Unsung Heroes of the Pantry

While reading on The Pioneer Woman website today, (if you don't know about PW yet, you are missing out. Go read about her life on the prairie as soon as possible....after you finish reading this humble entry, of course.) I discovered that she and I share a love of Nielsen Massey Madagascan vanilla paste. This sparked an idea...what other ingredients do I have in my kitchen that take my cooking to a whole new level? Here are some of my Manna Cakes approved, tried-and-true kitchen staples.

                                          

1) Saigon cinnamon. I add cinnamon to a host of dishes and baked goods, and recently discovered the magic of Saigon cinnamon. Up until the holidays last year, I always thought the basic cinnamon in the grocery was good enough. In fact, I would often buy the bulk "value" cinnamon at the store, re-filling my spice jar as I went. I bought the bottle above in November, and as you can see, it has served me quite well. There are many good brands that use Saigon cinnamon, but please please try some. The scent alone tells you this cinnamon is different from run-of-the-mill varieties, and the taste is seriously like cinnamon in hi-def when all you've known your whole life is an antenna. And for dishes where cinnamon is the star, like cinnamon rolls, scones, and cookies, spending the extra dollar per jar of cinnamon is well worth it. 

2) King Arthur bread flour. It's long been the gold standard of professional bakers and grannies alike, and for good reason. If you want perfect crispy homemade pizza crusts and bread that is chewy on the outside and tender on the inside, look no further than King Arthur. It's a little more expensive than the bread flours produced by other popular brands, but if you want great bread every time, go with King Arthur. And don't forget to sift!

3) Fleur de Sel. Translated as "flower of salt," this is one of the most clean, pure tasting salts available. I've rhapsodized about fleur de sel before, and I'll gladly do it again. A jar is pricey (about $15 for the jar I bought), but a year's worth of fairly regular use has only made a small dent in the jar. Don't use it to salt water for pasta or in your baking; instead, sprinkle on steamed veggies, chocolate truffles, seared steaks, or anything that could use a savory crunch. Because of its large grains and the pure taste, you definitely don't need as much fleur de sel to brighten up your dish as standard table salt. 

4) California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil. Working for a Fortune 50 grocery retailer has its advantages, one of which is getting samples from vendors. Several months ago a few bottles of California Olive Ranch EVOO ended up on my desk, and I've been in love ever since. It smells and tastes so fresh, with none of the off-putting peppery aftertaste or even rancidity of other brands. I use it for searing meats, sauteing asparagus, and I even found an olive oil cake that showcases the nice flavor of this oil.

5) Nielsen Massey vanilla bean paste....the real black gold. I found this gem on Amazon last fall after reading about Nielsen Massey vanillas on a website. I've never been quite talented at slicing vanilla beans lengthwise and scraping out all of those tiny seeds, and this product takes all that hassle away. It measures teaspoon for teaspoon with vanilla extract, is supremely smooth and aromatic, and you get the added benefit of all those pretty little flecks of vanilla seeds. Like the cinnamon I mentioned above, I use this paste for baked goods where vanilla is the star. Just this week I added a tablespoon to my cream cheese frosting for cinnamon rolls, and I use it for sugar cookies, vanilla wafers, and vanilla cake. 

6) Cane sugar. There is plenty of debate over cane sugar versus beet sugar for baking, and I have to side with cane sugar. Don't be fooled--unless the package clearly states "cane sugar," it likely came from beets. The same also goes for brown sugar; cheaper brands will use a white beet sugar and basically coat it with a molasses additive. Yuck.  I don't necessarily notice a major difference between beet and cane white granulated sugar in my cookies and cakes (I guess my palate isn't refined enough!), but I do notice that beet sugar caramelizes differently during candy making. Therefore, when I embark on my labor-of-love caramel-making mission, I don't take any chances. Cane sugar it is. 
7) Black pepper grinder. Nothing fancy here, but the inside of my spice cabinet has not seen a tin of ground black pepper in years. Not only does this nifty little grinder let me select the size of my grind (large and crunchy, thank you very much!), but it guarantees every dish will have a fresh, well, peppery, flavor. With a grinder you'll never be disappointed by heat and time reducing the potency of the pepper, and therefore you'll end up using less.

Easter for 15 in 20 Hours.....! The Outcome

With a great sigh of relief, Easter dinner came off without a hitch. It was the right number of guests (my Dad's living area is not large, and the logistics for 15 are a lot simpler than 25), the weather was gorgeous, and everyone seemed to have a great time. The smaller group also gave me the opportunity to spend time on the little things, namely extra little floral arrangements and the Easter pails for my nieces and nephews.

Flowers for the arrangements: daisies, pom-poms, carnations, hypericum berries, baby's breath

Tools of the trade: popover pans, cake pedestals, candlesticks, and serving pieces, all brought from my apartment for the occasion

The finished floral arrangements for the table. The humble, inexpensive flowers were long lasting, visually impactful, and so pretty!

Easter baskets are always a fun part of the holiday, and although my nieces and nephews are really too old for an Easter egg hunt, they will never be too old for a pail of candy. I bought inexpensive metal pails at Target, along with all of their favorite Easter candy. I also stumbled upon edible Easter grass, which was visually appealing, but definitely not very tasty! About 15 minutes' worth of work later, all 4 pails were assembled and ready to serve as placeholders at the kids' table. 

My first big task for Easter morning was preparing the au gratin potatoes. I love this au gratin potatoes recipe found at allrecipes.com...it's simple and absolutely delicious! For my crowd I tripled the batch and baked it in a lasagna pan. I put it in about 4 hours before dinner, alongside the ham, so that it had plenty of time to cook at the much lower temperature (325).

the finely sliced potatoes, about 7 pounds in all

After church we dove into a loaf of banana caramel bread I had made Saturday night, fantastic with a slathering of butter. I cheated and used a mix from Williams Sonoma, but it was a real time-saver and allowed me to concentrate on lunch. 

In my experience, large portions of meat, such as ham and turkey, really taste best when cooked slowly and without a lot of fuss. I did a hickory-smoked shank ham and cooked it in my turkey roaster for about 4 hours. I made a simple glaze of about 2 cups of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of both molasses and pure maple syrup, a pinch of kosher salt, and a splash of water to thin out the glaze slightly. When the ham had about an hour left (I let it be for the first 3 hours, only checking the temperature once), I made a few slashes with a sharp knife into the skin of the ham and poured the glaze on. Once the ham was carved and plattered, I ladled the juices and glaze from the pan onto the slices. Delicious!

The "adult" table. Tablecloth and napkins found at Home Goods for a steal!

The kids' table. The tablecloth is the same toile runner my sister sewed for her graduation party last year

I nestled chocolate candies in pretty wine glasses and placed them among the centerpieces. It also added another shot of color to the table!

Later in the afternoon I brought out my coup-de-grace: a classic cheesecake with caramel sauce and roasted pecans. I have made many different kinds of cheesecake in my life, and if you're looking for a classic that is infinitely flexible, use this recipe from allrecipes. You will never need another cheesecake recipe again! Just make sure to follow the cardinal rules of cheesecake-making: 

• always blind-bake your crust before filling
• always beat the sugar and cream cheese together first for several minutes until light and fluffy
• always add your eggs last, mixing them by hand and only enough to barely incorporate into the batter
• never over-bake. Bake until barely set in the middle, turn the oven off, and allow the cake to cool for several hours (even overnight) in the oven before refrigerating.  

  

  The decadent final product....definitely a family hit!

  
  

Easter for 15 in 20 Hours.....!

So the yearly stalemate over which branch of our family tree will host the next holiday ended last Sunday night. Dad decided that he could host Easter at his house.....which means that yours truly gets to play hostess with the mostest. Again. Now that my calluses have healed on my feet from Christmas (oh, the sheer agony of standing on hardwood floors for hours on end!), they have been called back in for active duty.

Tomorrow morning will be a flurry of last-minute ironing, a trip to church to celebrate, and organizing the parade of pans that will march in and out of my oven over 4 hours. Details on floral arrangements, desserts, and Easter "baskets" for the nieces and nephews to come shortly, but here is my menu for tomorrow. Simple and delicious. 

Menu:

Ham with brown sugar and molasses glaze

Au gratin potatoes

Steamed carrots and broccoli

Popovers

Salad 

Cheesecake with caramel sauce and toasted pecans

Bourbon, Bread, Eggs, and Cream: Who Needs More?

Hot bread pudding, resplendent with the scent of bourbon!

I recently ran into the most delicious bread pudding recipe from Martha Stewart: Louisiana Bread Pudding.

In a New Orleans-inspired dinner, I took my first stab at a jambalaya complete with chunks of spicy andouille sausage. Since that dish was a complete meal in a pot, all I needed was something sweet to top it off. 

I had never made bread pudding before, and wasn't sure if I'd like the consistency. I do not understand what I was so afraid of! The result was hot, custard-y, sweet, and made more interesting by a heaping handful of glazed pecans. I suppose the dash of Kentucky bourbon plus the drizzle of a boozy cream sauce didn't hurt either....

This particular recipe called for raisins, but since I don't like raisins, I thought of a few other mix-ins that would serve quite well, including slivered almonds, craisins, and my glazed pecans. 

The finished product, complete with bourbon cream sauce

Spring Re-Set

I wish I could tell you amazing reasons why I haven't posted anything new in the last month and a half, but the fact of the matter is, I've been a lazy bum. I moved to a new position in my company, and have been working long hours, but that isn't quite enough. I've been doing all kinds of spring-y tasks, including cleaning, re-decorating, and enjoying the yo-yo weather, but despite getting all kinds of great inspiration, I've yet to put out anything in cyberspace. 

At last, here it is. My Spring "re-set". I get the itch in early-to-mid March, to shed heavy draperies and rugs, to change my linens, and to prepare myself for the onslaught of sunshine and heat. 

The tumble of throw pillows from my linen closet

My houndstooth club chair gets a sweet little embroidered pillow from IKEA

Down come the red velveteen winter curtains, and up go the lightweight silk dupioni curtains

 It's always so fun to bring the next season's linens out of the closets; they seem new again after their months of storage. I also find myself buying little thises and thats at the end of the season when everything is on clearance; I've often forgotten that I've bought them by the time I bring them out again! That was the case with the little birdcage napkin rings I put away last Fall.

The heavy Fall/Winter rug comes up...

...And is replaced with the durable sisal rug

Every corner of my apartment gets a little spruce-up. I change the artwork, bathmat, and shower curtain in my bathroom; I change out the curtains and pillows in my bedroom. The kitchen got a new rag rug and a little color by way of springy towels. Add in a day or two of Spring sunshine and open windows, and my place has a new lease on life. 

Spring tablescape: ironstone, new napkins, and a French toile runner (repurposed after my sister's graduation party last year)

Darling little napkin rings from Pottery Barn that I got last Fall on clearance

One of my little Spring projects: installing under-shelf lighting to brighten the dim interior of my hutch 

A sunny window in my apartment

Re-set complete!

Adventures in Ebelskiver

Not perfect, but definitely not bad for a first time! And powdered sugar always covers a multitude of sins.

Last weekend I tried my hand at Ebelskiver for the first time. Pancakes nor French toast appealed to us, and a run to Starbucks next door (in 0-degree weather) was out of the question, so I broke out the Ebelskiver pan I got for Christmas What is Ebelskiver, you ask? It's a delicious little filled-pancake-on-the-verge-of-a-doughnut, created by those very clever Danes. It has its very own pan with round troughs, and the basic batter can be used to create almost any flavor or filling your heart desires.

I happened to use bittersweet chocolate chips for a filling, but you can use almost anything your imagination conjures. Nutella, berries, jam, cinnamon, vanilla, chopped nuts, and crumbled bacon are just some of the things that come to my mind. Then you can add toppings post-cooking; powdered sugar is the traditional topper, but I envision hot maple syrup, confectioner's icing, melted chocolate, and chopped nuts all as viable candidates.

Admittedly, my first batch was a disaster. But I quickly picked up the knack and successfully completed enough Ebelskiver for breakfast. Here are a few things I learned:

Cooking the Ebelskiver

Flipped and almost ready

• Only work with a hot pan. Like a griddle, make sure the Ebelskiver pan is nice and hot before you add the batter. This allows the outside of the Ebelskiver to fry quickly and create a golden, almost crispy, shell. 
• Don't forget the oil. Use about 1 tsp of oil in each well for each batch.
• It takes only about a tablespoon of batter to fill the well. The batter will be just shy of the top of the well, and if you add anything as a filling, it will be level with the top. That was the mistake I made with my first batch. I filled the well to the top, not realizing it would puff up and further overflow once I added the chocolate chips (my selected filling) to the well. Overflow on the pan=disastrous flipping!
• After about a minute of cooking, the pancake is ready to flip. Look for signs that the batter is cooking through, similar to that of a griddle pancake: the edges will appear dry and bubbles will form on the surface. Use a fork to push down one edge of the Ebelskiver, then slide the fork under the exposed side to flip the pancake. 
• It will only take about another minute to finish the pancake. Simply slide them out onto a paper towel-covered plate and dust with powdered sugar, drizzle with icing, or anything else that sounds tasty! Make sure to serve them hot, so that they maintain their fresh crispiness.

Resources for Recipes--here are some recipes to give your imagination a jump-start:

Basic Danish Ebelskiver from Cooks.com

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes from Williams Sonoma

Apple Ebelskiver from Rachael Ray

Have Your Cake and Eat it too....and Don't Forget the Frosting!

So Marie Antoinette may have never insensitively said "let them eat cake", but even the misguided mistress of Versailles understood the decadent importance of a good cake. And what good is cake without its crowning glory, a sometimes thick, sometimes glossy, sometimes rich layer of frosting?

Every year I make about a dozen desserts for a non-profit organization that is near and dear to my heart. In early January this organization has a formal dinner and dance, complete with a live swing orchestra and a dessert auction (clever really, dinner is included in your ticket but you have to pay for your dessert!). I provide a range of desserts, trying to appeal to any taste, and always try to bring back the best-sellers of the dessert auction. Many of these best of the best are cakes, and in mastering a sell-able dessert (and doing it several times over again) I have learned many dos and don't-dos.

Do: trim the top of your cake. If you're working on a layer cake, a cake trimmer is magic. Seriously, I don't know how I lived without this tool for so many years of auctions. A serrated knife is fine if the blade of the knife is longer than the diameter of your cake and you have a really good eye for cutting levelly, but I am not that talented. The $4 Wilton cake trimmer was worth its weight in gold after the first use.

Do: flip over your top cake layer. Even after leveling my top layer, I find that is much easier to frost the bottom of the cake than the top. By flipping over the top layer (so that the trimmed side is down), you are going to prevent a lot of crumbs and cake bits from messing up your frosting.
 Don't: forget to do a crumb layer. The secret to the smoothest surface is doing a crumb layer first. Sometimes I'll make my frosting a little thinner than usual, do the crumb layer, and then thicken the frosting with some more confectioner's sugar for the top layer. Spread a really thin layer of frosting over the entire layer cake (it doesn't matter if it's smooth or perfect...it's meant to catch crumbs) and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Once the frosting has set, proceed with your top layer of frosting.

Frosting a cake with my offset spatula (don't forget to scrape it off once in a while!)

Do: buy an offset spatula. A long offset spatula (you can buy them almost any store that sells kitchen supplies) is the key to great frosting. It allows you to smooth the sides easily and gives you control when spreading frosting across the top.
Don't: forget to clean off your spatula while you work. If you happen to pick up any crumbs while spreading the frosting, scrape the spatula onto the bowl or a small plate right away. Otherwise you'll end up pushing crumbs around in your frosting...not attractive.

The finished product, ready for transport

 Don't: worry about making the surface absolutely perfect. I've found it's really hard to mimic the perfectly smooth surface of a professionally-baked cake, so I don't even try. Plus, there's something really pretty about a cake that looks homemade...thick frosting molded into pretty swirls.

A few other tried-and-true tips:

• Work on an elevated surface. It's a lot easier to work on a cake when it's not at the counter level. I use baking racks to get closer to my cake, but a pedestal or even an overturned mixing bowl will work too.
• Start with the center and work your way out. Work your frosting from the top and center, spreading outward and to the sides. The same goes for cupcakes: put a dollop in the center, spread out to the edges, then smooth the frosting from the outside inward.
• When serving the cake, use a sharp knife and hot water. Dipping the knife in a glass of hot water will help keep the blade clean and your slices picture-perfect.