G is for Goat Cheese and Guacamole

Getting hungry?

I hope that you all had a Grrrrrrrrrrrrreat week and weekend. With Easter season for a bakery and it being wedding season for the wedding coordinator it has been a little busy. On top of that we had several family members in town for Easter and we traveled to see a few as well. Boy did we work up an appetite!

One funny thing that I wanted to share with you though, when we went to see my family everyone kept telling me how skinny I looked. Skinny?...me? I have gained weight since I saw most of them last... where is this all coming from? It turns out since I have been working at a cupcake bakery and I have been working through the alphaBITE they figured that I would be as big as a house.
I have been laughing about this for days! I love those crazy people!

Okay now the food. I have been working on some easy to eat party foods lately because of an event that I am doing for a friend's sister, and this is one of the things that I am doing for her.

Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Crostinis

• 1 red bell pepper
• 4 oz. herb infused Goat cheese
• 1 leek (finely chopped)
• 1 baguette
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Place the bell pepper on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and roast in a 425 degree oven for 30-45 minutes turning the pepper every 10-15 minutes so that it evenly browns. Set it aside to cool still on the sheet pan. After the pepper is cool to the touch, pull out the core, peel off the skin and take out all the seeds. Chop the pepper into small cubes, put them in a bowl and reserve.

Slice the baguette into small slices. I was able to cut my baguette into 30 pieces, but it really depends on the length of your bread. Place the slices on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and brush the tops with olive oil and then sprinkle all of them with salt and pepper. Bake in a 350 degree oven until the tops are browned and then flip them to brown the other side, ~12 minutes per side.
In a small skillet, saute the leeks in a bit of olive oil. You can use onions as a substitute but the leeks have more of a crunch after they are cooked than an onion has, but if you prefer onions- go for it! Place them in a bowl after cooking and reserve.
Now it is time to assemble. Spread a bit of goat cheese on the crostinis with the back of a spoon. It is gentler than using a knife and your are less likely to break them. Next, place a cube of roasted red pepper and then top with leeks. Finish with a little freshly ground black pepper and you are ready to serve.

Guacamole

Before I share this recipe I have to warn you of how addicting it is. Every year my family goes to the beach and while we are there, I make TON! Someone will come up to me every day and ask me to make more guacamole, most of the time it is twice a day. This is what you will need.

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2T olive oil
• 4 ripe avocados
• 4T cilantro
• 1/2 cup of freshly diced tomatoes
• 1 lime
• 3T Balsamic vinegar
• 2t salt
• 2t black pepper

Saute the onions in 2T of olive oil until they are slightly brown, but not burned. Take them off the heat and place them on a plate. Refrigerate the onions until the next steps are complete. Peel and pit your avocados, and place them in a large mixing bowl. Dice your tomato and add to avocados. Finely chop the cilantro, add it to the avocados, and squeeze the lime juice into the mixture as well. Mash them all together. You can use your hand, but it gets messy. I have found that using a beater from the electric hand mixer works very well. It doesn't matter really how you do it, as long as it gets mashed. Next stir in the Balsamic vinegar, salt, black pepper and chilled onions.

Taste, and see if you need to modify the recipe to your taste buds. Depending on who in my family asks me to make guacamole, I will make adjustments to what I know they like. One person likes a lot of cilantro, one person likes it spicier so I'll add more black pepper, you get the point.

Now it is on to H! Does anyone Have and suggestions or requests? Post a comment and I will see what I can do. I Have ideas, but Hearing from you is always fun.

-J

Maca-Almost Rights.

Hey again.

I know what you are thinking, "Three posts in a week?! Who took over the blog?"
Don't worry, it is still me.

So I have updates on the Macarons. Like I mentioned before there were some issues the first go around. Puffy plops of pink were produced, not the dreamy delicious drops of heaven that were intended.

After I posted my Mega Macaron McFail, I also contacted Helene Dujardin from Tartelette. I made a plea for any advice that she could give me. She read the post and said, "Next time I suggest not working from an incomplete recipe, and 'leaving out crucial details'. Also to read this." It is an article that she wrote and photographed titled Demystifying Macarons. So helpful.

I knew the first bit of her advice. I have been kicking myself ever since the first try. Why in the world would this recipe work if I don't follow it? It is just insane.

So went MacaRound II. I followed the directions from this recipe, Powdered Strawberry and Vanilla Bean Macarons, completely. And honestly, they were better but they were sticky, chewy, and had a bite of sugar in them that made my teeth itch. The other thing that they were missing was the macaroon tutu. It just didn't happen. Am I loosing my mind? Did I do it wrong again? Am I the Mayor of Crazytown?

This was not going to defeat me. So I decided to take some serious action.

Step 1. Dehumidify the kitchen. When I talked the head baker at work, she said that humidity can mess everything up, so I took the dehumidifier from the basement and let it do its work.

Step 2. Simplify. There aren't many ingredients in macarons, so I decided to take out the strawberries and the food coloring. I used the basic recipe from Demystifying Macarons. Just the essentials: egg whites, sugar, powdered sugar, and almonds.

Step 3. Measure and measure and measure again. Baking is about ratios and it will not work if they are off.

With all of that I got some pretty good results!!!!!
I put both trays of macarons in the oven, and the bottom tray cracked, but the top tray was great! They all had the 'tutu' and were the right texture, however they still had a little peak but I will take a small peak over a mushy mess of a macaron.

My confidence is restored.

Thank you for your help Helene, I could not have done it with out you Demystifying Macarons for me.

Now it's time for butter cream. That I know I can make.

-J

Macarons = Maca-ruined*

Readers, friends, and blog stalkers

The alphaBITEical project is something that I have been taking very seriously. When I come up with or find new recipes I test them out before I share them on the blog. For the most part, they have all gone pretty well. I could have said that up until a few days ago when I tried out a recipe for macarons on great blog I found called Tartelette. Helene Dujardin, author of Tartelette, is a food photographer and it is because of her photographs I wanted to make these Strawberry Macarons. How delicious right?

Well when I gave them a whirl, not so delicious. This is what happened.

They are supposed to be crispy pockets of air...not this. This is a eggy, gooey pink mess.

They looked (and tasted) like festive marshmallow Easter bunnies left me not so pleasant prizes on my baking sheet. Simply put, Peep Poop.

To tell the truth, I did not have the complete recipe from Tartelette right in front of me. I copied down the steps on a notecard, and left out a few crucial details. I was in a hurry to make these, that I scribbled down the steps too fast. The next time I am copying out the recipe I will be sure to have everything down. Wish me luck to make them Maca-right!

*Other titles in the running for this post were: Maca-wrongs or Maca-fail

F is for Fresh Fried Fish

Food. It's my favorite noun.

For the weekend, me and the Mrs needed to get away. We packed our bags and the pooch and headed to my hometown. We spent the weekend at my parents' house and then the next day we went to the ponds on my grandfather's land to fish for....what's the word...fish! We ended up catching fourteen fish between the two of us. The Mrs got some great pictures so take a peek at them and then I will tell you about the food.

My dad taught (attempted to teach) Mrs how to fly fish. With an extension cord.

My favorite pond

The first fish of the trip, and Zoey had to inspect it.

The Mrs hooks a big one!

Fourteen fish total. Fantastic job.

And now the food.

Fried Fish

• 2lbs of cleaned fish fillets
  
• 1 cup of milk
• 4T yellow mustard
• 1 1/2 cup corn flour
• 1/4t cayenne pepper
• 1T paprika
• 1/2t garlic powder
• 1/8t chili powder
• 2t salt
• 1T black pepper

Place milk in a medium size bowl and whisk in mustard. Soak the fish in this mixture for 10-15 minutes. In a large bowl combine corn flour, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper.

Get your large skillet and pour in your oil. Heat the oil on high heat until the oil slightly bubbles and then turn down the heat to medium high. At this point, you are ready to fry.

Take a few fish fillets and place them in the dry mixture. You want to coat the fish and immediately place them in the hot oil. Dont over crowd the skillet. I was able to do 5 fillets at a time, but depending on the size of your skillet you might can do more or less. Let the fish cook until golden brown (about 4-5 minutes) and them place them on a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle them with salt just after they come out of the oil and let them cool.

From here you can eat the fish fillets as is or take it one step farther and make fish tacos. Dollop some sour cream and homemade Guacamole (wait a week for this recipe) on to a tortilla. Place a few pieces of fish in the center and top with tomatoes, lettuce, shredded cheese and a few onions and peppers and then roll up the tortilla to eat.

Enjoy!

-J

E is for Everything

Eat.

My favorite verb.

Lately it seems I have been eating...Everything. So I thought, why not make everything to eat. Everything bagels I mean. I have been baking my own bread for some time now, and I have decided to expand my carbohydrate cookery. Maybe some muffins, I thought. Or I could roll out some rolls. But no, no "Bring me bagels!" said my stomach and bagels I brought it. To go with my everything bagel, I had to bake an eggplant. It was a scrumptious supper. This is how it was made.

Everything Bagels

For Dough:

• 1 1/2 cup of warm water
• 2T sugar
• 1 packet of yeast
• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1T salt
• 3T melted butter

For poaching:

• 12 cups water
• 4T sugar

For topping:

• 1T sesame seeds
  
• 1T poppy seeds
  
• 1T minced onions
  
• 1t salt
  
• 1/2t fennel seeds
  
• 1 egg
  
• 2T cold water

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water. Mix in 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Slowly add in the rest of the flour 1/2 a cup at a time. Add in salt and 2T of the melted butter. Grease a bowl with the remaining Tablespoon of butter. Turn out the dough into the greased bowl and kneed in the bowl for 5 minutes. Roll the dough into a large smooth ball and put in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let sit for 1 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Punch down the dough and divide dough into twelve equal dough balls. There are two ways to form the bagel at this point and I tried both.

The first being, take the small dough ball and roll it into a log. Wrap the dough around your hand and pinch the dough ends together. Place on a greased baking sheet.

The second is, stick your finger in the center of the small dough ball to make the hole. Stretch the dough by spinning it around your finger and then place it on a greased baking sheet. (It was hard to take a picture of dough spinning on my finger by myself...)

Once you have formed all your bagels, cover with a clean towel for 15 minutes.

In a large pot, bring 12 cups of water and 4T sugar to a boil. Drop the bagels in the boiling water and poach for 1 minute. Turn the bagel and poach the other side for another minute.

Place the bagels on a wire rack and let them cool and dry. Brush bagels with egg wash and sprinkle toppings on them. Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Baked Eggplant

• 1 Eggplant
  
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
  
• 2T oregano
  
• 1t garlic powder
  
• 1 egg
  
• 3/4 cup corn meal
  
• 1T black pepper
  
• 1T salt
  
• 2T olive oil
  
• sliced provolone cheese

In a large casserole dish pour tomatoes and mix in oregano and garlic powder. Cut your eggplant in thick slices. Mix corn meal and salt and pepper in one bowl. In another bowl, crack and lightly beat an egg. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg and then into corn meal mixture. Place eggplant slices on top of the tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

After 30 minutes place a slice of provolone cheese. Put the eggplant back in the oven for 7 more minutes.

Slice open that bagel and put in the eggplant, and eat it up!

-J