Class Feast!

My son’s kindergarten class had a Feast on Monday, sort of a warm-up to Thanksgiving if you will. Everyone brought something: I was carb girl. (and then some.)

My instructions were to bring authentic, traditional-like-the-pilgrims-had dishes, but for some reason this kept echoing through my head…..

Lightning McQueen: "Alright, Luigi, give me the best set of blackwalls you've got."
Luigi: "No! No, no, no. You don't know what you want. Luigi know what you want. Blackwall tires. They blend into the pavement. But a this... whitewall tires! They say, 'Look at me! Here I am! Love me.'"
Lightning: "Alright, you're the expert."

from the Disney/Pixar Film "Cars"

My slightly off the white-wall offerings were (and forgive the photos, I barely remembered to take any at all!):

Buttery Rice with Vermicelli

(topped with buttery toasted pine nuts, mmmmmm....)

yes, I did scrub it and then soak it for 3 hours...
Apple Sage Cranberry Dressing
with fresh sage from my herb garden and apples from last weekend

Corn Pudding
(They totally snarfed this one up!)
and 10 Minute (homemade) Applesauce
(again, with fresh apples from the orchards - feel free to omit the brandy like I did here, but I've made it before with, and oooh, it's gooooooooood!)

Better than a Ferrari, eh? ;)

Daring Baker's October Challenge: Pizza Dough!

This month's Challenge was “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice”. You had to film or photograph your tossing attempt and you needed to use both a “sauce” (or something otherwise spreadable) and “toppings”.

I would NEVER have made this without the DBers, much less video taped myself doing it! Please excuse my disaster of a kitchen and remember that the camera makes you look at least 10 20 pounds heavier than you actually are.



What a riot!

My variations were

Pizza 1: Apple with Caramelized Onion, Walnuts and Cheddar on a dough primed with Basil Flavored Olive Oil. (In hindsight, I should have sauteed/swished the onions in balsamic vinegar before putting them on the pizza. One bite without and I knew something was missing. I spritzed it on afterwards and it made it so much better.).

Pizza 2: Blue Cheese with Toasted Pine Nuts and Caramelized Onions on a spread of Mashed Roasted Garlic. Oh my. Sooooo good!

Cook’s Notes:
-I made the “regular” dough, aka: not the gluten-free one
-I used my stand mixer to combine the ingredients and knead the dough.
-I froze 4 of the 6 balls of dough for a later date
-I used an offset spatula to get the pizza off the cookie sheet and onto the pizza stone and then again to shimmy it off the stone and onto the cutting board
-I will use flour next time as the ballbearing / dough movement vehicle – no question. I forgot how I don’t really care for the gritty feeling of the cornmeal.

These pizzas were so wonderfully good - I can't wait to make good use of the stash of dough in my freezer and maybe get the kids into the act!

Thanks to Rosa from Rosa's Yummy Yums for selecting this month’s Daring Baker Challenge. You can find the complete recipe for the pizza dough on her site.

To see what all the other DBer’s did, you can find the blogroll here and if you’d like to join the monthly party, info about that can be found on that page as well.

Cheater’s Apple Cake

Yes, I admit it. I take shortcuts. I do. I melt chocolate in the microwave, I've used store-bought pre-chopped mirepoix (carrots, onions and celery) and (gasp!) I occasionally use boxed cake mix in lieu of scratch cakes.

Before we left for New York, I had a ton of apples to use up. (I was afraid to come home to this if I didn’t). I’d recently seen a whole crop of apple cake recipes (tee hee – crop, apples) pop up on the blogosphere in recent weeks and knew that this was the final destination for mine.

Culling thru all the different recipes, nothing jumped out at me saying:

I AM EASY. MAKE ME AND USE UP ALL YOUR APPLES TONIGHT, DO NOT WASTE FOOD, AND BY THE WAY YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF LAUNDRY AND PACKING TO DO AND WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE ALL YOUR TRAVEL SIZE LOTIONS AND POTIONS SO THAT AIRPORT SECURITY DOESN’T LOSE THEIR MINDS AND HAVE TO DO A FULL PAT DOWN ON YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOUR UNDERWIRE THAT LIFTS AND SEPARATES WILL STILL MAKE YOU RING LIKE A 5 ALARM FIRE, SLOW DOWN THE LINE AND THEN YOU’LL GET HATEFUL LOOKS FROM THE GRAND POOBAH LA DE DAH MEDALLION MEMBERS WHO HAVE NOW MISSED THEIR FLIGHT SITTING IN FIRST CLASS WITH FREE PEANUTS AND HEADPHONES BECAUSE OF YOU AND THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT APPLE CAKE AND IF YOU MAKE IT CAN YOU SEND IT INTO WORK WITH DH SO THAT IT DOESN’T GO BAD AND THAT THEY WILL THEY EAT IT AND LIKE IT AND NOT MOCK YOU IN FRONT OF THEIR INFLUENTIAL FRIENDS.

Nope, hard to believe but I didn’t see anything like that.

So, what I did was… I cheated. and kept my fingers crossed. I used a yellow cake mix and then added yummy things to it.

Put me on double secret probation if you need to, but I refuse a foodie pat down. It goes without saying that the underwire is non-negotiable - I’ll nip you with my baby nail clippers if you try anything funny.

Cheater’s Apple Cake

Tube cake pan or bundt pan
Baker’s Joy spray (yes, another vice) or Pam cooking spray

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
Eggs, oil and water per box directions
6 apples, peeled, seeded/cored and chopped
Zest and juice of one orange (yes, it was languishing on the counter)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Pinch cardamom (optional)
1/4" cup brown sugar, packed

Pre heat oven as described on cake mix.

In a large bowl, combine the apples with the orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon, sugar and cardamom (if using). Leave it to macerate (ohh, big word) while you start on the cake.

Open the box of cake mix. Clip off any Box Tops for Education and throw in your junk drawer so that when your kid comes home telling you about the school contest du jour, that you can toss a couple his way and not be wracked with guilt.

Prepare the cake mix per box directions.

Pour ½ of the cake batter into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. Take the apple mixture and gently spoon it over the batter. Pour the remainder of the batter over the apples. Gently thump the pan on the counter a few times to get out any air bubbles.

Bake as directed on package or until center is set. Be sure to test after required time as this may take longer to finish due to the apple content. I like to use a bamboo skewer to test for doneness.

Cool for 15 minute before removing from pan. Finish cooling on wire rack.