Wolf's Den

Yeah, so I'm late. Between stressing over Max and accidentally leaving a few ingrediants off my grocery list, as well as running out of time, well, I didn't get it made by the Reveal date.

I did, however, make it yesterday. And man is it good. Besides, it gave me a chance to look over my bowls and realise that I needed to work on my bowl collection now, since I have well over 2 dozen various plates, after all. Heh. I added 6 bowls to my plating collection, with at least 4 more that I want to get. *headdesk*

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.



( Onward!  )

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I've never even considered making my own puff pastry. I'm one of those people who buys the Pepperidge Farms puff pastry sheets and calls it good. In fact, I have a package of THAT in my freezer now, right next to the homemade.

Then of course, time got away from me, Max had a vet appointment where we found that his liver is STILL out of whack, so back onto 3 more weeks of antibiotics via force feeding he went. Yeah, that's fun.

I was, however, determined not to miss out on this Challenge, even if it meant my puff pastry didn't puff and I failed miserably.

( Read On! )

This month's Challenge was chosen by Debyi, of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen.

I've made Dosas before. But the ones I've made used regular wheat based flour.And they most certainly weren't vegetarian/vegan.}:P In fact, this was honestly the first time I've actively tried to cook a vegetarian/vegan meal.

I will freely admit that I did not make the filling in this recipe. However, I DID stay true to the vegetarian requirements. To appease the hubby, I also baked a few herbed chicken breasts and served them along side- otherwise, he'd never even of tried them.}:P

It's a quick post, not near as long as my usual ones, nor does it really have as much acerbic humor as usual. It's been a rough 1.5 months. Next Daring Bakers or Daring Cooks post will be back to normal. I promise.


( Continue! )

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.



Oh boy.

When I first heard of the Daring Bakers, I came across this Torte. Well maybe not this particular recipe, but something similar. And I've wanted to make one ever since.

( Onward! )

Better late than never, yes? Due to vacation, then issues with Max kitty- who's STILL refusing to eat on his own, I didn't get to make this before the reveal date, let alone the week of the reveal. BUT, I did make it, I made it last night and I do not regret it.



The Challenge for August was hosted by Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes She chose a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment. Well, so she says.}:P

I hate artichokes.

From what I understand, Cuttlefish is like squid, in taste, and guess what? I detest squid.

So. Yeah.

I had to make acceptable substitutes. In my dish, I used shrimp, sea scallops and asparagus instead. I also used Turmeric, as Saffron is gods awful expensive and after all those vet bills? Yeah, can't afford it. Also used was Arborio rice, as that was the closest I could find to the suggested rices.

( But it was all worth it... )

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The July 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole of Sweet Tooth.
She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I really wanted to like this Challenge. Really, I did. After all, Milanos are one of my absolute favorite cookies.




But... I don't like Mallow cookies. Sure, I like marshmallows, I like cookies, I love dark chocolate. But... unless it's a s'more, I can't stand eating them together.

So I procrastinated doing this Challenge. Then I thought I'd just do the Milan recipe of it. Then I went ahead, and about 1.5 weeks out from posting/reveal day, I bit the bullet, tracked down Xathan Gum powder, and resolved to make the Mallows as well.

( Read on! )

When Pinch My Salt mentioned this on Facebook and Twitter, I thought it was a great idea.



I had just one issue with the whole BLT sandwich though. I hate raw tomato. I know, what's wrong with me?

I LOVE bacon, egg, cheese and lettuce sandwiches though. So how could I pass this up?



I even used leaf lettuce from my own garden in this delicous sandwich. Sharp Chedder cheese, eggs, LOTS of brown sugar cured bacon...



All on toasted whole wheat bread with a slight spread of Miracle Whip. (I know, I know, but I HATE Mayo too.)

Let's just say, this was the best lunch I've had all week. I'm thinking we should do this weekly. Ok, maybe not weekly, maybe monthly.}:P Yeah, monthly sounds good.}:P

**** Firefox HATES my long posts. So if you use FF, it will apparently cut off on you. IE seems to work otherwise. Thanks Audax for the heads up.****


This month's Challenge was hosted by Sketchy, of Sketchy's Kitchen. And it's a doozy.

In fact, when I first read what the Challenge was, my reaction was holy shit. It took a few weeks to get around to doing this Challenge. It was actually about 2 weeks before the reveal date that I even started on aspects of this one. Unusual for me, to say the least.

The main issue was trying to find actual Skate. That turned out to be impossible here. So I went with 'Previous Frozen fresh Cod, wild caught'- an oxymoron if you ask me. How can it be fresh if it was previously frozen? Hmmm.. Anyway...



As with any Challenge or baking/cooking excursion, I gather everything I think I'm going to need... and then some. And it took 2 days.

( Onward, with a guest appearence! )

This is what procrastination looks like. *nods sagely* I meant to post this, what?, 3 weeks ago. Whoops.



My private swap partner was annamosscity, who lives in Hong Kong. She really did an awesome job on filling the box too!

( More! )

There are about as many different variations of Potato Salad as there are, well, trees. No two are ever really alike, and no one person generally ever agrees on exactly what goes into it.
Hot German Potato Salad is, in many ways, no different.



I first tried it at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, Va a number of years ago, and was hooked. Mark mentioned that his paternal grandmother used to make it when he was young, but he had no idea if she ever wrote her recipe down. His mom I don't think made it, as she didn't have a recipe either. Nor did my mom.

So I went scouring the Internet. There I found quite the variety of different recipes, all claiming to be 'authentic' Hot German Potato Salad. It was staggering to say the least, as many were near carbon copies of each other.

( Onward! )

Dried Tarragon and Parsley in my handcarved apricot wood mortar. I loved the brilliant green the dried herbs created.

**** If you get cut off on viewing the post here, it's possible that IJ is having server issues, as they were moving to new servers this weekend. In which case- try here-
http://dantesspirit.dreamwidth.org/604864.html

Otherwise, I have no idea why it's cutting off at a certain point. I'm using IE8, and it works fine for me.}:( ****

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Be forewarned- this is my longest Daring Bakers Challenge post yet. I lost count at 75 photos. Yeah.



Gathering of the cast of charactors. You see, I had several jars of local made jams and jelly in the cupboard. So I figured, what better way to try them! And I love almonds. Perfect match, I should think, almonds and cranberries, or wild black raspberries, or blackberries, or cherries, or homemade apple butter, or lemon curd or lime curd, or...

Yeah.

I got abit carried away. As you'll see.

And after the actual Challenge recipe, I included a Bakewell Tart Pudding made with almond paste instead of almond meal/flour.}:P It was the first one I really made, you see. But paste wasn't what the Challenge called for, so...

( Onward we go! )

Yesterday we went by the Asian Market that's roughly a block away from the house. They carry this delicious bread that I honestly have no idea what it's called.



This is how it comes, in a bag with five 'sticks'. The bag says 'Maria's' and has the address of the company that makes it, but other than that, nothing.



Well, it does say 'Bread' and list the ingrediants. However, it says there's raisins in it. Umm, no, no there's not. There ARE , however, cranberries.



The tasty bits of nuts, cranberries, etc, are nicely balanced in the twisty sticks of bread. Every bite you get a walnut, or a cranberry or several.



The crumb is dense, moist and nicely sweetened. It's perfect as a morning breakfast or a quick snack. But I have no idea WHAT it's called besides 'bread'. Heh.



Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a bag of 'bread' to devour. Ok, maybe just these 2 sticks.

This month, Jen from Use Real Butter, hosted the Daring Cooks Challenge.
She chose a doozy, let me tell ya, in Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese).



( Hungry? Read on! )

So yesterday, I went down the street to the Goodwill store to take a look at the plates that might be there, so I could start a nice collection of plates for photographing food.

Well, I found a couple good condition plates, and then, I spotted something I'd been looking for for years...



This would be an old fashion Trifle dessert bowl. I say old fashioned because this style is rather hard to find, in my experience, and even then, they aren't over half an inch thick and extremely heavy. I've wanted one for years. Years, I say. YEARS.



The kid who rang me up said there was a chip on the bottom, did i still want it? Of course i still wanted it! I asked him if he realised how difficult it was to find one exactly like this, and that I'd been looking for years for one. Who cares about a small chip in the foot, the bowl is intact and that's what matters. Besides, you can't even SEE the chip unless you pick the thing up and look.



It was an absolute steal at $2.50 too! The most expensive thing i bought there yesterday. The plates ran from 25 cents to 50 cents each. I've no idea how much a Trifle bowl would be brand new, honestly, but most certainly not $2.50!



And now.. to make a Trifle!}:P

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of ‘make life sweeter!’ and Courtney of ‘Coco Cooks’. They have chosen Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.



I’ve never made Strudel before. And this is really, really long, with lots of photos, so settle in. Got your Tea? Good…

( On with the show... )

Drunken Goat Cheese, Genoa Salami, and Ritz crackers.

Expect a post about this weekend coming soon, more food posts, and a current work in progress beadwork post...

And Caena pics, and a video. That one up next, I do believe.

Boneless chicken breasts marinating in Blue Moon Belgian White Ale, tarragon, parsley, lemon peel, orange peel, garlic, sea salt and cracked black pepper.

To be grilled later tonight with white asparagus.

Don't you wish you were at my house tonight? }:P

Mark's boss sent home a recipe with him a few weeks ago, no name, just the recipe. She claimed it was excellent.

Well, I finally got around to making it this weekend.



Contains, technically, 3 ingrediants. But me being me, I put the garlic on the INSIDE, rather than the outside. So that makes it four ingrediants.}:P

( Are you hungry? Or just curious? )

So, last month, I posted about joining The Daring Bakers, with my Dark Chocolate-Green tea Cheesecake.

Well, with this post, I announce that I've also joined The Daring Cooks!



The Daring Cooks is a new group, affiliated with the Daring Bakers, and also resides at The Daring Kitchen. This is the very first Daring Cooks Monthly Challenge, EVER. WooHoo! Party time!

So for this Challenge, CreamPuffs in Venice and La Mia Cucina, the Founders of The Daring Kitchen, chose a recipe from The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi.

Well, what a way to inagurate the Daring Cooks, let me tell ya. I'd never made Gnocchi, let alone even eaten it. Yes, yes, I know, where the devil have I been, in a cave?

I've always wanted to make homemade ricotta though, and guess what this recipe calls for? Go on, guess! }:P

( Continued! )