Mocha 'Mallows

Who knew marshmallows were so easy to make?!  Seriously?!  Sweet!!!

I basically followed the recipe here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe/index.html.

I also watched "Puff the Magic Mallow" before proceeding (in 3 parts)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

So, on to the actual recipe I followed (you knew I couldn't just leave well enough alone, right?)

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold coffee, divided
2 cups sugar
Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup molasses
1 big pinch of salt
vanilla extract to taste

First, set the gelatin to soften in 1/2 cup of the cold coffee in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, or whatever bowl you will be using to mix up the marshmallow.  Use a pretty sizable bowl.

Line your pan of choice with foil, spray down with nonstick spray, and liberally coat with cocoa powder (or another powder of your choice).

In a 2 quart sauce pan, place the other 1/2 cup of coffee, sugar, cocoa powder, molasses, and salt, stir to combine and heat on medium-high heat until the mixture reaches anywhere between 240 and 250 degrees.  A thermometer is rather important to candy making!  I use an infrared digital thermometer from home depot.  The mixture will start to sort of foam up as the bubbles after awhile pile on top of one another.  Remove the sugar mixture from the heat, it will remain pourable for a good several minutes (maybe up to 15 minutes would be my guess).

Turn the mixer on the now solidified gelatin on low to medium speed.  SLOWLY pour the molten sugar down the SIDE of the mixing bowl, do not get it on the beaters unless you want hot, sticky, liquid sugar all over the place and possibly on you (not as wonderful as it sounds I assure you....).  This will melt the gelatin, and the mixture will look an ugly brown colour.  It gets better.

Once you have mixed all the sugar syrup in, crank the mixer to high, as high as you can (a high sided bowl is great here) to work as many bubbles into the mixture as you possibly can.  You can add the vanilla extract (imitation or real) at any point now.  Whip and whip and whip for about 10-15 minutes.  When it is done the mixture will be a much prettier shade of light brown, puffy, and the top will start to pull away just a little bit from the side at the top.  Trust me you will see a difference in the shape of the top of the mixture.

Now fanagle the sticky, puffy mixture into your pan.  I'd suggest using a flat, flexible implement coated in nonstick spray.  Smooth it as well as you can.  Mine was not even in thickness, but hey that's cool, we're not some big candy factory.  I really rather liked the swished top that came about.

Let this set for at least 4 hours (or overnight).  I next liberally sprinkled the top with cocoa powder (remember, we are working with a sticky substance here).  Set down a sheet of foil, and flip the marshmallow onto it, and remove the foil that was in the pan.  Now take a cutting implement such as a pizza cutter or tall knife, coat in spray, and commence to cutting.  You may have to re-coat at some point.

Pull the marshmallows apart.  Some of them may stick a little bit, but if you pull gently they should pull cleanly away from each other and the foil.  The key is to pull GENTLY.  Finally, get a little cocoa powder and dip each cut side into the powder and sort of pounce against your hand to both remove the excess cocoa powder and distribute it onto the slightly uneven surface.

That's it!  You are done!  Now enjoy these not-too-sweet marshmallows, and don't forget to share! :D

Here is the 'mallow after sitting overnight.  The thickness is not even, but who cares?  I love that swishy top.

Mmmm, beautiful swishy top.  I didn't quite want to cut it.

Sprinkled the top with cocoa powder before flipping out onto another piece of foil.  If you are worried about sticking, you can smooth it on with your hand to get the cocoa really distributed well.  I didn't bother though, and only had a couple of spots stick, and even those spots pulled off without much trouble.  I would not try this without any powder whatsoever though.  Pulling up the occasional spot isn't so bad, but I'd hate to have to pull off the entire thing.  The top will be a bit less tacky than the rest of the marshmallow as it will have dried slightly.

Here is the mondo' 'mallow turned out onto a new piece of foil, you can see the cocoa powder on the outside from the pan.  I really REALLY did not want this stuff sticking to my cutting board.  I bet a glass sandwich or cutting board would work well too, as they are non-porous.

I cut these with a lubed butcher knife.  They are not quite pretty yet.

Here are the finished marshmallows after I dipped the cut sides into cocoa powder and tossed each one against my hand to evenly, thinly distribute the cocoa powder.

The corner pieces were a bit taller and had a pretty outer texture.

These are really springy and bounce when dropped on a plate.

Ptak Science Books: Food and Not Having It: Visual Displays of Data, Britain and Germany, 1918

Click on the link to see the graphics:

Ptak Science Books: Food and Not Having It: Visual Displays of Data, Britain and Germany, 1918

".... Unfortunately we do not see what the Germans had to eat, though in the next graphic (same source, though 23 March 1918) we see the "ingenious" ways in which the German people got around not having certain foodstuffs. The means look more desperate than anything else: meat/sausage for example is replaced by "War Sausage", which was coagulated ox blood bleached with peroxide, and also by a "vegetable" meat, which was dyed glucose. "

Elliot's Birthday Brownies

These are one of Elliot's favourite brownies.  Sometimes I just cannot leave well enough alone, brownies are so easy and delightful to play with!  You can add peanutbutter, use cocoa powder, and generally add whatever you want and tailor them to whatever is available in your kitchen at any given time.  You can bake a batch of brownies every week of the year and manage to not repeat a pan.

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the chocolates with the milk in a microwave safe bowl.  Nuke at 5 - 10 second intervals after an initial interval of 30 seconds at high power, stirring often.  When it is almost fully melted, I'll usually just pull the bowl out of the microwave and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to finish.  Add the eggs one at a time and MIX VERY VERY WELL fairly swiftly.  I don't know if swiftness is quite necessary, I just worry about putting the eggs in a warm product; don't want them to cook.  Then, just toss in the flour, baking powder, and vanilla.  Finally, add any mix-ins that strike your fancy, such as MORE CHOCOLATE! Then just put in your favourite greased brownie pan and bake at 350 to desired doneness.

These work out to be a very dense fudgy brownie.  So don't eat too many at once, trust me.  Been there, done that, regretted it, though it was fun while it lasted!

Porcupine Roadkill

I LOVE my mom's porcupines.  Big ground beef and rice meatballs simmered in tomato sauce and rice, it's one of those things that tastes better the next day.

Make some meatballs of ground beef, minute rice, an egg, garlic, and oregano.  My mom always made them pretty big, but I never quite got the hang of frying the big ones so that the center was done and the outside wasn't burnt, so I just make smaller ones.  Someday I will master the (small) fist-sized meatball.  When they are cooked through, put some tomato sauce, garlic, oregano, water, and rice in the pan and simmer it all together until the rice is done.

Of course, sometimes you want a porcupine after a long day of work.  You could simply plan ahead and have some frozen meatballs ready to go in a pan with tomato sauce and rice, but that would be too easy!  So some nights I make porcupine roadkill.

Here we have some pearl rice, crushed tomatoes, dried whole oregano (if your herbs don't smell, they won't taste!), and some leftover tomato soup.  After browning the ground beef with some garlic, I added the whole lot plus some water.  Well, not all of the oregano.  Just two small palm fulls.

After it simmered over low heat for awhile, the rice was done, and I got my porcupine fix.

This is a play on depression era food.  You would have used rice to stretch out the meat, you would have grown some oregano and maybe garlic or even left them out completely (still tasty by the way), and probably used tomato soup, or whatever tomato product you could find.  Maybe even some tomatoes from the garden.

Clearance Chicken, Macaroni and Cheese, and Pasta Salad

Elliot found a great buy in the markdown bin the other day:  Pappy's seasoned bone-in chicken breasts.  These things were HUGE!  I have a relatively small  (rectangular brownie) baking dish that fits quite well in the little roaster oven.  Only two of the three chicken boobs fit.  So I baked them up and made some macaroni and cheese.  I don't have an actual recipe for macaroni and cheese, I just make by eyeball enough bechamel sauce to cover the macaroni and add cheese until it tastes good ;)  I added bacon, just a little cayenne, a teaspoon or two of lemon juice (it needed a little sharpness), and the thing that made it just perfect... the drippings from the chicken, along of course with the medium cheddar cheese and the usual small handful of parmesan.  The drippings were that one tiny little flavour that made the dish taste JUST RIGHT.  I'm going to keep that in mind from now on.  Using half a package of macaroni made enough for a big serving that night (there's no such thing as just a little macaroni and cheese anyway lol) and two more large servings for lunch.

There was enough chicken left on the cooked boobs for pasta salad (and heck I STILL have that one uncooked piece), so I made some up for the week.  I made a half recipe of this ranch dressing by a poster by the name of Kittencal on food.com which was formerly recipezaar only I used yogurt in place of the sour cream (hey gotta work with what you got, and yogurt is a common substitution for sour cream, as they are about the same texture and tangy), and used 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt instead of the quarter that would have been asked for in a half-recipe, and some granulated onion in lieu of the fresh (just to taste as I don't know what the conversion is off-hand). 


I boiled the other half of that macaroni with PLENTY of salt in the water.  Seriously, try adding several (SEVERAL) pinches of salt next time you make pasta (or a small palm full as I usually do) and try telling me the pasta doesn't taste just a bit better and require less salting of the sauce. 


I then mixed some (erm.... Ok as usual I didn't measure...) frozen peas, one coarsly grated carrot, and one thinly sliced celery stalk with the leftover chicken from the night before with the cooked pasta.  The hot pasta thawed the peas.  After letting it cool, I added the dressing and three string cheese sticks I cut into chunks.  Turned out great and we have enough to last at least half if not the whole week for lunches :)

I even kept the bones to freeze.  Between these and another package of whole chicken legs (thigh and drumstick), I should have enough bones to make a nice bit of chicken broth next week.

Quickie Salisbury Steak

Oh you gotta love frozen ground beef patties (^__^)  Tonight's dinner is salisbury steak and egg noodles.

Just dredge some patties in egg, then flour, twice for a nice thick crust (which will end up as a soggy, delicious piece of carby goodness), and fry until browned.  Then remove the patties, dump the oil and melt some butter and brown a bit of garlic and flour, maybe some onions if you feel like it.

I had some garlic and onion soup leftover from last night, so I used it for the gravy.  I added some dehydrated onion just because I find salisbury steak was apparently MADE for using up dried onions, they just add a certain "something".

My only regret is that there was no sourdough left to serve with it!

I Dream of French Onion Soup... And Cheese..... And Garlic......

How about a little of both (^_^).  I had this vision of a soup, a hot garlicky, oniony broth over mozzarella cheese.

First I would need caramelized onions, so I chopped half of a red onion, and tossed it in a pot over medium heat with two tablespoons of melted butter.  I stirred it ever so often until the onions were almost burnt, then added several tablespoons of minced garlic. 


Next, I tossed in about five or six cups of beef broth, a half or so cup of beer, an ancho, and a bay leaf, and left to simmer and reduce a bit for about a half hour or so.  At the end, I added a hit of worchestershire sauce, honey, and a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste.


I had the idea to have softish pieces of cheese in a strong broth, and have spent the last day or two pondering the idea.  I cubed some mozzarella cheese into 1 inch cubes, and put them into the bowls, and poured over the boiling hot soup.  In hindsight, I should have let the soup cool a bit, and used smaller cheese cubes.


But this turned out really well.  A strong beef soup, with some nice sweet onion and plenty of garlic flavor, and soft bites of cheese.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Ever since the cookies, I've thought of how to combine chocolate pastry with salted caramel.  The problem with the cookies was caramel expulsion, with only about half of the cookies coming out with the caramel neatly enrobed in the chocolate cookie.

So now comes salted caramel brownies!  These are based on the brownies from the Eagle Brand website  http://eaglebrand.com/recipes/details/?RecipeId=4166&category=-1 and the caramel recipe here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/fleur-de-sel-caramels-recipe/index.html

As always, I modified the recipes to my purpose and ingredients (^_^)

Brownies:

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup 60% cocoa chocolate chips
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 eggs
1/3 cup baking mix (I swear it doesn't matter what kind.... biscuit, buttermilk pancake, muffin, whatever)
1 or 2 tb. strong coffee (I mixed about a teaspoon instant coffee with a tablespoon or two of very hot water)

Caramel:

1/2 cup vanilla sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
5 tb butter
1 tsp salt

To make the caramel, combine the sugar, molasses, and half cup water in a pan, and bring to a boil for several minutes, meanwhile warming the cream, butter, and salt.  After boiling the sugar mixture for about 5-10 minutes, add the cream, and boil over medium heat for.... awhile (*^_^) until it almost reaches firm-ball stage (drop some caramel into ice cold water to determine this).  It took at least 20 minutes of boiling for me, and the mixture reduced a bit.

To make the brownies, combine the sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and cocoa powder in a pan and melt (or do it in the microwave).  In another bowl, combine the biscuit mix and eggs.  Add the chocolate mixture and coffee, combine well, and bake in a 350 degree oven.

About halfway through baking, swirl as much of the caramel as you desire over the top of the brownies, and continue baking until done. 

I sprinkled the top with some coarse turbinado sugar for a bit of a sweet crunch, since neither the brownies nor caramel are super-sweet.  I think they could have taken or left the sugar, but what the hey, I felt indulgent and decadent ((^_-))

Sweet, salty chocolate, tastier than it sounds!

Yet Another (Suprise!) Chicken Dish

Chicken and dumplings were on my mind today, especially when I happened upon some free potatoes.

So, what to do with the desire for chicken and dumplings when you have not yet conquored the way of the dumpling?  When you want a pot pie, but are just too darn tired?

You make a chicken skillet and serve it over biscuits or toasted sourdough!

Brown some chicken (4 cut up breasts, or a similar amount of chicken) in a skillet, remove then deglaze with some (about a third to half cup) white wine.  keep over the heat and get all the brown bits up.  As soon as you do that, add about 5 or 6 cups of chicken broth, a bit of your favourite chicken seasoning (in this case some pappy's brand seasoning and two bay leaves) and bring to a boil.  Add the chicken back in, along with some diced potatoes and whatever veggies you want (in this case a little frozen mixed and broccoli).  Simmer over medium heat for about an hour.  Remember to taste and adjust seasonings as you go :)  Finally, add some flour mixed with water to make a gravy as thick as you'd like (I like it pretty thick, so 2 tablespoons of flour in a bit of water works).

This was served over toasted sourdough bread, and there was nary a bite left.

Garlic Soup Dipped Sandwiches

I had a hankering  for garlic a few nights ago.  In the fridge I found a jar of minced garlic, some dark beer, smoked cheddar, and roast beef.  What better makings for a soup and sandwich night?

Use a head's worth of garlic.  Brown it in 2 tablespoons of butter, along with about 2 packed tablespoons of minced parsley in the bottom of a soup pot.  As soon as the garlic colours up slightly, slowly add 8 cups of beef broth, 1 or 2 tablespoons of worchestershire sauce, a little salt & pepper, a bit of cayenne or a piece of dried/smoked chile, and about a third of a bottle of dark beer.  Simmer at a low boil, uncovered, for an hour.

Like any broth soup, you can add whatever strikes your fancy.  Brown rice, spinach, eggs (temper in some yolks or go for an egg drop soup effect with whole eggs), mushrooms all work very well.

But we just had it as is last night, with some pan-seared sandwiches on sourdough with just Italian seasoned roast beef and good smoked cheddar.  The flavours went together perfectly, and the light browning and long cook time softened the sharpness of the garlic while intensifying other components.

Gotta love a hot soup and sandwich on a cold day!

Arugula Bacon Quiche

Pie. Bacon. Yum!

Using a very small square pan, I made a crust and baked for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I mixed two eggs, maybe a third cup of ricotta, enough milk to thin it out a bit, a couple of spoons of pesto, and a bit of salt. I also fried some chopped bacon, then added some chopped arugula after I killed the heat, just to wilt them slightly in the hot bacon drippings. Into the shell this went, then I poured in the egg mixture on top. This would do well topped with some parmasan.

God Wants Us to be Foodies

Brian Steinburg posted this on Chowhound and his blog, http://lastoneeating.wordpress.com/ and I thought it was a wonderful piece about why we should love our food.

"If god indeed made humans in her own image, then it stands to reason that she wanted us to be foodies. After all, humans are super-omnivores. Unlike other mammals who eat a narrow rage of foods, meat or vegetables, humans can eat almost anything.

If the wheat crop craps out this year, we can eat potatoes, or corn, millet, rice, barley, oats etc. We can eat meat, seafood, vegetable, fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, fungi, flowers, and even bark in the form cinnamon. We also have the capacity to combine our foods for infinite flavor variation for our foodie pleasure. The better a food tastes, the more we want to eat. The more variety we eat the better chance we have to receive adequate, balanced nutrition. In other words, the more we are foodies, the better chances we will be healthy enough to stay alive, and find a mate and make foodie babies, who will make more babies in God’s image.

God has a plan and that plan is for us to eat from a bountiful garden. Of course this does not really explain God’s “Just say no to apple’s” policy. I figure, as the omnivores they were Adam and Eve should have left the apple alone and BBQ’d the snake in a marinade of berries and fresh herbs, and paired it with a nice chardonnay."

Pics From the Shop

Just as the title so subtly implys, here is an example of what I get to work with almost daily. I love decorating the tanks :)

I Almost Felt Like I was Cheating

Stuff like this is too simple, for how good it is. Just a couple of pieces of chicken, several large pinches of basil, a bit of a dried pepper, and a can of Italian stewed tomatoes. Place in a crock and cook till done. Serve over pasta or rice.

Maple Apple Pie

Delicious and sweet, this simple pie is nice if you are looking for a variation on your regular apple pie.

All you must do is combine a teaspoon of cinnamon with 1 cup flour, and toss with a few sliced apples. Place in a prepared pie crust, and drizzle (maybe a quarter cup each) with maple syrup and raw sugar.

Because I am apparently mildly inept at properly rolling and transporting a pie crust, I crumbled some of the dough over the top of the pie, and pressed in. This actually made a nice upper crust. Sprinkled with a bit more sugar and bake at 350 degrees until done.

This pie lasted all of two days for two people.

The Recipes

I loosely followed the recipe here for potato pancakes http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes.aspx/potato-pancakes-with-chunky-gingered-applesauce using reconstituted dehydrated potato shreds, and adding some parmasan cheese.

1/2 cup Original Biscuit mix
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3 cups finely shredded uncooked potatoes

Combine the biscuit mix, milk, salt, and eggs, then stir in the potatoes, and let sit for a minute while you prep the pan. Heat over medium heat with a little butter or oil in the pan. Spoon about 1/4-1/3 cup batter into the pan and flatten. cook until the edges brown, then flip and finish cooking the other side.

Elliot thought they could use butter and syrup, I thought they could use butter and cheese. Needless to say these are versatile.


As to the omelet, I blended two eggs with a bit of finely grated cheese and a tablespoon or so of milk. Butter went into the nonstick pan (going with Julia on this one). Heat to high, and put the egg mixture in. I proceeded to swirl with a spatula until the eggs were aaaaalmost set, with just enough liquid left over to coagulate everything together into a cohesive mass. Let the eggs go until they are just about to your preferred consistency, then add a tiny bit of whatever topping you are using, just over one side. Once done, slide the omelet out onto a plate until it is about halfway out of the pan, then fold in half as you slide the other side out (clear as mud?).

Woot! New Cookware

.... and even better, clearance, good-quality cookware :D

You see, our hand-me-down cookware was rather worn



mostly due to not being so careful about high temps and metal utensils. So out they went!




A perfect little omelet pan...


for a nice little omelet...




and a larger pan for the potato pancakes, for which I probably did not really need all that oil lol!


Making sure I do not over heat the pan:


Here's Alton Brown on the subject of omelets. I basically followed his french omelet procedure.

Pics from the SF Academy of Sciences!

Took a trip for my birthday awhile back http://www.calacademy.org/ .

Wow! Talk about overwhealming! I didn't even take pictures of most of it, but I got a few great shots of the birds in the rain forest exhibit.

Squash Tomato Sauce with Pasta and Focaccia

Tonight's dinner consists of a very chunky tomato sauce served over pasta with focaccia. IF the water for the pasta ever comes to a boil lol!

In the mean time, here is what I tossed together:

1/3 of a large white onion
4 cloves of garlic

These were sautee'd until lightly golden, then in went:

1/2 of a very large zucchini picked up from the farmer's market for 50 cents
1/2 of an average sized yellow crookneck squash
2 or 3 tablespoons pesto

I then covered the pan to cook the squash slightly. Then I added a can of italian-style stewed tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 cup beef broth, and 1 lb. browned ground beef. I simmered this without a cover to reduce it's volume by about a quarter, just enough to thicken it. Put a lid on while got the water going for the pasta.

I just toasted some wonderful buttered focaccia which I also picked up at the small farmer's market. The weather was great for it, warm with a good breeze, and the smell of fresh-cut grass wafting about.

*Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh*

The Planted Aquarium, Pt. 01

This is my 90 gallon aquarium. Set up about a month - month and a half ago. Running two power filters each running about 150-200 gallons per hour circulation through polyfiber. One of the filters also has a home made peat moss filter pad in addition to it's plain polyfiber filter pad. Two T-5 Powerglo bulbs to encourage my little plants.

Parameters before the peat moss addition were:

Ammonia - 0.75 mg/l. A little high, but also exactly what the tap comes out. Hopefully my bacterial filter will soon catch up. In the mean time, I have added a dose of prime to detoxify the ammonia.

pH - 7.5 (tap is 8.0). Hopefully the peat will help with this

General hardness- 8

Carbonate hardness- 4

Nitrite- 0



View of the left hand side. There are three plantings of water wisteria (as well as some smaller offshoots) at the right and back. Back left is hornwort which is loosely anchored to the rock. Front left is some rotala which has some little shoots starting, and in the front right/center, two bits of mondo grass. Hopefully this will all fill in together to have a fluffy full back, and flattish grassy area concealing a little rock cave. Orange fish in the background is a gold gourami, and an otocinclus catfish can be seen eating algae off the mondo grass.



View of the right hand side. I can't recall the name of the broad leafed grass on the very right hand side. There are 3 plantings of rotala, a java fern in the back near the center of the front clearing, and two spots of micro sword. Most of the plants will grow tall, and the micro sword should fill in like a lawn. You can barely see the two rummy nose tetras in the back, and a dark grey otocinclus cat on the small rock near the front right-hand side.

View through the right hand side. A clump of hair algae in the front left hand side of the picture, which seems to have caught a bit of the frozen food I tossed in earlier. A small bushy nose pleco is next to the clump, and an otocinclus cat is right behind it. There is also hornwort and the back of the small cave, and the lone neon tetra on the left hand side.

A closeup of the bushy nose pleco. Micro sword to the right, Java fern to the left.

The gold gourami.


On the underside of one of the leaves, I found several new leaves and roots growing.



Another java fern shoot. An uncurling leaf on top and dangling roots beneath.


Coming off the left-hand back side of the micro sword, some new runners.


Mondo grass


An otocinclus catfish resting on a rock. These are really good algae eaters, and will even eat algae off plant leaves without harming them.




Some parrot's feather floating on the surface of the water, as well as some water wisteria.




Rotala with new growth at the base of the plant.


An example of the snails that are trying to over run the tank. No worries though, this gives me an excuse to get some dwarf ring loaches to eat them :)


For algae control, there are 5 otocinclus catfish, one bushy nose pleco, and one albino bushy nose pleco. Two rummy nose tetras and one neon tetra also inhabit the tank. The tetras are schooling fish, so more will be added soon. Luckily so far none seem adversely effected by the lack of others.