Oh, nuts

It's been one of those weeks.  Not completely crazy at work (that was last week), but just kind of all over the place. Up and down, up and down.  I knew it was off to a great start on Monday, when I got a call from one of Gillian's daycare teachers.  We've had a lot of trouble with Gillian defying authority lately, which I know is not unusual for 4-year-olds, but it's been starting to get out of control.  In Gillian's own words, she got in trouble "because I ran out into the hallway when I wasn't supposed to, and I spit at Miss S--, and I called Miss S-- a butt-face."  *sigh*  We'd even had a talk before she left the house on Monday about listening to teachers and other adults (since there had been lots of not-listening going on the previous Friday).  I can't wait for the teenage years...  (And yes, if you're wondering, J & I could barely keep straight faces when I asked G to tell her father why she'd gotten in trouble at school on Monday.)

So we tried something new for the rest of the week.  When Gillian left for school on Tuesday, I told her that if she could behave and have a much better day, I would have a surprise for her at the end of the day.  I was off that day, and while I was out running errands, I picked up some cute sparkly snowman stickers.  If she has a good day, she gets one (just counting weekdays for now). If she gets at least four for the week (I know better than to expect a 4yo to be good every single day), she'll get a special treat.  Brianna wanted in on it, too, so for her, the goal is to have a good morning before she leaves the house--getting ready for school without a fight.  So far it's going well--Gillian was much, much better the past three days (confirmed by her teachers), and Brianna has been much more pleasant to be around in the morning.  Now I just need to stock up on inexpensive prizes. =)  

After everything that's been going on, I think the daycare teachers need a treat, too.  So I'm going to make them a batch of the spiced nuts from Around My French Table.  They're one of the December recipes for French Fridays with Dorie.  As with the November recipes, we get to pick which recipe we make when, and I was happy to find an easy one to make this week, since my motivation has been lacking a bit.  

It doesn't get much easier than this.  Mix together some sugar, salt and spices.  Toss a couple cups of nuts with a slightly beaten egg white, then toss with the sugar & spice mixture.  Spread everything on a sheet pan and bake for half an hour at 350F.  Enjoy!  To be a bit more specific, I stuck with the recipe for the first attempt at this one.  So the spice mixture was sugar, salt, chili powder (I like Spice Islands), cinnamon, and a bit of cayenne.  My nuts were a cup each of cashews and pecans, both favorites around here.  I lined my sheet pan with non-stick foil to make things easier.  That's pretty much it.

The verdict?  Well, these certainly don't last long!  I took some to work, and they were a big hit.  My original thought was that I should get them out of my house, but having them at work just meant I could keep eating them.  Oops. =)  Even B & G liked them, at least the cashews (not fans of pecans).  These are definitely going in my holiday goodie bags this year.  I tried out another version this morning--chai spiced.  Half a teaspoon each of Vietnamese cinnamon, ground ginger and ground cardamom, along with a quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg, a pinch of cloves and a few grinds of black pepper.  The house smelled fantastic by the time they finished baking.  I can't wait to try some more variations.  

For this one and lots of other wonderful recipes, I highly recommend that you check out a copy of Around My French Table.  And if you aren't a member already, we'd love to have you join in the fun at French Fridays with Dorie.  

Playing catch-up

How much menu planning do you do?  We shop once a week--okay, technically twice, since we shop at both HEB and Central Market each weekend--so I plan meals a week at a time.  I try to plan a mix of things, since I know there will be nights when I get home late and won't want to cook anything complicated or time-consuming.  Some meals will be eaten as a family, and some will be done in two seatings (feed the girls to get them to bed, then J & I eat later).  The nights we shop (generally Friday and Saturday) are a free-for-all.  We all eat different things, depending on what jumps into the cart.  Jamie often eats sushi, since he's the only one who likes it.  Salads are popular as well.  One night during the week, we often eat homemade pizza.  And I try to plan something for Sunday or Monday that will have lots of leftovers so that I have something to eat for lunch for the week.  Sunday is also my day for making those more complicated or time-consuming things. =)  

That would include some of the French Fridays with Dorie recipes.  One of the recipes for November is Roast Chicken for Les Paresseux, aka Lazy People. =)  I managed to make this one last Sunday.  When I was growing up, we almost always had Sunday dinner, and we'd often have a roast of some sort.  We don't do that very often these days, but it's nice when I have the time and energy to make something more involved.  We had the chicken with mashed potatoes and roasted green beans.  I actually stole the potatoes from the Hachis Parmentier recipe.  I did make that one a couple weeks ago, and while I didn't like it that much with the sausage, the potatoes on top were fantastic.  (Jamie really liked it, though, and happily ate the leftovers.)   

This particular recipe didn't provide me with much in the way of lunch (I tend to go with things like casseroles, spaghetti, soup, etc. for that), but the leftovers did come in handy.  I had leftover potatoes and most of a bunch of rosemary, and I saved the half of the garlic head that was roasted outside the chicken.  So I was all set for my next bread recipe in the BBA Challenge, Potato Rosemary Bread!

The last bread I posted for the BBA Challenge was the Pane Siciliano back in July.  I skipped over the Panettone for now, but plan to make that in December.  I made the Pizza Napoletana for Daring Bakers a couple years ago.  I did make the Poolish Baguettes and Portuguese Sweet Bread back in August, but didn't get as far as posting about them.  I liked the Poolish Baguettes better than the French Bread baguettes that I made, mainly because I think the addition of whole wheat flour added flavor to the bread.  The Portuguese Sweet Bread made excellent french toast, but was a bit light in texture for regular toast.  Both were good, and I'm glad that I tried them.  But I was quite excited that the next bread was a decidedly savory one.  

The Potato Rosemary Bread starts with some biga for a preferment.  The full biga recipe in the book makes 18 ounces, but I only needed 7 ounces.  Fortunately the math gets a lot easier when you convert to metric, since 7 ounces is 200 grams.  So I ended up using 120 grams of bread flour, 80 grams of water, and about 1/8 teaspoon of instant yeast.  The biga needed to ferment at room temperature for a few hours, then went into the fridge for the night. 

You're supposed to take the biga out of the fridge about an hour before you want to make the final dough, but that timing didn't work for me on Thursday.  Since I was working with a cold preferment, I compensated by using warm water instead of room temperature.  I also warmed up the mashed potatoes (in the microwave) so they wouldn't make the dough too cold.  I mixed the biga with the water, then added the potatoes and some olive oil.  Next in were the flavorings of chopped rosemary and black pepper.  Finally, I mixed in the bread flour, salt and instant yeast.  I mixed the dough by hand initially, using my dough whisk.  Then I used my stand mixer with the dough hook to develop the dough.  Once the dough was close to ready, I took it out of the mixer, added the roasted garlic, and finished kneading by hand.  Then it went into my 2-quart dough bucket to rise.  Once the dough was doubled, I portioned it into 60 gram pieces and formed them into round rolls.  (I ended up with 17.)  I baked them for a total of 20 minutes, and the house smelled fantastic by the time they were done.

The verdict?  This bread is fantastic!  Everyone here loved the rolls.  I will definitely be making this recipe again--maybe even this weekend, since I still have some leftover mashed potatoes.  The rolls are great, but I'd like to try a larger loaf as well.  

If you'd like to try the chicken recipe, I highly recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Around My French Table.  For tips from some of the other members of the group, read the P&Q as well.  For the bread, check out Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  There are many, many wonderful breads in this book.  Next up, Pugliese.

I'm submitting these rolls to Yeastspotting.

Birthday girl

I've mentioned before that birthdays are a big deal around here.  The birthday girl (or boy) gets to pick what kind of cake she wants and also what she wants for dinner.  I felt really bad this year for Gillian's birthday, because life was really crazy and I didn't manage to make her requested meal for her birthday.  We eventually had what she requested, about a week later.  We did have cupcakes on her actual birthday and a fabulous birthday cake a few days later for her party, so I hope that made up for it somewhat.  (It didn't help that Gillian's birthday was on a Thursday, and as I mentioned in my last post, Thursdays are somewhat difficult around here.)

Gillian's isn't the only October birthday in our family.  My youngest sister's birthday is tomorrow.  And one of my cousins was on the 21st.  I have friends with birthdays on the 12th, 13th and 14th (which G shares).  I just made cupcakes for my boss's little boy, who turned 1 on the 22nd.  And I recently discovered that one of our favorite cookbook authors, Dorie Greenspan, celebrates her birthday today!

One of my blogging friends, Holly, had an absolutely wonderful idea.  She and Laurie (our fearless leader) asked a bunch of us TWDers who have also joined French Fridays if we'd like to help celebrate Dorie's birthday.  I'm not sure what Dorie's favorite cake is or what she would pick for her birthday meal.  So we've picked for her. =)  It's probably safe to say that she likes all the recipes in Around My French Table, so we've chosen a variety from all sections of the book and are sharing them with you today.  It's like a giant progressive dinner party!

My recipe come from the "Salads, Starters and Small Plates" section of the book.  I picked the Spinach and Bacon Quiche (which can be found on page 160).  I actually made this before I made the mustard tart that I just posted.  This was my first experience making the tart crust recipe from the book--the dough is lovely to work with.  It turned out great, though I did have a bit of trouble with the crust shrinking during baking (even though I froze it for several hours beforehand).  I'd recommend using weights when blind-baking it.

The filling calls for fresh spinach to be steamed.  I don't have a steamer, so I had to find another solution.  I put the spinach in a large bowl with a tablespoon of water, covered it and microwaved it for several minutes until the spinach wilted.  (I think you could use thawed frozen spinach instead if you want.)  The hardest part of this recipe is squeezing all the liquid out of the spinach.  Talk about a workout for your hands! =)  Next, you cook the bacon in a skillet.  Again, I didn't quite follow the directions.  I cut my bacon into small pieces first, then sautéed it until it was crisp.  Once the bacon is done, you cook onion and garlic in some of the bacon drippings until they're soft.  Then the spinach and bacon are mixed in.

The whole mixture goes into the partially baked tart shell.  The last part of the filling is a custard mixture made of eggs and cream.  I added a bit of nutmeg, as well, since I thought it would go well with the spinach and cream.  (I should have added more--I couldn't detect it in the finished tart.)  Before it heads to the oven, the tart is topped with finely grated Parmesan cheese.  My tart was puffy and golden brown in 26 minutes.

The verdict?  Jamie and I both loved this quiche.  I'm not a big egg person, and this tart is perfect for that.  There's more "stuff" than custard in the filling, and a nice amount of crust, too.  I'll definitely be making this one again, and I can't wait to try some of the other quiche recipes in the book.  Even though it's listed as a starter, we actually ate the quiche as our main course, with salad on the side.  The leftovers are good for breakfast, too.  I knew the girls wouldn't like this one, so I saved it for a night when I fed them early and Jamie and I ate after they went to bed.  Below, you can find a rare glimpse into my crazy life--where the food sometimes ends up after it's carefully photographed. =) (yes, that's the coffee table...)

Head on over to Holly's blog for a full round-up of today's dishes.  I hope you'll visit all of the other people who came together for this birthday celebration.  Happy birthday, Dorie!

Timing is everything

I really need to schedule things better. Or maybe just schedule them, period.  When I originally learned that the new Dorie group was going to be posting on Fridays, all I thought was that it was nice that it was several days away from Tuesday.  I didn't really think it through.  To get something posted on a Friday, I really need to be working on it on Thursday.  Well, around here, Thursday is the worst day of the week.  We're all worn out.  Yes, we're probably more tired on Friday, but by the time we get to Friday morning, we all know that the next day is Saturday, and a chance to relax.  Thursday, we're almost as tired, but a lot more cranky, knowing that we have another day to get through still.  Ugh.

So forget actually accomplishing much of anything on Thursdays.  Unless I have something really solid planned for dinner, it ends up being pretty random.  Then it's a race to get kids to bed before they completely melt down, followed by getting my stuff organized so I can crash, too.  The moral of the story?  If I stand any chance of being able to post something for French Fridays with Dorie, I'd better get it done the weekend before!  And now you know why you haven't seen a post from me since the first week. =)

I'm still behind, but I'm trying to catch up.  Last weekend, I finally got a chance to make Gerard's Mustard Tart.  I was really looking forward to it, because I love leeks.  I made it for the small party that we had for Gillian's birthday.  It probably sounds like a strange thing for a 4-year-old's party, but there were as many adults as kids.  And Gillian's best friend is French, so I thought her parents would enjoy it.  We also had some savory snacks made with puff pastry (that's another post), fresh fruit with chocolate/peanut butter dipping sauce, and Cheetos (the poofy ones, not the crunchy ones).  The last was a specific request from Gillian. =)  And of course, cake.

Fortunately, the tart was pretty easy to make in between the other things that I had to do.  I made the tart dough, but it didn't get a 3-hour rest in the fridge.  It got about 30 minutes in the freezer.  It was still pretty nice to roll out, though.  I decided to use my rectangular tart pan for easy serving.  I froze the crust while working on cake assembly, then baked it.  I did use weights to keep it from shrinking too much. (I have a bunch of dried black beans that I keep just for pie weights.)  After baking it for 20 minutes, I removed the foil and weights and baked it for 7 minutes longer.  I let it cool while prepping the filling ingredients.  I went with 2 carrots that I cut into short julienned pieces, and three small leeks that I quartered lengthwise and then cut crosswise into half-inch pieces.  I don't have a steamer (or didn't, until I bought new rice cooker this week), so I sautéed them in a bit of butter and olive oil until softened (and seasoned them with salt and pepper).  I put the vegetables in the tart crust and then poured the custard filling (eggs, cream and mustard) over it.  I baked the tart for 23 minutes, until it was browned and puffy.  I let it cool until just warm before serving.

The verdict?  Wow, this didn't last long at all.  The best compliment of all was that it was eagerly eaten by our French guests.  Jamie and I really liked it, too.  Gillian wouldn't try it (and I didn't force the issue, especially since it was her party).  Brianna sampled it and said that "it was okay, but it's not my favorite" which is her polite way of saying that she didn't like it all that much.  We will definitely be having this one again; I'd like to play around with the veggies.  

If you'd like to try this recipe, I highly encourage you to get yourself a copy of Around My French Table.  It's on page 154.  For this month only, you can find the recipes here, on the FFwD site.  The group is quite flexible, so feel free to join in on the fun (if you haven't already).  And to hear what everyone else thought of the tart, check out the Links.  

Check back in the next few days to hear about my great class at Central Market with Dorie!

Allons-y!

I think everyone (including the author) was pleasantly surprised to learn that Dorie Greenspan's new cookbook was going to be available from Amazon over a month earlier than expected.  I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a getting a new cookbook.  And over the past several years, I've gotten a lot of new cookbooks.  Okay, that's not entirely accurate--lately, most of what I've acquired have been baking books, not savory cooking books.  Not that I don't cook; I just seem to get most of my non-baking recipes from cooking magazines.  But this is one cookbook that I knew I had to have.  With this most recent purchase, I now have five of Dorie's cookbooks.  (The others are BFMHTY (of course), Paris Sweets, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé, and Baking with Julia.)  She's now tied with Jacques Pépin in my collection.

A lot of my reason for being so excited is that so many other people were excited with me.  Many of us Tuesdays with Dorie bakers have been eagerly awaiting Dorie's new book.  I was a bit worried when I learned that it was going to be a regular cookbook, rather than another baking book.  Baking is my passion, and my comfort zone.  I really wasn't too sure about blogging about savory dishes.  Heck, I'm still not quite sure how it's going to work out.  But our fearless leader Laurie put together such a cool new group, I had to be a part of it.  You can read more about it here.  We were all very excited to learn that the October recipes were selected by Dorie herself.  First up is the very first recipe in the book, Gougères.  Think cream puffs, but cheesy.  In a good way. =)

As usual, I couldn't just follow the recipe as written; I did make a couple of slight changes.  I started off by putting butter, water, milk and salt in a saucepan and bringing it to a boil.  Then I added the flour and stirred like crazy until I had a smooth dough and the bottom of the pan was dry.  Next, I transferred the mixture to my stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  My first change was to mix the dough with the paddle for several minutes to let it cool a bit before adding the eggs.  My second change was with the eggs.  The recipe calls for 5 large eggs.  I had extra large eggs in the fridge.  Not a big difference in size, but with 5 of them, it might be noticeable.  Also, several of my other baking resources recommend using part whole eggs and part whites for drier puffs.  So I ended up using 4 eggs and 1 egg white.  With the mixer running, I added the eggs to the dough.  (I find it easiest to crack all of the eggs into a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup and gradually pour them in.)  It's neat to watch the dough come together as the last egg or two go in.  Finally, the cheese is mixed in.  I used my #40 disher to scoop the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets.  I did one pan of 20 that got baked right away, and another pan of 15 that went into the freezer.  I ended up baking my gougères for a total of 26 minutes.

The verdict?  Yum!  Well, at least for most of my household.  Brianna tried one of the gougères and said she liked it, but then changed her mind.  Gillian, on the other hand, love them and ate three or four.  Jamie was happy, because he really likes Gruyère, and I haven't made anything with it for a while.  I liked them, though I think I'll bake them a minute or two longer next time; they were a bit too wet in the middle (though certainly edible).  I still have the ones stashed in the freezer, so we can have these again soon.

For this month only, if you'd like to give these a try you can find the recipe here on the French Fridays with Dorie site.  But you should really just buy the book. =)  And join the group!  To see what everyone else thought of the gougères, head over to this week's Links page.

Next up, Gerard's Mustard Tart (mmm, leeks)!