Featured Site on NeatoStuff!

We're the featured site of the day today for NeatoStuff!

Feel free to Stumble it and Tweet about it, there's fancy little buttons for both :)

I am now making all new cover designs and getting out with the old designs, so go check out the Shop and feel free to leave feedback about the new design!

Screenprinted Items....

I'm venturing out a tad, and opened up a new (second) Etsy shop, LMKCprints.
I'll be making screenprinted tshirts, coasters, and other items.

Only one design in two sizes up at the moment, but I'll be slowly adding more to it :)

My First CSA Box.

I recently moved into a *real* house and have been waiting to finally order thru my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture.)


Here is my first box o' goodies! (psst I actually got this the other week, however just got around to posting. I'll try to post quicker this week!)
We received:
- a bunch of lettuce (made a salad)
- 3 zucchini, not pictured (made into 4 loaves of zucchini bread. delish.)
- 2 small cucumbers, not pictured. One went into the salad... other is in the fridge I think.
- beets, still in my fridge...whoops.
- fennel, also in my fridge....
- nectarines, made into nectarine pie and was absolutely fan-friggin-tastic. Made a 2nd one the next night.
- peaches, mmmm peaches. Sadly still on the counter.
- green beans, the boyfriend sauteed these up with some garlic & wine and bacon. yum.
- pluots, have yet to try or eat them.
- carrots, went into the salad.
- broccoli, in the fridge still

Looking forward to trying new things (like beets. and fennel. and pluots.)

Daring Cooks August Challenge

**Sorry for being a few days late for posting this!!

Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is the host for the August Daring Cooks Challenge. Olga chose a Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.

He trained under well-known Ferran Adria at his three Michelin star restaurant El Bulli. José Andrés lives now in Washington DC and he owns several restaurants in Washington DC area (El Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel…).

(Any notes or changes I made to the dish I'll use an asterisk ** )

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Equipment:

• 1 Chopping Board
• 1 knife
• 1 medium saucepan *Didn't need since I used woks
  
• 1 Paella pan (30 cm/11” is enough for 4 people. If not available, you may use a simple pan that size) ** I had neither, so I used one wok for the sofregit and one wok for the main dish
  
• 1 Saucepan *Didn't need since I used the woks
  

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available) * I used a medium sized can of whole artichoke hearts, I recommend buying quartered if you see them!
  
• 12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello) * I just bought a package of pre-sliced, and saved 3/4 for the sofregit and the 1/4 for the 12 mushrooms in here
  
• 1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
• 1 glass of white wine
• 2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh) *Could not find cuttlefish, so I used squid. I also added in italian sausage.
  
• “Sofregit” (see recipe below)
• 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about 75 gr per person ( ½ cup per person) Please read this for more info on suitable rices.
• Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
• Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder) *Did not have saffron or turmeric or coloring, so looked online and it said I could sub in ground mustard or curry, so I used both but half of each
  
• Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

Directions:

1. Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2. Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttl efish in the pan.
3. If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4. Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5. Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6. Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7. Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8. Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9. Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10. Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11. Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12. Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13. Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit (a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times
different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)-

Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped ( really get big ones. I used on-the-vine ones that were too small and the sauce wasn't as red as I hoped)
  
• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
• 4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
• 1 Bay leaf
• Salt
• Touch of ground cumin
• Touch of dried oregano

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2. Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste

*I was short on time and did the modern recipe. Mine turned o

ut more liquidy then thick like it should have been. Next time I'll do the traditional method.

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
• Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

1. Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2. Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3. Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4. Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5. Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6. Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José's tips for traditional recipe: It's hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don't give up. It's worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you're adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Allioli a la moderna (Modern recipe)
Cooking time: 3-4 minutes
Ingredients:

• 1 small egg
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (as above, Spanish oil is highly recommended)
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1 Tbs. Spanish Sherry vinegar or lemon juice (if Sherry vinegar is not available, use can use cider or white vinegar)
• Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Break the egg into a mixing bowl.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the garlic cloves, along with the vinegar or lemon juice.
3. Using a hand blender, start mixing at high speed until the garlic is fully pureed into a loose paste.
4. Little by little, add what's left of the olive oil as you continue blending.
5. If the mixture appears too thick as you begin pouring the oil, add 1 teaspoon of water to loosen the sauce.
6. Continue adding the oil and blending until you have a rich, creamy allioli.
7. The sauce will be a lovely yellow color.
8. Add salt to taste.

José's tips for modern recipe:
(1) If you do not have access to a hand blender, you can use a hand mixer (the kind with the two beaters) or a food processor. If you use a food processor, you must double the recipe or the amount will be too little for the blades to catch and emulsify.
(2) What happens if the oil and egg separate? Don't throw it out. You can do two things. One is to whisk it and use it as a side sauce for a fish or vegetable. But if you want to rescue the allioli, take 1 tablespoon of lukewarm water in another beaker and start adding to the mix little by little. Blend it again until you create the creamy sauce you wanted.

Olga’s Tips:
(1) In Spain, rice is not stired as often as it is when cooking Italian risotto. You must stir it once or twice maximum. This tip is valid for all Spanish rice dishes like paella, arròs negre, arròs a banda…
(2) When cooking the alternative style you can change the cuttlefish or squid for diced potato.
(3) If you can’t find cuttlefish or squid, or you’re not able to eat them because of allergies, you can try to substitute them for chicken or vegetables at your choice.
(4) Sofregit can be done in advance. You can keep it in the fridge or even freeze it.
(5) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(6) To watch how Jose Andres cooks this dish click here.
(7) For more information on how to clean and remove the heart of artichokes, please watch this video
(8) To tone down the taste when you do it by hand in a mortar, then add an egg yolk. If you want to tone it down in the alternative way use milk or soy milk. Anyway, the best alternative way is the original oil and garlic alone.
(9) Allioli must be consumed during the preparation day and preserved in the fridge before using it.
(10) For help on conversion on metric to imperial, visit this page.

Overall, I actually did not like this recipe. I really did not care for the flavors, perhaps I messed up the recipe during cooking somehow, but I won't make it again.

Daring Bakers- Milan Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.


My first challenge with Daring Bakers, and it was quite a delicious one!
My first attempt at the cookie part of these didn't turn out so well, they baked too skinny, but I still ate them :)

Here's her recipe:

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

I didn't tweak any of the original recipe, I think they came out great (taste-wise), they had a nice orange-kick to them. I think you can omit the orange zest if you wanted to add peppermint to the chocolate mixture to have mint milan cookies, or even I'm sure kahlua, bailey's, etc etc.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience and can't wait for August's challenge!

The Making of a Bender Cake....

So. I have this friend....

He likes all things science, he wears funny witty science tshirts, he adores Tesla, he can quote Futurama like none other. And this friend is having a birthday today. And since I've been on a baking kick this past week, I thought I'd be adventurous and bake him a cake with one of his fave Futurama characters on it, Bender the robot.

Now, I didn't want to take the shortcut and buy a box cake mix and then decorate with Bender on it.
No, no. I wanted to bake my first ever cake from scratch. And so I did...

So I was Stumbling the other day and came acros Pinch My Salt's blog, and browsed it a bit more, and found her Red Velvet Cake recipe and KNEW that was the cake I had to make. Just the idea of cutting into a white(ish) frosted cake and then seeing the beautiful crisp red cake that lies beneath won me over.

So here's the recipe from Pinch My Salt, and I tell you how I made Bender...

Red Velvet Cake (a.k.a. Waldorf Astoria Cake)

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 oz. red food coloring
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans or three 8-inch round cake pans.

2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go. Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. Make sure you have cake pans buttered, floured, and nearby. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda. Yes, it will fizz! Add it to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Working quickly, divide batter evenly between the cake pans and place them in a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Check early, cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. To remove the cakes from the pan, place a wire rack on top of the cake pan and invert, then gently lift the pan. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting. Frost with buttercream or cream cheese icing (recipe below).

Recipe Notes: *Sift cake flour once before measuring, then sift again with the other dry ingredients per recipe instructions. Wear an apron and be careful with the red food coloring–no matter how hard I try, I always end up staining something! As you’re mixing the cake batter, use a spatula to scrape down the bowl frequently throughout the entire process.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

** You'll also need 2 tubes of black decorator's gel if you will be making Bender, and a transparency of Bender's head. Trust me.

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth.)

**Set aside about 1/2-1 cup of the frosting, you'll need some to make Bender grey!

So I had 2 9" pans so I went that route. I highly recommend buttering/flouring/etc'ing the cake very well, as I had a bit trouble getting them out of the pans afterwards. I also let them cool, then put them in the fridge overnight (I didn't have time for frosting that day...)

Also, since I can't seem to bake 2 exactly flat cakes, I had to 'saw' one of the cake tops so it'd be flat to put the other one ontop. It's still not perfect...but shhh. But I ate the sawed off cake parts and they were quite tasty.

I then put a nice glob of the frosting onto the 'sawed' cake top, then put the second cake ontop of the that. Now you do like Pinch my Salt did, and do a quick first layer of frosting all around the cake to catch those red crumbs and lock them in. I put the cake in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes. And while that was happening...






I browsed Google Images for a neat little image of Bender's head I could use for ontop of the cake. I found one to my liking, and then tweaked it a tad, made it a jpeg and put it on my USB drive, then headed on over to Staples (which I didn't know was open on July 4th, awesome.)
I had them print my Bender jpeg onto a transparency in black & white. It sounds weird, I know, but just keep reading.

Then went home, outlined the 'wrong' side of the transparency with the black decorator's gel and stuck it in the freezer to harden a bit. (It was 90 degrees here, and didn't want it melting)

Then you take the transparency and cake out of the fridge/freezer, and you simply put the 'wrong' side of the transparency onto the cake top. Don't smoosh it onto the cake, otherwise the black gel will bleed out, you are just wanting to get the basic outline of Bender onto the cake so you can later go back and re-draw it with the other black gel. Once you have Bender on the cake, you can get rid of the transparency, and I would suggest putting it back in the fridge for a few minutes.

While it's in the fridge, you can start to make the grey frosting. I didn't really measure how much black gel I put into the frosting, but just start with a few small squirts, mix, then compare against the un-tinted frosting and see if it's grey enough for you. If it's too dark, you can just add in a tad of the untinted frosting to lighten it back up.

Ok, so now take the cake out of the fridge and you want to re-draw the outlines of Bender with the black gel. Once you are done with that, you want to take the grey frosting and start filling in (very carefully) Bender's face. The only white parts on Bender are his eyeballs (minus the black squares for pupils) and his teeth (minus the lines), everything else is grey or black lines.

I don't have any cake decorating equipment, so it was pretty hard getting into small spaces (like the grey part under his eyes), so I used a regular butter knife's tip. It worked OK for me.

Once you're done you can marvel at your awesomeness then put it in the fridge to harden up a bit :)

Enjoy!

procrastinating

I Stumbled Upon this article on basically how to kill time.

So I figured I should share :) I found it here

I found this little gem of a facebook meme today. Here's the rules:

1: Go to "Wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2: Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3: Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4: Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here is my final product....