Thursday, February 28, 2008

Clementine Cake


This recipe if from Nigella Lawson...I've read a couple of her cookbooks and I have loved every recipe I've made from her collection. I want to try this one soon, although I'm not sure if clementines are still in season.

4 to 5 clementines (about 1 pound total weight)
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/3 cups ground almonds
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor (or by hand, of course).

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper.

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines. I don't like using the processor for this, and frankly, you can't balk at a little light stirring.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you'll probably have to cover the cake with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top from burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, you can take it out of the pan. I think this is better a day after it's made, but I don't complain about eating it anytime.

I've also made this with an equal weight of oranges and lemons, in which case I increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups and slightly Anglicize it, too, by adding a glaze made of confectioners' sugar mixed to a paste with lemon juice and a little water.

Dallas Museum of Art

is Free on Thursday evenings from 5-9:00 p.m. and the first Tuesday of each month. We bought a membership the first year we were married, but then decided it was a better use of our money to just pay when we go. (I think we only went once that year).

Dallas Museum of Art

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Make Your Own Pizza Crust for Dinner Tonite



pizza dough:

1 teaspoon yeast
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 to 1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil

food processor:
combine yeast, flour, and salt in container of food processor. turn machine on and add 1 cup of water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil through the feed tube.
process about 30 seconds, adding more water a little at a time, until the mixture forms a ball and is slightly sticky. add water a tablespoon at a time if it is too dry.
turn dough onto floured work surface and knead by hand a few seconds to form a smooth dough ball. grease a bowl with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap or damp cloth and let rise 1 to 2 hours.
by hand:
combine half the flour with the salt and yeast and stir to blend. Add 1 cup water and 2 tablespoons olive oil; stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
add remaining flour a little at a time. when the mixture becomes too stiff to stir, begin kneading, adding as little flour as possible, just enough to keep the dough from being a sticky mess.
knead until smooth but quite moist, about 10 minutes.
cooking:
bake 6 to 12 minutes depending on oven heat. (preheat the oven to "maximum", though I use 425 'cause I'm cheap)
happy pizza pie, more or less courtesy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything.

Thanks, Andrew for letting us in on the recipe.

I used whole wheat flour and just added about a tablespoon more oil and water. Ours was veggie pizza this time with garlic, onion, tomatoes and mushrooms and fresh shredded mozzarella cheese. Parsley is the greenery on top...just for color.

Collecting Info on Food Miles

From the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service:

"The vast majority of energy used in the U.S. food system (around 80 percent) goes to processing, packaging, transporting, storing, and preparing food.

Produce in the U.S. travels, on average, 1300 - 2000 miles from farm to consumer. Since 1970, truck shipping has dramatically increased, replacing more energy efficient transportation by rail and water.

Local food systems can reduce "food miles" and transportation costs, offering significant energy savings. Consumers also benefit from fresher, better-tasting, and more nutritious food, while more food dollars stay within rural communities."


The Story of Local Lucy and Traveling Tom


You Tube video on Food Miles


Calculating food miles: Using weighted average source distances (WASD)
A Weighted Average Source Distance (WASD) is used to calculate a single distance figure that combines information on the distances from production to point of sale and the amount of food product transported.8 The formula for the WASD is:
S (m(k) x d(k)) WASD = ——————
S m(k) where:
k = different location points of the production
m = weight (amount) from each point of production, and
d = distance from each point of production to each point of use (or sale).

Monday, February 25, 2008

"In Red Chair" series



We're taking a photo on the 21st of each month of Rémy in this little red chair. Here's this month's photo...compare to last month's photo. She is able to hold her head up a little more steadily and can straighten her back. She weighs 10.2 pounds and had her shots on Wednesday. She was not herself for a good 4 days after the shots. Anyone have any information or valuable websites on mercury free vaccinations or not getting so many shots at once? I feel like her body was overwhelmed with 4 shots. It is possible to ask our doctor to do one shot at a time, but we would have to pay the copay each time we go...costing 4 times as much. There seems to be much controversy over giving children shots on a schedule...does it cause Autism? does it cause m.s.? A good friend of the family has a one year old set of twin boys...she feels the shots were fine with one of them, with the other he became non-responsive, has intestinal problems and cannot walk and the mother feels all of these things can be attributed back to getting vaccinated.

There's so many things to consider about the health and welfare of our child that doctors just tell us to do, but that may not necessarily be in the child's best interest. I'm also finding it very difficult to discern the facts.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

What's on the Menu for Valentines?

I'm making a special dinner tonight. Yes, I'm one of those sappy sentimentalists who like the occasion of Valentine's Day. While we celebrate our love every day it's just a special reminder to cherish and appreciate the ones you love.

Anyway, usually we go out for Valentine's day, but this year we're staying in and having Shrimp Etouffee. Five and a half years ago this dish won Walker's heart when I made it for him on our first "date". Unfortunately I lost the original recipe and had to look online for something similar.

Shrimp etouffee recipe includes green onions, bell pepper, shrimp celery, tabasco, and rice.

INGREDIENTS:
6 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup chopped onion
6 green onions and tops, chopped
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped celery
2 cups water
3 pounds shrimp, peeled,deveined
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
1 small bay leaf
tabasco sauce, to taste
hot cooked rice

PREPARATION:
In a skillet, melt the butter; add flour, stirring to blend. Cook, stirring constantly, until flour mixture is deep golden brown. Add the vegetables and cook until tender. Stir in the water, shrimp, parsley and seasonings. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the shrimp are cooked. Serve over hot rice.
Serves 4 to 6.

Hope it turns out as good as it did then.

For dessert, I would just love to make a dark chocolate ganache and pour it over a hot out of the oven chocolate cake, but Walker has decided not to eat anything with sugar for 40 days. His co-workers at the bank are Catholic and choosing things to give up for Lent, so he decided to just join them. This will help with his commitment to eat healthier, anyway. So for dessert, I got some fresh peaches and blueberries at Sprouts yesterday and I'll probably make some whipped cream and just sweeten it with honey instead of sugar. I'll post pictures of the deliciousness later on.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Banana Experiment



I'm starting an ongoing experiment involving bananas. I guess it's really more of an investigation than an experiment. This may evolve to include more fruits and vegetables but bananas are a good starting place.

Every time I purchase bananas I'm going to keep a log of what brand they are, what is their point of origin (country or state), where they were purchased, how many food miles it is to Frisco, and also plan to take a picture of the condition of the bananas the day I brought them home from the supermarket, farmers market or grocery store. I'm also attempting to keep track of approximately how long they last before we either have to throw them out or use them in banana bread.

Here are two pictures to start the investigation. The first lone banana made it's way into our home when Walker brought it from work on Friday, February 1. Not sure if he acquired it at the deli or from a co-worker who didn't want it at lunch. Either way, it sat uneaten until Wednesday, February 6 when I picked it up and ate it. It was in this condition when I ate it. Unfortunately it had no marker for brand or point of origin.

The second batch I picked up at Walmart yesterday. My choices were Del Monte and UTR both imported from Guatemala. I wanted to take home the UTR because I hadn't heard of them before, but their bananas were more mature and more likely to get black faster and go uneaten, so I opted for Del Monte. The distance from Guatemala to Dallas in a straight line through the Gulf of Mexico is 1319 miles if the bananas were shipped. If they were trucked over here the distance is longer.

Greeting Cards

There's something magical to me about stationery, pretty papers, cards and notes. I'm pretty sure this love comes from my Mom who sends notes and cards for any and every occasion. I'm also pretty sure that her love of writing notes and sending correspondence was passed to her through my Grandmother, who not only loves writing but has a special talent for it.

Having said this, I save any personal correspondence. Whether it be a letter, greeting card, birthday card, thank you note, Christmas card, etc. I have a hat box and a plastic container that I keep them in. It is so interesting to me to go back and read correspondence from years back. I became even more adamant about saving letters when Amy passed away. It's just that even though the person is gone from this earth, their handwriting lives on and their words written on that occasion on which the correspondence was mailed are forever saved, safe in a hatbox or a plastic container.

When Walker and I got married and had such lovely wedding showers and received such lovely congratulatory notes and cards I had to save them. I found a way to not just store them in a box, but utilized their beauty by putting them in our scrapbook. Although the scrapbook turned out great and it's nice to have to look at, scrapbooking takes so much time that I've pretty much given up on it.

Now, when Rémy came along we received more beautiful and lovely congratulatory cards. Right now they are sitting in a little pink shoe box in her closet. There are probably close to 100 cards there that I can't just throw away. Mom saved cards from when I was born and taped them all in my baby book. I remember looking through my baby book and admiring all the cards, some of them from people I didn't know. There's something about reading a card that is for you before you were born. The person doesn't know you, hasn't met you, yet is sending wishes and prayers and hopes for you.

While I am quite the sentimentalist when it comes to saving special items, I've also learned not to let items that aren't used sit around and collect clutter. So, this brings me to my predicament: what can I do with these cards to save them for posterity's sake, but to also put them to use so they're not just taking up space. Oh, and there's not a blank space in her baby book that I can tape them in...plus the quantity of cards would make that difficult.

I remember attending a 25th anniversary party for Sharlette & Jamey a couple of years ago. Jamey scanned the cards into the computer, inside and outside and posted them on his website. That's a great idea because they would be "saved" in a sense....but I'd like for Rémy to be able to actually look at and feel them in the tangible sense.

Do you save any correspondence? What do you do with it?

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Our Baby Pictures



I scanned in some baby pictures from when Walker and I were born. We were both born in Dallas, about 6 months apart. Interestingly, the colors in all the pictures are similar...red and yellow must have been big at the time. I just posted a couple here, but there are more on the flickr site.

6 weeks old

For all of you foiled by yesterday's post, here's the real Rémy.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Growing Baby


Our little one has grown so much this week!




Her hair is growing in much faster than we thought it would!
Some days I think it's okay not to get out of your pj's until the mid afternoon or to rock the dog to sleep instead of the baby...keeps things sane around here.

Truffle Learns Doggie Door

For Christmas we got a doggie door, which has changed our lives dramatically. And Truffle's life too for that matter. Life before doggie door consisted of getting out of bed at least once a night to let Truffle out to do her business. We know it was Truffle's intent in doing this to prepare us for parenthood. We also had to keep an eye on the clock any time we were out of the house so we could get back in time to let her outside.

Now, all we have to worry about is finding a pacifier, laundry or hoarded papers out in the backyard! Annie and Walker helped train her to come through the door. It took her a few days to understand that she can not only go out but she can come in too. This video was taken about mid December....a few days before Rémy was born.

Digital Videos

I just uploaded all videos we've ever taken onto our computer including JP & Tracy's wedding and Rémy's birth...also Truffle learning to jump through the doggie door. I have yet to understand how they get onto a blog...but that's my quest for today...to learn how. If all goes well I'll have some videos to share soon.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Coconut Balls


My lovely long lost mother, Fran sends me bags of cooking magazines from time to time. Here's a recipe I'd like to try very soon from Martha Stewart's FOOD magazine...


2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar, plus more for dusting
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar until fluffy. Mix in flour and salt until they're just combined. Stir in coconut.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake until just starting to brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Roll the warm cookies in confectioners' sugar; let cool completely. Makes 36.