breakinglight11 | Entries tagged with cooking

I made another kind of nice dish out of odds and ends in my kitchen this week. A while ago, my dad’s partner taught me how to make halupkis, a Ukrainian dish made from rolling ground meat in cabbage leaves and slow cooking them in tomato sauce. It’s very tasty, but kind of labor intensive to make, so I don’t do it very often.

This week, I was trying to throw something together substantial without a ton of work, so you wouldn’t think I’d go to a dish like this. But I noticed I had some leftover cabbage, tomato sauce, and grape tomatoes, and some ground turkey meat in the freezer. I didn’t feel up to the wrapping process, but I figured I could throw all that together into something nice. So I diced an onion, defrosted the turkey, and chopped up the cabbage and tomatoes into rough chunks. These I sautéed on the stovetop, then simmered it all in the tomato sauce with a few more seasonings until it gelled into a nice halupki-inspired mix. I served it over egg noodles, and though it wasn’t a very photogenic dish, I thought it came out quite good!

I like cooking this way, tossing together various tasty things and simmering them in a pot. I call them mooshes, and while they’re hardly fancy and certainly not to everyone’s taste, I find them comforting, and enjoy how easy they are to cook.

Made something kind of interesting while trying to throw something together for lunch today. Wanted to dress up that boil-in-the-bowl dry ramen for something quick. So I threw in some frozen mixed veggies we had in the freezer, and made a quick sauce out of odds and ends we had in the kitchen. Some white miso paste, teriyaki sauce, a spoonful of peanut butter, a little of the starchy noodle water, and a dash of sriracha in Bernie’s. Crumbled in some peanuts for crunch; would have scrambled an egg if I’d had a little more time.

But it came out pretty tasty, which pleases me because I’m not great at improvising things like sauces— particularly outside of the Italian-peasant, French-country cuisine style my knowledge is based in. I’ll have to remember this next time we want a real bite at home but don’t have a lot of time. Bernie liked it, at least, so I’ll consider that a success. ☺️

This past weekend I tried my hand at a dessert recipe put out by a tea company as an ad for their goods, after seeing the video short below for Black Lavender Mini-Bundt Cakes:

Watch on YouTube

Clearly it really worked on me, as I found the process so pretty I immediately bought the tea, Black Lavender, to make it myself. I’m a much better cook than I am a baker, so I knew neither my results nor process would come out so beautiful, and I didn’t know if I’d like eating the result. I often find things flavored with lavender to be too perfume-y or resinous. But I thought it would be fun to give it a try.

The recipe made enough only four cakes, at least in the little four-inch mini pie tins I used as pans. I was expecting six, as that’s what appears to be shown in the recipe image, but it actually doesn’t specify the count. Maybe my tins were bigger than their mini Bundts. Still, it was fun to put them together. It actually made a use for the spice grinder Bernie’s parents gave him that mostly just sits on the utility shelf collecting dust. And I enjoyed using precisely seven drops of purple food coloring to make the icing just the right color.

They were not pretty, unfortunately, and not just because I didn’t have the mini Bundt pans. They got a little dark at the edges before the centers were set in the oven. And as pretty as its color was, I made no art of the application of the frosting. But they tasted absolutely delicious, not heavy or resinous at all. They were very sweet, but I like that, with the lavender at just the right level, and a pleasant light crumb to the cake. It’s the best and most interesting dessert recipe I’ve tried in a long time.

I will definitely be making these again. I still have lots of the tea left over, and I actually like that it makes a fairly small batch. It means I can make them when it’s just for me and Bernie without having tons of cake to eat for days. I’ve pasted the recipe here below, and I highly recommend them if you like a light, sweet, floral dessert that’s not too difficult to make.

( Black Lavender Mini Bundt Cakes Recipe )

MRS. HAWKING SPILLS THE TEA! A collection of behind-the-scenes looks at the making of the Mrs. Hawking shows, in the lead up to our live and filmed performances at Arisia 2024.

Previous episodes:
1. Intro
2. Costumes
3. GRWM with Arthur Swann
4. TV Tropes
5. Giveaway
6. Heroes
7. GRWM with Clara Hawking
8. Historical Fiction

Watch on YouTube

Teatime was an integral part of daily life in Victorian society. So of course, we often need tea and scones onstage for scenes that take place in tearooms and during teatime.

Join us on a very special episode of Mrs. Hawking Spills the Tea as co-writer and Technical Director Bernie Gabin shows us how to bake the perfect Victorian scone! Yum!

Do you like scones? If so, what’s your favorite kind? Let us know in the comments!

Catch our live FALLEN WOMEN at 5pm 1/13 at Arisia 2024:

“London, 1888— Mrs. Hawking’s great rival may have been vanquished, but the struggle has left rifts in the once-close bond between our heroes. They find themselves alienated and in pain even as they must swing into action to take on the infamous murderer Jack the Ripper. Where once they were always there for one another, a new life path opening up for Mary, Nathaniel’s lingering trauma, and Mrs. Hawking’s pulling away from her chosen family threaten to shatter the team forever. CN: gunshots, mention of spousal violence, violence against sex workers.”

#MrsHawkingSpillsTheTea #MrsHawking #setlife #backstage #actor #makingof #film #actorlife #theater #arisia #victorian #technicaltheater #superhero #femalesuperhero #newplay #arisia2024 #behindthescenes #scones #baking #homemade #food #dessert #foodie #foodporn #yummy #instafood #delicious #baker #sweet #teatime #bake #love #foodstagram #desserts #bakersofinstagram #tasty #recipe

Video by Cari Keebaugh.

Mrs. Hawking Part 6: FALLEN WOMEN will be performed at Arisia 2024 at 5pm on Saturday, January 13th at the Boston Westin Seaport. Register for the con to see our show: Arisia.org.

For the first time as an adult and after many, many years, I have made my favorite dessert as a child— a chocolate dream pie in an Oreo crust.

My mother wouldn’t make a lot of processed desserts when we were growing up, but this is the one. Dream whip mixed with pudding mix and milk, beaten to a fluffy consistency and chilled, in a crust made out of Oreo cookies. My favorite thing to eat in the world as a little kid.

My tastes as an adult don’t run as a sweet as they did when I was a kid, so I’m not a hundred percent sure I’ll like it anymore. But it’s chilling in the fridge now, and I’m excited to try.

I have sampled it now. It’s a LOT, so I can’t exactly inhale it the way I used to when I was little. But it’s very tasty, and even though I’m not a person with a lot of sensory memories, I took a bite and it tasted like a dozen Christmases. 🙂 That made me smile.

I watched a video today on making a Nigerian-style beef stew. Under it, there were a number of comments like “That’s not Nigerian beef stew! My family makes it like this, my family would never make it like that.” A fairly typical intra-ethnic disagreement, reminding me of the time I mentioned that my Italian family never ate arrancini.

But this in particular made me smile to recall a student I once tutored a couple years ago, who came to the session wearing a beautiful headwrap that looked like a crown. I complimented her on it, and she explained it to me by saying in Nigeria they called them geles. She told me she was wearing the style traditional to Nigeria, but she pointed out other women wearing different styles of geles in the tutoring room.

It was then when the student’s friend swept down upon our table. The friend was like, no no no no, don’t listen to HER, she is MISINFORMING you, ONLY the traditional Nigerian style is called a gele, you would most definitely NOT call other kinds of headwraps geles. She was here to set the record straight.

My student defended her position. “That’s what they call them in the part of Nigeria I’m from!”

Her friend’s prompt response: “Then you are from the part of Nigeria where they are wrong.”

I still tell people this sometimes when I disagree with them. We can all learn something from her confidence. I would love to hear what this woman thought of that beef stew recipe, and if it came from the part of Nigeria where they are wrong.

Recently I got a chance to try out Blue Apron, one of those meal subscription services that has become popular recently. Basically I got sent a box with three meal's worth as a free sample that Bernie, who also tried out the service, was allowed to send to somebody. It's an interesting idea-- they send you the raw ingredients plus recipes for chef-designed meals to cook in your own kitchen. You can choose what gets sent to you from a number of recipes offered each week, and you can personalize a little according to your dietary habits, such as vegetarianism or not eating pork.

I tried it for the first time at Bernie's house, when he had received his own free samples from his brother. The food is very high-quality; everything they send you is fresh and even mostly organic, and just the right amount for the recipe. The plates are clearly designed by creative and talented cooks, who put a lot of thought into flavor combination and ingredient use. Each plate is fairly balanced too, with a protein, vegetables, and a starch. The recipes are clear and well-written; you don't have to be a good or experienced cook to follow them, and none of the techniques are difficult to execute. The results are really good meals, particularly if you like a lot of variety and combination in what you're eating.

They had some downsides, though. While not exorbitant, each meal is not cheap-- they work out to about ten dollars a portion, which if you order out a lot is low, but if you're used to doing your own grocery shopping to cook, like I do, that seems excessive. None of the cooking is difficult, exactly, but because the recipes favor lots of ingredients and many-step dishes, they always took me a fair bit of time to prepare. Finally, there is a LOT of plastic packaging for the individually-portioned ingredients, which seems wasteful. I think most of it is recyclable, but still. And I'm annoyed with the fact that despite the three-meal sample being free, they basically immediately sign you up for another three-meal delivery which they don't give you a chance to cancel.

Ultimately, I am not going to continue using it. It's too expensive for me, especially since I cook pretty regularly already, by doing my own much-cheaper grocery shopping. I also generally prefer to eat a little simpler than this style, with fewer ingredients, fewer sauces, fewer starches, that sort of thing. It's a very good product though, and if you want an easier way to get into cooking restaurant-style meals, it's probably worth it for ten bucks a plate.

I haven't been cooking much lately. Too busy, too tired, or not home at convenient hours for it. But I love it. It has great meaning for me, beyond just a fun hobby. Food is holy; cooking is art and love at once. There's no other art or craft quite like it, in that everybody eats, everybody must eat, and so everybody can get something out of food. I know food's not a big deal for everybody, but nobody can go without it. Food is basic survival, so you can use it to be good to anybody, and then make it so much more.

I cooked tonight. Nothing fancy, just some panko breaded chicken and roasted vegetables. But it was delicious, and I felt so much better and stronger after eating it. I remembered that I made it, that I have the power and knowledge and ability to create something like this, to deliver this feeling when I want to. It's so powerful. I think of how my mom and dad showed love with beautiful meals. I think of how prone I am to bad attitudes about food because of my overwhelming desire to be thin, and how much my love of food helps me avoid those dangers. I think of all the wonderful occasions I've centered around dishes I've lovingly prepared.

I've got a scene in my head that I've wanted to include in a piece of writing for a long time now. I've just never had the right project for it. I imagine a novice chef laboring over a dish taught to them by a mentor. They put everything they have into it. They approach the table with the dish, to lay it in front of their mentor who sits at the head. The novice looks on in trepidation as the master takes a bite. All is still for a moment, then the master lays down the spoon and covers their eyes with their hand. The novice panics a moment, thinking they've failed. But the master stands and embraces them, weeping, because it was just so exquisite.

It reminds me of my mom, teaching me to make her lobster bisque, the most important recipe in our family. I don't have a place for it yet. But I've written other stories involving other passions-- sewing, ballet --so maybe someday I'll write a piece about cooking.

Food substitutions are a depressing topic. Usually you end up with some sad, tasteless mess that in no way satisfies the desire for the original. But I've been craving sweet, spicy, milky chai latte from Starbucks constantly lately, but given that I try to avoid sugar for my diet and straight milk for my lactose intolerance, it's sadly right out for me these days.

Chai is always my favorite tea, but because tea is my go-to for drinking constantly all day, I got worried about the amount of caffeine I'd been consuming. So I settled on drinking a whole lot of Celestial Seasonings' Bengal Spice, which tastes like chai because of the spices, but is actually an herbal. It's cheap too, so basically it's perfect for the freebasing I need to curb my constant impulse to munch.

This week I decided to see if I could fake a chai latte with the stuff. I brewed the tea, then heated some almond milk in a saucepan. I've never liked a dairy substitute before, but I actually do like the taste of it. It's easy to simmer, too, because it doesn't scald easily or get that nasty skin on it like milk sometimes does. Mixing it together, I got something that was not entirely unlike a chai latte! I mean, honestly it doesn't really compare, it doesn't have the flavor or the body, but it's pretty tasty in its own right. I think I will make a habit of this. Maybe I'll just heat the almond milk in the microwave rather than hover on a pan for it, but it would be nice to make it in the morning, pour it in one of my glass milk jugs, and carry it along with me for the day.

I made the croissants from scratch like I planned for Thanksgiving this year, and it was a very worthwhile experiment!

We used Paul Hollywood's recipe, the judge from the Great British Bake Off. Bernie and I made the dough two nights ago, and it turned out to be not particularly difficult but a fairly labor-intensive process. More than anything, it took a long time. I made the initial dough out of water, flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. It was supposed to be kneaded with the dough hook of a stand mixer, but I don't have one, so I had to do it by hand. I was concerned that I might not work it enough, but I think I ended up overcompensating and kneaded it too long.

Then we rolled out a sheet of butter and folded it into the dough. Doing that folding over process several is what gives laminated pastries like croissants their characteristic layers-- the water in the butter turns to steam and that air puffs the layers apart. The only difficult part it that between each "turn" the dough has to go back into the fridge to chill for an hour, so it takes forever. Also, making it so far in advance, the dough had a lot more rising time than it was supposed to. It made me nervous, as I kept hearing Paul Hollywood's coarse country accent in my head, saying, "They're over-proved, they're overworked."

We baked them in a 400 degree oven for fifteen minutes. They came out golden, but we found the ones on the lower oven rack blackened on the bottom, while the ones on top stayed nice. They were finished just as the turkey was about done resting, so we put them on the table to eat with the rest of the meal.

They were actually delicious, even the ones that were burnt on the bottom. On the inside, they had layers and you could see the puff, but I'm fairly certain the texture was wrong. When we were rolling it out for the last time to make into croissant shapes, we noticed the dough was very elastic, which indicated the presence of gluten. This pastry isn't supposed to be too glutenous, so that confirmed I kneaded it too much. Also, when you bit into them or tried to break them, they were ever so slightly tougher than they should have been, not quite as light and crisp. But the flavor was definitely there, and they did get the layers. Not bad for my first try of a fairly challenging pastry recipe!

I'm super excited for Thanksgiving this year. My family is coming to my house, which I like because it makes me feel like a grownup, so I will be spending it with my dad, my brother, his girlfriend, and, for the first time ever, Bernie.

I have had the cooking and baking bug hardcore lately, so I'm champing at the bit to have the chance to make a huge elaborate meal. We've had basically the same Thanksgiving since I was a tiny child, and I'm not planning on changing up the dinner menu much. That makes a roast turkey with a kind of French country-inspired stuffing that was my mom's invention, whipped mashed potatoes, roast brussel sprouts, a fancy pear and parsnip puree, spicy cranberry sauce, and croissants in place of dinner rolls. It's a homey meal that I really love, and one I look forward to all year.

The differences I'm introducing this year are mostly to do with the baking and dessert. We usually buy croissants, but this time I think I want to try my hand at making them from scratch. It's definitely not an easy task, as it involves making a laminated dough, but I think beautiful homemade pastry would be a fun challenge and a nice addition to the table. I am using a recipe by Paul Hollywood, the judge on the Great British Bake Off. I'll have to convert some of the measurements to Imperial, and there's probably easier version out there, but I'm kind of on a kick with him right now. He knows his stuff, and, because I am shallow and easily manipulated by personality, I like his spiky hair, his blue eyes, and his slightly coarse accent.

I'm also going to make a pumpkin cheesecake for Casey and Sarah. Our usual family desserts and pumpkin and apple pies, which I really do love, but I wanted to shake things up this year, and Casey asked for cheesecake. Again I've never made one before, but I'm trying to expand my baking repetoire. For this I'm using a recipe of Alton Brown's, who is my go-to guy for when I want to try a dish I've never done before. This one is from his personal website, so sadly there is no corresponding Good Eats video, but he did do a regular cheesecake episode which I've watched for reference. With this version we can keep the presence of pumpkin on the table somehow.

The only real sticking point is Bernie's keeping kosher. My family lives on butter combined with meat, and up to this point it's been an integral part of our Thanksgiving recipes. My dad is not enthusiastic about the idea of a kosher Thanksgiving, so it's up to me to manage the cooking so that it goes as smoothly as possible. If I can pull it off so that it's not a pain in the butt to do, and the food comes out just as good, then I hope that will send the message that Bernie joining us for holidays is not a kink in the gears. I think if that precedent is set, it won't be an issue for the future.

Most of our holiday traditions are doing things we've been doing since Casey and I were born, basically, and never really involved anyone besides the four of us. We're all introverted to a degree, and part of the appeal was to celebrate exactly the way we liked it without having to put on anything for company. But I want Bernie to be part of my family now, joining us for our celebrations-- and honestly one of the advantages of being a mixed-faith couple is we can each celebrate our most important holidays in the way we prefer. Still, this is a small hurdle I'll have to work out.

Currently my plan is to start with Alton Brown's recipe for roast turkey with stuffing and adapt it to my purposes. I'm going to use my mother's stuffing instead of his, but follow his cooking instructions because his version doesn't use butter. I really hope you can't taste the difference too much-- everything is better with butter, and I don't want my dad to be disappointed. The extra stuffing that won't fit in the bird we usually put in a pan and bake separately as a dressing, so that can have butter in it-- though no meat juice from the turkey. The brussels sprouts can be done as we usually do them, as can the cranberry sauce. I think we'll do two versions of the mashed potatoes, one with milk and butter and one without. I hate margarine and think it's basically like eating toxic waste, but maybe I ought to pick some up just for Bernie's sake. The pear and parnsip requires sour cream and I'm not sure if there's anything that can substitute for it. He'll just have to wait on the croissants and desserts, but that's what usually happens anyway.

I hope it works out. Integrating new people into family gatherings can be tricky, but at least I've got a plan.

Whenever my life gets demanding, and stressful, I find myself getting more and more interested in cooking. Food is one of the great passions of my life, so I always care about it, but my desires run more toward developing my cooking skills and trying new dishes when I feel like things around me are getting stressful. I believe it's because cooking has always come easily to me, even compared to other things I'm good at, so it gives me an easy feeling of satisfaction when everything else in my life feels difficult.

Last Friday I found myself wanted to make up an entirely new recipe. As good a cook as I've become, that's not something I've done much of. With Bernie not around I've been eating more pork tenderloin, as it's healthy, delicious, and relatively cheap, and I thought it might be interesting to experiment with marinades. My first thought was to try a variation of the marinade for chicken marbella, a recipe from my family's favorite cookbook, the Silver Palate, and one that my mother made for us all the time. I figured I'd do a simplified version, leaving out the prunes and olives, and the sugar, because it's not on my diet. But when I looked in my cabinets, I was missing most of the most characteristic of the remaining ingredients like the oregano, the capers, or the red wine vinegar. Without them, it wouldn't be even vaguely in the family of marbella.

So I dug through my kitchen to see what I did have. What I settled on was to instead try a variant on the marinade for sauerbraten. Sauerbraten is a German pot roast cooked in vinegar and sugar. I coated my tenderloin in olive oil and apple cider vinegar, and since I can't eat the sugar, I used a splash of balsamic to add sweetness. I finished it with a dash of cloves and ground mustard, also traditonal in sauerbraten, plus salt and pepper. Then I let it marinate in the fridge for six hours.

I wasn't sure of the cook time, so I heated the oven to 350 and stuck the meat thermometer in it, set to go off at an internal temperature of 135. I was kind of nervous while it was cooking, becuase for most of the time it smelled like burning vinegar. I've always been very sensitive to the smell of acetic acid, but I was afraid that meant the whole thing would have a burnt vinegar taste. But after a while the smell went away, and when I pulled it, it was perfect. It wasn't too acidic at all, and was cooked perfectly.

I was very happy with it. I'll have to try that again sometime. But I still want to see if I can do the variation on the marbella marinade I was planning on. I bet that would be even better.

As I've been going about my packed schedule, I've been using a favorite coping tactic of mine, where I listen to television like radio on my iPhone. I do this a lot, mostly with TV I've already seen and so doesn't require a lot of my attention, but lately all I've been wanting to take in this way are cooking showing. Netflix has a handful of shows I like, but the new one I've gotten into based on the recommendation of friends of Twitter has been the Great British Bake Off.

It's a really adorable show, with talented, enthusiastic contestants who are positive and supportive towards each other, tough but fair judging, and a minimum of manufactured reality-show drama. Everyone's so happy to be there, practicing their favorite craft and getting a chance for critiques from baking experts Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, who they clearly all idolize. Plus I love the panoply of British accents on display. I'm not that much of a baker myself, much more of a cook, but I'm fascinated by the techniques by which they make so many delicious breads, pastries, and desserts. There's only season five currently available, but I really wish there were more.

I find myself also very interested in the differences between American and British bakery terminology. I already knew that "biscuit" tends to mean "cookie" in the UK, while what we call a "biscuit" they call a "bun," but it also seems to sometimes maybe mean "cracker." I'm not totally sure of the distinction there. As another example, they seem to use the term "sponge cake" differently than we do. I'm having a hard time phrasing the question to Google such that it delivers me the answer I'm looking for, but here in the US, I believe "sponge" has a fairly specific definition for a particular kind of cake, leavened with egg foam. It seems that the British use the term to encompass any kind of non-yeasted cake, whether made by the foam or the batter method, which we would call a "pound cake." I'm not certain, though, and I would welcome explanation from someone who knew the specific difference in meaning.

Amusingly, another thing that struck me was the absence of peanut butter. In America, peanut butter is one of the most popular flavors for, well, everything, but especially in dessert making. I can only think of two instances in season five where peanut was incorporated by anyone into anything, and I noticed in the first one it was referred to as "peanut" flavored, not "peanut butter," and in the second it didn't seem to be all that well-received. Judge Paul Hollywood complained it sealed his mouth shut. I've heard that nowhere on Earth is peanut butter as ubiquitous as it is in the States, but I was surprised it seemed to be such a niche thing for them.

I'd watched the Great British Sewing Bee a while ago, which is a spin-off idea from this and which I totally loved. The only criticism of that one I had was that it wasn't quite as creative as, say, Project Runway, the only other reality program I ever followed with any attention. On the Sewing Bee they mostly made thing from fairly standard patterns, and design was not a huge element of the challenge. By contrast, on Project Runway they are expected to design everything from scratch, push for originality, and draft or drape everything themselves. But I loved the positivity and emphasis on craftmanship the Bee had, plus the absence of all the interpersonal bullshit. The Bake Off, though, eliminates that problem by asking the contestant to bring in recipes of their own design, so I feel like the creative element is balanced with the technical. I really enjoy that about it.

I hope they post more seasons. I will watch the hell out of them. And of course it makes me want to bake more. Not the best impulse when one is on a no-processed-carbs diet, and God knows I don't really have the time right now. But perhaps I can do it for other people. I made Alton Brown's puffy chocolate chip cookies for my lit class the other day, and that was fun. Nothing makes people smile like baking for them!

I am not a fan of owning lots of kitchen gadgets. I am a disciple in the church of Alton Brown, who preaches the evil of spending a ton of money on overly-specialized tools. Also I love clear countertops, blissfully free of any junk that might clutter them and take up space. But food processors, with their varied capabilities and applications, have a special place in my heart. One Christmas I got a big, beautiful, tricked-out one from Cuisinart, which my family has used for tons of recipes, but for making pesto in particular, from the leafy green basil Dad grows in the backyard garden.

The only real downside of the thing is that it's so tough to clean, and sometimes it's too big to make a small amount of something blended. So a few years ago, on a whim, I bought a cheapie two-cup mini-processsor from a drugstore. I think it cost me twelve bucks. And I actually use it all the time. It only has three pieces to latch onto it-- the bowl, the blade, and the lid. Two things I eat a lot of are omelettes, for the quick protein, and meat dishes with chopped toppings. I like to throw, like, a pepper and an onion in there for an omelette, or dice up carrot, onion, and celery for a mirepoix. My dad makes fun of me for how I always chop everything so big-- which honestly I prefer the texture of --but this is an easy way to do it for applications that require it fine. And the device is small enough to be tucked away in a cabinet for storage, so it doesn't ruin my pristine counter space!

So, much as I dislike collecting lots of gadgets, I reluctantly endorse the use of a mini-processor. I've used it literally five times in the last three days, and given it's a little junky drugstore model that's lasted several years, I'm certainly getting value out of it!

All this past week I've been cooking up all the stuff I've had in my cabinets, fridge, and freezer that I've had laying around unused. This served both to clear out my cupboards as well as stretch my budget to the end of my break period before I go back to my regular day job next week. That plus my various other obligations right now mean my time and mental resources are going to be tight. And how does Phoebe always deal with problems of this nature? WHY, MORE SCHEDULING!

Bernie and I took this opportunity to actually sit down together and make a meal plan for the coming week. I've been talking for YEARS about getting in the habit of making weekly plans like that, going to the grocery store ONCE at the beginning of the week instead of my typical, oh, four or five times for the one or two meals I'm thinking about right that second. I've even prepared for the couple days of week I'll need to use the slow cooker. It will save time, it will save hassle, and I'm hoping it will save money. I'm not sure I have a great frame of reference for what's an efficient amount for two adult to spend on food for a week-- I am good at keeping to a tight budget, but food is my real indulgence --but looking at the receipt, I think I managed to keep things pretty economical for two big eaters like me and Bernie.

I will be so happy if I manage to turn this into a regular thing. I'll save a lot of money and time, two things in short supply for me at this time in my life. I've wanted to do this for years but never actually managed to make it happen before now. I've hoping that by making it a blocked-off part of my calendar it'll be easy to keep up. I'm sure you can tell by now that I'm a very structured person; routine, scheduling, and habit are extremely helpful to my productivity. It's really hard for me to be really productive without it. So here's hoping it serves me in this effort as well.

I've been using this great website a lot lately by the name of Supercook. It's a recipe database of sorts, but not the typical one. You type in all the random ingredients you have in your house, and it searches through the Internet for what recipes will make the most efficient use of them. You can even choose which ingredients to prioritize, so that you can narrow the suggestions to your taste.

This website is great for me because I have a tendency to buy ingredients for a specific dish and not know what to do with the rest of it once that dish is cooked. Despite it being an old problem for me, I've just never managed to get the trick of planning meals more than just a day or two at once, so I spend a lot of time staring at bits and bobs in the fridge and cupboard not knowing what do with them. I also tend to cook with specific dishes in mind, so I'm not very good at thinking the other way around, starting from the ingredients and working forward, rather than starting with a dish and working back. But it's helped me make much better use of things before they go bad when I can survey my kitchen, enter them into Supercook, and make whatever it pops up.

I still mean to learn how to meal plan better. (On top of all the other things I plan to improve about myself.) But this helps me make up for that deficiency until then.

Made a few little pie experiments last night. As you may know, pie is my favorite form of food-- basically, put it in a crust and I'm automatically going to enjoy it --and I like them even better when they're mini. But as much as I love them, I still haven't really figured out how to produce them reliably. I'm still toying with the proper procedure for tiny pies in my slightly-too-hot oven, so I bought some puff pastry and experimented.

For the first one, I chopped up two slightly overripe apples, mixed them in cinnamon and sugar, then put them in a two-cup ramekin. I cut a round of puff pastry, poked holes in it, and laid it over the top. For once I didn't forget to dot the apples with butter beforehand. Bernie tucked it down into the ramekin before I could stop him, so it the dough may have been slightly compressed.

I baked it at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. My oven, which runs hot, has a tendency to burn the tops of my pies, so I gently laid a piece of aluminum foil for the first twenty, which may have had the opposite effect of making it a little too pale. The pastry didn't seem too puff as much as I wanted it to, and there was a lot of liquid inside, but the flavor and texture of the apple filling was excellent.

Then I made some tiny strawberry pies. We sliced two cups of strawberries, mixed them with a quarter cup of sugar, a tablespoon on cornstarch, and a dash of frambroise, a raspberry liquor. This was inspired by the mixed berry pie filling my mother makes. This was enough to fill three of these tiny glass dishes. Again I cut rounds of puff pastry and laid them on top. To bake them I just followed the suggestion on the puff pastry box, fifteen minutes at four hundred, which seemed to work. The tops didn't even burn.

Still, I was more disappointed with the end result of them. They were way too sweet in my opinion, though Bernie liked them. Next time I won't use so much sugar. The interior was a lot less liquidy, though, probably because of the cornstarch thickening it. I never put cornstarch in my apple pies, the full-sized ones never seem to need it, but maybe a small one like that needs a touch to counter the fluid from the apples and the butter.

In both cases the puff pastry didn't puff as much as I wanted it to. Maybe my expectations are off, but I want high, flaky layers over the filling. I'm not sure if I poked too big holes, or didn't handle the dough correctly and squashed it too much for the layers to separate. I'll have to keep trying.

I love pie. I love puff pastry. I'm thinking of making a sautéed mushroom filling, maybe duxelles with marsala, and using it to fill puff pastry. I think that would be delicious.

Tested out my tiny not-crock pot. As several people suggested, I put water in it to see what it would do. When I first plugged it in (it has neither power switch nor temperature control) there was soon a worrying scent of burning plastic. I got nervous and unplugged it. Still, I didn't want to give up, so I tried it again. I guess all that plastic burned up the first time, because the smell didn't come back. :-) With the lid on and some time, it was not able to boil the water, but brought it up to a consistent point where steam rose up from the surface.

I also tried, rather clumsily, to melt some chocolate in it for the purposes of dipping fruit and marshmallows. I probably went about it totally wrong-- everyone says fondue-type things are much harder to execute than you'd first think --just putting some heavy cream and some chocolate morsels into the crock. They did melt eventually, and there was no burning or boiling or anything, but they didn't mix up smoothly. I probably should have heated the cream first on its own and then added the chips, or something. But I find this encouraging. I think it will be possible to make melty-things in this with a little process tweaking.

I am at home in Pennsylvania this week to celebrate Christmas with my family. It is lovely to be hear, and we spent a low-key day today hanging out and cooking. We made our Italian seven-fish dinner, including cheats like shrimp, smoked salmon, crab cake, fried calamari, and our special lobster bisque that we make every year. It's our way of enjoying each other's company and being together, and I like it.

So, after a week of mystery and obfuscation, I'm finally going to tell you about my recent new play. The piece I've been working on is Vivat Regina, the first sequel to Mrs. Hawking. I was rushing to get the first draft at least done this past week because I wanted to submit it in time for the first deadline for Bare Bones, the reading series done by Theatre@First. The first Mrs. Hawking had a reading there to great success, so I thought it would be a good place for the next one as well. Some people at the reading's talkback afterward even wanted to know if there would be sequels, so I think it would be likely to gather an interested audience. I even wanted to have back the three lead actors, Elizabeth Hunter, Gigi Geller, and Ryan Kacani, back to play the recurring characters of Mrs. Hawking, Mary, and Nathaniel.

I was able to get Vivat Regina done to decent results and sent it in, but sadly it was not accepted for the upcoming date. Still, John Deschene, the excellent fellow in charge of the reading series, strongly encouraged me to submit it again, so I think I have a good chance to get chosen later this year. It's by no means the end of the world, but I won't lie, I'm a bit disappointed. I really wanted to get this piece out there sooner rather than later. I mean, I could arrange to have a reading of it myself, but Theatre@First has a sizable audience base that I don't have access to that would come out if it were a Bare Bones reading but not otherwise. I've been struggling to find a good way to get people to go to the Mrs. Hawking website, so its audience base might expand, and I thought directing people who just heard a new reading to it would give it an infusion of interest. It can still do that if I get it accepted with Bare Bones at a later date, but that will be a ways off yet.

This might ultimately be a good thing. I will have plenty of time to edit the script, which, as I mentioned, is still in need of a decent subplot to pad out the length a bit. Maybe with a bit more warning I can ensure I can get Elizabeth, Gigi, and Ryan back, if they are interested and available. I'm kind of bummed about it right now, but ultimately this could be just as well.

If you are interested in reading this early draft and giving an opinion, feel free to let me know, and I will send along a copy of the script. I'd be happy to get new eyes and new opinions, and of course just spread the thing around.

Shopping at Shaw's the other day, I bought a tiny little thing labeled a "food warmer" that was on sale for ten dollars. It looks like a wee little crock pot but apparently it's not really designed to cook in. I'm not sure why I bought it, except that it was cheap and looked like it might be interesting to experiment with.

It holds about two cups and it's apparently intended to keep things like dips warm during service. I don't know if I have much need of it for that purpose, but I'd kind of like to figure out something to do with it. Maybe melt stuff like chocolate for candy making. Or make homemade chai latte. Sauces? I'm not sure. It's a bit limiting to think it's not really intended for cooking, but I might try and push that a little. It doesn't have temperature control, and it's cheap enough that I'm concerned that its likely to dangerously overheat, but if I break it, so what. It was a ten-dollar gadget I bought to mess around with. I just hope it doesn't start a fire. I'll have to watch it carefully.

Still, I'm a bit stuck for ideas of what to do with it. Any suggestions?

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All Eyes on Me

"Do you know why heroes boast? Because it makes them brave."

Entries tagged with cooking

Halupki-inspired moosh

Improvised ramen

Black Lavender Bundt Cakes

Mrs. Hawking Spills the Tea - Episode 9 - Scone Recipe

Chocolate Oreo dream pie

Where they are wrong

Tried Blue Apron

Food is holy

Chai latte that's neither chai nor a latte discuss

Croissant report

New Thanksgiving plan

A spin on sauerbraten

A taste for cooking shows recently

In praise of mini-processors

The habit of planning ahead

Cooking rec: Supercook.com

Tiny pie experiments

Tiny not-crock test #1

Christmas at home, and Vivat Regina

Tiny not-crock pot