Turkey Leg Trot

Yay!

Go Mom!

Turkey Leg Trot Race.

It was freezing!

But some people were wearing shorts?!?!?!

Crazy.

She did a great job!

Alexa and I cheered for her.

Like our signs?

Alexa and me.

Mom and Dad

Mom won a gold!

Yay!

Go Mom - Wow!

Daring Cook's November Challenge

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

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I want to thank Audax and Rose for the challenge.

It truly was a challenge!

The recipe is really, really long.

I didn't post it, because I wanted more room for my pics, but go to Audax or Rose's blog to see the step by step directions.

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Before this, I had never tasted sushi (or wanted to taste it).
And now that I've tasted it-

I hate it.

Let's just get that out of the way.

The nori tastes and smells like a stagnant lake.

The rice is sticky and sweet. And not in a good way.

Although, you might remember I said here in my Pumpkin/Bulghur post
that I wasn't crazy about white rice.

It also seems like a lot of work and mess for pretty, but inedible food.

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First, the spiral sushi roll with baby corn, coconut black beans*, fried red and yellow pepper.

Ta da!



I like wasabi and peppers so I ate that.


See below for the fate of the sushi.
Bwahaha! (evil laughter)



The dragon roll.


So cute!


And so yucky!





I used fake crab sticks and fried peppers inside.


Avocado on top and red pepper for the flames.



Black beans for the eyes.




And the nigiri sushi.
I thought I might like these, because they don't have any nori.


But it's a huge chunk of rice with toppings.


I ate the tops.


Yum! Smoked cheddar cheese, rum/ginger/cinnamon syrup raisins and kiwi slices.










I ate some of the rice with coconut black beans and topped it with avocado.

It was tasty.


What did I do with all of that sushi?




My girls had a sushi party!

They didn't like the nori.

Or the rice.

Too sticky for chicken beaks.

They picked out the fillings.

Silly chickens!

They usually gobble up rice.

*Coconut Black Beans

1 cup dry black beans, rinsed

1 can coconut milk

1 small dried chile

1/2 tsp dried onion
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger powder

salt to taste

Rinse beans. Add beans and 6 cups water to med. saucepot. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 mins. Remove from burner, cover and let soak for 1 hour.

Drain beans and rinse (again).

Add rinsed beans, coconut milk and spices to the saucepot.

Simmer at med./low heat until the coconut milk volume has been reduced in half.

About 1 hour.

Beans should be tender by now, but still holding their shape.

Add salt to taste and serve.

Best Ever Challah

I'm sort of obsessed with potato water.

You may have noticed that I've used it in a lot of my recipes recently.

It's so wonderful!

The potato water makes such a difference in this bread.

It's silky, smooth and easy to handle.

Easy to handle is very important in challah, because of the 'fancy' braiding.

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Best Ever Challah

Sponge:

1 cup flour

1 cup potato water (liquid reserved from boiling potatoes)

2 tsp yeast

In a large bowl mix flour, potato water and yeast. Cover and let sit for 45 mins.

Dough:

3 1/3 cups flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

4 large eggs

Add flour and butter to the sponge ingredients. Mix until combined then add the rest of the ingredients. Turn dough out onto your work surface and knead. Dust with flour and knead again.

Place dough into a well greased bowl and cover it.

2 ways to continue: 1. Let rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours OR 2. Place covered bowl in the refrigerator for a few hours.

I chose option 2 and left it in the fridge for 18 hours. I made it the night before and baked it when I got home from work the next day. Perfect!

Either way you choose - Next, punch down dough and divide it in to 3 equal pieces. Roll the 3 pieces into 12-14 inch long ropes. On your well greased/silpat covered baking sheet braid the 3 pieces together.

Let rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Egg wash:

One egg, beaten with a little salt.

Before baking, brush loaf with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds or poppy seeds.

Bake for 40 mins or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Challah with butter and my Pure Gold Marmalade.

Don't let the braiding scare you away from trying this.

I literally made this up and figured out how to braid it, just because I had 4 eggs to use up.

Try it!

And let me know how it turns out.

Saturday Afternoon

I went over to my Mom's house on Saturday.

She had invited Alexa over for a baking lesson.

Alexa is my gardening, cooking, craft making buddy

AND best friend!

First, the important tying on of the apron.

My Mom is such a good teacher. Very, very patient and hands off. She lets you figure things out for yourself. I think that's the best way to learn how to cook.

Mom and Alexa measuring out the squash.
Notice: No canned squash/pumpkin here!
This is all home grown.



Alexa adding the squash.

Alexa separating the eggs.

My Mom gave her 3 eggs explained how to separate them and then went to the other side of the kitchen to whip up a different kind of bars.

I have to tell you about Alexa making me scrambled eggs.

It's our funny story.

Granted this happened when she was much younger (like 8).

She told me she was really good at scrambled eggs.

So, she made them and we started to eat them.

Finally, Alexa turns to me, "I think there is something wrong with your chickens. 'Cause these eggs are crunchy."

The chicken's eggs were fine, including the shells that she had dropped into them.

hee hee!

II was the official taste tester.

They tasted delicious!

Best friends forever!

I Didn't Win

Thanks everyone that voted for me in the Foodie Fights.
Check out the winners here.

If I had known the judges were looking for a breakfast item I would have entered my Pumpkin-Guinness Waffles

and just swapped out the oatmeal flour for the bulghur.

That would have been easy.

Oh, well maybe next time.

Candy Sushi - 2 Ways

ETA: I should add that the cake sushi is not too bad.

I would make it again.

But I HATE rice crispy treats, so that probably influenced my dislike of the crispy sushi.

And it's really weird to bite into a hard crispy thing and have a sticky strip of sugar flopping around on the outside.

Anyway......they look pretty.

And the cake works. It's soft and sweet, so make that type, if you make them.

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I have always wanted to make candy sushi.

It looks so neat.

Um, yeah, but it takes a lot of time and they don't taste that great.

But anyway.....here's how I spent 3 hours of my life.

For the first type of sushi I made rice crispies.

3 Tbs. butter

4 cups marshmallows

6 cups rice crispies

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I rolled them into balls and wrapped a piece of fruit-by-the-foot around each ball.

Then I decorated them using different types of candy.

For the second type of sushi I made a pound cake and cut out little circles of cake.

Then I wrapped a fruit-by-the-foot around each piece and frosted the top.

I dipped the frosted top into shredded coconut.

Then I decorated with candy.

The pink "ginger" is a chopped strawberry starkiss.

The "wasabi" is powdered sugar, water and food coloring.

Another Sad Day

Pixie died today.

There was an accident with a dog.


I'm just waiting for Charlie, Carol's husband, to bring her to my house.


Then I will bury her next to Honey.

This is a video of Pixie in July

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Well, I buried her.

I cried a lot.

She is buried between Honey and a mint plant.

My hands still smell like mint.

Update On Chicken-sitting

I have been taking care of my friend Carol's chickens while she is in London.

It has been so much fun!

I collected 13 eggs on Saturday, 9 eggs on Sunday and 11 eggs today.

Since I added the golf balls there haven't been any broken or eaten eggs.

Yay!

Like my girls, her hens are starting to be really friendly.

I pet and hug each hen, every night, before they go to sleep.

Some are starting to want to be cuddled and a few are still ambivalent.

Hopefully I can break down their standoffishness and make them snugglers.

I love a snuggly chicken!

Cuddliness: really the best reason for having chickens.

Bulghur and Pumpkin Challenge

I was excited to see the ingredients in the Foodie Fights challenge were pumpkin and bulghur.

As a child, I ate more bulghur than white rice, so I'm very familiar with the toasty grain.

Yes, I was that weird kid in school with homemade fruit leather and a thermos of chicken noodle soup at lunch.

And soup with fat, homemade noodles, not the skinny, trademarked noodles.

After much thought and cookbook research I decided to make a variation of Topig (Little Balls), an Armenian appetizer, and a sparkly Mexican pumpkin-lime soup.

Some flavors, like cinnamon, ginger, lime and pumpkin, are meant to be together.

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Bulghur (wheat)Balls

1 cup raw bulghur

2 cups boiling water

3 med. potatoes, peeled and quartered

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1 med. onion chopped

1/3 cup oil

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground allspice

1 tsp. ginger

salt and ground black pepper to taste

1 cup raisins

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1 Tbs honey

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1 egg beaten with a dash of salt and cinnamon

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Cover bulghur with the boiling water and let it steam, covered, until the bulghur is tender and the water is absorbed. Boil the potatoes until tender.

Meanwhile, saute the onions in 1/3 cup olive oil. When they are translucent and soft mix in the nuts and spices. Add the raisins and saute, stirring, until the mixture is hot. Remove from heat.

Drain the potatoes and reserve the potato water for the soup. Mash the potatoes. Combine them with the bulghur, onion-nut mixture and the honey. Add more salt and spices to taste. When cool enough to handle, form the mixture into little balls, about 2 inch in diameter.

Let bulghur balls rest for 20mins.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Dip each ball into the egg, salt and cinnamon mixture. Place on a greased or Silpat covered cookie sheet and bake for 15-25 mins., until balls begin to toast on top.

Pumpkin-Lime Soup

4 cups vegetable stock

2 cup potato water

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp ground cloves

3 cups peeled and diced firm pumpkin or butternut squash

1/2 cup lime juice

2 Tbs olive oil

1 med. onion, chopped

1 spicy dried chile or 2-3 fresh, diced chiles

28oz can of diced tomatoes

Add to taste: Hickory salt or 1/8 tsp liquid smoke, salt and pepper.

Toppings: Cilantro, toasted pumpkin seeds, thinly sliced lime.

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Saute onion with olive oil in a large stockpot. After a few minutes add chiles. When onion is translucent remove from heat and add minced garlic.

Add all of the remaining ingredients and return stockpot to the stove. Turn up heat to med-high. Cover the pot and let simmer until the pumpkin is fork tender, 15-20 mins.

Adjust salt and pepper to personal taste and serve. Offer soup with fresh or dried cilantro, toasted pumpkin seeds and sliced limes.

To serve: Ladle soup into bowls, add bulghur ball and optional toppings.

Notes and Confessions:

Unless you had an unconventional childhood like me, you might not know about bulghur. Bulghur has a very high nutritional value. It's high in protein, fiber and is low in fat and calories. It is also rich in B vitamins, vitamin E, iron, phosphorous and manganese. Its B vitamins complement the folate in vegetables such as spinach, asparagus, broccoli or brussels sprouts. Furthermore, Bulghur does not lose much of its nutrients from its minimal processing (steaming). It retains its high protein and vitamin count.

Yummy! And good for you!

Bulghur is wheat berries (seeds) that have been precooked, dried and cracked. Bulghur should never be boiled like rice or pasta. Simply, pour boiling water over bulghur, cover and allow to steam.

So in this recipe I used:

Honey - from my Grandfather's bees. He died when I was 4, so this honey is a non replenishable commodity

Egg - from Butter, my pet chicken

Sage - from my garden

Pumpkin - from my garden

Onion - from my garden

Chile - from my garden, dried by me

Potato - from my garden

Garlic - I used one big clove of elephant garlic, from my garden

I love this soup!

I ate 4 bowls. Honestly, I couldn't eat it fast enough. It has so many flavors and textures: Nutty bulghur, rich pine nuts, sweet, creamy pumpkin and sparkly lime.
The pumpkin and lime really complement each other well. The tart lime brings out the sweet pumpkin flavor. The spices are just decadent.

Multiple layers of flavor and texture. Yummy!

And the bulghur balls are delicious in the soup or just eaten on their own. I'm eating them straight out of the refrigerator!

Yum! Yum!

This was so much fun!

Check out all the competitors entries and then vote!

Mashed Potato Candy Bars

These are soooo good!

And weird.

I blind taste tested them on 30 people.

No one could guess the "secret" ingredient - mashed potatoes.

The bars did disappear really fast though. They were popular!

Some of my testers' comments, "Tastes like an Almond Joy." "Mmmm, that's good." "Do you have anymore?"

Mashed Potato Coconut Chocolate Candy Bars

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4 cups powdered sugar

4 cups coconut

3/4 cup mashed potato (no butter/milk/salt added - just plain)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbs. lime juice

1/4 tsp. ginger

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Boil 2 med. peeled potatoes until tender. Reserve potato cooking liquid for stock*. Return drained potatoes to burner;mash potatoes and add lime juice and ginger. Measure out 3/4 cup mashed potatoes**.

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In a mixer combine 3/4 cup mashed potatoes and other remaining ingredients.

Mix until completely combined.

Line a 10 in square baking pan with tin foil; grease tin foil.

Press coconut/potato mixture into the bottom of the baking pan.

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Freeze for 20 mins. or refrigerate overnight.

Top with chocolate layer - recipe below.

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*Potato water makes a wonderful addition to soups and stocks. I will be posting a soup recipe tomorrow that uses this reserved potato water.

**After taking out the 3/4 cup mashed potato, do you have extra leftover mashed potatoes?

Yum! You now have lime-ginger mashed potatoes. Add a pat of butter and eat!

Chocolate Layer

1 12 oz bag of milk chocolate chips

2 Tbs cream

2 Tbs corn syrup

Using the microwave, melt chocolate chips, cream and corn syrup in a glass bowl. Stir every 15 seconds. Remove from microwave when smooth.

Spread over coconut layer and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Remove and cut.

Eat!

One of my testers asked what the potato's purpose is in this recipe.

The potatoes are a starch and they bind with the coconut and sugar without making the bars floury, heavy, gummy or overwhelming the coconut flavor.

Instead they are light, not-too-sweet and coconutty.