Show us the food dishes you've prepared.

[AnnaMaria]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Ummmmm....not the expected reaction: They look lovely. Care to...elaborate? [huh] Assuming the issues are food-related, of course...

"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

Well, I'm a very calm and patient person but when I bake I always seem to have a picture of everything turning out absolutely perfect and if it doesn't I get extremely frustrated. I don't know why, nothing else has this effect on me. I know the cookies on the picture looks good, but there where supposed to be 20 of each and those are the final result. What happened was that the melted white chocolate was everywhere and the marzipan stuck more to my fingers than to the cookies.

Those are incredible, how did you do the bows so perfectly?!

Thank you! I made a cone of oven paper and left a tiny hole in the end, filled the cone with melted chocolate and "drew" the bows on. That part actually worked as planned

And here is something that looked as it was supposed to - the cake I made for my fiancees birthday (very blurry cell phone picture though)

]

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Well, I'm a very calm and patient person but when I bake I always seem to have a picture of everything turning out absolutely perfect and if it doesn't I get extremely frustrated. I don't know why, nothing else has this effect on me. I know the cookies on the picture looks good, but there where supposed to be 20 of each and those are the final result. What happened was that the melted white chocolate was everywhere and the marzipan stuck more to my fingers than to the cookies.




Thank you! I made a cone of oven paper and left a tiny hole in the end, filled the cone with melted chocolate and "drew" the bows on. That part actually worked as planned

And here is something that looked as it was supposed to - the cake I made for my fiancees birthday (very blurry cell phone picture though)

]

Nice talent!!!!!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

If he goes out again please send me a piece. lol lol lol

 

["Skeet" McD]

Well, I'm a very calm and patient person but when I bake I always seem to have a picture of everything turning out absolutely perfect and if it doesn't I get extremely frustrated. I don't know why, nothing else has this effect on me.

Dear AnnaMaria...
I'm something of (ahem) a perfectionist myself, so I can well understand. But believe me: experience is a wonderful thing. THESE PETIT-FOURS ARE WONDERFUL. Be very, very happy with what you have done; be grateful for the experience you now have under your belt, and be SURE that the next batch will be better...and the one after that...and the one after that! Of course: you might have to eat petit-fours on a regular basis; if you don't think you can keep up with production, I'm betting there are a number of folks just on the other side of your monitor who would be VERY happy to help you....

Keep the faith, keep baking, and....[try to] keep your temper!

"Skeet"

 

[AnnaMaria]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Of course: you might have to eat petit-fours on a regular basis; if you don't think you can keep up with production, I'm betting there are a number of folks just on the other side of your monitor who would be VERY happy to help you....

Keep the faith, keep baking, and....[try to] keep your temper!

"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

I don't really like cookies, but the people around me sure does, especially my dear boyfriend. I bake, he eats, and delicious cookies makes him forget my bad temper!

 

[BeBopBaby]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Dear AnnaMaria...
I'm something of (ahem) a perfectionist myself, so I can well understand. But believe me: experience is a wonderful thing. THESE PETIT-FOURS ARE WONDERFUL. Be very, very happy with what you have done; be grateful for the experience you now have under your belt, and be SURE that the next batch will be better...and the one after that...and the one after that!
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

I am a very detail-oriented perfectionist when I make things, so if one little item is out of place or not perfect, it practially ruins it for me. I've learned to step back and not worry about it so much because chances are unless it is glaringly obvious, no one else will even notice it! lol

 

[SamMarlowPI]

i made Skeet's pancakes this morning...yum...

had to make my own self rising flour and it worked!

 

[Vintage Betty]

I am a very detail-oriented perfectionist when I make things, so if one little item is out of place or not perfect, it practially ruins it for me. I've learned to step back and not worry about it so much because chances are unless it is glaringly obvious, no one else will even notice it! lol

Me too, but that's why I love to cook and especially bake. I get to eat my mistakes! :essen:

Here's a new recipe I tried yesterday:
Panko encrusted chicken wings with a mustard sauce, with brown rice and roasted garlic-salted brussell sprouts.

Sorry for the terrible pic, I think my camera is dying.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Two-fer...

Spent the end of last week trying out salt-rising bread, using an 1881 receipt as the basis: very strange stuff, in that it is leavened neither chemically, nor with yeast...but with a bacterium: Clostridium perfringens (which is a toxin, and leads to unfortunate intestinal results if ingested alive or in spore form): you make a lovely infected library paste, let it turn into SuperBioSoup over 10 hours or so....and then let 'er rip. The bacteria are killed during the baking. VERY strange odor....not bad, exactly, but....not like anything else you've raised bread with, either! The taste is immediately recognizable, but much more toned down than the smell...somewhat like a very well-ripened cheddar cheese. Mostly made in the Southern Highlands of the US, but with pockets of use elsewhere in the country. I made a hearth-loaf as well as a pan-loaf, as you can see:

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100289/DSCF2375

Then, for dinner tonight, a favorite pizza: nothing special, but delicious (we think): tomato sauce; tomato meat; Speck (smoked prosciutto from Northern Italy/Southern Germany); mozzarella; fresh basil; and dried Greek oregano. The dough is Carol Field's recipe from THE ITALIAN BAKER; I usually make it with olive oil added: not traditional Napolitano, but....I like it! A lovely, supple dough. And yes: it was delicious! The hand belongs to my dear wife....she was hungry!

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100289/DSCF2450

"Skeet"

 

[Vintage Betty]

I've tried the salt-risen bread recipes before, but you are right about the smell! Couldn't get used to it and used to throw those breads away and also the other type grown from other people's sourdough starters here in California. My Mother-In-Law insisted she had a good yeast base, but I really didn't like her bread or her starter. I just went to the store instead, after way too many failed efforts, despite being in the right geography for sourdough. Did you finish your salt loaf?

The pizza looks marvelous!

 

["Skeet" McD]

I've tried the salt-risen bread recipes before, but you are right about the smell! Couldn't get used to it and used to throw those breads away and also the other type grown from other people's sourdough starters here in California. My Mother-In-Law insisted she had a good yeast base, but I really didn't like her bread or her starter. I just went to the store instead, after way too many failed efforts, despite being in the right geography for sourdough. Did you finish your salt loaf?

The pizza looks marvelous!

To take the last first, as we have on good authority : Thanks! It WAS good.

Haven't finished the SRB yet....and I honestly do think it is an acquired taste. I believe the unique taste becomes more prominent as the loaf ages; when eaten fresh, it was my impression that (if you hadn't been exposed to the smell of the culture for 12 hours or so) and were just handed a slice, you might not even think too much about it. If you've smelled the ferment: you know what you're eating, however! Now, 4 or 5 days in, the taste seems more pronounced. I'm honestly not sure we will finish it...although I'm sure the chickens will like it!

As far as sourdough starters go...well, tastes differ, and there's nothing wrong with that. The starter I use (and which I referenced earlier in this thread) my wife and I--and almost everyone who has eaten bread made from it--consider very, very mild. But, a few folks have found it so pronounced as to be...unpleasant, if not inedible. So, who knows? But: most cultures (in my experience) that elicit the kind of response you seem to be having have either become infected by poor keeping practices, or they are used so infrequently that the by-products of yeast metabolism that are the foundations of the sourdough taste have become too large a part of the volume of the starter. Best thing to do is reserve a small portion of it, throw the rest away, add new flour and water, and wait for the colony to get going again. If you use your starter frequently, the constant removal of starter and replacement with new flour and water keeps things pretty much in balance.

Just a thought; it would be a PITY to live in California and not enjoy sourdough bread

Cheers,
"Skeet"

 

[Vintage Betty]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]To take the last first, as we have on good authority : Thanks! It WAS good.

Haven't finished the SRB yet....and I honestly do think it is an acquired taste. I believe the unique taste becomes more prominent as the loaf ages; when eaten fresh, it was my impression that (if you hadn't been exposed to the smell of the culture for 12 hours or so) and were just handed a slice, you might not even think too much about it. If you've smelled the ferment: you know what you're eating, however! Now, 4 or 5 days in, the taste seems more pronounced. I'm honestly not sure we will finish it...although I'm sure the chickens will like it!

As far as sourdough starters go...well, tastes differ, and there's nothing wrong with that. The starter I use (and which I referenced earlier in this thread) my wife and I--and almost everyone who has eaten bread made from it--consider very, very mild. But, a few folks have found it so pronounced as to be...unpleasant, if not inedible. So, who knows? But: most cultures (in my experience) that elicit the kind of response you seem to be having have either become infected by poor keeping practices, or they are used so infrequently that the by-products of yeast metabolism that are the foundations of the sourdough taste have become too large a part of the volume of the starter. Best thing to do is reserve a small portion of it, throw the rest away, add new flour and water, and wait for the colony to get going again. If you use your starter frequently, the constant removal of starter and replacement with new flour and water keeps things pretty much in balance.

Just a thought; it would be a PITY to live in California and not enjoy sourdough bread

Cheers,
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

I think you nailed it with the "smell it" comment on the salt loaf. It tastes so much WORSE when you are exposed to it for hours! lol

I tried to use starters for sourdough multiple times, and yes, added the flour and water....it was MUCH worse! *yucky* Either I'm too much of a novice, or I didn't try hard enough. Maybe it's time to pick up some cookbooks again and try some EASY bread recipes to ease myself back into the game (I used to make bread weekly for my family when I was a child).

 

["Skeet" McD]

I tried to use starters for sourdough multiple times, and yes, added the flour and water....it was MUCH worse! *yucky* Either I'm too much of a novice, or I didn't try hard enough.

Dear Betty, by all means, do try again. Starters do need--if not love and attention at all times--good handling practices. And it's important to make sure you've really got them revved up and going before you use them (if you want to eat bread THAT day, that is ). But, if you've had success with bread before--and clearly, you have--you can, and will do it. Here's the post with a few (I hope) helpful pointers:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=768768&postcount=161

And I highly recommend this starter (it's the one I referenced as being quite mild earlier)....can't beat the price, either!
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showpost.php?p=768370&postcount=157

Good luck, be brave: I know you'll succeed. Keep us posted!

"Skeet"

 

[Lillemor]

Oh AnnaMaria, you're very talented! I should post the photo of the Christening cake I made some years ago.lol

This cake takes all prices! :



It's the effort that counts. It was VERY edible though.

 

[BeBopBaby]

I made loaves of bread in a beehive oven last weekend. They were delicious and lasted only 2 days. I could kick myself for not taking pictures. I also took some of the bread dough and put it around homemade sausages to make sausage rolls. Then I made the chocolate biscuit recipe from the Pease Porridge: Beyond the Kings Bread cookbook.

I really need a beehive oven in my backyard now!!!

This weekend, I'm cooking a pork roast over a fire on a spit (amongst other things) as part of another living history demo. I'll probably try making a pie in a dutch oven over the fire as well. A gal can get spoiled eating like this! lol

I'll try to remember to take some pictures, but I usually forget to because I'm so busy cooking. Cooking from scratch over an open fire can be labor intensive!

 

["Skeet" McD]

I made loaves of bread in a beehive oven last weekend....Then I made the chocolate biscuit recipe from the Pease Porridge: Beyond the Kings Bread cookbook...I really need a beehive oven in my backyard now!!!

Dear BBB: Yes, you really DO...so do I :eusa_doh: Now, actually BUILDING it: that's another matter. It looks like, if you have sufficient time and willing hands (and don't mind a few failures after all that work!)...it can be done fairly easily. The best book in English that I've found is Kiko Denzer's Build Your Own Earth Oven. Ummm....that "Earth" is there not by chance : depending on your ethos, you may find the crunchy-granola-whole-earth aspect of this book a plus...or otherwise. But the information seems good, and some of the ovens shown...from a purely artistic point of view...are quite amazing:
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Earth-Oven/dp/096798467X

If you read German, by any chance, Holzbacköfen im Garten is good, as well:
http://www.amazon.de/Holzbacköfen-Garten-Bauanleitungen-Lehm-Steinöfen/dp/3922964699

And--again, more useful if you have some knowledge of German--this documentation of building a Roman oven is pretty great:
http://www.feuer-steinzeit.de/programm/ofen02.php

Although, it's sort on an outlier in an organization devoted to Neolithic stuff! Then again: THIS is sort of an outlier to 1930s stuff!

Can you give a few impressions of Beyond the King's Bread? Haven't heard of it before....

I'll be looking forward to seeing your loaves...and, eventually your oven!

 

[BeBopBaby]

Pease Porridge is a cookbook put out by the Fort Niagara Association. It has period recipes for both officer and common soldiers, sorted by era. I've been researching federal-era soldier food and it's been well worth the investment. It's the best resource that I've found, by far.

We keep saying that we're going to dig a camp kitchen like this someday:

Perhaps if I can find a period appropriate backhoe. lol

 

["Skeet" McD]

We keep saying that we're going to dig a camp kitchen like this someday:

Perhaps if I can find a period appropriate backhoe. lol

Uh: that would be called "Company D, fall out. First rank: shovels. Second rank: picks." It's easier if you can whip 'em if they don't want to

"Skeet"
Late Lieut., Co. A, 5th N-H Vols.

 

["Skeet" McD]

"Pan' Zizdjilianu"

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF2495
http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF2493&bgcolor=black

For some reason, I tend to make this bread in the "heated term" as they would have said in the 19C...as an American who grew up in a town in NY divided pretty evenly between old Yankee English-types and old Dutch settlers (from the 17 and 18Cs) and Italians and Irish (from the 19C)--gotta love that Hudson Valley vibe--THIS was "Italian bread", which tells you something you probably didn't need to be told about where the Italians were coming from.

Mostly durum flour (thank you, Arab conquest!), with additions of olive oil and honey and bedizened with sesame seeds...soft and luscious...this is the bread my family bought on Sunday mornings after Mass (of course, as Irish-types--even late comers--we attended Saint Augustine's parish, not the Italian parish in the other part of town!)...but the Ossining Italian Bakery was "down the holler" and on the way home.

In Ossining NY, at least, it was never made in the various traditional (and bizarre!) shapes common in Sicily; rather either round or torpedo-shaped...but this is one of the traditional shapes: gli occhi d'Santa Lucia (Saint Lucy's eyes). Chances are: much older than Saint Lucy, and Heaven knows, she's old enough!...perhaps dating back to the days when Sicily was MAGNA GRECIA.

Yum. Let the summer begin! My dear Wife and I had our late luncheon of this; a Tuscan chicken-stock based soup with rice, greens, and sausage; a green salad; lemon-infused water; and Pinot Grigio. And now....for a nap!

Those Italians: they know how to live! (I hope my dog Italian is up to this): Mangiato bene, vado a la Siesta Edit, on second and probably only marginally more correct thought: hmmmm. "Mangiando"?....! (which I HOPE is: having eaten well, I'm headed to my nap!)

"Skeet"

 

[miss_killin]

nothing fancy...

simple hush puppies:

Those look yummy Sam! Any chance you'd share the recipe?

 

[rumblefish]

Spaghetti and clam sauce, from tonight.