Favorite Things: Day 30

Favorite Things: Day 30 Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

You know, I was going to leave day 30 for something like "being a sibling/nurturing siblings", or "community", or "friendship" but decided, what are any of those, really, without a little sweetness? A tiny morsel when the craving hits. For me those cravings are satisfied with these Devil Food Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Buttercream. To be honest, I could do without the cupcake. I mean, it is made out of chocolate that I mix with fresh brewed coffee, and for a bite of something chocolatey, it does the trick. But for me it's just a vehicle with which to drive the buttercream into my waiting mouth. Mmmm, as Blythe is fond of saying. And she hasn't even tried these yet.

Brown sugar buttercream was new to me so I went for the same method as I do my lemon meringue white buttercream...egg whites whisked together with brown sugar over a double boiler until warm and shiny, then beaten into a frenzy, in part to cool the mixture off. Then you add the butter. I won't say how much, but it's a lot. The moment it all comes together and begins to look like something you could actually ice a cake with is a glorious one and the point at which my mouth begins to salivate with expectation.

I love the salty-sweet of the butter and brown sugar and have been known to keep the leftovers in the fridge for a pick me up late afternoons when Mama needs a secret treat. Good stuff.

I'm Not Going to Lie

This has been a tough month for us. Not many people know this, but the enduringly popular Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was largely based on our family. The Monday before Christmas, Felix's actual birthday, was spent hovering around the toilet as all of us (except Oliver who had it 2 days prior) succumbed to the worst stomach flu ever. I'm sure there are worse things in life than having 5 family members sick all at the same time, but I can't think of any of them right now. I must have done 6-7 loads of laundry and we still had to use make shift bedding. The down time was spent with all of us huddling around a Christmas movie, holding on for dear life until round two hit. Suffice it to say, it was Christmas Day before I ate my first real meal, and tentatively at that. I missed our usual pre-holiday baking frenzy except our traditional coffee cake for Christmas morning, but the mixer must have noticed my lack of enthusiasm because it didn't rise to its full potential. By the time New Years' Eve rolled around, I was ready to shed the sickies and meet up with friends for a night of games and snacks. But it was not to be. Jasper had 103.2 fever and was in no condition to do anything but stay home, so I kissed all the dearies good-bye and said I'd see them in the New Year. Jasper sat on the floor playing with the measuring cups while I turned to the only decent thing a girl can serve guests New Years morning- homemade, and dare I say artisanal croissants.
Croissants are just about my favorite thing to make, but they are time consuming and require a 14 hour commitment on the part of the baker, including but not restricted to waking up early to roll them for the second rise. It was the perfect activity for a New Years' Eve with just me and Jazz. I put on Handel's Messiah, set him on the floor with a metal bowl and shiny measuring spoons and got to work. It begins with whacking lots of butter and a few tablespoons of flour until you have a malleable mass that you form into what is known as the butter packet. You move on to making the dough and then let both elements chill out in the fridge while you make yourself a drink. Next comes laminating the dough, which consists of rolling out the dough into a sizable rectangle, placing the butter packet in the upper third, folding the whole thing as you would a business letter, sealing the edges, and giving it a quarter turn. You then roll, fold, seal and turn again, a total of four times, which, if done successfully, gently works the butter into the dough in such a way as to create pockets of air when baked, which is what gives a croissant its delicate flakiness. Honestly, the French are to butter what Picasso is to a brush and canvas.

I made half of the batch filled with Bonne Maman Apricot-Raspberry preserves and the other half into proper pain au chocolats, the perfect hand warmer for little boys coming in after sledding. Ryan made a second french press and Jeremy, Hansi, and I fell into a daydream of being together somewhere in Paris or the French countryside. It was nice while it lasted.

Cinnamon Girl

We are big Neil Young fans here in our home. He's kind of our go-to music when no one else will do. I love the song Cinnamon Girl, but to be honest, I haven't listened closely enough to all the lyrics to tell you if it's an appropriate song to like, but for a girl who bakes, the chorus alone feels appropriate. We go through what seems like pounds and pounds of cinnamon that we replenish from the bulk section of our local co-op. One of the biggest uses for lots of cinnamon is a sticky bun that shares the same name. Made with a simple cream cheese frosting, these puppies give Cinnabon a run for their money.

We've been having an uncharacteristically cool summer here in Southern Wisconsin, and one day last week found us in our pj's all day long. By afternoon, the overcast sky and cool breeze made the boys think making Cinnamon Rolls would be a good accompaniment to our plan of piling on our bed and reading aloud from our stash of library books. Unfortunately, my camera died before the final product could be photographed- not that it really matters- it was an out-of-focus blur from cooling rack to eager mouths...






.

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

Cherries are finally in season and we've been buying pounds and pounds of them. Ryan bought me my new favorite seasonal kitchen gadget, this Oxo cherry pitter from Williams-Sonoma after I exhausted Target and our local groceries for one and came up empty-handed. It's well worth the $13 investment to pit cherries with ease, especially if you're eager to make your own pie filling. While browsing in the store, I saw a contraption that allowed you to make individual pie-ettes in either a star or heart shape. I couldn't stop thinking about how fun those desserts looked so when we came home, I decided to try it without any fancy gadgetry. Guess what? It's super easy and the kids loved helping almost as much as eating them. The best part is cutting out any shape that suits your fancy and personalizing your pie. Someone asked for one shaped like Darth Vader...maybe next time.

Mom's Potatoes

My Mom flew in from Virginia to spend a week with us and to meet baby Jasper. I tried to convince her to pack everything in a carry on to avoid extra charges from the airline, but she declined, saying she had too much stuff to bring. Upon arriving at our home, it turned out that the reason for the checked bag was a considerable stash of vegetables from her garden. I love that the night before she flew out, part of her packing ritual included running out to one of her beautiful raised beds and digging up about 10 lbs. of her gorgeous potatoes and picking close to 2 lbs. of yellow and green waxy beans. Talk about a bountiful harvest!

I felt honored to be charged with cooking such lovely vegetables (although Sam was quick to remind me that potatoes are actually tubers. Sorry for the lapse.) and a little anxious to do them justice. I wanted to do something that would bring out the flavor of both and not hide the amazing flavor of such freshness. Fortunately for the potatoes, Bryan Kennedy came to mind. Bryan is a friend of ours from Seattle and he and his wife Freya enjoy good food as much as we do. Freya and I, when not talking about God and family, have been known to have long phone conversations detailing out meals that we have had or plan to make, as well as generous swapping of recipes. I remembered her telling me about Bryan's invention of Roasted Potatoes with Bacon, Cherry Tomatoes & Gruyere and started salivating just thinking about it. The day before, I prepped 2 lbs. of chicken legs by rubbing them with a mix of salt, cracked pepper and cayenne, refrigerating them for a few hours before dumping in a gallon of buttermilk for them to swim in overnight. The menu was beginning to take shape in my mind's eye:
A little more sophisticated approach to a Southern staple of fried chicken, green beans, potatoes and lemonade. What could be more appropriate, especially for two women with enough Southern blood to insure membership in The Daughters of the Confederacy if we so chose (God Bless the Fain Family and General Lee and May the South Rise Again). I called Freya and traded her my sweet tart with honey sweetened creme fraiche & fresh raspberries for Bryan's potatoes, got to work breading the chicken and got the boys snapping the beans and juicing lemons for lemonade. It all came together like a finely trained orchestra, if I do say so myself (oh dear, I sound like Mrs. Elton from Emma...)
When the potatoes were reaching the end of their tenure in the oven, I blanched the green beans, sauteed a few cloves of garlic in olive oil, added the green beans for a few minutes to heat them through and added a handful of good feta.

The result was a delectable, finger-licking, good-to-the-last-bite meal that was as fun to eat as it was to prepare.



We stuffed ourselves silly and had to go for a walk before diving into the Lilikoi cheesecake Sam & I made using passion fruit butter my mom had brought us from her place in Hawaii.

Could someone please explain why it's taking me so long to lose the extra baby weight?


If you've got a stash of potatoes that need to be eaten up, I highly recommend the following scrumptious method of consuming them:

Bryan Kennedy's Roasted Potatoes:
5 lbs. of Yukon Gold potatoes washed and cut into bite size pieces
5 oz. bacon
Pint of cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup grated gruyere

On a rimmed baking sheet, pour a few glugs of olive oil on pan. Throw on potato pieces and stir; salt and grind pepper generously. Place in preheated 425 degree oven and set timer for 10 minutes. Chop up about 5 oz. good bacon (I used a local pepper thick sliced bacon that was delish) and sprinkle over potatoes when timer goes off. Set timer for another 10 minutes. Wash and dry a pint of cherry tomatoes. Throw them in, give the whole thing a good stir and set timer for another 10 minutes. Grate about 1/2 cup of gruyere and sprinkle over the mixture and bake until melted and starting to bubble. By this time, many of the tomatoes will have popped, oozing their juices over the bacon and potatoes. If not, bake for another 10 minutes or so.