This is tasty!

We had guests for dinner this evening and celebrated the Summer Solstice a day early.

I’ve had my eye on this drink recipe (courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine) since June of 2008, but just never got around to giving it a try.

 It’s a “Sunset Sangria.”

What a perfectly named drink to imbibe on a summer night, plus we started out the evening with a new Gazpacho recipe.

I was too busy getting everything ready to take photos at the time so this is the leftovers, after all the clean up is done.

The photo doesn’t do it justice.

When you pour the wine, the green lime water is on the bottom and the deep red wine floats on the top. (Plus this photo is missing the nectarine garnish).

I love a good Sangria, and I’m pleasantly surprised to find I actually like this very simple and easy recipe. 

Give it a try sometime, you might like it too!

Ingredients

2 tsp. finely shredded lime peel

1 cup lime juice

¾ cup sugar

Ice

1 750-ml. bottle Pinot Noir or Syrah, chilled

1 nectarine, pitted and sliced

Directions

1. In a 1-quart glass measuring cup combine lime peel, lime juice, and sugar; add water to equal 4 cups. Stir to dissolve sugar. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

2. To serve, place ice in six 16-ounce glasses. Add 2/3 cup of the lime juice mixture to each glass. Pouring alongside of the glass, slowly add 1/2 cup wine. Thread nectarine slices on skewers and add to glasses.

Serves 6

 Prep: 25 minutes Chill: at least 2 hours

Mother’s Day Brunch

We tried this for Sunday brunch…

Our attempt at Herbed Baked Eggs
a la Ina Garten

Our Herbed-Baked Eggs may not look like Ina Garten’s, but my-oh-my, are they ever delicious.

Barefoot in Paris Cookbook

Even the teenager liked them and said, yeah—he would eat them again.

Ina Garten's Herbed-Baked Eggs from
Barefoot in Paris

Try them!

They are truly delish and I do not think you will be disappointed.

Getting ready for Pesach…

Passover begins next Monday, at sundown.

We’ll be going to the community Seder Monday night.

I decided to get an early start this year and so cooked up a couple of chickens for the matzo ball soup, which we’ll be eating pretty much every day during Pesach.



The Legal Dude will make a brisket next weekend.

I decided to make the Pesach rolls early, just in case they don’t turn out, with the whole altitude thing going on.



I misread the recipe when making the first batch and didn’t add all the water, which actually turned out okay since high altitude baking calls for a reduction in liquid.

The second batch I did add all the water and they were a tad lose before baking, but baked nice and soft inside.



I’ll be making more this week, that is, provided I can find more matzo meal.

Now back to watching the Health Care Vote...

High Altitude Adjustments…

I’ve made five cakes since moving from sea level (or “1” as elevation at the Potomac River is designated) to over 7,000 feet.

All five recipes were from the “Cake Doctor” cookbook, in which all of her recipes begin with a boxed cake mix as the base.

The first four cakes, which I’ve documented in previous posts, turned out beautifully, as did this recent coffee cake...



from Ina Garten’s Parties cookbook.

I made it for my new gal pals who stopped in for morning coffee last week.

I’ve yet to make a cake from scratch.

This week I’ll be making Passover rolls, from Matzo meal, and I have no idea how they will turn out.

I’ll be using my father-in-law’s recipe, which in some respects reminds me of Pâte à choux.

Also, at some point (and clearly after Passover), I’d like to try a yeast bread recipe, but I’ve heard tell that bread and rolls can be difficult at high altitudes.

Recently I saw these bags of “High Altitude” flour at the Safeway and not knowing better, thought…hmm.


[Walmart Website]

I have since found this comment on several of the high altitude baking sites…

“The name confuses everyone. Many people living in Gunnison, CO (where I assume the writer is from) at an altitude of 7,700 feet (2,346 meters) above sea level, think the flour is good to use at high altitudes. Actually, it's no better than any other flour at high altitudes.

The "Hungarian" part of the name comes from the process used to mill the flour, which was developed in Hungary in the 1800's. The process was brought to Colorado by J.K. Mullen in 1875 and is still used today. The flour is milled from hard wheat from Colorado, the Dakotas, and Montana, so the "high altitude" refers to where the grain is grown."

Oh well. Onward and forward in my reading about high altitude baking…

Ina Garten’s Rugelach Recipe

I love Ina Garten’s rugelach recipe, which can be found here at Foodnetwork.com.



Her recipe is so very easy to make, and really delicious.

The dough includes cream cheese, so it’s not Parve, which means you can’t eat them after a meat meal if you keep kosher.

The first time I made them, back in VA, the Legal Dude didn’t like them.

I had baked them according to the recipe and w/ the cream cheese he found them too soft and rich for his taste.

So now I let them bake longer and he likes them, except that the preserves ooze out and they get all dark on the bottom, which he calls burnt and I call caramel like.

Anyway, thought I’d share some photos from a recent Saturday afternoon of baking.


What Ina's rugelach looks like.


I can never roll a true circle.


After chilling and adding the egg wash and cinnamon/sugar mixture.


My end product...yum!

A Bubbly Cocktail...

Came across a recipe for this cocktail while flying back home on Frontier Airlines...

Sparkling Cranberry-Orange Cocktail

I love sparkling wine and this recipe sounded tasty plua I wanted to try and "channel" some dear friends back East who make excellent cocktails...

The last tasty-sounding recipe I tried, however, didn’t make the “it’s a keeper” cut.

So I was a bit wary to try a new recipe on our guests last evening.

But I did…and I’m glad to say that it was a hit.

I found this cosmopolitan rimming sugar and decided it would create a nice decorative look as well as with the fresh cranberries.

Obviously I don’t know how to cut orange strips for garnish…



In my defense…I was in a hurry to get the drinks to our guests as they walked in the door.

Had a “duh!” moment this morning…realizing that I can make a batch and chill before the guests arrive…rather than making each cocktail individually.

Guess this is why I’m not a mixologist!

Not a fan of Wal-mart, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...

Laramie has two (2) grocery stores…an Albertsons and a Safeway.

There is no option for which Albertsons or Safeway to shop. You either shop at one…or the other.

We also have the Big Hallow Co-op and the Whole Earth Grainery.

One carries some local produce, local frozen meats and poultry, local farm fresh milk, lots of tofu, bulk grains and a goodly selection of Whole Foods-esque items.

The other carries lots of fresh herbs and spices, teas, vacuum-packed olives, legumes and frozen fish, and some interesting cheeses, health products and a goodly selection of gourmet sauces and condiments.

The Safeway also carries a rather nice selection of Asian and Hispanic condiments and a Kosher section to rival most grocery stores in Arlington, which isn’t saying much.

Albertson’s has a better selection of artisan breads, a bit more in the way of cheese options and it might have better produce, but it doesn't carry my favorite Greek yogurt.

But none of these shops carry these…



But Wal-Mart does!

Go figure.

We have this recipe for a Mushroom and Goat Cheese Tart, which we make using these little fillo tartlet shells and which you can find here.



The Legal Dude asked me to make them for our recent Halloween gathering.

I thought…yeah, like I’m really going to find these fillo shells here.

So imagine my surprise when I spied them at Wal-mart of all places!

Give them a try.



They are super delicious, easy to make and ALWAYS, ALWAYS a big hit at any party.


That is…if you can find the shells at your local, neighborhood grocery store.

First High Altitude Cake…

The teenager had his basketball banquet tonight.

It was potluck.

I decided to try and bake a cake…something I’ve been shying away from.

Figured…if it didn’t turn out, I’d just run out to the store and get a store bought cake.

My first cake attempt at an altitude of over 7,000 feet…



It may not be pretty, but at least it didn’t...

(a) explode
(b) fall flat like a pancake
(c) turn to liquid mush, which I’m told can be a frequent occurrence at higher altitudes.

Everyone here has suggestions…and I applied them all

I used a recipe from this cookbook…



It took a bit longer to get the cake into the oven.

I had to calculate the correct ingredient increase/decrease between the Cake Doctor’s recipe and the high altitude instructions on the back of the cake box, while keeping in mind what the locals had told me.

My first attempt, “Darn Good Chocolate Cake” puffed up beautifully and baked in no time.



Looking much better doctored up with confectioner’s sugar.

So I decided to give it another go and tried the “Pumpkin Spice Cake” recipe.



This, I believe, is my newest favorite recipe, especially with the orange cream cheese frosting.

But it’s equally delicious without, and healthier too.

A few "musts" I’ve learned/heard about high altitude baking…

Increase oven temperature by at leat 20 degrees to allow the batter to set-up more quickly.

Stay away from recipes calling for lots of sugar, and no baking with marshmallows...they explode!

Add additional flour, but how much is the million dollar question!

Reduce the amount of liquid.

And last but not least...

Keep your fingers crossed...and pray.

At the potluck this evening, I also learned a thing or two about how to improve on my pancakes...

Food Challenge (long!)

The “teenager” is studying climate change in Science class, which includes looking at their individual and their collective carbon footprint(s).

They have been challenged to a two-week period where they keep track of the amount of meat, chicken and fish they consume and how many miles traveled in the car each day.

J interprets the former to mean a hiatus on meat, fish and chicken and the latter to mean walking or biking to school (and essentially not going anywhere else besides school or bb practice, which is just across the field from our house).

Two days ago he informed us: “Oh. Yeah. Our entire family needs to reduce our carbon footprint. So that means no meat, fish or chicken for you guys and I need to know how many miles you drive everyday.”

What!!!

J is already very good about so many things I had to be taught---over and over again---when I was his age, i.e. turning out the lights, not letting the water run and not letting the cool or hot air out (or in). And he’s a great recycler too.

But I think I want to talk to his teachers…NO meat, fish or chicken?!!

But this is important to him and he’s so earnest about it.

So…what’s two weeks?

Besides, we’re allowed a meat, chicken or fish serving once a week, which we’ll serve to company on Sunday.

I wasn’t in the mood for pasta, so I pulled our several vegetarian cookbooks we acquired over the years to help us accommodate our vegan and veggie friends, and which have gotten very little use other than those times.

I was amazed, looking at the photos in the following book, The Vegetarian Gourment by Roz Denny, how appetizing (and easy) the recipes seem.



So I decided to try not one…not two…but three recipes!

But then I forgot to get the main ingredient for one of the recipes and so it was down to these two…

Egg Flour Soup

This was delicious! Both boys liked it, but shhhh…I cheated and added chicken broth, which I know is a no-no and will make it with vegetable broth next time.



This is what our soup looked like…my eggs don’t look quite as thin and “flowery.” We had already eaten half of it when I took the photo.

I’d love to try the recipe on the bottom of the page, ‘Broccoli and Saga Blue Cheese Soup’, but I know the boys won’t go for it.

This is the other recipe I tried…

Quick Basmati and Nut Pilaf

My boys liked the soup better, but thought it was…interesting.

I had to use a “box” Basmati rice, which affected the cooking process because the local Safeway didn’t have Basmati rice. I can probably find it at either the co-op or the tiny gourmet shop in town.

I thought it was yummy with the cardamom pods and cumin seeds, ground coriander and nuts.

This is what our dish looks like…

I told J, “This is challenging for me, finding and cooking tasty veggie meals.”

His response…without missing a beat, “It’s supposed to be.”

So there…out of the mouth of babes (so to speak).

Have a wonderful weekend (and so sorry Chicago)!