Obsessed! In the best possible way!

I had a pin on Pinterest for a link to something called "quick ramen bowl."  It looked good, greens, mushrooms, scallions, sriracha, an egg, ramen.  All the stuff I love.  I never really looked at it, which I am kind of famous for when it comes to Pinterest.  I tend to go, "Ooh!" and forget to look at it again, unless it's one of my cake boards which I refer to almost daily when I'm at work.  I was thinning out a board that got bogged down with too many subjects and I came across the link.  I went to the blog and... it sounds crazy, but... my life is changed!

I have been trying to save money and cut down on my grocery bill in particular.  I burn a lot of calories at work.  Like in the "just ran a marathon" category.  I'm hungry All. The. Time.  Figuring this out has helped me realize what I need to do to lose weight (hello, starvation mode! eat more!) so lately, my grocery bill has become astronomical.  What to do?  What to do?  I've found some good resources for budgeting at meal time, but a lot of those folks don't eat like I do.  No offense, really!  It's just that the bulk of my groceries are from the produce department.  And I eat a lot of Asian food.  A lot.  I also don't have kids, and many of those blogs are geared towards family-friendly meal time.  Soooo, enter Budget Bytes.  What's the first thing I make?  The Dragon Noodles, of course!  I made a couple changes, but I don't think it got me too far off the $1.02 cost per serving!  (Whattt?)  I added a bag of frozen stir fry veggies that were $1 at Kroger and an extra egg.  I needed a bit more sauce, so when I made it the second time, I used a little fish sauce and and a little garlic chile sauce.  It gave it a little more of a Vietnamese flavor than just straight up "burn down the house."  I also used angel hair pasta because I had a half of a box which was perfect for this.  Dudes, this was easily one of the best things I've made recently.  And it took 10 minutes.  It had the perfect amount of heat for me and was filling!


Do yourself (and your wallet!) a favor and hit up Budget Bytes for a recipe or 15.

I was half way through the bowl of noodles before I realized I needed to document the deliciousness.

Quiche! With hash brown crust!

On Pintrest, I found a recipe for a quiche with a hash brown crust.  There are a ton of them.  The one I referred to was a Martha recipe.  The crust is basically a bag of frozen hash browns thawed and drained well, a couple tablespoons of butter melted, an egg, and some salt and pepper mixed together.  You press it into your pan and bake it for about 15-20 minutes.  You don't need to weigh it down like you do a traditional pie crust.  Win-win!  Easy-peasy!  Faster, in fact, and less messy than a regular pie crust.  

Pumpkin waffle mix, optional.

I used a traditional quiche pan instead of the springform pan Martha wants you to use.  I also used 365 Brand hash browns from Whole Foods, so I'm not sure if that made a difference.  My crust didn't quite come up to the top of the pan.  No biggie.  I have grated swiss, thawed and squeezed frozen spinach, and this amazing Nieman Ranch uncured ham steak (also from Whole Foods) that I couldn't stop eating.  I was hungry and it was just... so... tasty.

A traditional quiche batter is one large egg to one half cup of dairy.  Traditionally, it's heavy cream.  Oof.  I can't do it.  I can't help but equate that to a giant serving of whipped cream.  Double oof.  Don't get me wrong, I loooove whipped cream, but I don't want to eat a pint of it.  I use whole milk.  It makes a lighter quiche and I don't miss the fat, personally.  You could use anything from skim (but why?!) to heavy cream.  A nice touch is to whiz up your batter with a stick blender (or real blender).  It smooths out the eggs and gives it a nice texture.  But don't go crazy, you just want to combine those things.  For this recipe I used four eggs and two cups of whole milk.  I added a stray egg white to this since I needed a yolk for the egg wash for my cheddar dill bread that I'm also making (tune in tomorrow!).  If you end up with a bit of extra batter, never fear!  I added it, a little cheddar, and a little dill to a small baking dish.  Et, voila!

Dinner is served!

In my crappy apartment oven, this baked for about 40 minutes.  Your (nicer) oven time and temp may vary.  Another point worth mentioning, if you make a cheese quiche, use a little less cheese than you might think.  If you really load it up, it gets hard to cut when it's done as copious amounts of cheese make it really soft.

The verdict?  Delicious!

Now, get cookin'!

More Cake!

These were a few of my cakes for Christmas/Winter/New Year's Eve.

Snowflake cake

Cosmic Christmas

Cardinals in a tree

Snowflake cake

Reindeer cakepops

Owl with Oreo eyes

Partridge in a pear tree

Tiny cakes and a fire extinguisher

Happy New Year!

Polar Bear

Happy New Year!

Fall Cupcakes

Just before Thanksgiving, I made a few trays of cupcakes for the case.  These were a few of my favorites.

Forest floor with log, leaves, and we mushrooms.

Thanksgiving dinner with caramel gravy.

Vegan Thanksgiving dinner with mashed potatoes and peas and carrots.

Roasted turkey cupcakes.  Adorable.

I started a new job decorating cakes at the end of September.  It's not my favorite thing to do, but it pays the bills and can be fun and challenging.  We only use buttercream, not fondant or gum paste.  Gum paste, I don't mind.  Fondant makes me swear.

One of the challenges we often see is when someone brings in something and they want their cake to look exactly like that!  Can you do it?  Here's an example.  If I remember correctly, it was for an engagement party for Ph.D.s.  The woman that brought in the book was super cool, in that kindred-science-nerd-spirit sort of way.  And she was pleased with the cake.  Overall, I think it turned out well.  I still hate printing on a cake since it always looks a little shaky.

A return to ice cream. And blogging.

France loves ice cream. It's everywhere. As a snack from a street vendor, a couple scoops as dessert from a brasserie, even as a fancy coupe (what we call a sundae) from a more upscale restaurant. When I was in Carcassonne, there was an ice cream vendor around the corner from my hostel with a big selection of homemade ice cream everyday. It was 2.50 Euro for a scoop in a waffle cone. It was more expensive than the other vendors I saw, but it was clearly made by hand in small batches and not from an ice cream company. It was worth every cent. I fell in love with their tiramisu ice cream. The one day they didn't have it, they had a caramelized fig sorbet in its place. It was delicious. I'm not sure why it was called a sorbet because it very obviously had a milk base. I've been thinking about that ice cream since I got home.

I have a love-hate relationship with figs. On one hand, they are so good for you, packed full of fiber, vitamins and minerals. On the other hand, their texture is, let's face it, downright weird, and the flavor is so subtle that it easily gets lost if paired incorrectly. Most American folks' first encounter with the humble fig is the ubiquitous Fig Newton. Dry, processed, occasionally stale and barely tasting of figs, this is not a good first impression. The fig is not my favorite fruit by any means, but nearly all of the memorable desserts I've had involved figs. Why is that? It perplexes me. Perhaps I need a food therapist to help me sort out my complicated relationship with figs.

I'm cooking dinner tonight with two new friends. Like all of my friends, they love food and love to cook. Of course, I offered to bring dessert. I decided to attempt to make the caramelized fig ice cream. It's in the freezer right now. The flavor is not what I had in Carcassonne, but it's darn good. My obvious problem is the kind of figs used in France. I need to find out what kind are available in the southwest of France and if they are available here.

Tonight this will be paired with gingerbread.

Caramelized Fig Ice Cream

2 TBSP butter
1 quart brown turkey figs (or whatever brown fig is available to you)
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup dark Kayro syrup
1 TBSP molasses
1oz. marsala

Cut figs into quarters lengthwise then cut in half crosswise. Melt butter in deep saute pan. Add figs and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add sugar, corn syrup and molasses, stir well. Let simmer until the figs are soft, the sauce is a deep golden brown and thick. Be sure to stir occasionally so it doesn't stick. Add the marsala and stir well. At this point, I transferred the mixture to a bowl and whizzed it lightly with my stick blender. It's your choice. I wanted more of a swirl instead of a fully mixed ice cream and I wanted something more smooth and less chunky. After I pureed it lightly, I put it back into the pan and sauteed for a few more minutes. Ultimately, the fig/sugar mixture should be thick like caramel sauce but almost a light milk chocolate color.  Let this cool.

Use your favorite vanilla ice cream recipe and freeze in your ice cream maker as usual.  Place half of the ice cream in a loaf pan.  Layer all of the caramelized fig mixture, then top with a final layer of vanilla ice cream.  Using the handle of a wooden spoon or spatula, insert it into the pan through all three layers in one corner and drag straight across the pan.  Pull up, reinsert into the pan just below where it was pulled out, drag across the pan.  Repeat this process going left to right in rows, then repeat from top to bottom in rows.  This will create a swirl of the fig mixture.  If you want easy, just add the fig mixture to the ice cream in the final few minutes of mixing.  Fussy or easy, it's darn tasty.

Semester Two: Let the games begin!

Last wednesday was the first day of my second semester. What a day it was! I'm in class from 9 AM to 7 PM with no breaks, except for the time it takes to get from class to class. My day began with two lecture classes and continued with two labs. My labs were a lot of fun. In Garde Manger, we made garnishes for a few hours, tomato skin roses, radish roses (or as my brother calls them-cracked radishes), celery and green onion garnishes. It was fun. Tomorrow, we get into herb identification and salad dressings. Garde Manger, for those who don't know, encompasses the cold kitchen. We'll cover topics like garnishes and salads, but also sandwiches, platters for buffets, even sushi. In Garde Manger II, which I plan of taking, we'll cover butchering and sausage making and advanced garnishes including ice carving. My class is taught by my department head. He's awesome, hilarious, knowledgeable, and tough. I'm looking forward to the challenge of getting an A in his class.

My second class that day is Hot and Cold Desserts. We also jumped right in with cheesecake and custard desserts, rice pudding and bread pudding. My bread pudding didn't turn out well at all. I followed the instructions and ended up with too much liquid. Oh well. My cheesecake came out great, however, which is what matters since it is supposed to be served as a dessert in our restaurant. Apparently a lot of what we make in this class is production for the restaurant. Everyone in the class is great. Everyone worked hard, had a good time, and generally enjoyed the whole process. At the end of class, we critiqued what we made. We all talked about hat worked, what didn't, how it could be served or fixed. The vibe in the class was so much better than in Baking I. Everyone wanted to be there and not because Food Network makes it look so fun. I'm really going to love this class. I have the same instructor that taught my sanitation class. I really loved her. She has a ton of experience in most aspects of the hospitality industry. She really wants her students to succeed. She also told us that we can be as challenged as we want to be in this class. She wants us to think like pastry chefs. For example, we don't have to make our cheesecake in a round traditional pan. We could use a muffin pan for individual servings or a long rectangular pan. We can make deconstructed desserts, different flavors, etc. It's going to be a good semester.

Yesterday was Day Two. The day is a little longer, but I have a break in the afternoon. I started the day with Cake Design and Decorating. We had to bake two types of cakes with which we will practice decorating or the first part of the semester. We used the same ingredients and measurements but two different mixing methods. The first was the creaming method, which most people know, especially if you'd ever made a pound cake before. You cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then alternate the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. This makes a nice dense cake that holds up well to the weight of a large cake. The other method was the Two Stage Method. I was not familiar with this, but I like it. You add the dry ingredients, the sugar, butter, and a little of the liquid (in this case the milk and eggs combined). You mix until fluffy then add the liquid in two stages... hence the name! It makes a lighter, fluffier cake.

Sunday Afternoon Check-in

Hi folks. Things are crazy busy here at Chez Meg In The Kitchen. Classes started this past week. I have two pot luck cookouts this weekend. The cookout today is a fundraising effort for a local group started by some friends. They approached me about doing something special for the cookout. Of course I said yes! I'm bringing 4 batches of ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet plus waffle cones! I can't wait to show and tell you all about that one!

I had originally planned on four classes this semester. The first day of classes someone dropped their place in the Petit Fours class. I had wanted it, but thanks to Web Advisor I didn't get it. My advisor and the department head were kind enough to save that place for me. Now I have five classes this semester. If I don't lose my mind before Fall Break it'll be a miracle. However it also means that I can definitely finish this program in two years. Two years! I remember when I started I thought two years was going to drag on. Ha! It's flown by!

I'm really looking forward to this semester. I posted my schedule to the right. I'll post more about each class later this week. I'm really excited about these classes. I feel like I will not only be challenged, but get more time with certain products. We started my Dessert and Bread Production class with a laminated dough. Huzzah! I definitely wanted more time with that.

I'm off to cookout number two! I'm still weeding through the France trip photos. Happy Sunday!

How the French do breakfast.

Cafe Creme, freshly squeezed orange juice, a croissant, half of a mini-baguette slathered with butter and a tiny jar of apricot preserves.

Pretty brilliant if you ask me.

I am back from France. I am missing the cafes already.

I spent the last 3 weeks in France. Okay, there was a lackluster weekend in Amsterdam too, but the rest of the time was spent in France. It was an amazing and long vacation that at times didn't seem real. The whole country looks like a movie set. I wanted to touch everything I saw to see if it was real or just a movie prop rolled out for the tourists. Turns out, it's all real. Go figure.

I have pictures to share with you. Boy howdy do I have pictures. 2600 to be exact. It's going to take time to weed through all of them and to find the best ones to post for you. It will also involve a trip to the Apple store for Genius help. The computer is not cooperating. In the meantime, I leave you with a list of things I noticed the French love.

1. All things tiny. Coffee, dogs, cars, trains, etc. There's even a museum/themepark outside Paris with a tiny scale model of the country and landmarks.

2. Shredded carrots. Alone, in salads, whatever. They love 'em.

3. Pink toilet paper. It was everywhere. It makes me smile.

4. Badminton.

5. Floating Island dessert. Here in the US, it's such an old school, 1950s cruise ship dessert. In France, it's on nearly every menu.

6. Scooters and motorcycles.

7. Yogurt.

8. Lace curtains.

9. Apricots.



On another note, I'm back to moderating comments. I keep getting spam comments and I'm getting sick of it. Until they leave me alone, all comments will be moderated. Sorry for the hassle.

Dear France,

I miss you so much it hurts. It's been two days and already I'm craving a croque madame. I can't stop thinking about that bottle of Rothschild Bordeaux or frisee salads or the tiny coffees. Your croissants make my heart skip a beat. I don't know when I'll see you again, but I promise it will be soon.

All my love, ma cherie,
Meg

Just in case you thought I was kidding.

Norovirus (a foodborne illness) hits Raleigh. It's all anyone can talk about at school.

Monday, the longest day, or Why haven't I made pita bread before???

My semester began on Wednesday January 6th, but because of the holiday, I just had my Monday classes for a second time yesterday. It's been a little hard to get in the groove of a new semester so far, partially because we had a holiday but also, I think, because i only have classes two days a week. It's also a little weird because it definitely doesn't feel like school.

I have two classes on Mondays. The day is a little longer than my Wednesday, but I have a break in the afternoon. I started the day with Cake Design and Decorating. Two weeks ago, we had to bake two types of cakes with which we will practice decorating for the first part of the semester. We used the same ingredients and measurements but two different mixing methods. The first was the creaming method, which most people know, especially if you'd ever made a pound cake before. You cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs, then alternate the dry ingredients and wet ingredients. This makes a nice dense cake that holds up well to the weight of a large cake. The other method was the Two Stage Method. I was not familiar with this, but I like it. You add the dry ingredients, the sugar, butter, and a little of the liquid (in this case the milk and eggs combined). You mix until fluffy then add the liquid in two stages... hence the name! It makes a lighter, fluffier cake.

This week, we split and filled the cakes and iced them. We practiced border decorations and writing. While it's not Cake Wrecks material, it wasn't fabulous either. I need to practice getting my icing more smooth on the sides. The top was pretty smooth though. That's much easier. This week, my homework will be to bake a cake, make buttercream, and practice piping. Pretty crazy homework, huh?

Here's my cake:

Monday afternoon and evenings are occupied by Artisan Breads. Best. Class. Ever. This is, as I expected, my favorite class. The subject mater is great, the instructor is great, my classmates are AWESOME! My lab only has 6 people in it. It's a nice size. Everyone is really interested in learning, working and teamwork. Our text is The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. Last week we made a white pan bread and a light wheat. The white bread was good, but the light wheat was fantastic. This week, we made french baguettes with a preferment called pate fermentee and pita bread. Both breads were great, but the pita was unbelieveable. It was so easy to make and a super-speedy bake. They puff up like little pillows then slowly deflate. The bread is soft and chewy. If you have any interest in baking bread at home, I'd suggest getting a copy of this book and also trying the pita at home.

Go here if you'd like to see photos of our bread from this week and last.

This is how I started my day.

Be back tomorrow with more details!

Babushka! Babushka!, A Veselka Dinner.

New York City is home to a Ukrainian restaurant called Veselka. The New York Times had an article about Veselka the other day. This restaurant also happens to be a favorite of my friend, M, who lived in New York City for a while. He was recently given the Veselka cookbook. Somehow several of us came up with the idea to have a big dinner party using recipes from this book. Last night, my friends and I celebrated Ukrainian Christmas Eve. Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have friends that can cook? Assignments and recipes went out by email last week. I was assigned borscht. It's a special meatless beet broth in which mushroom dumplings are added. R & E were assigned the dumplings. It was agreed that Team Borscht did a smashing job!

The cookbook has information on the history of Ukrainian Christmas Eve and also included the order of the courses. We began with this little dish of wheatberries, honey, poppy seeds and toasted walnuts. It was pretty good. Wheatberries have an odd texture, chewy, springy and crunchy all rolled into one. Up next was Team Borscht. For those who don't know, I'm half Polish. Therefore I prefer a Polish borscht, hearty, chunky, a wee bit tart with lots of dill and sour cream. This was essentially a beet consomme seasoned with vinegar, sugar and allspice. It's a little sweet and sour. After a few bites, I got more used to the taste. It was especially good with the dumplings.

Course One:


The wheatberry poppy seed dish, kutya, traditionally served as the first and last courses. Since we had SO MUCH food, it was the first course only.


Borscht with vushka, mushroom filled dumplings. Very pretty!


I have to admit that by this point, I was getting full. We still had a ton of food. Oof. We moved on to the cabbage leaves stuffed with kasha and topped with tomato sauce, potato and onion pierogi, sauerkraut and peas, and mushrooms. We also had a couple loaves of challah.

My plate, clockwise from top right: sauerkraut with peas, kasha holubtsi, simmered mushrooms, pierogi with sour cream (I had to cheat on the no-dairy thing, sorry.) and a bit of challah.


The challah



Our final course was the uzvar, a dried fruit compote. My tummy was officially at critical mass by this point, so I had a few bites. I also brought some home to put on oatmeal. It was awesome. It tasted like Christmas.


Dinner was amazing. I think i actually have a food hangover this morning and may possibly still be too stuffed to drink my coffee. With any luck, my friends and I will make this a regular thing, with a different country each time (hint hint).

Ring in the New Year with possums, nuts and weiner cobbler!

I know you all are dying to know what I did on New Years Eve. I know you are. My friends, R & E, live in a pretty rad condo in the heart of Raleigh. They also happen to be a block from where we drop The Acorn and shoot off fireworks. Yes, my friends, my city drops a giant nut each year. Squirrel food if you will. We drop a giant piece of squirrel food to ring in the new year. Could be worse, I suppose. Mount Olive, NC drops a pickle. They make pickles there, you see. Or it could be way worse than that. We could be Brasstown, NC, the alleged Possum Capital Of The World where they drop a LIVE possum and count down to the new year on the Possumtron. If only I could make this up!

This year the party theme was retro food. We had cocktail weenies in sauce, meatballs, a chicken liver pate, slices of pickles wrapped in cream cheese and ham. I brought cream puffs full of butter, smoked salmon and dill, recipe courtesy of my grandmother's cookbook. We had wine, beer, brandy slushies, and some peppermint stick cocktail thingy. And then there was weiner cobbler. Think about it. Weiner. Cobbler.

A visual aid.

Here's how I remember the recipe as told to me:
1 package of turkey cocktail weenies, wrapped in crescent rolls, covered with a mixture of brown sugar, maple syrup, toped with sliced almonds and baked.

All I can say is that it's delightfully weird.

Choose your weapon!

I thought you would be interested to see the tools I need for school.


In this first photo, left to right, top to bottom:
-Digital scale, peeler on top of scale, pastry blender, 4 pastry bags in 4 sizes plus a few disposable pastry bags
-Bench scraper, bowl scraper, balloon whisk, 2 pastry tip cleaning brushes, measuring cups, measuring spoons, pastry wheel with fluted side and plain side, cake icing comb, kitchen shears
-Channel knife, zester, 3 sizes melon ballers, set of pastry tips, set of large closed star tips, set of large plain pastry tips, Bismark 230 pastry tip (the long one), a couple random pastry tips, plastic couplers, retractable Sharpie, Instant Read thermometer, and pen

The balloon whisk is very helpful for folding in stuff. I finally found the pastry tip cleaning brushes! A channel knife makes the long curls of lemon peel that you find in your Cosmo. The Bismark 230 pastry tip is for filling stuff like eclairs or cupcakes. I've been looking for one for a while. I'm required to have the pen, Sharpie and thermometer on me at all times. Along with a small notebook, it's considered part of my uniform.


Left to right:
Honing steel, small offset spatula, medium spatula, large offset spatula, large spatula, Microplane, bird's beak paring knife (also called touree knife), paring knife, 5.5" utility knife, boning knife, 6" chef's knife, 8" chef's knife, 12" bakers knife

The spatulas will be used in cake decorating the most. The bird's beak paring knife cuts those football shaped potato thingies. The utility knife will be used most in garde manger this semester to cut things like birds out of apples. I really like the 6" chef knife when I'm cutting small things like herbs and fruit. I got the baker's knife for Christmas. I learned the hard way today that BOTH sides of the blades are sharp. One side is serrated, which I knew about. The other side is just a straight blade. I have a big gash across my palm. Oops. Better I do that now than in class and look like an idiot. The serrated side is for cutting airy things like cakes, while the straight side is for cutting dense things like pound cakes.

Yes, I like red. What of it?

Here they are all packed up and ready to go! I have to carry this to my labs. The bag is getting heavy!

Merry Christmas!

I leave you with a video from the best Christmas album ever produced.

Christmas meme

Christmas meme
Borrowed from S over at No Tea For You.

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate before bed, but eggnog in my coffee. Of course, we have a local dairy, Maple View Farms, that makes an eggnog thicker than alfredo sauce. It's wicked good with Mount Gay Sugar Cane Brandy.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? No offense to anyone but I've never understood this. Wrapped!!! Santa wraps his presents!!! (In our house, Santa uses a different wrapping paper than the rest of us.)

Colored lights on a tree or white? I like white lights on a tree, otherwise I think they compete with the ornaments.

Do you hang mistletoe? Never.

When do you put your decorations up? Since I've lived on my own, I've lived with cats. Lots of cats. The one year I tried to put up a small tree, we found ornaments all over the house for weeks afterwards. I don't decorate, especially since I have my circus freak Elvis Who Eats The Un-Eatable now. My family puts the tree and decorations up after Thanksgiving.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Christmas Eve dinner is big fat steaks, twice baked potatoes, veggies, the works. So good.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Every year my dad makes this big show of how we're going to open one present an hour on Christmas day. We open presents after dinner on Christmas Eve. I like it because it leaves us free to do nothing on Christmas day, or hang out, watch football, etc.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I have a ton ornaments, some homemade, some with significance.

Snow: love it or hate it? I LOVE SNOW!

Can you ice skate? I'm no Oksana Baiul, but I do okay.

What is your favorite holiday dessert? I can't really choose just one.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve dinner is probably up there.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? I prefer the fruity flavored ones. I'm not a fan of peppermint hard candy.

Favorite Christmas show? I haven't watched a Christmas show since I was a kid. It's a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies and I watch it every year. I also LOVE Elf.

Wishing you all a happy holiday! See you soon!

Oprah hates me.

I had a dream the other night that Oprah taught my Safety and Sanitation class this past semester. She gave me an A. In my dream, my instructor for Basic Culinary Skills taught the other 3 classes I took. When it got to be time for Chef H to turn in my grades for those classes, he got really busy. Oprah offered to help out. At the last minute, she went through all of my grades (tests, quizzes, homework, etc) and changed my grades from As in those classes to Cs and Ds!

What do you think this means????