It's chicken soup time again

I had described the process of making soup here, but hadn't included any pictures! I made more soup last night, and took some this time around.

How it starts out, with the whole raw chicken and veggies, making the stock:



After simmering, this is how the chicken comes out of the pot if I'm lucky:



If I get distracted and let it go too much longer, it completely falls apart, which makes fishing out the meaty bits a bit more challenging. And of course, this is Miss Nellie's favourite part of the process, as a bit or two usually falls off.



In between warming my innards with a tasty bowlful, I've been listing again! I realized I had four parasols that had never found their way into my shop, and I finished two new necklaces this week as well. Here's the first set:

Hand Embellished Ivory Battenburg Lace Steampunk Parasol Bridal



Steampunk Brass Gear necklace with Vintage Brass Chain



Red Black and Ivory Geometric Steampunk Parasol OOAK Ruffled Trim

Cooking safely

When you're cooking meats, if you don't cook them thoroughly enough you run the risk of making yourself and anyone else you're feeding sick. Recommended temperatures for different meats are 145°F for whole meats, 160°F for ground meats and 165°F for all poultry.

There are a bunch of different thermometers you can use, but I prefer the old fashioned kind.



Their accuracy can be affected, though, if they're dropped, or if they're not used for long periods of time. That's easily corrected, though. Test their accuracy by immersing them in boiling water. They should read 212°F, like the thermometer in the picture above. (Unless you're at a high altitude, and in that case the boiling point will be lower.) If they don't read 210°F, they can be easily adjusted by turning the screw under the dial.



Also, when checking the temperature of your cooking meat, make sure that you insert the thermometer at least 2/3 of the length of the stem into the meat. That means if you're cooking chicken breasts or burgers, you need to insert the thermometer in the side of the piece. And you're cooking a roast or a whole bird, make sure the thermometer isn't touching the bone, which will be warmer than the rest of the bird.

Happy and safe cooking!



~

What's for Dinner?

Was feeling under the weather today, and what better to make a body feel better than a good dinner? I was going through my recipes yesterday and found something I'd yanked from somewhere ages ago that I'd never made. No idea where I found the recipe now, but I decided it needed to be made tonight.

Flank Steak Roll

1 1/2 lbs beef flank steak
4 tsps dijon or german mustard
6 slices of bacon, diced
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
3 minced cloves of garlic
1/4 cup flour
1 (13.75oz) can beef broth

(The original recipe called for pickles instead of celery, but I consider pickles to be one of the most heinous crimes against food. I also added the garlic, because as a friend of mine said, if whoever made the recipe originally didn't include garlic, they were crazy)

In a large skillet on medium heat, cook bacon and onion until bacon is crisp





I added the celery and the garlic after the onions got translucent but before the bacon got crispy.

Flatten meat to approximately 1/2" thick. Putting it between two sheets of plastic wrap makes this a much less messy operation.



The recipe called for a 1 1/2 pound piece of flank steak. My grocery didn't have pieces this large, so I got two 3/4 pound pieces instead. I liked working with the smaller rolls.



Spread the mustard on the meat.





Spread the bacon mix over meat. Front load it towards the end you'll start rolling from, as it'll squeeze out the ends. Just scoop it up and add it back in.



Secure the roll with cooking twine, both ends and in the middle.



Brown the outside in the pan in which you cooked the bacon mixture.



Once browned, put the rolls in a glass casserole. Then add the flour to the skillet and mix in with the remainder of the meat juices and bacon grease. If it's too dry, add a tablespoon or two of butter. Slowly whisk in the beef broth and bring to a simmer.



Pour the gravy mixture over the rolls and bake at 325 for 90 minutes.





Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before carving.





Strain the gravy and separate the fat, and drizzle over the meat before serving. I served it with new potatoes tossed in olive oil, dried basil and parmesan, and a spinach salad with a vinaigrette, slivers of almonds, dried cherries, and grated parmesan.

Sunday Blintzes

This weekend, we had a couple of social engagements that involved food. Most of our social engagements do, truth be told, and it makes me very happy that so many of my friends are as good food obsessed as I am. I made a cream cheese dip for strawberries that involved pomegranate syrup, and there was leftovers (we ran out of strawberries first), so today I decided to make blintzes.

1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of lemon flavoring (optional)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon canola oil

I use an 8" non-stick pan instead of a crepe pan. Melt a tiny bit of butter in, and ladle in about 2-3 tablespoons of batter, tilting the pan to cover the bottom, and cooking till the underside is golden brown. Stack them with waxed paper in between.



Once you've got them all cooked, you layer in a generous tablespoon or two of whatever filling you have, and roll them like a burrito, sides tucked in.



Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in one tablespoon of oil in a larger frypan, and put the rolled blintzes in the pan, seam side down.



Simmer till they're golden brown and flip, remove when the other side is golden brown.



Top however you like. I would have liked to garnish with fresh strawberries, but we were out so instead I used the very last of the cream cheese filling with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.



(I got a little distracted, so these got golden browner than I would have liked, but they were still tasty!)

Leftovers can be wrapped in wax paper and frozen for later. The crepes can also be frozen in their waxed paper stacks.



If only I'd had the makings for mimosas to go with these, it would have been truly perfect!



~

Potato soup's on!

We're looking at another cold snowy week ahead, definitely comfort food weather. So what better way to warm the insides than a pot of potato soup?

1/2 lb bacon
4-5 leeks
5 cups chicken or veggie broth
1 can corn, drained
1 boneless skinless chicken breast (optional)
1 cup heavy cream or milk
3 lbs yukon gold potatoes
1/2 cup shredded aged cheddar

Roast corn for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F
Cook bacon. Drain pan, reserve 1 tablespoon grease. Crumble bacon and set aside
Mince leeks, shading up to light green ends. Saute leeks in bacon grease till translucent.
Scrub potatoes, then dice, leaving skins on
Cook potatoes in broth till fork-tender, around 10 minutes after boil
Add leeks
Stir in cream, bring back to simmering

At this point, you can leave it chunky, or puree it in a food processor to make it creamy. I usually compromise, scooping out a couple ladlefuls of potatoes, then blending, and adding the chunks back in.

Dice chicken breast
Bring back to simmering, add in diced chicken
Bring back to simmering, let cook for ~another 10 minutes
Add roasted corn, add salt and pepper to taste


Serve with slabs of crusty bread, or in a bread bowl. Sprinkle shredded cheese and crumbled bacon liberally over the top. Nomnomnom.

A Year in the Making, day 303

Wait a minute! Didn't you just post "day 299" yesterday? Yes I did. And then, with today being July 1st, and the end only two months away, I did the math. There are 31 days in July & August, and with 365 days in the year, that means that somewhere in the last 10 months I messed up my count. Oops! So I jumped four days to put me back on the correct schedule.

I tried an experiment, a lavender custard. I heard them talk about it on The Splendid Table sometime last year, and thought it sounded absolutely lovely, and have been meaning to try it for months. But when I got the serious urge it was the middle of winter, and no lavender to be had. Ours finally bloomed, and I decided to give it a go.




According to the program, you should simmer the lavender in the milk first, then strain it and go on to cook it according to whatever recipe you're using. I gave it a go, but it didn't set, so it's more like lavender cream soup. It's still delicious, though. No pictures, you'll just have to use your imagination.

The lavender is currently the only thing left in our front yard - we are finally getting some landscaping done, 8 years after buying this house. They came in today and stripped the lawn down to the dirt:



They'll be bringing in some dirt tomorrow to level things off, and then putting in new sod and trimming the hedge. (Again! You'd never know I almost killed myself trying to tame that damn thing earlier this year!) We'll have a real lawn! One that I won't break an ankle walking across that isn't a mixture of clover, dandelions, and pricklers!

Look! More exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished another piece for the gents today, using that pinstripe trim, with another vintage black silk umbrella:

The Steampunk Gents Brolly



Very tempted to go get another helping of custard soup. Wonder how it'd go over fresh canteloupe? I think I'm going to have to find out. Excuse me!

A Year in the Making, day 290

Technically day 289, since I finished this last night, but don't want to mess up my numbering system. I'd previously taken a pink parasol and embellished it with black trim and lace. That one sold last month, and I miss it. But instead of doing another pink and black one, I decided I'd try my hand at doing a black one with pink embellishments!

Black and Pink Gothic EGL Lolita Parasol



This is the first parasol I've made that I could actually reproduce, as the materials are all very straightforward.

Also last night, I prepped today's dinner, a savory bread pudding, the husband's request for father's day dinner. He'd bought a loaf of good french bread for sandwiches last week, but my food poisoning completely threw meal planning out the window, so the loaf had gotten rather crunchy. No problem, though, that made it just perfect for baking.

Savory bread pudding:

1 loaf french bread, cut into ~1" medallions
8 eggs
3 cups milk (or 1 cup cream or half and half plus 2 cups milk)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 cup shredded swiss cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup chopped ham (optional)

Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour over bread in mixing bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight, turning at least once.

In the morning, mix in cheese and ham, reserving about 1/8 cup cheese. Preheat oven to 400.

Butter an 8x8 casserole dish. Press bread mixture into dish and cover with foil.

Bake for 30 minutes, uncover and sprinkle with reserved cheese. Cook an additional ~10 minutes, till cheese bubbles and starts to brown. Let cool for 10 minutes. Slice into 2" squares and serve.

A Year in the Making, day 268

Mother Nature did, indeed, drool all day. But the weather was at least temperate, so we shouldered our Seattle rain stoicism and went out to the >Kuboto Gardens this morning. And this time, I remembered to put the memory card in the camera!


Bee on Flower by *dbvictoria on deviantART


Tree Sap by *dbvictoria on deviantART


Blue Orchid by *dbvictoria on deviantART

There's more pictures here.

We swung by the grocery store and got supplies for most tasty dinner that I'll describe shortly. When we got home, I spent a little time with the garnet box again, making more steampunk shinies and then editing pictures.

Steampunk Garnet and Sterling Silver Y-Necklace



Steampunk Garnet Waterfall Earrings with Antique Watch Parts



The husband then grilled us some quite tasty salmon and asparagus despite the gloomy weather. And then I treated us to dessert, one of the things I make very rarely because it's fiddly and also very not-good for the waistline:



Pears, peeled and thin sliced, simmered in a port wine reduction with some of my homemade blackberry preserves, then spooned over vanilla ice cream. *urp* I'm sipping some more of the port as I type now. I am, again, a happy kitty.

Good Gravy!

Tonight's dinner, pre-carving:



Now that I have your attention, and as a follow-up to the previous post, and to add another entry to my Recipes sidebar, let's talk about gravy. We never had gravy growing up, with the exception of holiday meals at grandmother's, and I don't remember liking or disliking it at all. I probably never ate any, as it would have been brown and gooey, and I was a very particular (well, better to say picky) eater.

When we had a beef roast or such, we'd just use the straight juice from the pan, nothing added. This was usually pretty tasty.

Fast forward to college, where I met this guy that eventually became the husband, and he was from a gravy family. And he taught me how to make it. And it was easy. And it was good.

First step - make a roux. What is a roux, you ask? Well, according to Wikipedia, a roux is a cooked mixture of wheat flour and fat. I can't give you exact measurements, as I've been eyeballing it for over a decade now, but I start with a splash of olive oil and a spoonful or two of flour, whisked together in a 12" frypan. I've separated out the pan drippings and juices previously, and strained them into a fat separator, like this:



You let it sit, and the fat rises to the top. The hole for the pour spout is at the bottom. You pour till you've got just a little bit of the juice left, and discard the fat. Easy peasy! They come in a variety of materials. The one I have is just like the one pictured, and is actually made from the same plastic they use to make airplane windows, so pouring hot fatty liquid into it isn't an issue.

I let the roux simmer till it starts to bubble and brown, and then add the juice slowly, whisking all the time, until I go from the thick paste phase to the slightly gooey phase. I then let the gravy simmer some more and re-thicken up a bit while I add whatever herbs and spices I want. If there wasn't enough pan juice, I'll add chicken or beef broth to thin it out to the proper consistency. I've never had a lumpiness problem doing it this way.



For chicken gravy, I'll take some roasted garlic and mash it through a sieve, then whisk the pureed tastiness in along with a quarter cup of vermouth, and maybe toss in a sprig of rosemary. For beef gravies, usually adding a little tomato paste if you didn't already cook it in tomato is a good thing. Serve with rice, taters, or egg noodles. Yum!

"Hot" chocolate cake

This is the cake I made for my work's holiday Christmas party dessert contest. I won third place, behind a homemade pear tart and a from scratch coconut cake.

Ingredients:

Cake
1 package chocolate cake - generic is best
1 package cook-n-serve instant chocolate pudding
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz dark chocolate morsels
3-4 ounces of red pepper infused chocolate (one half bar), chopped fine

Frosting
one container commercial chocolate frosting
3-4 ounces of red pepper infused chocolate (other half of bar), chopped fine

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
Grease inside of bunt cake pan
Use 1-2 tbsp of cake mix to powder the inside of pan, shaking excess into mixing bowl

Mix all dry ingredients in medium sized mixing bowl - this helps prevent random "hot spots"
Add wet ingredients, use egg beater on medium till smooth, using spatula to scrape down sides of bowl
Add chocolate morsels and 1/2 of chopped chocolate bar at end of mix

Spoon into bunt pan, using spatula to spread batter evenly in pan.

Bake 50-55 minutes, until cake surface springs back when touched and toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool on cooling rack 10-15 minutes, then invert onto cake platter. Cake should separate easily from pan. If not, use spatula to loosen cake.

Allow to completely cool before frosting.

For frosting, melt chocolate in heavy sauce pan, and mix in frosting when melted. Use spatula to spread on cake. Dried hot peppers can be used for decoration/garnish, but caution your guests not to eat them (unless they really, really want to!)

Milk is a must with this sweetly spicy delight, and the powdered peppers can be adjusted to taste.

Unfortunately, I neglected to get a picture, so you'll just have to make it yourself and find out how beautiful it looks