April 21, 2012

My oldest, Cruz, turned 7 on Saturday. I have only had 3 birthday parties between both boys outside the home. A Cosmic Bowling Party, a Chinese New Year/Ninja party we held at a dojo, and a hotel pool party. So out of 12 parties, 9 have been at our home. While I loved the "uncraziness" of having the parties at other locations, I also love to host parties. Eventually, the day before clean up, all the food prep and decorating, and the day after clean up all fade away from memory, and you are left with a warm feeling of sharing your home with people you like. I enjoy creating a happy experience not only for my children, but their friends and parents as well.

We had our Family Birthday Celebration Friday night because his party actually fell on his birthday this year. I had made a chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake with chocolate ganache to be auctioned off on Thursday at a Cub Scout charity auction with the proceeds going to 2 of our Cub Scouts whose mother had just been killed. I was proud that Cruz decided he wanted my cake above all others. He ended up paying $26 for a plain old bundt cake, but he was happy, and the money went to a great cause. And it worked out perfectly as our family birthday cake.

He said he didn't want anything this year. While it makes it a little harder to buy for him, I hit the nail on the head. He got his favorite book series, and is now all set up to learn to play baseball, down to the batting gloves and bases. He has expressed an interest in trying baseball instead of soccer next year, so we'll need to get him up to speed with the kids his age that have been playing for years. It's really a present to all of us since it is something the whole family can do together on a Sunday afternoon.

I gently guided him in the direction of a Scooby Doo party. He was obsessed with the show when he was little. When I promised him a mystery would need to be solved, he jumped right on board. I got lucky once again with a sale on the 4x8 photocards at Walgreens and photoshopped a 4x6 picture of my son with the gang and added the party information in the additional 2 inches of text space.

We bought a waterslide to keep the kids occupied until the dinner and mystery, so it became a beach Scooby theme. He wanted a red velvet cake, which I had never made before. I didn't realize how much red food coloring goes into one! Already at the food coloring step, and only having an eighth of the food coloring I needed, it surprisingly turned out a shade of red, even if it wasn't the bright red normally associated with the cake. The frosting I altered to include as much butter as cream cheese, and much less sugar than most recipes called for. Butter is good!

While the kids had some waterslide fun, the parents got to mull around the appetizers and drink cherry moonshine. After about an hour, hamburgers and hot dogs were put on the grill and it was time for our beach BBQ to begin. I made a lemon cashew rice, hawaiian coleslaw, cowboy beans, and a fruit salad for the sides. I of course forgot to take pictures of the food this time. I'm blaming the cherry moonshine on that one. But here is a picture of the food station before the guests arrived. The chip bowls went on the tables outside for kids to munch on while they played.

After dinner the kids had a mystery to solve. Cruz got wind of what the mystery was because a little girl had asked me if there would be a mystery and I showed her the note that the Birthday Phantom had left in the place where the cake used to be saying that he stole the cake and if the kids wanted it back, they would have to solve the clues. He was up in arms that his cake was gone. Since the adults had fed the kids before themselves, we were still eating, so the kids took it upon themselves to search for the cake until we finished. Luckily I did a pretty good job hiding the clues and cake, so nothing was found.

The first clue was the letter from the Phantom explaining he took the cake and told the kids to look where you lay down at night for the next clue. They found that one in Cruz's bed, and had to hold the clue up in a mirror to read it. It told them to pop the balloon that was Cruz's favorite color. After popping the green balloon, the next clue was a number code they had to decifer that told them they had to catch the Phantom in order to get the last clue to the cake. My husband dressed in a Halloween costume and I gave him a letter addressed to Cruz. But when the Phantom appeared, Shawn decided to ad lib some scary roars. Men. Luckily only one child was scared out of his mind by the Phantom.

After opening the last letter, the clue said the cake was in a place where groceries, luggage, and a spare tire go, and was the color of snow. Cruz screamed, "My mom's car is white!" and all the kids went running outside. They opened the trunk and found the cake. I told them they were all excellent mystery solvers. I think the kids had just as much fun with the mystery as they did with the waterslide! And it continued throughout the party as the kids tried to solve the mystery of who the Phantom really was.

After the case was solved it was time for cake and presents. I accidentally bought trick candles- I swear the word trick was unbelievably small and I had no idea they were. So of course the candles kept lighting back up. The joke ended up being on me.

After cake and presents the kids started a game of hide and go seek, which gave the adults a little more time to get their party on. It was a great mix of adults as well as children. As the guests left they were given a Scooby backpack filled with Scooby snacks and treats.

Another birthday down, man they come fast! Most importantly Cruz was happy all night. No small feat for my perfectionist son.

Happy 7th Birthday Cruz!

Lemon Loaf Cake~ BWJ

Well, I made the loaf cake on posting Tuesday at 6:30am. I planned to post after my crazy day in the evening, but even with mental reminders as I sat at the computer working on some photoshop pictures for my son's upcoming birthday, it managed to slip my mind. Hopefully it's still Tuesday somewhere.

The link for this easy recipe can be found here and here. While I'd argue the 5 minute assembly the book Baking With Julia claims it takes to prepare, 20 minutes isn't too much for a fresh, springy feeling dessert such as this. I liked the texture of the Lemon Loaf, not quite as thick and buttery as pound cake, but sometimes less dense is a good thing.

The only changes I made were to make my loaf into mini loaves, which baked for 25 minutes. It makes it easier to give the calories away! And like many others I felt it needed a little something on the top to finish it off and make it more dessert like. A friend had just posted her lemon pound cake recipe, which had a topping of fresh squeezed lemon juice and powdered sugar. I dipped the tops of the mini loaves into the juice/sugar mixture, and it gave it just the right sweet yet tart flavor, while helping them retain moisture.

I had a loaf for breakfast and planned to get a shot of the cake cut in nice slices and reveal the texture of the loaf. Apparently it was too good to stop eating and remember to do that. In the future I can see a berry compote and fresh whipped cream on top of a slice for company dessert. A keeper recipe for this family.

Pizza Rustica ~ BWJ

What I had envisioned in my head when I read "pizza rustica" was far from the actual product. I saw a classic pizza dough with olive oil, slices of tomatoes in place of sauce, grated cheese, and fresh herbs. Wow, how different this was! More like a pie, and kind of quiche like. My verdict is that it was good, and I'd make it again in the future, likely playing with the ingredients. My husband and I enjoyed the spinach. My boys however will not. You can find the recipe for it here and here.

I had a really hard time getting the crust to come together. I suppose it was finally time for me to experience difficulty in the rolling out department since my last two tries were almost too easy. It looked like it came together. But when I tried to roll it, it stuck and cracked. I added flour to no avail.

Because I had a serious time crunch since this was my husband's lunch, and I had already pushed it back a half hour. There could be no more wiggle room for the man with the huge appetite. So I put in what I had rolled out, broken and sad, and played with it in the pan until I got the coverage I needed, minus the beauty. I reminded myself this was supposed to be rustic, and pushed forward.

The recipe wanted procuitto, I did not. I also wanted more than just cheeses and a meat. I decided to go with bacon to add some crunch. When the bacon was cooked halfway, I added chopped onion, and once the bacon was nicely crisped I added 3 cloves of chopped garlic. All that went into a bowl and was set aside. Then I removed the water from about a cup of frozen chopped spinach, and mixed it together with the three cheeses. Finally the eggs were mixed in, and my filling was ready to go. The sweet and yet savory aspect was certainly there. My husband even commented on it, he usually has no opinion and just eats everything on his plate. Makes it hard to know what he really likes at times, but he says he liked this. It took about an hour from start to finish to prepare, 35 minutes at 375 degrees to cook, and it took the full 35 minute cooking time to clean up, my least favorite part. This wasn't an easy throw together lunch, but it'll be a nice treat every once in a while.

As ugly as the crust was, it was a great crust. My husband won't know the troubles I had or how hideous it really was until he reads this since it was tucked away at the bottom and didn't lack any flavor. I'll make it again in the future with more time to play with it and figure out what went wrong when rolling it out. 

Lobster Bisque

I recently did something I never do. I sent a bowl of Lobster Bisque back at a restaurant. Sending something back seems pretentious, as well as dangerous when you still have food to come out of the kitchen. Normally I would keep my mouth shut, eat as much as I could, or just leave it and hope the server notices the lack of enjoyment and inquires about it. But it was my birthday, the soup was the reason I had chosen to eat there, and they were charging $9 for a bowl of Lobster Bisque that didn't have a speck of lobster in it. Feeling courageous from a few birthday drinks, I asked the server about the lack of the much craved crustacean. He spoke to the chef and came back with the answer that it was made in the traditional way. I believe I'd call that soup "lobster stock with way too much tomato paste" then! I could not even taste any seafood through the overpowering tomato paste.

Fast forward one month later. That lobster bisque craving never went away. In fact, like a litter of rabbits, it continued to grow and consumed me to the point of researching which restaurants had the best lobster bisque around. So when I was at the seafood counter in the grocery store staring down a frozen lobster tail and the lady asked, "Would you like anything else?" I replied, "A lobster tail, please!"

What was I thinking? I had never made lobster before. It's fairly easy to overcook it and mess it up. I didn't even have a recipe or know if I had the ingredients to make lobster bisque. The culinary courage that has been growing in me recently kicked in and I thought, no matter, I had the most important part, and I'd wing the rest.

After looking up several recipes, and conforming them to the ingredients I had on hand, I finally decided on a cooking method. I boiled 2 cups of water in a stock pot and placed the thawed tail on a strainer out of reach of the water. Most recipes said steam for 7-8 minutes, so I steamed my 4 oz. tail for 5 minutes knowing it would cook a little in the soup as well. After deveining the lobster and chopping it up, I added the shells and 1 cup chicken stock to the water left in the stock pot and let it come to a slow boil.

Having no tomato paste, I found a can of whole cooked tomatoes. I squeezed out the juice of 2, added 2 cloves of raw garlic and pureed.

Then sea salt, parsley and basil joined the party. I added chicken stock to the bowl, and once it was as smooth as it was going to get, I took the lobster shells out of the stock pot and poured the tomato mixture in. I also added 1/2 tsp of worcestershire sauce and 1 tbs butter. After a couple minutes of simmering, I turned the heat to low.

Finally 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tbs flour, and the lobster meat I had so desperately been craving went into the pot. I gave it a minute or two to heat through, and into the bowls it went.

While it wasn't the best lobster bisque I've ever had, I can honestly say it satiated my craving. The lobster was thankfully not overdone and chewy. The tomato was not overpowering the soup. And I got a good seafood taste from each bite.

My son gave it a 10 out of 10. It was his first time trying lobster bisque, so he apparently likes it now too. His partaking is the reason I didn't add any cayenne pepper. And in the future when I make this, I'll be sure to have some sherry, green onion or chives, and bay leaves on hand. Maybe some fish stock instead of chicken stock too, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Rugelach ~ BWJ

Ahhhh! That sums up todays baking efforts. First, I of course waited until posting day to make my contribution. Procrastination should come as no surprise at this point. I did choose to read other blogs before starting this morning, and imagine my surprise when I realized I was wrong about the Irish Soda Bread being our endevor this Tuesday. Ahhhhh, mistake #1. That started the day off on the wrong foot. Then I read the recipe and after taking in the very detailed and overwhelming directions with 6 hours of chilling, rolling out dough, and making fillings, I knew I was in for a lot more work than I had bargained for, on a day when I had a lot to do already. Plus, now I had to get a loaf of bread going for the soup I had made for lunch the night before, thinking there would be fresh Irish Soda bread to go with it. Thank you bread machine for doing most of the work! Too bad I didn't have a rugelach machine. You can find the recipe here. HERS turned out beautifully I might add!

Still, I was excited about the rugelach project when I saw the dough had cream cheese. My favorite cookies my grandma used to make were cream cheese kolacky. These had a similar feel with the cream cheese dough and jam filling. I gave the butter and cream cheese an hour to warm because it was all I could give. The dough came together yummily. Isn't it great when there is no raw egg and you can pick at the bowl leftovers? And I searched for possible fillings. I came up with an apple, some raisins, and a peach apricot spread. Those were going to have to do today.

I patted the dough into rectangles and into the fridge for the 2 hour chill they went. After picking up my youngest son, I went to work on the one filling I didn't cop out on. I peeled and diced the apple, put it into a skillet, and added brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. I sauteed the mixture until the apples were tender and the cinnamon/sugar was gooey and thick. Then I let it cool on the stove.

After 2 hours I took the dough out to roll it. I'm not a great judge of a 1/4 thickness, it might have been a little less, but I wouldn't have wanted them any doughier than they turned out. I put the apple mixture onto the first rectangle. I sprinkled some sugar, brown sugar, and imaginary raisins, since I forgot to put them in until after I had done the work of rolling it up. Ahhhhh, mistake #2.

The next rolled out rectangle of dough got the peach apricot treatment. I took a fork and sifted out all of the fruit chunks that were in there. Then I filled in the rest with what I now know to be a far too thin jam. Ahhhhh, mistake #3. There probably won't be a next time, but if there were, I would certainly use chunks of apricot and a thick apricot butter, which I still would not have faith that it would hold up. I sprinkled the peach apricot spread with brown sugar and omitted the white sugar since the spread was already sweet. I also omitted chunks of nuts because my boys can go either way with them, and I knew I needed them to eat the majority of these for my own sake.

With the second one rolled up, it was time to chill for at least 4 hours, preferrably overnight. Since they were due today, that wasn't happening. Between school, homework, Taekwondo and soccer, they got to chill for 6 hours. They were easy to handle, and I chose to use cream for the egg wash. After brushing on the wash, I rolled the 1 inch pieces into a cinnamon sugar bowl for the apple rugelach. Then I added chopped pecans to the cinnamon sugar and rolled the peach apricot rugelach in that.

At this point they look so pretty! All my effort looks like it was going to pay off. I already had a 375 degree preheated oven from dinner, so in they went. I even moved them around like the directions stated. But everytime I opened the oven door I saw a horror before me. All my filling was leaking out! I wanted to pull them right there to prevent further loss, but I knew the dough wasn't done. I waited out the 25 minutes and sadly took them out of the oven.

The apple fared much better than the peach apricot, which lost most of their filling. I transferred them to a cooling rack begrudgingly. I gave each boy, big and small, one of each kind. They gobbled them up. I tried one of each too, and they weren't too bad, although I knew how much better they could have been.

The hubby came into the kitchen inquiring if he could have another one. I told him to enjoy them now, because I wouldn't be making these (probably) ever again. Too much heartbreak for this girl. I know, Julia, I did not follow the recipe to a tee. I went rouge with the fillings and didn't prepare, and I can blame myself for this literal mess I've made. I'm seriously thinking about throwing one of the pans away instead of trying to scrape off the mess on there.

Alas, I have half of the rugelach dough in the freezer. Perhaps there will be a second try. Or perhaps I will again go rogue, and design a dough container to keep the filling from spilling out. No, it won't have the pretty swirl shape. But it will have all the fruity goodness that should be there!

Bûche de Noël ~ AKA: Yule Log

Cub Scouts had their annual cake auction recently to raise money for the Blue and Gold ceremony. There were prizes given out in many categories, and it was a project we were to do as a mother/son team effort. Woo hoo, competition and bake time with my child, win/win! I decided to go for the Scouting theme prize and remembered a picture of a campfire log cake I saw in the Family Fun magazine that I had ripped out a few years ago, hoping to one day make it for a camping themed party. Then my log cake internet search opened up a whole new world of cakes! I had not known about the Yule Log tradition in several European countries, and it was interesting to learn as well as gain knowledge of different techniques in the making of yule logs. One day I'd love to try to make those adorable marzipan mushrooms that adorn many traditional yule logs.

My son joined Cub Scouts a few months ago and mostly likes it, except for the large gatherings of the whole pack which has helped me come to understand he has some form of large group anxiety. I saw it this summer at a very large family reunion of mostly boisterous Italians, and blamed it on lack of sleep from our long and tiring three week road trip. Looking back now, I know better. Granted, being tired didn't help, but there is something about a large chaotic group of people that sends him into an anxious state, which causes him to act socially inept. I've taken him to many plays and shows starting at age 4 that were large and loud, and it does not set him off. Granted Blue Man Group left him exhausted after watching it, but even I was from the amount of activity going on. But we are often the ones that the little old lady we sit next to scowls at thinking, "oh great, a little kid next to me", only to have them compliment him at the end of the production on how wonderful he was. Anyway, all this to say that Cub Scouts has given us something (the knowlege that I need to research group anxiety) in return for a crazy amount of time and energy I had no idea it would take when we signed up! Many activities are for the good of the community, which is a wonderful thing, but I'm not sure at what point there are too many structured activities in a child's life vs. the ability to choose what they want to do with their own time.

One such time consuming activity was this cake. Granted, I could have used a box cake mix and put some trees and a campfire in frosting. But they went and made it a competition, and to be honest, even if it wasn't, I still like mine to stand out. So we put a little more effort into our cake and baked it from scratch. For the cake I used Paula Deen's Old South Jelly Roll recipe, because let's be honest, anything that woman makes is going to taste good, because butter is just good.

I separated the eggs and worked with the whites since they needed a gentle hand, but Cruz helped measure out and stir the yolk mixture. Once done, he helped scrape out the batter onto the baking sheet while I held the bowl for him.

While the cake cooled, Cruz was happy to get to make a mess to get ready for the next step by putting powdered sugar all over a towel so we could roll it up without sticking. It cracked a little, but nothing the chocolate buttercream frosting wouldn't be able to hide. After 15 minutes I unrolled it and Cruz spread apricot jam on it, then I rolled it back up. Then I cut it about 1/3 of the way in at an angle and gave it the branched off look.

Cruz helped measure the chocolate buttercream frosting ingredients and we let the mixer do the work. We used this recipe, but I halved it, only I forgot to half the cocoa. This made for a very rich, chocolately frosting that luckily turned out to be more than just edible. I wished I had made the full batch at that point. As you can see in the picture below, my little one had no problem licking the mixer attachment.

After Cruz frosted most of it and I filled in the missing pieces, we got to work on the Chex Muddy Buddies recipe, because while I like the ideas of the coals in Family Fun magazine, I didn't like the idea of buying donut holes. So far the cake was all from scratch, and I had high hopes of keeping it that way. When I thought of what else I could pull off as coals, puppy chow came to mind. It turned out to be a good decision we all enjoyed since this time I did make enough for us to have some. In fact, I'm pretty sure during the auction the cake sold more so for the puppy chow than the actual cake! Cruz helped measure out all the ingredients, I melted them together and stirred in the chex mix, he covered them with powdered sugar, and we laid them on a cookie sheet to dry. This ended our Wednesday night baking adventure together, and after over 2 hours, Cruz was more than ready to be done helping in the kitchen. Into the fridge it went.

The following day I decided to spruce up the cake a bit. In my internet search I had run across a cake that had chocolate "bark" covering it. It made for a very authentic looking log. I melted some semisweet chocolate chips and  brushed them out onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet. That went into the fridge and once hardened, I broke off pieces and added it on top of the buttercream frosting. It definitely added a nice touch.

The Family Fun campfire version also included flames by way of fruit roll ups. Not wanting to work with such a soft medium, I decided to try to make hard candy instead. I've made suckers before and figured if I could make a mold, I'd be set. I found 2 star shaped pancake molds and distorted them to look like flames.

But when it came time to find my candy themometer and cherry flavoring, they were no where to be found. I had come this far, so I wasn't going to quit. I had to go to the dollar store to get a pan for the cake anyway, so I picked up a couple bags of jolly ranchers and decided I was going to try to melt those in the oven.

After many attempts and failures, I finally got 3 flames I felt were cake worthy and while still slightly warm and pliable, I molded them onto the cake.

 After picking Cruz up from school, I took the boys to a park where we found a nice looking stick for roasting marshmallows. Being one to kill a theme, I hot glued the stick to the pan, added marshmallows to the top and toasted them, and hot glued the cake description to the stick. Then it was time to fill the dead space in with coals, and I placed an edible smore on top of the coals.

Our cake went up for auction first, not the best place to be, as I noticed the cake prices increased throughout the night when there were less cakes and still many little scouts without a dessert to take home. But we still raised $12 for our cake. In the end, we placed first in a category and took home a big certifcate, Cruz learned the trappings of auctions, as he got caught up in a bidding war and ended up paying far too much for something he didn't really want, and we took home two box made desserts, a pineapple cake and red velvet cupcakes that the boys ate with delight. And most importantly I got some quality baking time in with my boy.