La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder: Hickory Nut Cake

Another "thank goodness for Google" night in the kitchen! Going to make the cake tonight, I had whipped up a gorgeous meringue, all shining, glossy white, to fold into the dry ingredients. Next, I began to mix the dry ingredients for my cake. But, "where on earth has my baking powder got to?" Hmm. So, I quick looked up a sub for baking powder. Baking soda plus cream of tartar plus cornstarch? Okay, I can definitely do that! I have that big ol' yellow tub of Argo & I know I saw cream of tartar 2 days ago.

Except, the big yellow tub was nowhere to be found. I dismantled the baking shelf. I rummaged through the staples shelf. I scanned the other shelves. I pulled out the cake decorating shelf and the auxiliary spice shelf. I managed to spill most of an opened box of stelline all over the pantry floor. Now, baking powder and cornstarch are things I am never without in my kitchen. When I start to get low, just like I do with garlic or olive oil, I put them on the grocery list right away. However, something has happened. So, I searched "baking powder subs" again and discovered that I could use 1/4 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. vinegar for each tsp. of baking powder. Whew! I definitely had those on hand.

The other little funkiness with this recipe, requiring substitution, was that hickory nuts are not so easy to come by for us suburbanites. Had we been at my mama's, it would have been another matter altogether. In fact, she even mentioned on the phone today that I could just put off this cake until she could get some hickory nuts to me. It appears, however, that pecans are a sort of hickory nut. Apparently, hickories are more intensely flavored, with a higher note. My mom mentioned that her friend, Robin, has grafted hickory onto pecan trees (or vice versa) and was interested to know that they are related. I wonder what those nuts are like. Anyway, my hickory nut cake became pecan cake.

And then there was the question of whether to use vanilla or maple flavoring and how much of that? The recipe only calls for an unspecified amount of either vanilla or maple. I chose maple, since it seemed a nice compliment for the nuts. Since I usually toss about 2 tsp. of vanilla into a batter, that's what I chose for the maple. It added a lovely nutty color to the lily white batter. Oh, incidentally, I am very proud of myself for actually using cake flour. I am a lazy baker and usually just use all-purpose flour for everything. It is, after all, "all-purpose." But I happened to have a box of King Arthur cake flour knocking about the kitchen. I had a terrible fear, as I was mixing up the batter, that I would discover that King Arthur really is hands-down much more awesome than any other flour and that cake flour really does make a difference.

Before I could discover whether that was true, however, there was the problem of baking. Mrs. Hershberger does give the baking temp (350), but doesn't specify a time. As for pans, well, you have a couple of options, either loaf or layer pans. How many of each, she doesn't say. So, I greased 2 loaf pans and divided the batter between them. It filled them halfway, which seemed about right. As for baking time, I checked them when Grandma Sadie's kitchen timer told me it had been 25 minutes. The top was beginning to get a pale toasty brown, but I could tell pulling the rack out that it was still a little squidgy. The toothpick test confirmed that, so I slid them back in for another 10 minutes.

My pecan cake turned out to be beautiful, almost the same light brown as pecan shells, with tiny, airy bubbles all over the top. The flavor is light, with a very subtle hint of maple and delicate flecks of nut throughout. The texture, likewise, is fairly delicate. I think it would be perfect with afternoon tea, probably something fairly assertive, like Earl Grey, for contrast.

What I Am Cooking, September 2014

In case you need some inspiration, here are the dinners I have planned for September, along with a few other things:

Lemon-mint chicken, lemon cappellini, parmesan almond green beans, cinnamon applesauce, wheat oatmeal bread

Muffuletta pizza, green salad, fruit, hickory nut cake

Split pea soup & oatmeal chip cookies (for my book group potluck)

Ghivetch (Romanian summer vegetable stew), rolls, fruit

Hot chicken salad, cucumber & onion salad, fruit, apple pudding

Taco salad, green salad, fruit salad

BBQ hamburgers (the rest to be chosen by my sweetheart)

Steak Diane, Boursin potatoes, green salad, minted strawberries with white wine

Chicken paella, green salad, fruit

Pizza (with sauce from scratch), green salad, fruit

Caramelized onion meatloaf, scallion mashed potatoes, peas, 2-hour buns

Cheesy chili dog bake & pumpkin spread with gingersnaps (for our Game Night potluck)

Chicken piccata salad, sautéed kale with garlic, shallots, & capers, fruit, lazy wife cake

Pumpkin waffles, bacon, fruit, date cookies

Marinated flank steak, Italian potato salad, green salad with basil dressing, eggnog pie

Ratatoûille, pear harvest salad, rolls

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, salad

Cream of broccoli soup (for my First Rainy Day of Fall tradition)

Peanut butter pie

Eggs Benedict

Bean with bacon soup

Amish breakfast cereal

Fudge

Red ribbon punch

Rhubarb crunch

Chili

Roasted curly kale

Fruit with dip

Apples in maple syrup

Veggies with cucumber dip & amaretto slush for Friday Cocktail Hour

Italian Deviled Eggs & green apple martinis for FCH

Garlic pretzels & Blue Christmases for FCH

La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder: Wheat Oatmeal Bread

Recipe #1 was really fun to make & has made the house smell wondrous! It's fortunate that I know a little about bread-baking, though, because the instructions did not include to grease the loaf pans. I suspect that step is fairly important, although perhaps not. I am glad I did because my loaves, which are a little misshapen and puffy, slid right out of the pans with no sticking issues. The recipe said it makes "3 or 4 loaves," an imprecision that drives me a little nuts, given that loaf size dictates baking time. I suspect I will have to learn to live with imprecision with this cookbook!

I intended to cut the recipe in half so that I would only have one or two loaves. I was doing just fine until the time came to put in the water. At that moment, I utterly forgot I was halving the recipe and put 3 cups of water in with the other ingredients. I then came to the instruction to knead the dough. I took off my wedding rings and stuck my hands into the glop. I thought, "Surely, this isn't right!" Then, I remembered. I remembered carefully halving everything else. Oops! So, I doubled the other ingredients, bloomed some more yeast in warm water, and thought, "Well, since I omitted the lecithin, I will go ahead & add an egg." A Google search had informed me that egg makes a good sub for lecithin, as both are emulsifiers. I also figured that, since the other lecithin recipe says it's optional, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I left it out. I think the combination of the egg and the robust molasses made for a really rich color, so I'm glad I used the egg.

With the proper amount of everything, the dough was just right for kneading. I was a little worried that it wouldn't rise well, but it rose beautifully. The second rising went much more quickly than I had expected and the loaves were pretty big going into the oven. Then, the wait & the luscious smell of freshly baked bread wafting up to the bedroom as I read my sweetheart to sleep. And, just now, the thumping on the bottoms of the loaves, the eyeballing of the color, the popping the loaves back in for just a few more minutes. I suspect I should have divided the dough into 4 even balls, like you do with cookie dough, before forming the loaves. I didn't even think of it & Mrs. Weaver, whose recipe it is, didn't suggest it. Ah, well.

I ended up thumping & returning to the oven more times than I would have expected, but the piece the process yielded up for my midnight snack was delicious. An end piece, it was crunchy on the outside and tender inside. With a smidge bit of apple butter, it was especially tasty.  I would definitely make this one again. We'll be sending one loaf to Jeannene's plant to be shared there and I'll take one to the neighbor who kept my flowers yesterday when the delivery person got no answer at our place. Hopefully, she's not a bread expert! The third loaf will remain at home, for sandwiches and toast. I may need to buy some more apple butter.

La Luna Cooks Mrs. Yoder: A Beginning

Over the weekend, the wife and I were at a bed & breakfast near Amish country and picked up a new cookbook, to add to the bajillion others clamoring for shelf space in our home. It's a small press publication out of Holmes County, Ohio, and we bought it along with such items as butter flavoring and cheese popcorn seasoning and alphabet pasta and cupcake polka dots and locally made salami. As we looked through it in our B&B room, I idly said that it'd be fun to cook right through it, as with Julie & Julia. Jeannene thought the idea was brilliant and we decided to do it---maybe even blog about it. So here I am before you, vowing to cook right through Cooking with the Horse & Buggy People: a Collection of Over 600 Favorite Amish Recipes from the Heart of Holmes County.

Immediately after I decided to do this, though, I realized there was a significant problem. 331 bread (many of them sweet breads), cake, cookie, pie, and other dessert recipes before we even get to salads (the majority of which involve Jell-o or Cool Whip or both). Hmm. Well. So, I instead decided to cook through the book by making the first thing in the "Breads" section on day 1, the first thing in the "Cakes" section on day 2, and so forth. There is also the problem of the entire canning section, when I am not at all a canner. I plan to skip that section altogether, punking out in a way that Julie would never have allowed herself to do. I am also skipping the "Home Remedies & Preparing Wild Game" section because I am not at all committed enough to do fried frog legs (although I have eaten them), roasted rabbit (because Thumper), or roasted grouse (because, where the heck does one obtain grouse when one is not a hunter?). I might brave the roasted goose, if I get to feeling particularly ambitious.

I have also looked at a number of the recipes in the sections I am doing and have decided I am probably not going to be pressure cooking, although friends assure me that while old-fashioned pressure cookers=scary, new-fangled ones="hot damn"! Then, there comes the incessant calling for "oleo." Very few of these recipes call for actual butter. And I am not going to be incorporating margarine into my cooking. Therefore, I will be subbing butter when I see "oleo." There will be some other substitutions along the way, I am sure, although I will go along with Velveeta. In fact, the bread recipe I am due to make today calls for a tablespoon of lecithin. Well, since the only other recipe I see calling for lecithin, also a bread recipe, says it's optional, I don't want to buy it. After doing a bit of research, I have discovered that egg yolk can be subbed, so that's how I'm going to try it. I have to say, I am rather surprised by how very many processed foods are in the cookbook. I kind of assumed it would be a great deal more from scratchy than it is.

Still other recipes have the problem of being, um, a little vague. Here is a recipe, from the "Cookies" section, for "Patties":
2 eggs
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 c. flour (or more)
Stir eggs well with fork and add sugar. Add flour and milk alternately. A smooth batter is important.

That's the entire recipe. Yup. All of it. Oh, Mrs. Barkman, what on earth do I do next with your patties? My guess would be that I drop the batter on cookie sheets & bake them. We'll see what happens when I get to those. Most of the others don't have any cooking times or guidelines for what it should look like/feel like when done. I will do my best with those. I am not a baker.

So, this week's recipes are:
Today-Wheat oatmeal bread (I am afraid of bread-making. I suspect that by the end of this project, I will not be. I plan to channel my mother, who loves making bread, as I learn.)
Tomorrow-Hickory Nut Cake (If I can't find hickory nuts, I have learned that pecans are a sort of hickory nut. Too bad I don't live closer to my ma, whose home is called Hickory Hill due to all the hickories there. Walking around their yard, you have to be careful not to twist an ankle on all the nuts!)
Friday-Oatmeal chip cookies

I am giving myself weekends off. I suspect I will need them! We will also likely be giving away a decent portion of the food, since there are only two of us. I am certain friends, neighbors, kids, & co-workers won't mind having some bread or pie turn up.

Frittata Goodness

Pie & The Girl are visiting us this week, prior to moving closer, so I'm trying to make meals that will be fairly easy to pull together and that everyone will like. Tonight, we had a simple potato, onion, & parmesan frittata with a romaine salad blend (from a bag) and fresh fruit (cantaloupe & red grapes). It pulls together in about half an hour and is great for vegetarians.

Potato, Onion, & Parmesan Frittata

                     1 tbsp. olive oil                                    2 egg whites

                    1 lb. red potatoes, thinly sliced            3 tbsp. chopped parsley

                    1 onion, thinly sliced                            1/2 c. grated parmesan

                    8 eggs, beaten                                      Salt & pepper

 Heat oil in large skillet. Add potato & onion. Cook until tender & starting to brown, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Whisk eggs, egg whites, parsley, parmesan, salt, & pepper together. Pour over potatoes, cover, & cook 15-20 minutes. Serves 4-6.

Roasted Cauliflower & Garbanzo Salad, Couscous with Dill & Chives, Garlic-Cumin Yogurt Sauce, and Warmed Pita

Poor Jeannene, when she saw tonight's supper listed on our chalkboard, said plaintively, "Is there any meat?" My response was that there wasn't & she'd better have a nice piece of meat at lunch. I like to have a vegetarian dinner at least once a week and this one is so hearty and delicious that is doesn't need meat. It could even be vegan, if you left off the yogurt sauce or subbed soy yogurt. The recipe is Rachael Ray's & I love it although I tweaked it very slightly). It seems that people are of two minds about her: either they appreciate her or they want to punch her in the throat. I fall into the former camp and cannot, for the life of me, figure out how she could possibly inspire the sort of vitriol I see spewed when her name is mentioned. If you hate Rachael Ray, feel free to stop reading now. But, if you are open-minded and only think you hate her, give this a try. Jeannene, by the way, was delighted with her food and didn't feel she needed meat, after all. Of course, that could be because I plied her with a Make-Your-Own-Caprese-Crostini set-up as soon as she got home.

For that, I cut some thin baguette slices, brushed them with olive oil, sprinkled them with garlic salt & pepper, and baked them about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. I sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella into little rounds and set them & the crostini out with my basil plant, a bottle of olive oil, & a wee dish of Maldon salt. I also set out a dish of assorted olives and marinated garlic cloves.

Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Couscous & Yogurt Sauce

1 can garbanzos, rinsed & drained                           10 oz. box couscous

1/4 c. pine nuts                                                          1/4 c. finely-chopped dill

1 c. Greek yogurt (I used nonfat)*                           1/4 c. finely-chopped chives

2 finely chopped cloves garlic                                 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets & roasted**

1 tsp. cumin                                                             1 c. chopped parsley

Juice of 1 1/2 lemons                                              Salt & pepper

14 oz. can vegetable or chicken broth                    4 pitas, warmed

3 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roast garbanzos & pine nuts about 5 minutes on a rimmed baking sheet. Mix yogurt, garlic, & cumin together. Add 1/3 of the lemon juice. Bring the broth to a boil with 1 tbsp. of the olive oil. Remove from heat & add couscous, dill, and chives. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Mix garbanzos, pine nuts, cauliflower, & parsley. Dress with the rest of the lemon juice & olive oil. Season with salt & pepper. Fluff couscous with a fork. Serve with salad, yogurt, & warmed pitas. The original recipe says to serve the salad over the couscous with the yogurt on the side. Do that, if you like, but I found I like my salad and couscous separate, with the yogurt sauce spooned over the couscous. Serves 4.

*Jeannene and I really love Greek Gods brand Greek yogurt above any other. Fage is also good & we used that until we were attending a retreat about a year and a half ago and were served Greek Gods Honey Vanilla yogurt at breakfast, with fruit & granola. We went home, searched it out, and have used it as our go-to yogurt ever since. 

**To roast cauliflower, wash it & cut it into florets (or buy them pre-cut, but they won't be as fresh). Drizzle with olive oil and bake on a rimmed sheet for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees. This is best done in a very clean oven. If you want to use it as a side all by itself, you might squirt it with a lemon and sprinkle on some salt & pepper before roasting. It's one of my favorite things to eat!

Oh, by the way, I think some golden raisins tossed in there at the end would really be good in this salad, too. I plan to try that next time. 

A Light Salad Supper

Ah, the delight of being back in the kitchen after a long while away! I've been quite the road tripper this summer, starting June 25th with a trip to Pittsburgh for my BFF's birthday. The day after I got back, I drove to my auntie's house in SW Ohio to hit the road the 29th for Disney with her and my cousin's oldest boy. We stopped in Charleston, SC, on the way down (oh, did I wish I had time for a week at the beach, too!) to drop off the next-oldest with his Papou & YiaYia for the week. On the way home, we got to celebrate my cousin Jessie's 25th birthday with her outside of Atlanta. Once home, I had a day & 2 nights to regroup before hitting the road again, this time for work. I overnighted with my friends, Claire & Susan, & their wee ones in Chicago on my way to Wisconsin for a youth event at which I was leading small groups and presenting workshops on Playful Sabbath. Whew! It makes me tired just to write it all out like that!

I really adore traveling, but I miss cooking when I'm gone, almost as much as I miss my wife. I am one of those people who just truly loves puttering around in the kitchen. Combined with all the easy, fast food I ate on my trip, it was the perfect moment for creating a big ol' chicken Caesar salad for my first post-trip supper. With a loaf of Italian bread and a mini-colander of Rainier cherries, it was just exactly right. I hope it might be for you, as well. 

Chicken Caesar Salad

3 tbsp. buttermilk (lowfat, for me)                          1 large clove garlic, roughly chopped

2 tbsp. mayonnaise (I used the canola sort)           1/4 tsp. each salt & pepper

Juice of half a small lemon                                     2 tbsp. freshly grated parmesan 

1 tbsp. good quality olive oil                                  Hearts of romaine, torn into bite-sized pieces

1 tsp. Dijon mustard                                               Garlic croutons (fat-free, if you like)

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce                                    Rotisserie chicken, in bite-sized pieces

1/2 tsp. anchovy paste                                            Shaved parmesan

Purée everything but the romaine, croutons, chicken, and shaved parmesan until smooth. Divide lettuce among plates. Top with croutons, chicken, and a drizzle of dressing. Finish with shaved parmesan. The dressing is about enough for 2 or 3 dinner-sized salads.