:

• Instant coffee comes from freeze-drying or spray-drying brewed coffee beans (Wikipedia)

• "High-vacuum freeze-dried coffee was developed shortly after World War II, as an indirect result of wartime research into other areas. The National Research Corp. was formed in Massachusetts as a process-development company employing high-vacuum technology. It developed high-vacuum processes to produce penicillin, blood plasma and streptomycin for US military use. As the war ended, NRC looked to adapt its processes for peacetime uses. It formed Florida Foods Corp. to produce concentrated orange juice powder, and originally sold its product to the United States Army. That company later changed its name to Minute Maid." (Wikipedia). Fascinating!

• In some countries, instant coffee is made with hot milk rather than hot water (Wikipedia). I think I should make it that way. Wikipedia also points out that it is nearly impossible to screw up instant coffee, making it the perfect coffee for me.
  

Shandy (p. 53) and English muffin pizza (p. 182)

Oh, the Shandy (p. 53). Something about the shandy just doesn't sound delicious to me. I mixed lager (I choose delicious Miller High Life, the Champagne of Beers) with ginger beer:



Josh had to drink several of these, since it seemed like a waste to throw the extra ginger beer and MHL away. He actually rather liked the shandy. He thought the MHL leveled out the odd flavor of the ginger beer. I thought it was awful, which is likely due to my hatred of ginger beer. Apparently you can also use Sprite in a Shandy which sounds even more awful to me.

While Josh was enjoying his shandy, I made him an English muffin pizza (p. 182).

I took an English muffin, toasted it in the broiler, spread it with chili sauce (you can use catsup--CATSUP!), sprinkled oregano on it, topped it with grated cheddar, poured olive oil over it, and popped it back in the broiler:



Until it turned out like this:



Believe it or not, Josh said it was good and he'd happily eat it again. He thought it needed a little extra "punch" like a couple of pieces of pepperoni or bacon but he thought it was overall rather tasty. I will say it was certainly easy and made out of stuff we already had on hand, which was nice.

Random facts:

• Apparently, shandies can be made with lemonade or cider too (Wikipedia). I love cider, so maybe I would like a cider shandy more.
• Various versions of the shandy seem to be popular all over the world, especially in Germany (seriously paraphrasing Wikipedia)

So, readers, have you had a shandy before? What was the mixture?


Technorati Favorites">

Brunswick stew (p. 432)

My reasoning for making Brunswick stew (p. 432) was different than my usual rather random recipe selection. Carol Porter is a newspaper columnist and blogger with this truly novel (and awesome) idea that she would post cookbooks, and then recipes from those cookbooks and let her readers decide which cookbooks she would cook from and which recipes she would cook out of each cookbook. An old edition of TJOC was one of her cookbooks of the week and Brunswick Stew was one of the winners. I thought it would be fun to see if the new editions version was the same as the older edition.

I've previously put off this recipe because it is SUPER long. If you have a copy of TJOC handy, look it up. It's not very welcoming.

To start, I browned chicken pieces. Now, TJOC insinuates that you should use bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. The skin gets soggy and I hate digging around in a stew, trying to cut away from the chicken bone. I boned out all the chicken (thighs) and took the skin off.



I cooked onions and celery until they were just tender:



I added the chicken back into the pot, along with lima beans, tomatoes, barbecue sauce (homemade, of course), tomato puree, chicken stock, garlic, bay leaves, salt, pepper, and ground red pepper. It was at this point that I found out Josh hates lima beans. Now, I know most people seem to not like them but Josh HATES them. When he ate the finished product, he ended with a little pile of lima beans on the side of his dish.



The whole thing cooked for almost an hour. When the chicken was tender, I added in corn:



The whole thing cooked for about ten more minutes and I seasoned it with a few drops of Tabasco, a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, and a little more salt.

How was it?

Surprisingly good! I thought the stew was a bit odd because it did have a strong barbecue flavor at first but the flavors really mellowed (and melded) as it sat in the fridge. The stew was hearty and really tomato-y between the canned tomatoes, the barbecue sauce, and the tomato puree. It was absolutely divine with a few pieces of crusty bread. I would absolutely make this again. Although it looks like a really long recipe, it's quite easy and most of the ingredients are items you probably have on-hand. And give the poor lima bean another chance--it has a nice, creamy texture in the stew and is probably better than you remember.

Random facts:

• There is a debate about where Brunswick stew actually originated with Brunswick County, Virginia, Brunswick, North Carolina, and Brunswick, Georgia all throwing their metaphorical hats in the ring (Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, p. 72)
• Squirrel is the traditional meat in many Brunswick stews (Wikipedia, OCAFD, TJOC)
• Brunswick stew is traditionally a side for barbecues (OCAFD, p. 72). That would account for the barbecue sauce!
  

Technorati Favorites">

Help me pick recipes to make in the next month!

I have several blog posts in the hopper as well as announcing the winner of the contest--everything will be updated by Sunday.

This is a repost from the TJOTJOC Facebook page (become a fan!).

I totally stole this idea from Carol Porter (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-Porter/187387317960673), who had her fans vote for a 1949 edition of TJOC recipe that she would make. I thought "Great idea!". So which of these would you like to see me make? Have you made any of these?

You can vote three recipes: one sweet, one savory category 1, and one savory category 2.

Either vote here or on the FB page. PLEASE VOTE!

Voting will close March 19th at midnight and I will make all three recipes within the next two weeks.

Savory category 1:

1. Chicken pot pie (p. 103). I've never made a pot pie from scratch, it seems intimidating.

2. Jellied tomato soup (p. 127). Or any of the other jellied soups. It seems so gross!

3. Corn dogs (p.185). I love corn dogs. Scared to make them though.

4. Eggs in a nest (p. 199). Eggs in mashed potatoes--weird.

5. Mousaaka (p. 274). Something I eat at Greek restaurants and something I've never considered trying to make.

Savory category 2:

1.Vanilla coconut shrimp (p.388). Sounds like a terrible combination.

2. Thai fish cakes (p.410). This recipe could be awful, could be delicious.

3. Sesame chicken (p. 432). A guilty pleasure at the most Americanized Chinese restaurants.

4. Pork braised in milk (p. 501). Odd.

5. Puttanesca sauce (p. 564). Streetwalker's sauce!

Sweet:

1. Oatmeal cake (p. 721). It says it has a loyal following.

2. Madeleines (p. 739). I actually have a madeleine pan now!

3. Ginger thins (p. 770). This recipe says it makes 300 tiny cookies.

4. Butter pecan ice cream (p. 833). It might be time to make ice cream.

5. Curried apricot chutney (p. 950). Interesting, right?

**If this goes well, it's going to become a regular feature. I like the idea!

Daiquiri (p. 60), Gin fizz (p. 56), Moscow mule (p. 58),and Cuba libre (p. 60)

I thought it would be a great idea to make Josh and myself a few drinks to enjoy during "The Amazing Race" to enjoy along with our delicious meal. Surprisingly, I am making great progress through the Cocktails chapter and I don't have a huge amount of drinks left to make.

I made myself a Daiquiri (p. 60). I shook light rum, lime juice, and sugar syrup together with ice, then strained them in to a chilled glass:



Odd. First, I don't really understand these drinks that have a couple ounces of liquid in the bottom of a glass. This drink was STRONG and way, way too sour for me. Plus I thought daiquiris usually had fruit involved. This daiquiri was fruit-free.

Josh's first drink was a Gin fizz (p. 56). I shook gin, lime juice, and sugar syrup (oddly, the exact same ingredients as the daiquiri, except for rum versus gin) with ice, poured it in to a glass, and then filled the glass with club soda:



Josh liked it. He thought the club soda really rounded out the flavor, nicely balancing the sweet and sour.

I made myself a Moscow mule (p. 58). I actually had completely forgotten about this drink and it took me quite a while to figure out what the heck it was. I poured vodka and lime juice in a highball glass (TJOC also recommends a mug [a mug?? Really??]), filling the glass with ginger beer.



I really don't like ginger beer. What a strange drink this was. It was like drinking a big glass of sour beer with a vodka chaser. I can't say I will sign on for this drink again.

I thought Josh would actually like a nice Cuba libre (p. 60). The drink was incredibly simple--rum, Coke, and lime juice poured over ice:



Josh was a big fan. It's essentially a rum and Coke with lime, so if that sounds good to you, order one the next time you go out.

These posts are really hard for me because how much can you say about a cocktail? I don't know how people write entire blogs about alcohol.

Random facts:

• Ginger beer peaked in popularity in the early nineteenth century and was seen as healthy due to ginger's reputation as a digestive aid (Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, p. 259)
• Ginger beer seems to be alcoholic while ginger ale is not (personal observation)
• Some rum is fermented from molasses. (On Food and Cooking, p. 765). I totally did not know that
• A gin fizz becomes a "golden fizz" if you add an egg yolk (Wikipedia). I think that sounds repulsive

Technorati Favorites">