Errands

We decided that we could be good and only run into Kitchen’s Etc without spending loads of time and money and amazingly enough we did. Tirzah has developed an addiction to Lindor truffles so we each grabbed our 3 (hers white, mine dark chocolate) and the 3 cooling racks. They did not have the cake boards I wanted so we went down to Michaels. We found the cake boards, opting to get both the 14” and 16” round ones to be on the safe side. Since I cracked into both packages during the day I was happy. We also called FL and got confirmation that they didn’t have anything really planned for the cake table. They were just going to put a tablecloth on the table so we got some fabric rose petals which were on sale to decorate with. I think they looked very nice on the table. We also got some ribbon so Tirzah could make ribbon bows for the table. She was very surprised to find that when you make a big floppy bow you only get 3 bows out of a spool of ribbon!

By this point it was more than lunchtime but we still had to go to the liquor store, the video store and the Safeway. We had planned on grabbing a quick lunch out but since the Mongolian barbeque was between the liquor store and the Blockbuster it seemed like a cool thing to do. So lunch took a little longer than planned but I think it was worth it. I bought another bottle of Chateau Monet Raspberry Liqueur (only 11 bucks and almost as good as Chamborg), and a bottle of Godiva White Chocolate (got to keep the bakers happy). Then we were off to get videos. PC was having a friend stay the night so we could not rent DVDs but we wanted something. Tirzah had never seen Moulin Rouge before so we got that, Vatel (which I hear is a wonderful foodie movie but I still haven’t managed to watch) and the DVD of Sweet Home Alabama (which I watched Sunday). Then we went to Safeway and got 10 lbs of cake flour, a 5 lb bag of sugar and some Rubbermaid containers to hold my dry ingredients in. Also we got another pound of ground beef for dinner, and a couple other things but I can’t remember what they were. Finally we were done and headed back to the house. We made a stop for a guest parking permit and then back to cooking.

When we got back to the house I put the cakes that had already been baked onto the cake boards and we started thinking about frosting them. Only thinking about it, because first we had to make some more cakes. I poured a squeeze bottle of the Raspberry Liqueur and started drenching the cakes. I remember wondering if we should slice off the tops to obtain a consistent size, which we had talked about doing, and Tirzah saying that she thought we didn’t need to. Mental note: I wish I had gone ahead and sliced the cakes. I think it would have made a better-looking cake. Another round of 6” and 10” went into the oven, then the 12” and finally the 8”. Somewhere – I think between the 12” and the 8” we decided to break for dinner.

Tirzah made “it don’t suck” which is our pet name for Hamburger Helper made from scratch. Last year I experimented with the Atkins diet. I don’t think I lost much weight and I know that whatever I lost I gained back but I did come away with the recipe for IDS, which made the experience worth it. Every time I make IDS lately we do it slightly differently but every time it truly doesn’t suck. First you take hamburger, usually about a pound, and brown it. Then you add veggies. Usually I add onion, broccoli and mushrooms, which were in the original recipe, but lately we’ve been adding more things, like green pepper. This time Tirzah added fresh asparagus. Then you add spices (the recipe calls for IIRC, salt, pepper and onion salt). This is where Tirzah usually has fun. I don’t even know what she added this time, although I do remember wishing she had put more pepper in it. Here is where we truly have been playing with the recipe. After the veggies are added in, we’ve started adding noodles. Of course you need more liquid to cook the noodles than is in the recipe so we add consommé. Add a little Bovril, cook down the liquid until the noodles are cooked and then toss in some cream cheese to finish the dish off. Originally the recipe called for just the cream cheese which, when heated, becomes the sauce. Only this time, once again, we played with the recipe. While Tirzah was making dinner I was working on dessert, a.k.a. Mor’s Cheesecake. When it came time to add the cream cheese we just added some of the cheesecake filling instead. Yum! I don’t think I would do that on a regular basis, just cause I usually don’t have that many different kinds of soft cheese in the house but if I do have uncommitted cheese I now know one of the things I will be doing with it.

I promised more...more will be coming

Gee I really have a lot to write at the moment.

Okay. I really need to write this while it’s still in my mind. First thing first, Thursday night we went to get supplies. As usual I picked up more of some things than I actually need. I got 6 lbs of butter, 3 3lb blocks of cream cheese, a 5 lb tub of marscapone cheese, and either a 3 or 5 lb tub of ricotta. We also got 5 lbs of frozen raspberries, a flat of raspberries, one of blackberries and one of strawberries.

After Tirzah and I split up I went to ABC Sugarart to get some cake boxes. Of course I didn’t get all the right sizes, but I got what I THOUGHT I needed. Someday I’ll learn to plan better. I also got some more disposable icing bags and a 14” separator plate for my new candlelight stand. While I was there I was talking to Keith, one of the head guys at ABC. I told him I was about to embark on another insanity and he asked me what. I told him I was working on the Snowflake cake from the current Wilton catalog and he said he wondered if that cake was the reason that he was getting so many requests for snowflakes. He said lots of people are calling him to get him to make snowflakes because their bakers refuse to. I really need to go by there sometime in the next couple of weeks, show him the pictures of our cake and pick his brain for how he does his.

Then I went to dinner with Mom and Dad, and then drove home. Since we got the strawberries more because they were a good price than because we had plans for them, Tirzah took home half the flat. I gave Mom and Dad 3 pints of them and then Friday morning I gave the biblical couple a pint. It started snowing when we were eating and by the time I got back home the pavement felt like there was snow under the ice (the kind of surface I hate driving on the most). I nearly gave myself a heart attack pulling into the parking space as I kept sliding and I thought for sure I was going to hit PC’s truck. I managed to pull in and decided that everything was refrigerated better than I could do it in the house so I left stuff.

Friday morning I had the unusual experience of staying home while PC went off to work. Of course I barely got to sleep in with him moving around but that was okay. I knew that Tirzah had planned on calling work and telling them she could not come in if it snowed. Thursday night I had told her hubby over IM that she should call me in the morning before she left so that I could give her a shopping list. I had originally planned on going over to the storage area and cleaning out the back of my truck and then going grocery shopping on Friday but after my experience driving I decided that the less anyone was on the roads until it melted the better. I went downstairs and made myself a pot of peppermint-flavored coffee and started making sure the kitchen was clean and organized. Tirzah called at some point and I asked her to get eggs (Safeway had them on sale 99 cents for 18 so I asked her to get 3 packs), milk and cake flour. When she showed up she had forgotten the cake flour but we figured that was okay because we could always run out and get more if we really needed it.

I pulled together the pans I wanted. We were doing 4 cakes, 6”, 8”, 10” and 12”. The 8” was supposed to be done without liquor so we had something for the kids and people who don’t drink alcohol to have. With the exception of the 12” we had 3” high pans for all the sizes. I only had one 3” pan for each size with the exception of the 8” however. So we decided that we would do the 6 and 10 together, both 8’s and then the 12. This was the most efficient use of our time because the 6 and 10 could share a batch of batter, the 8’s would be done with one batch and each 12 inch layer would take a batch on it’s own. We debated adding a 14” but decided against it, which turned out to be a good thing since we never ended up cutting into the 12” cake. After making the first batch which was the first layer of the 6 and 10 set, and the second batch, which turned out to be the first 12 inch layer we discovered that we would indeed need more cake flour. I also decided that I wanted to get some more cooling racks big enough for a 12 inch cake. When we were buying things a week or so ago I had picked up one cooling grid that would work hopefully up to a 14” cake, but I only had one. All my other cooling racks are too small for a 10” cake even so I wanted to have a total of 4 of the bigger racks. We also needed to get some cake circles for the bigger sizes. So a trip to Kitchen’s Etc and Michaels was in order in addition to Safeway.

More to come

We did the cake on Friday and served it on Saturday. We learned things and I have some observations but I need to do the write up still.

No so much the flunking

I went ahead and took the cheesecake into work and people seemed to like it. It was completely gone by the end of lunch. I was told I am encouraged to bring in baked goods whenever I feel like it. :)

I have a good friend who doesn't do any form of sugar so while I was playing with the cheesecake I started thinking about her. She had gone to the Trellis Resturant in Williamsburg for lunch and raved about the savory cheesecake. While I was thinking about the cheesecake and the wedding coming up it occurred to me that it would be cool if my friend could have something while people had cake. So I started researching savory cheesecakes. I worked on one that was okay, but I had added more garlic then the recipe asked for and found to my dismay that it actually possible to use too much garlic. Oh well, PC liked it.

I talked to the wedding couple and Tirzah and we all agreed on making the cheesecakes as well as the cake. I wasn't happy with the recipe I had tried even if it was in part my fault. So now I needed to find another recipe. Tirzah and I went out Tuesday night to buy some supplies, the wedding gift and some groceries. While I had Tirzah with me we looked up some recipes and found one that we wanted to try. It was orginally calling for 3 kinds of cheese including Blue cheese and was supposed to be an appetizer. Instead we used Marscapone, Ricotta and Cream cheese. We put in some spices, used some crackers to make the crust and came out with something that tasted half way decent. I'm still not completely happy with it but at least it was a start. It added a nice touch to the party that people who have problems with sugar were able to have something as well. We ended up taking 5 of the mini cheesecakes with us and I think I brought home 2 of them. The main comment was that they were so big that people only wanted 1/2 pieces which is why we didn't run through them as quickly as we could have.