Valentine's Day Goodies / Candy Rings

I got excited about making candy rings and this is my first try. I made some to give as Valentine's Day gifts...shhh, don't tell! First I made some from a traditional hard candy recipe. They worked pretty well. Then I tried some using agave syrup. They also worked pretty well, plus they're much easier on the body. The agave candy doesn't get quite as hard as the traditional hard candy, but it is clear and tastes nice. It's the easiest recipe ever:

Ingredient: agave (as much or as little as you like)

Directions:

1 Heat agave syrup in a saucepan on High until it reaches 330 degrees Farenheit or until the syrup forms a hard ball when dropped in ice water.

2 Pour hot syrup into greased candy molds, or onto a sheet of greased parchment paper or a silicone mat.

3 Let cool for 20 min or until completely cooled, then remove candy from molds and eat! You can dust them with powdered sugar then package in an airtight container to save for later.

Helping Opa plow the snow

Brmmmm, Brrrrrrmmm

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Here is the chocolate cake recipe I make all the time (at least every other month).

Moist and Tender Devil's Food Cake

Regular, or natural, cocoa like Hershey's can be used with good results, though the cakes will bake up a bit drier, redder, and with slightly less chocolate flavor. If you don’t have a standing mixer don’t worry, an electric hand mixer works fine.

Makes three 8-inch cakes

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate , chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups water (boiling)
1 1/2 cup whole grain kamut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus extra for greasing pans
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract { 2 to 3 drops of coffee flavoring can be added to make a deeper chocolate flavor }

( This cake is very light and fluffy, sometimes even crumbly because the kamut has less gluten than wheat. Sometimes I add an extra egg to counter this, although I usually do not add the extra egg and it still works beautifully. )

1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, grease three 8-inch cake pans with butter and line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round. Combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large sheet parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

2. Place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combine.

3. Divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with rubber spatula. If baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack. Bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes (My cake pans are pretty heavy duty and actually require a longer cooking time by at least 5 minutes, sometimes more. Start checking at this point though). Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around pan perimeter to loosen. Invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.

How a foodie family does Sunday dinner

Family dinner with the Blackies is a major affair. We usually arrive around 5 to 5:30. Janet has usually already decorated the dining room. She'll often decorate to follow the theme for the day. This one is Easter dinner 2008.

Everyone snacks a bit either on appertizers someone has prepared, or a dish that get finished before the rest. This time Janet had made a bread bunny, with dip in the belly and veggies all around. Note the darling radish mice!
Sometimes we bring our dishes already made, but there is often still work to do to get the meal ready. The finished serving plates are moved to the dining room.

Everyone dishes up and we eat. Sometimes we don't all get to sit down at the same time. If everything isn't ready simultaneously we go in and out, and eat as we go, but this time we made it all together.I don't know how many recipes we made for this Easter dinner, but we've been known to have up to 27 recipes created for one meal (although it's usually closer to 7 recipes per meal). We've eaten a lot of delicious things this last year since the tradition got started. Thanks to Bridgette for helping get us started on a fun family event. Although we've always gotten together to eat over the years, about a year ago Bridgette started talking about doing themed meals and bringing her multitudinous cookbooks and recipes resources to family dinners to get us all on board. It didn't take long, as everyone is into food around here. Thanks to Janet for the great setting, the fun space and fun toys for the kids to play with while all the adult foodies revel in food fun, and thanks to her for her good spirits and patience in the midst of the chaos. Thanks to Donny for being a great "dish monster". And lastly, thanks to everyone else for all the amazing food, and fun times.

Hide and Seek

This little boy's favorite hiding spot is in the small space between the piano, the couch, and the side tables in the corner of the living room.

Playing, reading, eating the camera lens cap

It surely sounds presumptuous or maybe vain, but it's true, my babies are the cutest ever! I mean, just look at this little guy. Have you ever seen anything cuter? (Don't answer that, I know you haven't!!) A friend once told me that every parent's baby is the the most beautiful in the world...which is surely also true, and that's how it should be. I love shooting pics in this room because of the warm buttery yellow walls, and the lovely diffusion of light due to the thick white curtains covering the south facing window. It's a comforting, warm place with soft light, and looks yummy, like yellow cake with buttercream frosting. (See pms 1345)

Jack loves Sister

Wow, that wall looks bright!
"Following Sister made me tired."

Kamut Zuchini Yellow cake with Cranberries

These cupcakes were delicious!! I mixed dried cranberries into the batter before baking, then candied freeze-dried cranberries for the garnish. The candied cranberries were a bit hard to chew, so although they looked beautiful and tasted wonderful, they weren't completely perfect. This is my own recipe.

Zucchini Yellow Cake

Yield: 2 loaves or approximately 24 muffins

3 eggs
1 cup butter (2 sticks) or “Earth Balance” or “Smart Balance”
1¾ cups sugar (can use turbinado sugar)
2 cups grated zucchini (for a drier cake squeeze out excess water after shredding)
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups whole grain kamut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup dessicated coconut (optional; this makes the cake more dense)
1 cup chocolate chips or dried fruit (optional; for best results soak fruit in warm water before adding to mixture)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans or a 9x13 cake pan (grease liberally) or line with parchment paper then spray lightly with cooking oil spray. Alternately, line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter till light and fluffy. Cream in the sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating on high for about 10 seconds after each egg is added. Mix in vanilla. Mix in zucchini.

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as coconut, chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Add dry ingredients to wet and mix just until fully incorporated. Do not overmix. Pour batter into pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Muffins will bake far more quickly, approximately 18 to 25 minutes. Cake pans usually take at least 30 minutes.

When completely cooled frost with ganache or cream cheese frosting (or both... a thin layer of each. You can frost before they're cooled, just make sure they get chilled afterward.)

Note: Here is a variation for delicious cookies. Make sure to squeeze excess water from the zuchini; add 1/4 cup of rolled oats at the end. Cookies will spread so leave at least 3 inches between cookies. Make sure to bake on parchment paper. I like to spray the parchment paper lightly with cooking oil to make it easier to remove the cookies. Make sure cookies have cooled completely before removing from tray. Bake till golden brown. Start checking for doneness after 15 minutes.
Note: It is very important to make sure the cakes are COMPLETELY cool before eating. I recommend refrigerating them for at least 20 minutes. The reason: cakes with vegetables added taste nasty when warm. You have to chill the cakes, then they taste great!

Pretzel Time

Josh made pretzels. The best were the sandwiches...pretzel bread, butter, pickle, salami. Delish! Our resident pretzel tester, after some deliberation, approves heartily.

Noodle Noodle, who's got the noodle?

Josh made homemade noodles the other day. It was a fun experiment. He starts with a dough log that he whacks on the counter again and again, folding it in half between whacks, lengthening it, developing the gluten, allowing it to stretch and lengthen more, until the dough can stretch into thin strands without breaking apart.


Checking the elasticity of the dough.Voila! He's got noodles!We ate them dipped in soba sauce. Tasty!

Here is the project supervisor. I think she approved the new product.