An Adventurous Lunch

Joanna has now decided that steak seasoning, teriyaki sauce, and salad don't mix well. Judy was on lunch duty, and put what she thought was the balsamic vinegar on the table. It was in actuality, the teriyaki sauce (We're thrifty people around here. We use the old balsamic vinegar jar to hold the teriyaki sauce since it's much easier to handle than the gallon jug) I wish you could have seen Joanna's face. She absolutely LOVES balsamic vinegar and steak seasoning (who knows why!) on her salad. It's one of her favorite things. She took her first bite, and her face began to contort and scrunch up with absolute horror and disgust. Various adjectives followed in hot pursuit. (Believe me, this isn't an exaggeration) Unfortunately, I couldn't contain my laughter. I probably should have, because I then proceeded to spill all of the salt in the salt shaker onto the table. Thankfully there weren't any guests around. They would have thought us the most clumsy, disorganized (I mean really, who keeps the teriyaki sauce in the balsamic vinegar jar?) family they had ever seen.

I'm really proud of Joanna. She finished her salad, although it was done with much grimacing and irritation.

A Kitchen Disaster

I would really, really, like to do.....something. I'm quite at a loss for words. Mom asked Judy and I to make a batch of bread so we could give some of our beautiful loaves to their swimming teachers. After cooking supper, I taught Judy how to do so. The loaves were beautiful before they went in the oven. About halfway through the baking process, the power flickered. Just long enough to turn the oven off whilst my bread was baking. I didn't think about it, ( I was thinking of my bed!) and I went to check it and I proceeded to open the oven. Horror of horrors, the bread was flat, and was only half cooked because the oven had turned off fifteen minutes ago! ( I hadn't opened the oven until then because that messes up the loaves ability to rise properly) It had continued to rise in the oven. So much so that bread dough was on the bottom of the oven. Ugh! The kitchen smells smoky and burnt, and the bread is...well...there is no right way to describe it. Jeanette delicately described it as flat bread.

I'm going to go take it out of the oven. There is really nothing that can describe what I feel towards those six loaves of bread right now. (Can you become bitter over bread?)
I'm now going to go to bed and I'm thinking of Julie and Peter's visit. A much more encouraging topic to sleep on. And no, I don't think I'll be posting any pictures.:)

Valentine's Day...and I've Got Someone On My Mind

Well..yesterday was special. I spent the day with my sweetheart. Yes, there we are. Happy birthday sis!
In honor of her birthday, I made special homemade pitas. We're going to eat them tonight for her birthday meal. Here's the recipe.
2 packages dry yeast
2 C. warm water
1/2 t. honey
1/4 C. olive oil
1 T. salt
5 to 6 C. whole wheat flour
cornmeal

Now, I altered the recipe. With our bosch machine I mix the water, honey, olive oil, salt and half of the flour. After that is mixed I add the yeast and the rest of the flour. Then I followed their directions.:)
Shape dough into 8 to 10 balls. Cover and let rest for about 30 minutes.
Using a floured rolling pin, flatten each ball into a circle about 8 inches in diameter and about 1/8 in. thick. Dust 2 baking sheets with cornmeal, place 2 of the circles on each sheet, cover, and let rest for about 30 minutes.
The oven is set for 500 F.-very hot for these little breads, and therein lies the secret. Place 1 sheet on the lowest rack for 5 minutes. Do not open the oven during this first baking. After 5 minutes, transfer the sheet to a higher shelf and let it bake for 3 to 5 more minutes. The breads will puff up and be lightly browned when they're ready.

My first couple of pitas were interesting. One was completely flat, the other was quite puffy. I did figure it out and the rest of the pitas were more promising in the end result. We're all looking forward to celebrating Joanna's birthday this evening. (yes, her birthday was yesterday, but we waited a day because of scheduling difficulties:)

Mount Crumble before the frosting

This is me trying to fix a train wreck.

Mount Crumble

Well, I decided to share a little story of a culinary flop lest you think I am a flawless chef.

When I was in Illinois, Joanna and I decided to bake a carrot cake for dinner. I was supposed to be imparting my great culinary wisdom to her. I had visions of a three-layer cake perfectly covered in cream cheese frosting and garnished with pecans. We were going to pipe a little trim at the base of the cake and we were going to hear great words of deepest admiration and praise as we brought the cake to the dinner table to rounds of applause.

Ummm…yeah…that’s not quite how it turned out.

I hadn’t made this recipe before, but Janessa warned me that I might have trouble getting it out of the pans if I didn’t use parchment or flour the pan or both. Well, I thought I could get away with just greasing the pan – after all, most cakes I make I only grease the pan, I don’t usually flour or use parchment unless I’m doing a wedding cake or something.

We took the cakes out of the oven and I told Joanna to invert them on a cooling rack. After all, that’s what you’re supposed to do with most cakes, and that’s what I usually do. Of course, if I had stopped to really think about it I would have remembered that I normally invert sponge cakes, not moist carrot/pineapple cakes. When I lifted a pan a few minutes later I discovered to my horror that only part of the cake had fallen out of the pan. I suddenly realized that
Janessa was right, but I had to prove her wrong. So, I turned the oven back on and replaced the part of the cake that had fallen out and put everything back in hoping I could bake it back into a more cohesive cake.

I took them out and let them cool. The first one came out mostly ok so I thought I was safe. But the second one – well, that was another matter. Joanna and I tried to glue it together, but I finally had to admit that this was one major cake flop! At that point I just had to laugh. We managed to glue it together with frosting somewhat, but in the end it was just pathetic. Janessa, of course, deeply enjoyed the fact that she was right and I had to admit it.

We took some pictures of our disaster, and I'll post them when the crew sends them to me. In the meantime, Joanna has promised me that next time I'm home, perhaps she will have to be giving me lessons. :)

WARNING: Contents Under Pressure

Today I have been canning - all day long. I started out with potatoes. We're canning potatoes because we have way too many to eat (without becoming human potato chips) and no really good place to store them. Potatoes require pressure canning, which I've always found a bit tedious. Who wants to spend all day keeping the little dial at exactly 10 lbs. pressure when there are more exciting things to do? Anyway - I got the canner going and sat down to read instructions for canning peaches (my next project for the day) and completely forgot about watching the canner. Well...the phone rang and I got up to answer it. As I did, I happened to glance over at the canner and it was over 20 lbs. pressure! It was in the DANGER zone (I've always wondered what would happen when a canner gets into the danger zone...would it blow up or what?) Well, I got it off the heat and thankfully the pressure dropped quickly back into the safe zone and my potatoes (and the house) were safe!

I am now processing peaches, which is a much more interesting project that does not require use of the pressure canner. Besides, peaches are much prettier in the jar than potatoes.

There is a moral to the story though - make sure when using a pressure canner to actually check the pressure and not assume it will regulate itself. It won't.

Gotta run - the peaches are just about done.