Continuing The Walk Down Memory Lane

I thought that by Christmas I would have reviewed all 15 years of blogging, but that is not going to happen. We'll just have to see how long it takes...maybe into the new year.

2008 was a great blogging year for me. I averaged almost 10 posts a month, so at least two a week, sometimes three. In January I started my Cookbook Corner posts, exploring various cookbooks, old and new. Most avid cooks and bakers I know love cookbooks, even now when wonderful recipes are easily available over the internet.  Good cookbooks also include tips and tricks, alternate measurements or ways to play around with the recipe, plus, usually these days, great photos to show you what the dish or baked good should look like finished. When I had a muffin business in Berkeley moons ago I scoured bookstores for old cookbooks and found various variations on methods to make muffins as well as interesting flavor combinations. I guess that is one of the values of cookbooks...they are an endless source of new learning and inspiration.

The first recipe in Cookbook Corner is one that I still use often, especially in the summer. It's for Creamy Coleslaw Dressing, which is a simple recipe but one that has a great flavor balance between sweet and tangy.

I continued to write Land of St. Honore' stories for Daring Bakers posts and made some classic recipes like Julia Child's French Bread and a Coq au Vin recipe that I think is hers. There were also some new ideas like a gingerbread donut filled with lemon curd and dark chocolate truffles enhanced with bacon...I think bacon was having a moment in 2008!

One of the things that I became more and more comfortable with was changing recipes around to suit myself or to create something new. I took the British Bakewell Tart idea and changed it so that the filling was an almond-enhanced chocolate and the jam changed from berry flavored to quince, since I've found that quince and chocolate go really well together. To get to that I combined elements from four or five Bakewell Tart recipes and kept going...to St. George Chocolate Quince Jam Tarts.

Although I still had savory recipes, the blog began to trend towards sweet baked goods. I fell for blondies bar cookies and created a number of different variations over the years. The first, most basic, recipe is HERE. It came from the same book, Jill O’Connors wonderful book called ”Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.”, which I used when it was my turn to be a co-hostess for the Daring Bakers. We made a very fun dessert, Cheesecake Pops, and I had fun with the illustrations, too. That was in late April 2008 and was my 201st post!

Although they were delicious, I never made the cheesecake pops again, but in April I posted two recipes that I have returned to again and again. One is for Lemon Chicken for a Crowd and it is one of the best chicken recipes ever with garlic, mustard, lemon juice and rosemary giving it outstanding flavor. Even people who don't much care for chicken love it. The second on is for Molly Katzen's Amazing Overnight Waffles. Imagine how great it is to know that you can wake up in the morning and have the best waffles ever really quickly since the batter only needs the addition of some melted butter and egg; the rest has been done the night before and the overnight hours have added great flavor to the batter and allowed the yeast to grow. I've made these with sourdough starter, too.

In May I wrote my first Land of St. Honore' post that wasn't connected to the Daring Bakers posts. My Mom always enjoyed these flights of fancy stories, so I wrote one for Mother's Day and included a Swiss roll with a frozen berry filling, just for Mom which you can fine HERE.

In early June I tried something different...I catered a party for 20 with a theme...Greek Night. I really enjoyed the challenge, but it was exhausting and I also worked two part-time jobs and was a non-profit President with a meeting to run a few days before the party. Still not sure how I did it all! It didn't help that I had never made the main dish and that an extra 5 people showed up. Fortunately I made extra. Around that time I also tried putting a mini-journal graphic in my posts, but that didn't last too long. The blog posts themselves were enough to do. This link is also for a decadent chocolate layer cake, Sin City Cake.

Because this is a blog, not just a recipe book, the posts include things about the rest of my life beyond cooking. In July Sweetie and I thought we were repairing/replacing a first floor window. In the end we did work on three floors, used scaffolding, discovered pink mold, jacked up the house and more. A friend of mine heard about all this and started calling me Pioneer Woman (this was a bit before THE Pioneer Woman had her blog I think) but while all this was going on, on the south side of the house in July heat, I had also said I would bring three! desserts to an anniversary picnic. 

One of the hits were white peach hand pies, but my favorite were the brownies with ganache on top and colorful M&Ms.

I know exactly when I took up golf for a time because it's in the blog for August 2008. The post also included a great recipe for Chocolate Dipped Lemon Butter Cookies (which are also good without the chocolate).

Just as people were getting used to seeing all kinds of sweets on my blog, I began to put more savory dishes in. Part of the reason was it was September and with harvest comes all sorts of veggies, especially tomatoes. I think my favorite of the half dozen or more in September was Grilled Cheese and Basil Polenta which I served with a nice tomato sauce.

October brought a whole new thing to my life and to the blog...sourdough! It became an obsession for me. I made the starter using grapes from my property using a recipe in the Macrina Bakery and Cafe' Cookbook and then the fun began. With sourdough, you feed the starter every week. When you do, you have some starter that is the 'toss off' which can either be tossed, or can be used to make bread. Of course I wanted to use it to make bread because this was new, new, new and very exciting. In November I made herb bread, English muffins, pancakes and more using sourdough starter. I even started a whole wheat version to go with the white flour version...which produced even more toss off. I think my favorite was a whole wheat starter loaf with seeds kneaded in. Another is a fine-grained oatmeal bread with white flour starter.

Right near the end of the year I made a recipe that still floors me...a frozen French Yule Log. It was an amazing learning experience to make with something like six or seven layers of different kinds including frozen mousse, ganache, a crisp layer, a crème Brule' layer, an almond dacquoise and more. It was a showstopper and very delicious, but a stressful thing to make, too.

There are dozens and dozens of additional 2008 recipes but you are probably reeling by now with all of these. Feel free to wander through the year and discover your favorite recipes. If you go to web view and look to the right, there is a list of years. Head down to 2008 and open it up and browse.

Happy cooking and baking!

Greek Night

Well, I've just finished my first paying gig for making dinner for a private party.

The doctor I work for wasn't able to have his usual chef cater his latest dinner party, so he asked me. This is not too surprising since I treated him and a few friends to a birthday dinner in March, so he knew I could cook and bake.

The twist was that I only had a little over a week's notice and only knew the menu on Monday for a Saturday dinner. He wanted Greek Night with lots of Greek foods. Even more interesting is that he wanted moussaka for 16 and I had never in my life made moussaka. Since I am twisted that way, it made it sound like even more fun than cooking something I knew how to do.

Thank heavens for the Internet! After taking a close look at a half dozen moussaka recipes, I mixed them up to make my own version, made a shopping list, figured out the rest of the menu and on Friday afternoon started cooking.

Since I'd been told that there would be a music session before dinner, I made sure that there were lots of appetizers: hummus with pepper strips and cucumber slices and foccacia triangles for dipping;

marinated mozzarella balls,

toasted whole almonds, a tray with artichoke hearts, black olives, pepperoncini, and more marinated mozzarella balls, and sliced dense bread, which was perfect with my favorite recipe of the night, cucumber in yogurt Greek style.

The recipe will be posted in the next day or two. There was also a dish of pimento stuffed green olives. A wooden cutting board held a big wedge of Parmesan Reggiano for cutting into shards for nibbling like a little mouse. Very tasty spread.

For the dinner two trays of moussaka barely fed the 20 who ended up attending. The doctor had thought that there was too much food, but it worked out just fine. The most difficult thing about making moussaka is how much time it takes. The eggplant prep takes the longest, but the cheese bechamel takes quite a while, too, with constant stirring. I broke it down into two days of work, with the eggplant prep and meat sauce prep being done Friday, the layering done Friday evening and both trays of layered food being tightly covered and refrigerated about 16 hours. I removed them from the refrigerator about 10 am on Saturday to let them warm up a bit. The sauce was made Saturday in the late morning, then the sauce was spread over the casseroles, the cheese sprinkled on top and they were baked. I let them cool a bit before taking to the party. I reheated them for about 20 minutes in a 225 degree F. oven so that they were done about 15 minutes before they were served. Moussaka is usually served warm or at room temperature, not hot.

There was also some good local organic artisan bread, a big Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumber, mint, red onion, black olives, and feta and a dressing with herbs and lemon juice and olive oil.

Some of the appetizers were transferred to the main table, too.

Since there were two birthdays being celebrated, one of the wives had brought a decorated carrot cake. Another guest brought a delicious apple pie. Another guest brought cookies and a bowl of cherries. I provided a big bowl of watermelon. It was surrounded with sesame seed-pistachio cookies from a Mediterranean bakery. A tiered tray held some Personal Pavlovas, this time with strawberries (which worked out well...the tang of the berries offset the sweetness of the meringues) and key lime curd.

The 'big deal' dessert was Sin City chocolate fudge cake with quince jelly and whipped cream. I made a half batch last November with a different fruit, but made the full cake for the party. I had no idea that so many people would be bringing desserts as well, but it was still the hit of the party. There is something about the the haunting flavor of quince jelly that went so well with the chocolate and whipped cream.

So, would I do it again? Probably, although it is a lot of work and exhausting, too. If catering was the only thing I did in life, then it would make more sense. As it is, I worked my real job Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and did a Convention report and ran the meeting of the P.E.O. Scholarship group on Wednesday, so the rest of my life took up my time and energy until Friday. What I did enjoy was trying something new, cooking and baking yummy food, and seeing so many people enjoying it. That is the real joy...knowing that your food is appreciated. It was also a treat to listen to some wonderful musical performances, including guitar, violin, piano, and vocal.

Yesterday was exhilarating. Now I need a nap.

Moussaka with Lamb, Potatoes and Eggplant

Much of the success of this recipe goes to Nancy Gaifyllia, a great Guide to Greek Food,
although there are a number of variations due to other recipes from the web

Serves between 10 and 20, depending on how hungry they are

5-6 medium eggplants (5-6 pounds)

salt

olive oil

4 large onions, chopped

2 pounds ground lamb

1 pound ground turkey

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes in juice, drained and juice reserved

8 whole cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

3 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon finely minced mint, preferably spearmint

1/2 cup dry white wine

freshly ground pepper - about 1/2 teaspoon

1 cup grated Kefalotyri, Romano or Parmesan cheese (I used a combination that included Romano, Parmesan and some Mozzaarella, shredded)

1 cup dry breadcrumbs, divided

2 cans (15 oz each) sliced potatoes, drained but not rinsed

7 cups bechamel with cheese - recipe follows

Peel strips of the skin of the eggplants lengthwise, leaving about 1/2 inch in between, all around the eggplant. Cut eggplant lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices. Spread the slices out on paper towels on large trays, then sprinkle liberally with salt and let them sit for 30 minutes while you make the meat sauce. (Note: Salting the eggplant removes any bitterness and absorbs some of the natural liquids, so don't skip this step).

For the meat sauce, saute' the onions in a large frying pan in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until onions are transluscent. Add the lamb and turkey, breaking the meat up into chunks and continue to saute' until lightly browned. Add the tomato juice drained from the canned tomatoes and stir until the juice cooks off. Add the tomatoes, garlic, cloves, cinnamon, alspice, bay leaves, mint, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and the white wine. Mix well and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 45 minutes to an hour. You may need to uncover and stir the last 15 minutes to make sure the mixture is dry enough. It is important to have the mixture as dry as possible.

Now, return to the eggplant. Rinse them well, drain, and pat dry. Put foil on baking sheets and lightly brush the foil with olive oil. Lay the eggplant slices on the foil in a single layer, then lightly brush with olive oil. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Bake the sheets of eggplant until lightly brown (some parts of mine didn't brown, but the edges did) and eggplant is soft. It took me a while to do this because I had five big sheets of eggplant slices and could only bake two at a time. Each sheet took about 15 minutes. Cool slightly, remove to a tray, and let cool completely.

Spread the drained potato slices on the oiled foil. Sprinle with a litte salt and drizzle with some olive oil. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Let cool.

When the meat sauce is dry enough, take two large flat casseroles and oil the bottom and sides lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs on the bottom of each casserole dish. Spread the potatoes on top of the breadcrumbs, half in each casserole. Top the potatoe slices with eggplant slices in a single layer in each casserole. Spread half the meat mixture in each and then make sure each layer is even and packed. Tope the meat layers with another layer of eggplant slices. At this point you can cover tightly and refrigerate or you can make the cheese sauce and bake them.

When the bechamel cheese sauce if cooked, pour half over each casserole and spread evenly over the top. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 30 minutes. Then sprinkle half the cheese over each casserole and bake an aditional 15 - 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove the moussaka from the oven and allow to cool for 20 - 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bechamel Cheese Sauce

4 cups water

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup) cornstarch

2 cans evaporated milk, undiluted

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

pinch of grated nutmeg

1/2 cup grated Kefalotyri or Parmesan cheese

In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil. Once it boils, dissolve the cornstarch in one can of evaporated milk, and add to the watter, stirring briskly witha wire whisk..Lower the heat to medium and add the second can of milk, then salt and the butter.

Continue to whisk until the sauce thickens. It took mine about 15 - 20 minutes to thicken.

Add the beaten egg and nutmeg, whisking very quickly (so the eggs don't cook) until well blended. Remove fromt he heat, stir in the cheese, mix well and set aside, covered, until ready to use.