#anyway. do i eat mac and cheese or a chicken cup soup with bread

[fingertipsmp3]

Do I eat something and risk being sick or do I not eat and probably end up feeling even more sick than I do right now

[snailvalley]

The bachelor’s and bachelorette’s fave meals (specifically ones that aren’t in their loved gifts list)

I’m alive y’all, just got back from a camping trip. But anyways here’s some of the b&b’s fave foods. Enjoy! ✨

Abigail: rock candy(lmao) I also feel like she loves cupcakes, with all the fun color and design possibilities!

Haley: Ice cream, when she’s feeling down her fave thing to do is watch a movie and eat a pint of ice cream. I feel like she also loves crepes with Nutella and strawberries.

Penny: she loves all kinds of comfort foods! Fresh baked bread, soups.. she especially loves her mom’s homemade lasagna that Pam makes her every year for her birthday.

Emily: she really enjoys cauliflower wings! It’s her go-to after a long shift at the saloon. Some spicy cauliflower wings and a beer. Also smoothie bowls cuz it fits her aesthetic heheh.

Maru: for some reason, I can see Maru enjoying salads! I feel like she gets creative with the different toppings and mixes. Also burritos idk why.

Leah: she likes most breakfast foods, especially oatmeal with fruit and nuts, or maybe jam/fried egg on toast.

Sebastian: def cup of noodles or top ramen lol. He mostly just eats quick little meals that he can have while he works.

Alex: I see Alex being a sandwich dude lol, but he’s probably way excessive with what he puts in it. Also proteins bars.

Sam: hot pockets, Dino nuggets, and Kraft Mac n cheese. That’s it.

Shane: he really enjoys the snacks that you can get at bars and game stadiums.. nachos, pretzels, hot dogs... that sorta thing.

Harvey: just like Penny, I feel like Harvey enjoys foods that remind him of home/nostalgia. Things like homemade pancakes, chicken and dumplings, and any kind of pasta dishes.

Elliot: for some reason I can see Elliot really liking sushi and other seafood dishes, since he lives so close to the ocean, sometimes it’s what is most convenient. Willy has been teaching him to fish so he can make things out of what he catches. Also avocado toast cuz it’s ✨ trendy ✨

I had a lot of fun with this one! Enjoy 💚🍜🍟🌯🥪🥗🍖🍳🥨🥑🍌

[shark-el]

Onion soup:

A firend of mine asked me for my Onion soup recipe. I was just gana send it to her plain simple and boring. But then I thought of a better way to waist my time that I should probably be spending doing work or researching for projects and thing. But I decided this was a lot more fun!

My idea was to be one of those annoying food blogs that tell their whole life story in an absolutely overly exaggerated fashion! One to make fun of blogs that do this, and tow because it's fun and why the hell not?!

So the idea for this started back when I was first starting out cooking and every single blog I found had a 1000 word essay about the origin of sed food. I found it extremely irritating because why do I did to know that this person's great uncle's best friends grandma's dog died in a fire in order to make this recipe?! So I would scroll down all the way to get to the actual recipe but the story just kept on going! Like about how her great great great grandfather's colleague from work had spills tea on his novel, a passion project that he had worked so hard for. I still had no idea how this was relevant at all to the spring rolls I was planning on making? And after an eternity of scrolling fingers tired and eyes full of tears I finally got to the recipe.

You'd think after all that back story and the amount I had learned about the person writing this like the fact that her great grandmother's favorite color was tangerine but specifically tangerine, and not orange because her childhood best friend had lent her a sweater that exact color and the next day she had never returned. That sweater has become a family heirloom that has been passed down ever since. Or the fact that she had avocado toast on Tuesday three years ago on may 18th at exactly 3:26 pm. Needless to say I knew a lot about this person and their family tree. It really helped me get the care and feeling I needed for my spring rolls. So that is why I'm going to be overly pretentious and do the same thing to you so have fun.

I was born at a very young age, in the evening on a hot August day. I don't remember much from this time in my life but my parents told me that I was miserable until I could do things for myself. After that I was a force to be reckoned with, nothing could stop me! There was one time when I was about 6 months old my parents had left me on the table thinking I couldn't get far, keeping an eye on me every once in a while but not paying much attention. The second I was put down I saw something gleaming in the corner of my eye, it was a delicious looking chocolate brownie. Nothing could stop me I was going to get that brownie no matter what! so I slowly started scooching my tiny baby body to the delicious looking dessert moving as fast as my little arms could take me. It had been 10 minutes of struggling from one end of the table to the other. I had finally made it! I was so close my hand was mere centimeters away from the prize. It was gonna be mine all mine! But then suddenly out of nowhere my dad's arms came and picked me up taking me away from my long awaited dessert. needless to say I was furious but I still never got that specific brownie (I've had other brownies don't get me wrong, it's just I never had that one. And at this point I don't think I'd want to since it's several years past it's expansion date).

That was my first experience with real food which might have been a core memory if I actually remembered it. Sadly this happened before i could remember it, but i'd like to think that it was the beginning of my love for food.

Over the years I started cooking it started off as learning how to make eggs and mac and cheese but then over the years I started to make more complex dishes, some worked and some didn't. Now I know that most people would rather be informed about the times that somebody failed rather than the time someone succeeded, they stand out more I guess and if you're actually sitting down to read this then I will reward you with some of my biggest cooking fails.

First off anything that involves baking, for instance there was one time I was going to bake a chocolate cake for a bake sale and well... so what happened was, I learned that I can't follow a recipe for the life of me! You may ask why I'm writing this recipe if I probably won't follow it anyway, but it's more a list of ingredients than a actual recipe. Anyway back to the story so my first mistake was I ended up putting in a tablespoon of salt instead of a teaspoon so normally this would be fine it would have just been a little bit salty, but problem was I had another mistake, I ended up putting in a tablespoon of mint extract instead of a teaspoon of vanilla extract as well, so the resulting cake was less cake tasting and more of the toothpaste variety. ( For some reason my brother loved it. He took about a handfuls. I would not recommend it with a glass of orange juice).

Another baking story, I was trying to make chicken pot pie, and filling itself is cooking. I can do that, throwing things in a pot, easy! It works! But do not, I repeat do not! leave me alone with a pie crust. my dad and I frantically tried to roll out said pie crust and not rip it, we were flailing around confused as to how dough worked. It took us about half an hour to roll out the pie crust so it would rip adds little as possible. After that day we came to a conclusion never to leave us with the job of baking ever again!

The next cooking fail I have is finally about the soup recipe. You see the first time I tried making onion soup it didn't go very well... Let me explain what happened. I was really in the mood for a nice warm onion soup and I figured you just throw some onions in a pot with some white wine and water and let it sit. Problem was we didn't have any wine, and I was too young to go to the grocery store to buy some, so instead I decided to use grape juice. Never but I mean never cook an absurd amount of grape juice, the heated aroma smelt excruciatingly unappetizing and I would not recommend it on anyone. So the resulting soup was watered down hot grape juice and stir-fried onions. needless to say it did not taste good and smelled even worse. I told myself that would be the last time I'd ever make onion soup! Years have past and and I was really in the mood for onion soup again even after that disaster, so I decided to try once again. this time with no grape juice! I looked through multiple recipes some had more ingredients than others and ended up combining a lot of them together to make my own onion soup recipe the one you see before you. And though I was scared that I'd mess it up I decided that I just really wanted some onion soup so I made it and it turned out delicious. Look at that a happy ending isn't that just great?!

I'd be surprised if you actually read through all of this if you did a good job,if you didn't then you're probably not going to read this sentence but I don't blame you it's all good who actually reads these backstories to recipes anyway?

Anyway I think I've mumbled on long enough here is the actual recipe for this soup:

5-6 onions

7-8 cups of chicken/ onion stock ( cold be parve from show mixes)

3 cloves of garlic (probably more)

1/4 cups of soy sauce

1/3 cups of white wine (optional)

4 tablespoons of oil (2-3 at the beginning and then 1-2 in middle of caramelization)

4 tablespoons of flower

1 teaspoon sugar (helps with caramelization)

Salt (to taste)

Pepper ( to taste but approx 1/8-1/4 of a teaspoon)

Instructions:

1) caramelize onions:

On medium heat Cook the onions, stirring often, until they have softened, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Increase the heat to medium high. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil (or butter depending on) and cook, stirring often, until the onions start to brown, about 15 more minutes.

Then sprinkle with sugar (to help with the caramelization) and 1 teaspoon of salt and continue to cook until the onions are well browned, about 10 to 15 more minutes.

Add garlic

2) Add Flour until mixed and quickly ( so it doesn't burn) add Add wine and soy sauce and once mixed well and incorporated

3)Add stock slowly, then add bay leaves and black pepper and salt (if needed, you can always add it later).

Bring to a summer and leve on low heat for 30 mins.

And now you officially scrolled too far, this is the point in a recipe blog where they add a bunch of links to all the recipes made by their friends families and anything else that comes to mind. Most people looking for the recipe would scroll all the way to the end trying to find it in this mess of words and unnecessary backstory told in an excruciatingly painful amount of detail. Then realize they've scrolled too far, sigh and start scrolling up again, this time a little slower.

It normally also has recommendations of foods that would go well with it, in the case of this onion soup I would recommend eating it with some garlic bread or grilled cheese sandwiches, basically all comfort foods that would spark Joy anytime you eat them.

If you're looking for aesthetic you can try making a bread bowl, cover it with cheese and broil it, which would have a whole other recipe linked in somewhere, with more details about how their great uncle's best firends associate made this same recipe for the pince of some country. But as I mentioned beforehand, I for one am not a baker and bread is most definitely a baking job. Not only is bread one of the more complex foods to bake, even if you put every ingredient precisely as the recipe mentions them, it still won't turn out right! Because ether the atmospheric pressure has changed very slightly, or the wind isn't blowing in the correct direction. Bread making is hard and I have a lot of respect for people who can do it correctly.

If you've read through all of this, damn that's dedication thank you and I applaud thee. I hope you enjoyed, and were amused.

[aenariasbookshelf]

Quarantine Cuisine

As requested by @meilan-firaga and @awriter314, a detailed recap of the contents of my pantry and fridge/freezer, at which point you will realize that I eat macaroni way too much.  I hope that, through this, everyone out there can learn about some easy and useful ideas that they can take into their own homes for when they Just Don’t Feel Like Cooking Anymore. 

Because really, the cooking burnout is becoming A Thing for all of us, the ones who are staying home to do their part that way, and for those of us who are out there on the front lines of everything dealing with all of the insanity.  Hopefully, the recipe ideas we come up with here will help everyone, not just me.  And omg, so many dishes to wash...

Anyway: here are the contents - let’s see what magic we can do.

Ingredients below the cut, because this is gonna get long.

pasta/noodles bucatini udon noodles plain ramen noodles orechiette pastina elbows kraft mac n cheese

grains farro harvest grain mix couscous rolled oats

rice jasmine rice arborio rice

legumes chick peas red beans black beans white beans

bread and other carbs corn tortillas half a loaf of bread

vegetables/fruit tomato paste diced tomatoes passata (pureed tomatoes) black olives green chiles preserved lemons fruit cups giardiniera sweet potatoes - fresh 1 spaghetti squash of dubious origin (aka it’s been in the fridge for a while) lemons - fresh limes - fresh onions - fresh shredded cabbage - fresh apples - fresh oranges - fresh frozen fruit (strawberries and cherries) frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, corn, spinach, mushrooms) garlic ginger

meat/fish bacon precooked meatballs canned tuna canned salmon pepperoni tuna steaks shrimp mahi-mahi strips ground beef london broil chicken thighs

dairy-ish/cheese cheese dip oat milk butter plain greek yogurt cream   shredded cheese (vegan and milk based)

non-meat proteins eggs (my vegetarian sister eats eggs, therefore I classify them as non-meat, don’t at me) faux mandarin chicken bites faux popcorn chicken condiments cocktail sauce sweet chili sauce salsa verde mustard hoisin sauce honey vinegar (malt, red wine, apple cider) maple syrup bbq sauce hot sauce oyster sauce fish sauce chili garlic paste soy sauce

baking stuff almond flour flour (and appropriate leavening agents) sugar cornmeal almond extract vanilla extract orange extract brown sugar

pantry-other (aka I couldn’t think of where else to classify these) coconut milk peanut butter and strawberry jelly (in separate containers, of course) canned soup pickles seaweed miso bullion (chicken, beef, tomato) nutritional yeast pot stickers

*passes out in a pile of groceries*

PS - this does not include the contents of my snack cabinet.  Suffice to say though, that I am well stocked when it comes to both sweet and savory munchies.

[the-english-student-studyblr]

The Student Store Cupboard (and what to do with it)

There are a few things that I always make sure I have in my cupboards/fridge/freezer when I’m at uni. With a few simple recipes, you can have a very varied and balanced diet without breaking the bank, so here are my tips.

Cupboard:

- Bread rolls and other bread-like things for breakfast (like bagels or toasting muffins) - depending on where you go, a pack of 6 rolls can be as cheap as 30p and they can be used for sandwiches or to dip in soup or, if they go stale, you can blitz them up to make breadcrumbs.

- Pasta - the student staple. I got a 3kg bag from tesco for under £2 at the beginning of term and I still haven’t finished it yet. There are loads of things you can do with pasta that are super cool, quick and easy to make.

- Spaghetti - different from pasta because I use it for different things. I’m an absolute heathen and use spaghetti instead of noodles for stir-fry because it’s cheaper. A really cheap 500g pack of spaghetti can cost as little as 20p and you can use it for everything you would use pasta for and more.

- Onions - I use onions for everything. Pasta, chilli, curry, anything that needs a little something extra to bulk it up, stick an onion in there. They keep forever.

- Lentils - similar to onions in that they keep for ages. I mainly use lentils for soups and for bolognese/chilli. If I have potatoes around, I might use them for a shepherd's pie. Basically, anything you’d use minced meat for you can substitute for lentils and it’s amazing. If you want a really easy, slightly more exotic but still filling meal, look up mujadara. It’s a middle-eastern dish that’s basically just onions, lentils and rice. It’s awesome.

- Rice - a bag of rice is cheap and will last ages. The measurements are really easy: just use double the amount of rice in water (1 cup rice = 2 cups water) and leave it to cook over a low-ish heat. Useful for lots of things too.

- Tins of beans, chickpeas etc. - another good source of plant protein that’s ridiculously cheap but also versatile. Beans are great for chilli and burritos/tacos/whatever else you’d use beans for and chickpeas make a great curry. I’ve also discovered that you can make a great filling meal from chickpeas, vegetables and pearled barley. Tinned food literally lasts forever. 

- Tuna - Tuna. Pasta. Bake. Enough said. Also good for sandwiches.

- Pesto sauce - A jar can last up to a month in the fridge. Sometimes if I get bored, I put it on my sandwiches. Great with fish too.

Fridge:

- Peppers - Use in all cooked meals. Also for snacks. Vegetables are good for you and have loads of vitamins so make sure you stock up.

- Carrots - Same reason as peppers. They seem to last ages in our fridge if I don’t eat them within a week which is good. Also, carrots and houmous? Delicious. The ‘carrots help you see in the dark’ thing might be false but they are good for your eyes.

- Tomatoes - All the pasta dishes need tomatoes (unless it’s mac and cheese)

- Stir fry sauce - I’m lazy and don’t want to spend money buying the ingredients to make my own so I just buy whatever’s cheapest. Ignore the use-by dates. I had a jar of black bean sauce in my fridge for months and it was still perfectly safe. I probably make stir-fry about once a week so getting a bottle or jar works out very cheap in the long run.

- Cream cheese - I normally have the garlic and herb kind. It makes a great pasta sauce when you mix it in with a little butter and maybe some milk if you have it.

- Butter - It’s essential. You can’t live without butter (or spreadable margarine anyway)

Freezer:

- Frozen vegetables - I usually have at least peas, sometimes sweetcorn etc. as well. It’s great because you can just add it to your boiling pasta and it’s done by the time you need it.

- Chicken/chicken-style pieces - I actually normally get the quorn pieces because they work out cheaper but I know people who hate it so if that’s you then get some chicken. If you’re going for the meat route, don’t buy it already chopped into pieces and look at the price per kg to get the best deal. Check out the freezer section and the reduced rack.

- Fish - I try to get salmon but Aldi has cod for cheaper so last time I got that instead. Fish is really good for you! It has loads of protein, little fat and loads of good fatty acids and omega 3. It’s also pretty versatile and lasts ages. If you buy it frozen you can normally get a month’s worth for around £3.

- Bulk made meals - I always cook huge batches of food at the beginning of term and freeze it for later. At the moment, I have 4 containers of soup, 1 of bolognese/chilli and 1 of chickpea curry. I ran out of tupperware containers and had to buy more after making the soup. Cannot recommend enough.

Recipes:

Recipe for vegetable soup here

Previous recipes post here 

One-pot Tomato Pasta:

Ingredients:

- Tomatoes

- Onion

- Pasta

- Herbs and spices (basil, oregano etc.)

- Other vegetables and proteins (optional)

Method:

1. Finely chop your onions and brown them in the pot that you’ll cook your pasta in (add some garlic if you have some fresh)

2. Chop your tomatoes and add them to the pot along with any other vegetables or proteins you might be using.

3. Add the pasta and a little water (just enough that the combined mix covers the water but not enough that you could cook pasta in it on it’s own.)

4. Stir and add herbs and spices.

5. Cook over a medium heat until the pasta is soft and the tomatoes have broken down to make a sauce.

 Stir-fry

Ingredients:

- Noodles or spaghetti or rice (whichever you’d rather use)

- Assorted vegetables (peppers, carrots etc.)

- Meat or meat substitute

- Stir-fry sauce of your choosing

Method:

1. Boil the noodles.

2. While the noodles are cooking, fry the vegetables and meat/substitute until cooked through.

3. Add sauce to the pan with the veggies etc. (+ a little water if necessary - for sauces like hoisin it is necessary) and lower the heat.

4. Add the noodles to the pan if there’s enough room, if not just mix it all together on the plate.

Chickpea Curry:

Ingredients:

- Chickpeas

- Tomatoes (either tinned or fresh. If fresh I’d recommend sing tomato paste as well)

- Spices (curry powder, paprika, cumin, turmeric etc. Basically, all the spices in your spice rack/cupboard)

- Onion

- Rice

- other veggies (I recommend spinach or peppers)

Method:

1. Set the rice up to cook (for 1 cup of cooked rice, use half a cup of dried rice and 1 cup of water) over a low heat

2. Brown the chopped onions in another pot.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and other vegetables.

4. Crush some of the chickpeas against the side of the pot with the back of teh spoon or a fork.

5. Add spices

6. Cook until thickened slightly and the rice is cooked

Mujadara:

Ingredients:

- Lentils (brown NOT RED, RED LENTILS JUST BREAK DOWN TO MUSH DON’T MAKE MY MISTAKE)

- 4x the amount of water as lentils (1 cup lentils : 4 cups water)

- Onion

- Rice

Method:

1. Place the lentils in a small saucepan with half of the water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat and simmer, cover until the lentils are par-boiled (10-12 minutes). Remove from the heat, drain the lentils and set them aside.

2.  Cook the onions until they are dark golden brown, darker than typical caramelized onions (about 40 minutes), sprinkle the onions with a teaspoon of salt as they cook.

3. Carefully pour the remaining water in, bring the water to a boil over high heat, and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir the rice and par-cooked lentils into the onion mixture. Cover and bring back to a boil. Stir in a healthy pinch of salt and the black pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice and lentils are both cooked through (about 20 minutes). Serve the Mujadara hot or at room temperature.

[dashlung62-blog]

Rye Bread

Rye bread made without yeast. A rye soda bread recipe that will make you fall in love with rye flour.

I have a quick love letter to write today, and I hope you’ll indulge me.

It’s part love letter, but really, I want to let you know which cookbooks I use in my kitchen several times a week. If you reach for a cookbook on a weeknight, or if you reach for a cookbook more than once a week, it’s a good sign.

I have a coffee nook in my kitchen, well, I’m a tea drinker, so I should call it a tea nook, but it was clearly designed as a coffee station. Anyway, since I have no need for a coffee maker, espresso machine, or any of those other coffee tools in my nook, I keep a small selection of cookbooks on the counter.

It’s well-thought-out; it’s the books I love the most and use the most. Not just beautiful books that inspire me, it’s incredible books that make me want to get in the kitchen and cook that very instant. Often, the pages have food splatters and can be a bit sticky, but that’s even better for me.

The cookbooks that I use the most are written by Heidi Swanson from 101cookbooks.com. I first discovered her when I moved to California, and upon first meeting, I believe I told her that she taught me everything I know about California cuisine.

Heidi taught me how to shop at and how to love farmer’s markets, and she taught me about Deborah Madison and all the other great chefs in California that are paving/had paved the way for eating REAL food. Because of Heidi, my top factor when choosing food is where was it produced and how was it produced.

I reach for her cookbooks after every farmer’s market haul. Her stuff is vegetarian, yes, but it’s the most flavorful, unique vegetarian food I’ve ever had that makes you never miss the meat, honest!

In full disclosure, my husband and I are part-time vegetarians. While most people do ‘meatless Monday’ and take one day off each week from meat, we actually only eat meat one day a week or so. It’s not uncommon for us to call instant pot mac and cheese with a salad a Monday night dinner, and enjoy a my orzo pasta salad with feta or my pesto tortellini salad later in the week. Our one meat day might include my honey garlic chicken thighs.

But did you notice a theme? My vegetarian meals rely heavily on pasta. Not Heidi’s.

Heidi’s recipes are inventive and far from your standard vegetarian recipes. I own all of her books, and I cook from them often.

Super Natural Every Day is the one I grab the most, though I am working my way through the very beautiful Near & Far.

Her dish called Otsu is something I make for company, especially company that has food allergies. Plus, it’s my belief that she invented baked oatmeal, and the world is a much better place for it.

More details about this rye bread made without yeast:

Today, I’m sharing with you her recipe for rye bread. It doesn’t have any yeast, and is technically a rye soda bread. It bakes up so crunchy, crusty, and beautiful that it took my breath away the first time I made it years ago.

As I baked this rye bread recipe for possibly the one-hundredth time to photograph this for you, it still took my breath away when it emerged from the oven.

I can’t help but run my finger over the indentations made with the knife before baking–that’s where the real CRUST emerges.

Soda bread made without deep slashes is now dead to me–this is the only way forward.

Honestly, I can’t believe I get to count Heidi as one of my friends. She inspires me so much. A woman who can make bread with just 4 ingredients that tastes this good is an angel.

I keep rye flour in my house now to make this rye bread whenever I have soup or stew on the stove. It comes together so quickly, and serving homemade bread with a meal makes me feel like I’ve got my life together.

For some strange reason, my daughter isn’t that into carbs, unless gnocchi is involved, and she frequently licks the butter off bread and leaves the bread.

However, she loves this rye bread. The dark color scared her at first, so I served it with the dill butter that Heidi recommends in the book, and it sold her. Most commonly, I serve it with salted European-style butter.

Is rye bread gluten free?

No, it’s not. I wanted to answer that question, because I know it will come up.

It’s important to me that Camille learns to love bread and carbs, because there are so many B vitamins in whole grains. I am so grateful this rye bread recipe helps me accomplish that goal.

Rye flour can be a tough sell when it comes to whole grains, but I’ve been working it into my pancakes for two recipe, and I’m considering adding some to my small batch crepes recipe, too.

Ok, onto the recipe now. I hope you love this homemade rye bread recipe made without yeast. It will quickly go into your Fall rotation for serving alongside soup, and I’m sure it will find its way out again for St Patrick’s Day since it’s technically soda bread.

Rye Bread

Christina Lane

Yields 1 small boule

Homemade rye bread made without yeast.

15 minPrep Time

50 minCook Time

1 hr, 5 Total Time

Ingredients

2 1/3 cups (9.75 ounces) rye flour

1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt

2 cups (475 mL) buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400, and ensure a wire rack is in the middle position. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a large bowl.

Make a well in the center of the flours and pour in all of the buttermilk at once. Stir just until a dough forms.

Scoop the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 30 seconds to bring it together.

Using your hands, press the dough into an even flat disk.

Sprinkle the top of the dough disk with about 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour.

Next, make 4 deep slashes into the dough, about two-thirds of the way through. Be careful not to cut all the way through.

Bake for 30 minutes, and then move the dough to the top rack of the oven. Bake for another 20 minutes to crisp up the surface.

Let cool on a wire rack completely before serving with salted butter.

7.8.1.2

2024

https://www.dessertfortwo.com/rye-bread/

Source: https://www.dessertfortwo.com/rye-bread/

[jokehockey44-blog]

sunken black forest cake

My kids will be at least 25% candy for the rest of the week, as the season demands. If it doesn’t come individually wrapped, if the first, second, or third ingredient isn’t chocolate, a food dye, or high fructose corn syrup, if it doesn’t have a marketing tie-in with Spongebob or Legos, they’re not eating it. Which means, since they’ve now definitely left the room, we get this cake all for us. You’re welcome, because we’re not going to share it anyway.

This whole fall — save a brief but devoted two weeks of apple pie studies — I have craved chocolate almost nonstop, and I don’t mean at perfunctory square of 72% and calling it a day. I mean, chocolate éclairs and chocolate brownies and molten chocolate cakes and chocolate pot de cremes and so when I spied this riff on a black forest cake in Julia Turshen’s new cookbook, Now & Again, I really couldn’t think about anything else until I made it.

We’ve talked about Julia Turshen before. This avocado-cucumber salad remains my favorite thing I’ve spied on the side of a plate on Instagram, ever; these merguez patties are still a weeknight favorite. I’ve always loved the way she assembles meals for friends and family. She so naturally answers the forever question, but what should I serve with it?, that when I learned her new book was built around collections of recipe that both work together but also new recipes to make with their leftovers, I couldn’t wait to dig in. The menus are fun and delightfully unpredictable — Red-Checked Tablecloth Late Saturday Lunch but also a No-Stress Thanksgiving — but my favorite, the one I’d like to believe was written just for me, the girl who loved going to steakhouses when she was a vegetarian because the sides are so good, is the Steak House Dinner for Vegetarians. Maple syrup old fashioned! Wedge salad! Stuffed mushrooms! Charred broccoli! Baked potatoes with horseradish and cheddar! And as a finale: this cake.

Let’s be absolutely clear: this is not a traditional black forest cake. A black forest cake (the German Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte), is a chocolate layer cake sandwiched with whipped cream and boozy cherries, finished with shaved chocolate and more cherries. It’s fancy. It’s complex. We’ll make one… one day. But this is for today, with everything good about the layer cake, abbreviated: a fudgy-centered, puffy-edged flourless chocolate cake that sinks in the center after it bakes. This space perfectly allows for a raft of barely sweetened whipped cream. And then, instead of imagining for a moment that anyone wishes to chase down sour cherries in October, she recommends using storebought cherry preserves and adding kirsh. I found several online; this was my favorite (it reminded me of Luxardo cocktail cherries) but there are plenty of other great ones out there. Honestly, the cake doesn’t “need” it — it works without the cherry sauce — but it’s so good, I do. Grownups need candy too.

Previously

One year ago: Bakery-Style Butter Cookies Two years ago: Winter Squash Pancakes with Crispy Sage and Brown Butter and Broken Pasta with Pork Ragu Three years ago: Salted Peanut Butter Cookies, Baked Potatoes with Wild Mushroom Ragu and Twinkie Bundt Four years ago: Carrot Cake with Cider and Olive Oil, Homemade Harissa, and Cauliflower Cheese Five years ago: Apple Slab Pie and Potato and Broccoli Frittata Six years ago: Seven years ago: Homesick Texan Carnitas Eight years ago: Cauliflower and Parmesan Cake and Spiced Applesauce Cake Nine years ago: Apple Cider Doughnuts and Cauliflower with Almonds, Raisins and Capers Ten years ago: Meatballs and Spaghetti and Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad and Pumpkin Swirl Brownies Eleven years ago: Pumpkin Butter and Pepita Granola and Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup Twelve years ago: Easiest Baked Mac-and-Cheese

And for the other side of the world: Six Months Ago: Triple Coconut Cream Pie 1.5 Years Ago: Pistachio Cake 2.5 Years Ago: Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka, Perfect Garlic Bread and Shaved Asparagus Frittata 3.5 Years Ago: Obsessively Good Avocado Cucumber Salad and Strawberry Rhubarb Soda Syrup 4.5 Years Ago: Lamb Meatballs with Feta and Lemon

Sunken Black Forest Cake

Servings: 8 to 12

Time: 2hr 30mins

Source: Adapted from Now & Again

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This recipe is adapted from the flourless chocolate cake in the Buvette cookbook, a project Turshen worked on. However, in the Buvette, the recipe has more butter and sugar; in Turshen’s book, it has less. When I tested it, my happy place was in the middle — too little sugar and the cake was dry, too much and the sweetness of the preserves overwhelm — and that’s what I’ve shared below. The kirsh in the cherries both loosens them and gives them a little kick. If you don’t have it, try light rum. If you don’t use either, try a tablespoon each of lemon juice and water.

Cake

12 tablespoons (170 grams or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed

12 ounces semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips (2 cups), or chopped chocolate

6 large eggs, separated

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, distilled white vinegar, or apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

To finish

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons granulated sugar, or more to taste

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour or regular cherry preserves

2 tablespoons kirsch (sour cherry brandy, optional)

Make the cake: Heat butter and chocolate together until about 75% melted in the microwave or over the lowest heat in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir until it’s finished melting and is smooth. Let it cool while you prepare the rest of the cake.

Heat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Coat the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. Set it aside.

Place egg whites in the bowl a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, in a large bowl and use a handheld electric mixer, or use a large whisk and a lot of elbow grease. Beat on medium-high speed until they’re foamy, then slowly pour in the lemon juice and half the sugar, continuing to beat until the egg whites are billowy and almost glossy and hold a soft peak. This is important: try not to overbeat them until they’re stiff and tight foam-looking; it leads to more dry cakes. Set the egg whites aside (if you only have one stand mixer bowl, scrape them into a separate bowl so you can use it again).

Place the egg yolks, remaining sugar, and salt into an empty bowl and beat on medium speed until thick and pale yellow, about 1 to 2 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly pour in the chocolate-butter mixture, and mix well. Use a rubber spatula to fold one-third of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate cake batter to lighten in. Fold half the remaining egg whites in carefully, then the second half. Turshen says to fold them into the batter by “cutting your spatula downward through the middle of the bowl, scraping it along the bottom of the bowl, and then pulling the mixture back up… folding them with the batter.”

Transfer batter to prepared cake pan and smooth the surface. Bake until the center is puffed up, and just barely firm/dry to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few dry crumbs clinging to it, about 35 to 40 minutes. Try not to overbake it (the chocolate at the edges will smell toasty) or that cake can taste dry at the edges. Place the cake on a wire rack to cool completely; it will sink in the center.

To finish: Once cake is completely cool, beat the cream, sugar, and vanilla together until medium peaks form (I overbeat mine, whoops). In a small bowl, combine combine the preserves and kirsh.

Use a knife to loose then edges of the cake from the pan and invert it onto your rack. Peel off parchment paper, then invert it back onto a serving plate. Spoon the whipped cream into the center and then the preserves mixture on top. Cut into wedges and serve.

Do ahead: Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for 3 days, however, if the cherry-cream appearance doesn’t look great after a couple hours, although this has no effect on taste. To avoid this, you can just put the cherries on as you’re serving the cake in slices.

Source: https://smittenkitchen.com/2018/10/sunken-black-forest-cake/

[mykatesingh-blog]

  On Fridays, I take my 5-year-old to Fox Walkers in Nevada City.  I’m a homeschooler and I’m creating and foraging for classes that will teach him to appreciate Mother Earth and make friends from like-minded families.  This class is out in the woods and teaches the 4 elements of earth and Native American ways.  They do all sorts of great stuff like hike, track animals, analyze skeet, finding clay and making things (he tried making me a coffee cup, God bless that boy), sit around fires and sing, play drums, get dirty, build things out of sticks.  Perfect for a boy.  Arjan already has two friends named Oliver and Durin.  He is learning the art of storytelling and singing.  This is real school as far as I’m concerned.

We are a strange family, I’m part modern and get the itch to shop just like everyone else.  The other side of my personality is green and sustainable, old-fashioned and crazy frugal.  I’m conservative and a hippy tree hugger.  I’m working on balancing this out.  One thing I have made peace with is that I just can’t shop at the box stores or Walmarts any longer.  They represent all the many things I find disappointing with this new age.  Not to mention I feel I need a spiritual scrub down and exorcism each time I leave that store.  There is a certain crowd that gathers at that watering hole and they scare me when I think the group represents modern times.  Of course, there are the grandmothers and me that bring balance but there is only so much we can do.

I’m a Libra at heart and I love all that is lovely and quaint.  I love the old Victorian because back then homes and products were made to last and made charming and sweet.  Look at old homes with the details or the old parts of town that were made for walking and gathering.  Old buildings shadowed by the ugly, cold steel and cement of the modern skyrise.  So sad.

Anyway, let’s talk shop.  I prefer the local health food coops for their cozy, wholesome and sustainable feel.  I have found one in Grass Valley so when I drop Arjan off in the forest with his Fox Walkers group, Sammy and I go to the Briar Patch Coop and get our drinks, his cocoa, and my soy latte, and we do all the weeks shopping.  I love the cozy lights, the smell of sprouts, yeast, and lavender, the healthy customers that look like they will be taking a morning hike after they purchase their carrots and granola.

Sammy and I explore new vegetables and find the best apples.  I’m an apple connoisseur.   We collected different colored and shaped pumpkins to decorate with.  He gets a free banana or apple of his choice on the house and we have a produce man that is a celebrity to us since the boys saw his photo on the website.  We love his french carrots and eat bags of them like a horse.

After the shopping that we go about like a tourist, we select delectables from the deli and bakery.  When we’ve paid for all our goods we sit in the cafe by the window and dine together.  Sammy and I discuss deep topics such as why one doesn’t put pepper on their lemon poppyseed muffin and that goes for salt as well.  I attempt to read the San Francisco Chronicle that has made it all the way up there in the forest town.  I am instantly disgusted and turn back to the discussion of the real purpose of salt and pepper.  That is a much more satisfying topic.  We then put the groceries in the truck and take a walk with our drinks to take pictures of fall foliage and walk a trail that leads to the local college and collect pine cones on the way.

This is a very fun time for us and we look forward to every Friday.  Who would think that grocery shopping could be so lovable?

Now, shopping at the local health food store or coop can be very pricey.  Everything is organic and natural and it ain’t easy growing food and making products without the aid of chemicals.  It’s labor intensive.  That is why it cost more.  Read The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball and you’ll have a great appreciation for real food.

Why pay those crazy prices?  Because food and products made organically means that nothing was poisoned and ruined and destroyed or killed beyond recognition with hideous poisons that are proven to cause cancers and other diseases that we are always “fighting”.  This fight against cancer could be cut very short if we actually removed the root of the problem.  For example, recently it has been determined that yes, Round Up causes cancer.  You would think they would have a worldwide emergency round up of this Round-Up and ban it completely and promptly.  No, they just put a small label on it so your dingy neighbor will probably still spray the hell out of his yard and the fumes and runoff will come into your healthy yard.  Stupid.  But let’s get out there in pink t-shirts and march against cancer.  Hey, why don’t we march against corporate farming, Monsanto, and Round Up and similar chemicals?  Would that be too forward?

When you pay the extra money you pay for healthy soil, clean water, clean air, healthy ecosystems, healthy birds, bees, and farm workers.  You pay for no cancer and disease which saves you so much time, pain, money, doctors visits, and your families hardship in the end.  Wow, put that way it seems like not that much to pay.

The other great benefit is that organic food, free range, grass fed, cruelty-free, old-fashioned farmed food tastes great!

I hear all the time “but when people are poor they just want to fill their bellies”.  I get that and there are times you just can’t do all that organic and free-range feeding.  However, when you eat real food loaded with nutrition, it does fill you up and you are less hungry.  When you are eating dollar burgers or mac and cheese you are getting fatter but feel hungry all the time because your body isn’t getting any real nutrition to actually work with.  That is another long health and nutrition dialogue and I am bored already.

Here is how you take that small coin purse or EBT card and make it happen.  And yes, I have done the coop on an EBT card.

First, you join the coop because you will get discounts and can do a lot of wholesale bulk purchasing.  You can volunteer a few hours now and then to get a 10% discount and they have sales all the time.

I joined for $10 every 6 months until I pay off $200.  I just ordered some Quorn Turkey roast (faux turkey made out of mushrooms) in a case and saved so much.  Usually, it’s $9.99 a roast but with the wholesale case and discount, I got it for around $5.55 a roast.  You can order bulk beans, rice, flour and so on.  You save 30% to 50% when it’s all totaled up.

Eating very clean helps.  If you eliminate the snacks and healthy junk food you save.  If you cook from scratch you save big time.  I purchased tortillas out of sheer laziness the other day and it was $6 for a pack of those flour delights.  I could make 3 packs for $1 at home.  Lesson learned…again.

When you only buy rice, beans, flour, wheat, produce in season…you spend very little.  You can buy bulk and choose the brown rice that is the least expensive.  Pintos are the cheapest and think of all the bread and tortillas you can make from a 25 lb bag of flour and wheat.  You can even make your own pasta easily.  That’s next on my bucket list.

If you love your meat and eggs and dairy then get the loose eggs.  Some stores have a bowl of eggs. You bring your own carton.  Get whole chickens.  A whole chicken can last a family a week.  We don’t need to eat all that meat.  In the old days and in other countries meat is a garnish, not the whole meal.  Move over Adkins we need to de-clog that heart valve.

Dairy is not something I recommend.  My son used to get all sorts of ear infections until I cut it out.  Both my sons had chronic and mucusy colds all the winter long.  Now they get sick a day in the Fall.  Butter is a luxury.  Use sparingly or learn to use vegetable stock or make your own bone broth from the leftover chicken carcass.  This is for simmering.

You may say, “rice, beans, wheat? How boring?”  No, no senora or senor or senorita!  I can’t even list what you can do with these main items.  Just get a bag of onions, tons of garlic and some olive oil and sea salt and you will be a chef in no time.

Potatoes.  God, I love the spud.  French fries (baked of course), baked, au gratin, casseroles, soups, hash browns, country fries…

I’ll write another blog on “what to do with boring foods”.

With produce in season, you can whip up amazing salads, snack on fruit.  Eating with the seasons is more flavorful and smart.  God knew what he was doing when he made oranges ripe in the winter.  Baked squash and corn in the cold weather…yummy!

You can also start growing your own food and raise a few hens.  That supplements.  A fruit tree in the front yard?  seeds and trees and hens are cheap and give you food for years.  And that doesn’t get any more organic than that.

I’ll be back with more ideas and tips as I master this coop business.

  How to do all your shopping at your local health food store on a tight budget. And why it’s a great idea. On Fridays, I take my 5-year-old to Fox Walkers in Nevada City.  I'm a homeschooler and I'm creating and foraging for classes that will teach him to appreciate Mother Earth and make friends from like-minded families.