My weigh

One of my recent Costco acquisitions was a copy of Bouchon Bakery.  It's quite the impressive tome.  In fact, it's heavy enough that I haven't wanted to carry it around a lot, so I haven't read as much of it as I would like to yet.  I did read enough to realize that one aspect of the book was going to make me very happy.  One of the sections in the front of the book is titled "Throw Out Your Measuring Cups--and other notes on using this book."  I'm a firm believer that using a scale in the kitchen is essential.  I love the fact that the ingredient measurements are first given in grams.  This book has reminded me that I really need to get a scale specifically for measuring small amounts (fractions of grams), so I can throw out my measuring spoons, too. =)  Time to put that on the Christmas list.

My kitchen library

I've talked a bit in the past about my extensive cookbook collection.  Okay, mostly I've talked about the additions that I've been making to it. =)  When we moved into our house (going on eight years ago), we put a bookcase in the kitchen to hold my cooking and baking books.  I figured I had plenty of room for growth.  (The computer is in the kitchen as well--I've got a great set-up!)  But I've been acquiring new books faster than I expected, and for a while now space has been getting a bit tight.  In fact, even though I weeded out some books that I don't use much, the bookcase got to be completely full, with books stacked on top of books and more on the floor.  See:

Yes, this is just the cookbooks.

I've wanted to do something about the cramped conditions in my library for a while now.  I've been scouting out options, and found something at IKEA that I thought would work nicely.  And a couple weekends ago, we finally bought it!  We brought everything home (we got some other storage stuff while we were at it) and being of sound mind (mostly), waited until the girls were in bed to start putting things together.  I have to say, I've put together quite a few bookcases in my time, and this one was probably the easiest I've ever assembled.  

We only ran into one problem.  I measured the space where the old bookcase was, to make sure the new one would fit.  And it would have, as far as height and width were concerned.  But I didn't realize that the new one was much deeper than the old one, and it blocked the access to the bathroom off the kitchen.  After putting our heads together, Jamie and I decided that it would work better in the living room.  So we moved the new one over there (not far) and put the old empty bookcase back in its original spot.

We were too tired that night to actually transfer the books, so that had to wait for the next day.  My kitchen table looked pretty interesting for a bit:

Jamie was at work (morning of Memorial Day), so Brianna and Gillian helped me move the books over to their new location.  It took me a little while to decide how to arrange things and how to adjust the shelf heights, but when we were done we had this:

How cool is that?!  I was able to fit everything into the new bookcase and still have some room left for growth.  I actually put stuff in there that I'd weeded out of the old one due to lack of space.  For now at least, I figure I have the space, so why not just keep them out.  The left side is mainly baking and the right side is mainly cooking. 

Here's a closer look at the baking shelves.  On top are the smaller books which are mainly collections of food essays, rather than regular cookbooks:  

Then we have books from Dorie Greenspan, King Arthur Flour, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and my other bread books:

Next we have chocolate, cakes, and other pastry books from the likes of Alice Medrich, Sherry Yard, and the CIA:

And at the bottom are the more scientific books, from America's Test Kitchen, Alton Brown, Shirley Corriher, and Harold McGee:

So the only question left is, what did I do with the old bookcase?  Well, when we moved into this house, I also thought it would take a really long time to fill up my kitchen cabinets.  But with all the baking I've been doing for the last year and a half, I've managed to acquire a few new pieces of bakeware along with my cookbooks. =)  So I've decided to put some of them on display, along with some of the dishes I use for taking blog pictures: 

Hopefully this will hold me for a while! =)

New arrivals (and giveaway winner!)

I mentioned in my post last weekend that one of the things my mom taught me was to love reading and books.  She also taught me about the wonder of the library.  It's great for figuring out if I want to buy a particular book, especially cookbooks.  Plus, there are lots of books that I want to read but don't feel like I really have to own them.  The ones that I buy are the ones that I know I will want to read over and over again.  But even though I don't buy tons of books, I still have a pretty large number of them (and I'm not even counting Jamie's).  Every time I've moved, I always underestimate the number of boxes it's going to take to pack up all of them...

I'm still reading and buying regular books, but the fastest growing section of my personal library has to be the cookbook section.  I like to cook and bake from them, but I also like to just read them.  I always have something to read with me--I think the people at work are amused by the fact that I often read cookbooks while eating my lunch.  =)  I tend not to buy cookbooks that are just collections of recipes.  I want more--stories about the recipes and how they came about.  Or information about techniques or ingredients.  The books above are a couple of the ones that I've purchased for myself recently.

Ratio by Michael Ruhlman is a book about a neat idea.  It talks about the relationship between ingredients in a lot of classic preparations, and how you don't really need a recipe if you understand those ratios.  You can read more about it here.  One thing that I most definitely agree with--if you don't own a scale, buy one! =)

The other book I picked up recently was sort of an impulse buy.  I've seen a lot of reviews lately of Gale Gand's Brunch!  I stopped by Borders to look at it.  I decided it wasn't one that I wanted to buy, but while I was there, I happened to find another breakfast and brunch book that looked interesting.  It's Breakfasts & Brunches, put out by the Culinary Institute of America.  I had a coupon that I was dying to use, so it came home with me.  I already have Cooking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America, which I really need to bake from more often...  (Check out Sandy from At the Baker's Bench, who is baking her way through it.)  Breakfast is a very popular meal around here, so I think this one will definitely come in handy.

Then came Mother's Day last weekend, and my wonderful husband got me not one, but two new cookbooks!  The first is portable, so it's the one that I've been taking it to work to read during lunch. =)  It's Baking Artisan Bread, by Ciril Hinz:

And the second is one that I've seen on a lot of blogs.  Plus I've talked lots about how much I love Sur la Table.  It is however, probably too heavy to lug to work with me on a daily basis.  I'm the proud owner of a copy of The Art and Soul of Baking:

Hopefully I'll have a chance to try some new recipes soon and share the results here.

Okay, it's taken me way too long to get to this, but now let's find out who was the winner of my giveaway!  My lovely helper Brianna wrote all the names on pieces of paper for me: 

There were ten people who left comments (before the deadline) about their favorite cookbooks:

Once they were written out, we folded them up and put them in a hat:

Gillian mixed them up:

And then picked one out:

And the winner is:

Congratulations to Cathy of The Tortefeasor!  She said that the next cookbook on her list is How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.  

Thanks again to everyone who participated and left me comments about the cookbooks they have and want.  Now I can add to my wishlist! =)  

A pick me up - pay it forward

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Megan over at My Baking Adventures.  She picked Tiramisu Cake for us to make this week.  I was kind of looking forward to it, because I've never made tiramisu in cake form or otherwise.  Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, at least this weekend...  Last Thursday, I had the day off.  I spent part of my morning making a batch of Dorie's Chocolate Chunkers to share with a friend.  I'd forgotten how much chocolate goes into those things!  That evening, I turned the oven on to preheat--I was just going to throw in some frozen chicken strips for Jamie and me to eat for dinner (it was a long day...).  After a while, I realized I should check on the oven.  It had been more than long enough for it to be preheated.  Imagine my dismay when I opened the oven door and discovered that the oven was still completely cold!  

The scientist/engineer in me demanded that I try to figure out what the heck was wrong.  I have a gas oven & stovetop.  The burners worked just fine.  The broiler (mine is in the top of my oven) also worked.  There was definitely gas flowing.  Jamie and I figured it was most likely something with the igniter for the oven.  I called my friendly neighborhood appliance repair people Friday morning from work.  But they don't work weekends at all, and there was no way for one of us to be home Friday afternoon.  So the earliest I was able to schedule an appointment was Monday morning.  That left me with an entire weekend to cook with no oven.  It temporarily threw a wrench in my usual BYOB plans.  I eventually got the idea to try making flatbread on my griddle.  But that's a story for another post...

Anyway, the oven got fixed Monday morning.  As we suspected, the igniter was at fault.  It has now been replaced.  But not soon enough for me to have time to bake cake.  I did bake bread Monday evening (the dough was already in the fridge) and it seems like the oven is working much more efficiently than before.  I'm going to have to watch that until I get used to how it's different.  Since I don't have the same sort of pick-me-up as you'll find on the blogs of the other TWD bakers this week, I thought I'd go in a different direction...

Quite some time ago, I was the lucky winner of a giveaway from Margaret at Tea and Scones.  She offered the winner a choice of gift cards, and I had a hard time deciding between Williams-Sonoma and Sur la Table.  I ended up choosing Sur la Table, and had a great time shopping.  I swear, I can spend hours in that store, even if it's just window-shopping.  I finally came home with the items pictured above--a new 8" springform pan, two sturdy 8" regular cake pans, and a cool new spatula.  I had some old 8" pans, but they were all pretty cheap (in construction).  I've had lots of fun using all of my new toys.  Thanks, Margaret!

One of the only conditions of the giveaway was that at some point in the future I would "pay it forward" by offering a giveaway of my own.  Well, I'm finally getting around to doing that.  But in the process, I want to pick your brains a bit.  So here's how it's going to work...  To enter, leave a comment on this post, and tell me a couple of things:  First, what cookbook do you have that you absolutely love?  (like I need an excuse to add to my collection...)  And second, what cookbook are you just dying to own?  One lucky winner will receive a $25 gift card or gift certificate for the book seller of their choice (as long as I can reasonably manage to get my hands on one--otherwise, there's always Amazon).  You just have to agree to pay it forward in turn.  The deadline is 11:59pm CDT on Friday 5/8.  The winner will be chosen at random by my lovely assistants, Brianna and Gillian.  I look forward to hearing about your cookbook choices!

Test-drive a cookbook today

I love libraries.  We moved around some when I was little, and one of the first things we did in a new town was find the library.  (Heck, even as an adult, that's one of the first things I've done after moving.)  To get a library card, you had to be able to write your name.  I can remember my younger sisters practicing, so they too could have library cards.  We'd go about once a week, and if I was lucky, my 10-book limit would last that long.  In high school, I even worked in the reference department of my local public library.  As a grown-up, I still love libraries, but I don't get there as often as I'd like.  And I don't take my children as often as I'd like, either.  I really need to do something about that, but as a working mom it can be hard to find the time.  Not that anyone in this house lacks for books--my husband is a bit supporter of Half Price Books. =)   And we spend some of our time and money at Borders, as well.  There are books by certain authors (cookbooks and fiction) that I know that I'll buy without a second thought.  But for other books, the library is a great way to decide if I want to spend my money.  

So where am I going with this?  =)  One of the blogs I enjoy is The Food Librarian.  Yesterday she had a delicious-looking post about Magnolia's Raspberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Buns from a cookbook that she borrowed from her library. I love just about anything raspberry, and I love baking breakfast foods.  The timing was great, since today is my day off.  So I made these for breakfast.  I made half the recipe, which made nine standard sized muffins.  To keep the buns from sticking, I used some Pam for Baking on the muffin cups, which worked quite well.  I topped the cream cheese batter with some of my favorite raspberry butter and swirled it around.  Since my buns were smaller, I only baked them for 20 minutes, which was just right.  

The verdict?  Wow, these are awesome.  The cake part is delicious by itself, but it's fantastic with the raspberry swirl.  I ate two (hey, mine were only half the original size!) for breakfast and am tempted to have another one for lunch.  I should save them for my other taste-testers, though.  You can find the recipe here if you want to try them for yourself.  

I already checked, and unfortunately neither of my nearby libraries has a copy of More From Magnolia.  But they do have some others (such as David Lebowitz's The Perfect Scoop) that I've been meaning to check out (ha! library pun! =) ).  So along with my other errands for this afternoon, I'm off to the library!

Mother's Day

First off, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! I wasn't sure how today was going to be. It's been less than two months since my mom died, and I knew that I was going to have a hard time today. It wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I feared. Jamie and Brianna made muffins for breakfast and spaghetti & meatballs for dinner, with minimal assistance from me. =)

And I got some cool presents! It looks like I'm going to have to rearrange my bookshelf in the kitchen again. I love my copy of Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, and I've been wanting a copy of her new Pure Dessert since it came out. And I've mentioned before how my husband likes to find interesting chocolates for me to try, so I wasn't surprised to receive some new ones. One of them is from Askinosie, which Laurie has been talking about.

And finally, my kiddos actually cooperated for some pictures.  It can be hard to get them to sit still if I'm not feeding them. =)

Making room for new friends...

It's official.  I need a bigger bookshelf for my kitchen.  =)  Between Christmas, Valentine's Day and my birthday (a week after V-Day), I've acquired 8 new cooking & baking related books.  I've already talked about some of them here and here.  The one Jamie got me for Valentine's Day was The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, which was very interesting.  I don't think I'd ever want to attend Le Cordon Bleu, but I really enjoyed reading about Kathleen Flinn's experience there.  Then he got me Demolition Desserts for my birthday.  It's nice when Jamie gets me new cookbooks, because he often chooses things that I might not think to buy for myself, but that I end up enjoying a lot.  I'm not sure how much I'll make from Demolition Desserts right now, but the pictures are lovely and it looks like it will provide lots of inspiration for new ways to combine things. 

That leaves two more.  Up until I stumbled across Tuesdays with Dorie about a month ago, I didn't own any Dorie Greenspan cookbooks.  Now I have three.  I've looked at Baking with Julia many times, and I've watched a number of the episodes on PBS, but I just never took the plunge and bought the book.  After seeing how great Baking From My Home to Yours is, I decided that I should give it a try.  And with birthday money, I just acquired Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.  I haven't even had a chance to read through it (just got it yesterday), but I've been drooling over the pictures.  

I think I've got enough to keep me busy for quite a while.  I think I'd better stop opening emails from Borders (gotta love coupons) and just stay away from there for a while.  =)

Going out on a limb

I'm kind of a shy person.  I tend not to say much unless I'm sure I know what I'm talking about.  I'm generally very cautious.  I make lists.  I plan.  Let's face it, I'm also a control-freak.  It scares me a bit to put myself out there in this blog for all the world to read.  I worry too much about what other people think.  But it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone sometimes.  And today I gave myself a big push.  I joined not one but two baking groups.  One is quite large--The Daring Bakers.  I've got some time to get used to the idea of that one, since I won't start until March.  The other is much smaller and is focused on a single cookbook--Tuesdays with Dorie.  

Part of me thinks that I must be crazy to commit myself to a weekly baking event.  What if I don't have the time?  What if I can't find anyone to eat this stuff every week?  =)  What if I don't have the equipment I need?  What if I don't like the chosen recipe (which is almost guaranteed to be the case if it has coconut)?  As you can see, sometimes I get so hung up on what ifs that it's hard to convince myself to do something.  But eventually I get past it.  I'll find the time--after all, the point is that I want something for to do for me, so I'm not always thinking of myself as somebody's mom or somebody's banker.  I'm sure I can find someone to take baked goods off my hands if we can't eat them all here at home.  I guess I get to go shopping, since I've already discovered that I need a 10-inch springform pan this week (it'll keep the 8 & 9 inch pans company).  And hey, maybe I'll try sometime that I wouldn't have otherwise and actually like it.  

Romancing the Stone

I love my baking stone.  It was a Christmas present in 1997 (wow, 10 years!), and it's been a permanent fixture in my oven ever since.  Okay, it's actually been in 4 different ovens, but you know what I mean.  =)  It gets used for pizza pretty much on a weekly basis, and for other breads when I have the chance to make them.  I put my pie pans directly on it to bake so the crust gets nice and brown on the bottom.  It helps my oven heat more evenly.  I love it.

Yesterday started out quite chilly, so I thought it would be a good day for soup and bread.  The soup was a new recipe, from the new issue (Feb/Mar 2008) of Fine Cooking--Classic Tomato Soup.  The bread was an old favorite--Focaccia--from my Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home cookbook.  

The dough is very wet and sticky, so it can be hard to work with.  I may have stumbled on a trick to help with that, though.  When I was making the dough last night, I had to stop for a few minutes right after I finished mixing in the second portion of the flour (Gillian was into something).  That five minute rest made the dough a bit easier to knead.  I still needed the dough scraper, but not as much, and it was easier to transfer the dough to the bowl to rise.  

The original directions have you start to shape the dough on a floured surface, then transfer it to a baking sheet with cornmeal on it.  Since the dough is so sticky, I just shape it on a sheet of parchment paper on top of my peel (though you can put the paper on a baking sheet if you don't have a stone to bake on).  The dough can then be transferred to the baking stone paper and all.  Once the dough starts to bake, it releases from the parchment paper.

Focaccia

(adapted from Julia & Jacques)

2 1/2 cups (11 3/4 oz)  + 1/2 cup (2 1/4 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp table salt

1 1/2 cups (12 oz) warm water

olive oil

1/2 to 3/4 tsp kosher or coarse sea salt

Put 2 1/2 cups flour, the salt and the yeast in the bowl of a standing mixer.  Mix with the paddle attachment on low speed just until blended.  Add the water and mix for about 2 minutes.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup flour and blend again until the flour is absorbed, about 30 seconds.  The dough will be more moist than most bread dough.  

Transfer the dough to a well-floured work surface.  Knead very lightly about a dozen times, using a dough scraper to gather the dough together after each turn.  Plop the dough into a large bowl that has been greased with a bit of olive oil.  Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled, about an hour.  While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

When the dough is done rising, place a sheet of parchment paper on your peel or on a baking sheet.  Turn the dough out onto the parchment paper.  Start to pat the dough into a round or oval shape.  Drizzle a teaspoon or two of olive oil on top of the dough and continue to stretch and pat the dough with well-oiled fingers until it is a 10" circle or an oval that is about 8" by 12".  

Sprinkle the coarse salt over the surface of the dough.  Let the dough rest and rise slightly for about 15 minutes.

Bake the focaccia until golden brown, about 25 minutes (mine took 22 minutes).  Place on a wire rack to cool slightly, then cut and serve.

New reading material

Books I got for Christmas--

I've read all the way through Desserts by the Yard.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, which isn't surprising, since I loved The Secrets of Baking.  I've even managed to bake something from it already--more on that later.  I'm in the middle of reading Don't Try This at Home--it makes for good light reading during lunchtime at work.  I've just barely started Kitchen Mysteries.  I expect it to be drier, but still interesting to the scientist in me.