Bryant Scannell

Worked on Valentines?  I know how that goes.  Luckily I had the morning and afternoon open to have lunch with Anna:

Soup, sandwich, cupcake: fin (you can never have to much dessert in a day).

Then there was the evening.  I prepped a Cheesecake the day before, finished it before I went to work, and had some wine chilling in the fridge.  So our evening consisted of Cheesecake, wine, and knocking off a few episodes of Lost from season 6 (we're so close to being done it's sad). 

To be more accuarate, Cheesecake Bars, is more like it. Thanks to the awesome blog of smitten kitchen, this was all able to happen.  It wasn't without hassle though, believe me.  This is the kitchen I was working in:

It was an intense evening for me to be cooking and baking.  Definitely a sandwich/melt kind of night.  Something that can just sit in the oven and warm until ready to eat.  Renovation is almost complete though!  Everything is slowly but surely coming back to normal :]

Dulce De Leche Cheesecake Squares (as seen on smittenkitchen)

For crust
- 3 1/2 oz graham crackers, crumbled (1cup)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4-oz envelope, will be just about half an envelope)
- 1/4 cup whole milk (I used half & half.  I wish I could bring myself to buy that jug of whole milk, but I just don't see myself using all of it.)
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 3/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dulce de leche (see filling recipe for direction on this (requires one 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk)

For glaze
- 3 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), coarsely chopped
- 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Day 1

I can't express how much I love having a food processer.  It takes away that heavy burden of getting the blender to work.  We never got along very well, the blender and I.  The 'rents read my mind though, and it showed up as a blessing on christmas day.

The crust:

- Preheat oven to 325ºF

- Take your crumbled Graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter, and combine in a food processor.

- Line an 8x8 baking pan with tinfoil, criss crossing two layers, leaving an extra inch over the side to use as handles (for future reference).

I'm sure you'll do a much better job than I did ;]

- Take your combined graham cracker concauction and press into pan, creating a firm and even layer.

Don't worry if you think you haven't gotten it compressed enough.  It will harden and bind a bit more once you throw it in the over.

- Bake in oven for 10 minutes.  Let cool on rack.

The Filling:

First, you need your Dulce De Leche.

- You will need a double boil pot going.  Bring the water to a boil and let simmer.  Empty the contents of one 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk to your top pot.  Let heat, stirring often for 45 - 50 minutes, or until the contents have turned from white to a caramel like color.

When the Dulce De Leche has started to turn it's color, you can start on the rest of the mix.

- in a small bowl, add gelatin and milk together, and let sit for 2 minutes to react a bit

- After 2 minutes, combine eggs, cream cheese, salt, the gelatin/milk mix, and with an electric mixer, mix until well combined.

- Stir in Dulce De Leche Mix, gently, but thoroughly.  

- Pour over your 8x8 pan that contains your graham crust, and spread evenly.

- Bake in a *hot water bath in oven at 325ºF for 45 minutes or until center is just firm/sponge like.

*hot water bath:  Set 8x8 baking pan inside a 9x13 baking pan (or any baking dish that you can fit the cheesecake one into), and fill the 9x13 with water about halfway up.  Kind of like a double boiler

- let cool for two hours on rack

- cover with saran wrap and let chill for at least 6 hours (this is where I saved it for the next day)

Day 2

This is the easy day.  All you have to do is make the glaze.  Simple, yeah?

The glaze:

- Get another double boiler goin'.  Combine chocolate, butter, and corn syrup, stirring often as it melts.

- once melted, pour mixture over cheesecake pan, spread evenly, cover, and you're done! 

Sometimes I get in such a rush or in the moment that I forget to take photos.  Day 2 was one of those times.  Just fill in the the blanks with imaginary images of delicious melted chocolate being poured over cheesecake.  Good.  Now the only thing left to do is cut the cake into bars and consume.  Only the best part, yeah?

Finished!  As the chocolate was setting I scattered some almonds over the top.  I wanted to do pecans, but I forget them at the store and decided to work with what I had at the last minute.

I think the next time I make cheesecake I will be topping it with a mousse or something in the like.  The dark chocolate top was awesome, but it was a bit flimsy and difficult to cut into.  A drizzle or dark chocolate and caramel would have been a good idea actually.  It fits with the whole, Dulce De Leche, theme. 

- B

If you're one of the many unfortunate people that had to work on this day (like me), chances are you may have flipped things around and did stuff for it on your day off.  However, that's not to say we didn't do anything tonight.  I did get off work early and managed to get home with enough time to buy a rose, write a card, and crack a bottle of wine to go with the homemade Dulce De Leche Cheesecake I made (derived from smitten kitchen.  How we love her site)

We celebrated this weekend with one of my days off.  You could say, "a day of indulgence," which it very much was (who says you can't eat desserts 2, 3, or even more times in a day).

In the morning we attended a yoga class.  As my health insurance is no more, I need to find other means of keeping my muscles and body in some sort of good shape.  I could do it on my own, but what's the fun in that? 

I've never done a class or, "session," in anything like this before.  So to sit in with 7 other people doing these kinds of things was a little bit intimidating at first.  Good thing I had a spot in the very back of the room ;]  Every now and then I had to do a quick look around to make sure I was doing things correctly.  Very relaxing and very mind numbing (in a good way), it seems to be a good thing to keep doing.  The community college up the road from us has a yoga class, and we're going to audit it.  Thursday mornings, you're booked for yoga!

Following Yoga was lunch.  We had a list of potential places to go, and what better place than a Cheese Shop!

With a great viee on cheese, France 44 Cheese Shop, is a must to visit.  They had everything from Chocolates, Oils, Sandwiches, house sauces and spreads...bah!  Overwhelmed.  I wanted it all. They also set up an area where you could fill up your own bottle of oil to bring home:

Note to self:  Need Olive Oil.  Always running out.  I'm currently buying small $1 size glass containers of Olive Oil from the Grocery down the road.  I think we manage 2 - 3 nights of cooking with the amount that's in it.  Enough of that though.

Sandwiches.  For the love of...sandwiches.  What we got was fresh Ciabatta (I think it was Ciabatta) topped w/mozzarella, tomato-garlic confit, greens. Delicious (so delicious, that the next day I made my own tomato-garlic confit to go on our sandwiches for dinner).

Tea anyone?

We were.  The only unfortunate part is that they were out of pearls.  It happens though.  So we put aside the milk tea craving for another day and let chai take hold.  It made more sense to get some chai, as it was 0ºF with windchill (that's my guess, but I am an ice cube in any temp).

Back to the 60s now:

hi, Pola <3 em="">

Oh, Mr. Rogers.  The many mornings I spent watching your show.  Then, to find you here.  Awesome.

We went to the 1968 Exhibit that is currently on display at the Minnesota History Center  It's examined as a pivotal year in American History.  More about everything on the site, but it's all that jazz.  The place was packed.  I guess if it was a year that I was alive, I would be at the exhibit to reminisce and take a look back at everything that happened during one of the years of my being alive.  Kinda makes you wonder, what's going to be up on display 50 years into our future?

Long walks in museum = coffee pick me up time.

Pour over, how I love thee.

We stopped by kopplins in St. Paul.  I hear tons of people talk about this place, but have not yet had the chance to experience it.  This was also the first place I have ever been table to try a cup of Kenya.  I think I was so caught up in the moment that I forgot to take note of what I thought about it.  

Dinner consisted of a 3 course meal at Cup-Cake.  We were really only there for the red wine soaked pears and the ginger cupcake ;]  After dinner we went to watch the Oscar Nominated Short Films in "action." My 3 cheers are for, Norway.

- B

(more valentines fun and Dulce De Leche Cheesecake Squares recipe on the next post, here)

A cup of Quinoa goes a long way

Quinoa.  We've been eating it, and saying it wrong this entire time.  Just the other day I finally decided to find a video where someone would say it.  I have no idea how to write pronunciations very well, and to say, "Keen-Wah," is as close to a written description on pronuncation as I can get you.  Of course, you can always google and find a video just as I did ;]  Might I add that I have never heard of this grain until this culinary flare began.  It was only recently that we inherited a free bag of it and decided to make good use of it.

It really is an interesting little grain, and it's used for just about any type of meal.  The texture is similar to small round seeds, and it has a kind of nutty flavor as is.  When cooked, it gets fluffy, and I've seen people using it for cereal, oatmeal like breakfasts, substitutes for rice/noodles, etc.  I've even seen patties and energy bars made with it.  Never would have thought of that.  

We make due with what variety of tools there are ;]

Another fun fact:  Before being rinsed and cleaned, Quinoa contains a coating called, Saponin, which is a soapy like substance that protect the seeds from birds and insects.  Most packaged bags/boxes have already been rinsed away of this coating, but it is always good to rinse before using to get whatever residue might still be around. 

Enough babbling and onto the dish.  Just like the recipe we adapted this from, it's time to clean out the fridge, and it just so happens that we had everything to get rid of that the recipe called for.  What luck!

Quiona Bowl (Derived from, 101cookbooks, and 1/2 for most things)

1 cup white quinoa, rinsed well
2 scant cups water
1 teaspoon salt
a few splashes of extra virgin olive oil
1 large potato, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large yellow onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 cup toasted nuts (walnuts, pine nuts, etc.  We used pine nuts.  You can chose to toast these ahead of time, or do it during the middle of the recipe.  I did this before everything.  I had some spare time.)
1 cup lightly cooked asparagus, cut into 1/2-inch segments

Though we happened to have everything this recipe called for, things can always be thrown out, added in, substituted, etc.  Don't like a certain vegetable?  Like others better?  You know what you need to do.

Your Quinoa will take the longest to took, and while it does, you can prepare everything else.  With 2 cups of scant* water, salt, and Quinoa, bring to a boil, and reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes.  When you start to see those little white spirals pop out, and they are chewable to your liking, you can set aside.  If there is extra water, just drain it out and set your Quinoa to the side.  That takes care of that.

*I had to look up what scant meant.  For those that don't know, I'll save you some some painstaking keystrikes.  Just interpret as:  "Just short of required amount."  So, in this case, "just short of two cups." :]

At this time, preheat your oven to 350ºF.  You'll want this ready for your Asparagus once the potatoes are done.

In a small skillet, If you didn't toast your nuts ahead of time, now would be a low key time to take care of that since the potatoes take some time.  Keep watch , stir/shake skillet often, and set aside in bowl when nuts become light browned and aromatic.

Toasting Pine Nuts

To cook your potatoes, you have a few options:

1. Heat a skillet to medium/high heat.  Mix your diced up potato, a splash of olive oil, maybe a little bit of butter, and salt (and perpags some seasonings of choice.  Rosemary is always good) in a microwave safe bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and cook for 3 - 5 minutes, or until potatoes soften and are easy to eat, while shaking the bowl every minute or so.  Once this is done, add a splash of oil to your skillet and toss your potatoes in.  Cook to desired crispyness and set aside.
2. Heat a skillet to medium/high heat with a splash of oil in there.  Throw in your potatotes, add salt, stir, and cover so potatotes sweat, cook, and soften up.  Once softened, uncover, stir 'em up a little bit, and cook to desired crispyness. (This is the method I did.  I found that had an issue with getting them crispy, and would have preffered the microwave to skillet method.  Next time.)

There you have it!  Everything should be complete and coming together right about now.  Once the final pieces are complete, toss your Quinoa with a splash of Olive oil, or citrus type of dressing (lime, lemon, or even balsamic), and arrange as desired in bowl. 

Bon Appétit!  (We just watched Julie & Julia)

- B

Potato Gnocchi w/Tomato Sauce

There comes a time when you just can't deal with internet recipes anymore.  So many choices and options, that it takes forever to chose anything unless you have a craving. So I resolve with this:

The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook

When browsing around the halfprice book store, it had never occured to me until now to look at the cooking section.  Having found such an interest in the culinary world this past year, it seemed like better time than any to start.  What did I find?  The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook (If you're in wonder, yes, you just read that correctly).  My feelings on having a physical cookbook are similar to those that prefer the newspaper over an online post, or even someone that appreciates vinyl over a digital file.

The book I speak of is full of great stuff.  It has a lot of basics from A - Z, and it teaches you past the nightly recipe.  Some pages in it provides a nice little food pyramid, what foods are good for carbs, proteins, fibres, vitamins, minerals, etc, and what pairings are good for complete nutrition, and combining foods for a significant amount of protein, etcetera.  A plethora of good stuff.  We're not here spend a whole post on this book though.  Let's make, Gnocchi!  Oh, and don't worry.  We'll get to the cookies soon.  If you really can't wait, scroll on ahead.

Potato Gnocchi w/Tomato Sauce

Gnocchi

• 1lb potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 TBSP butter or margarine,  melted
• salt and pepper

Caribou this weekend is a proud supporter of the Special Olympics. We are helping out by providing the glorious substance we call, "coffee."  For today and tomorrow, myself and other wonderful individuals in the world of Caribou will be serving coffee at Breck school, who is hosting the Poly Hockey State Tournament.

I always read and see visuals about what the company I work for does, and the involvement we have in the community.  To actually be part of it is pretty awesome.

Mmk.  Poly Hockey.  To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what it was until I took some time to witness the event.  Then it clicked.  It was what we called, "floor hockey," when I was in school.  It was my favorite thing in the world.  Every Phy. Ed period during elementary and early middle school I would hope that we would play.  I actually had a swelling feeling inside and a slight urge to play again.  I like this sport.

Goalie was always my most feared position.  I was little though.  I think it was possibility of getting hit in the face.  I've been scarred ever since I got hit in the face with a golfball.  My fault entirely though.  I stood in front of my friend in 3rd grade and said, "I bet you can't hit that golfball."  No treats or money in exchange.  Just gloating rights.  Well, you can guess what happened.  He managed to hit it, and that would mark my third black eye in two week period of time (I have stairs and a baseball to blame for the other two)

These guys played hard today.  They even had me cheering on the side lines.  No team specifically.  Everyone deserves some cheering, right?  Fun for everyone.

After watching some Poly Hockey, I got myself back to the stand to serve some coffee.  I met this friendly fellow:

I didn't get his name unfortunately, but, he did manage to strike my interest highly when he showed me the Contax Zeiss lens he had with an adaptable mount for Canon EOS.  I even got a chance to play with it.  Though, I don't feel I took the time I should have when he let me mount it on my body and take a few shots.  The one that did turn out though, wow.  So crisp.  In comparison to the EF 50 1.4, the sharpness is just...wow.  Like a true film sensation with a digital sensor.  

I want that lens for myself.

In the last hour I had a little bit of fun with displaying our coffee.  I made the triforce from Zelda,  I made a large 'C' out of cups, and I took a candid shot of Steph.  Only two though.  Only one made the cut, because I'm picky ;]

Hi, Steph! :D

Awesome good times.

- B

It happened sooner than I thought! 

The gang for the afternoon

We met up to take some photos at the Walker Art Center's Sculpture Garden.  It turned out to be a snowy and gray day, so location turned out perfect with heat, beautiful colors, and a great space.

Here are some of my favorites (outtakes included):

After an hour or so of Kamani, we switched gears and photographed a bit of Iisiah and Jhermayne:

Needless to say, I've definitely been broadening my horizons lately.

I've been a bit behind on posts and edits lately.  Just getting around to catching up.  Lots of changes and fun things have been going on, along with opportunities that have been popping up left and right.

Things are good :] 

- B

Ha.  In our dreams.  That would be awesome though.  When we take a closer look at how many of our baking recipes actually work, I think 3 out of 10 fail.  Maybe 4 out of 10. 

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes w/Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing.

Been really craving cupcakes lately.  There is this awesome cup-cake place in Minneapolis that Anna and I have been going to for coffee and a treat while I work on photos or blog and she does homework.  Also complete with Wine and Lunch specials.  The works.

We had tried to make cupcakes some days ago.  Yellow Cake ones with Ferrero Rocher placed in the middle.  That...didn't go over so well.  So, I tried again.  A cold winter afternoon, a few hours until Anna gets off work, and dinner already in the making...I decided it was time to bake again.

Peanut Butter Cup Cupwakes w/Peanut Butter Icing Recipe (based of of My Baking Addiction):

For the cupcakes:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon instant espresso granules dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
24 Reese’s Miniatures; frozen (this prevents them from disappearing into the batter) 

For the icing:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 - 3 cups confectioners sugar (More or less, depending on how creamy or flaky you want the frosting)
4-5 TBSP Heavy Cream (if using milk, amount will be less)

Cupcakes

1)  Preheat oven to 350ºF and prep a cupcake pan, either greased or with cupcake liners (I suggest liners)

2)  For the cupcakes, mix together all the ingredients in a large bow, minus the Reeses.  

3)  Scoop into cupcake liners (they say 3 TBS per, but I just took a large spoon and dolloped heaping scoops into 'em)

4)  Press frozen Reeses down in to the middle of each cupcake.

5)  Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back after softly touching them.

6)  Remove from oven, let cool.  Once cooled, transfer to wire rack, pan, plates, whatever your choice may be.

Frosting

1)  Mix butter and peanut butter together.  Mix with mixer until smoothly blended together.

2)  Slowly mix in confectioners sugars, followed by extract and heavy cream.  Add more or less sugar, to match whatever consistency you prefer (once I added half of the amount being used, I mixed in the extract and heavy cream.  Then I added the rest of the sugar).

When everything comes together (it's a good feeling to know you succeeded the second)

I don't have tips to frost with.  I find that a ziplock/plastic storage baggie works great as well.  Dollop your frosting into one of these, snip off the edge, and decorate how one would like :]

The next ones will be from scratch.  Batter and all ;]

- B

I've never eaten so many greens in one sitting.  It's been nearly a week since I made this, and unfortunately, I can't remember the taste.  I do remember that it was delicious.

Leek, Spinach, Chard, and Ginger.  Some ingredients of Green Soup w/Ginger

Never a bad time to go green, yeah?  This recipe called for Chard, and Leeks, both are vegetables I have never had a chance to try.  So why now?  I saw the "ginger" tag.  Love cooking with ginger.  

Ingredients: (as seen on on 101 cookbooks)

1 large yellow onion (250g)
2 tablespoons (30 ml.) olive oil 
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, plus more to taste
1 large sweet potato (12 ounces; 350 g)
1 large leek, white and light green parts (5 ounces; 140 g)
1 bunch spinach (8 ounces; 225 g) 
1 large bunch green chard (12 ounces; 350 g)
3 tablespoons (30 g) chopped fresh ginger, plus more to taste
2 cups (500 ml) good-tasting vegetable broth
2-4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper

Like I said, I have never tried some of the major parts in this dish, but a first never hurts.  So I went with it.

First, heat your olive oil in a shallow frying pan and cook on low heat until onions are soft and golden brown.  This will give you some time to prep your other vegetables.

Next, add 4 cups of water, and salt to taste to a soup pot.  This will be home for all your other ingredients. 

Peel your sweet potato and dice into 1" cubes.  Wash your Leek, Spinach, and Chard, and coarsely chop them. (Remember, only the white and light green parts of the Leek is wanted)

Add the vegetables to your pot of salt water and bring to boil.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.  Add onions when they are ready.

Of course, when all is said and done with, the choice to have a chunky or smooth soup is yours.  I'd like to try it chunky next time.  The presentation is also a lot prettier that way as well.  We had some bread to go with our soup, so I decided to take the immersion blender to make it smooth for dipping purposes.

- B

Had a fun little shoot with a buddy of mine I work with and his daughter that is 3 years of age now:

Jhermayne and Kamani

I've never sat down with another human and taken shots in a studio like fashion (except for that slack class of a graphic design course I had in high school, when all we would do is screw around, and come to eventually blew up a strobe, getting us kicked out of the studio area).  Natural light is my friend, and spontaneity is a common theme to most portraits I have ever taken.  My method of portraits stem from two things:  1)  My inability to direct and tell people what to do, along with the fear of not being able to accomplish the task, and 2)  My thoughts of capturing who the person is from spontaneity (which explains why my camera is plastered to my face, but, can't miss a moment).  So, I am pushing myself to get out there and accomplish what I know I can do, while ignoring that dreadful, "I can't," thought.

We all start somewhere.  It's a matter of keeping at it.  This really was a fun shoot to do.  Anna hung out at Caribou until I got off of work to help (she's awesome with kids), and Jhermayne brought his daughter, Kamani, to meet us there. We chilled for an hour or so, playing, letting the little one drink her hot chocolate and pick at a cookie (which eventually became Jhermaynes), all while snapping shots.  Kamani, just being her.  She was shy at first, but eventually warmed up and kept wanting to pose and take pictures once she learned what i was doing with that contraption of glass, plastic, and metal in front of muh face.

:]

I think we are going to keep updating pictures when months go by and Jhermayne picks up outfits for her.  A fun way to watch her grow too.  Looking forward to it.

- B

Roasted Eggplant Soup, topped with slices from a french baguette.

Thank god for the internet.  Such amazing recipes and dishes can be found and shared.  This being one of them.  Oh.  Before I forget.  Anna gets all of the credit for food arranging (87%).  Whenever I arrange ingredients it looks like I reached into the grocery bag and pulled things out by the handful, plopping it here and there, hoping that it will look good.  Alright, maybe that's a little to harsh, but, Anna does do a beautiful job arranging things.  Sigh.  My thanks, for all the times we've been starving and I'm still snapping photos, delaying the cooking process.

Roasted Eggplant Soup
Found on Smitten Kitchen, which she adapted from Bon Appetit

Serves 4 (we cut most of this in half to serve just the two of us)

3 medium tomatoes, halved
1 large eggplant (we used a medium sized one.  It served the two of us easily)
1 small onion, halved (we used medium)
6 large garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable broth (we used veggie.)
1/4 cup heavy cream (you can add more to taste, or skip this entirely)
3/4 cup (about 3 1/2 ounces) crumbled goat cheese

Preheat oven to 400ºF

Take your eggplant, onions, and tomatoes, and half them all, laying them onto a baking sheet, and also, peel your garlic cloves and throw them on the sheet as well.  Brush veggies and garlic with oil of your choice, and the amount to your liking.

After 20 minutes of baking away, take out the garlic cloves, and cook the rest of the veggies for another 25 minutes, or until veggies are brown in spots and tender.

Ours may have gotten a little more cookes than needed, but the taste was still phenomenal

Once you've pulled out your veggies, spoon the eggplant out of the skin and transfer it to a large pot.  Add the remaining vegetables, your veggie broth, and thyme. Stir ingredients together and bring to a simmer for 40 - 45 minutes, or until onions are soft/tender.

Now, you have a choice.  Chunky or smooth.  Either way, you're going to have to use a blender, or an Immersion Blender if you got one (things are awesome).  We went around the soup 4-6 times with an immersion blender.  Still some chunk, but smooth. 

Wait!  Another choice arrives!  You can add some heavy cream to, well...cream it up a bit.  We added a dash of it.  Choice is yours ;]

It looks pretty rough, yeah?  That's why you have some garnish and break (if you like) to cover it up and make it look all pretty.  Oh yeah, and lets not forget the goat cheese.  That stuff is a, "must have," in soup like this.

BOOM.  Roasted Eggplant Soup

- B

Yeah.  358 days went by so quickly. So we go out with a bang...kinda.

358/358

Folder statistics:

- 81.87GB worth of space
- 19,421 photos taken
- 721 photos uploaded
- 358 folders created

(this is the spot where I start to reminisce, right?)

Wow. I almost feel lost now that it's done. It's been quite a year. So much has happened. Road trips, car accident(s), hospitalization, found love, my puppy, exploring the culinary world, the holidays, in and out of jobs, etc. Pretty damn eventful. Looking back is quite a trip. I went from taking little or no photos to taking photos everyday. My love of photography and my dedication to the art returned in full swing, even before I finished the project. It took me a month worth of images to figure that one out.

For anyone thinking about starting this up, do it. Especially if you've never attempted it and have thought about it. Yes, a lot of people have done this. That doesn't mean you can't make it your own. We all have lives worth documenting. Whether it be your morning breakfast, a daily portrait, journalism in other countries, pets, travels, etc. Go for it :]

So.  What next?  

I really want to put everything into a book.  That's a start to keeping me busy.  I'd really love to see everything in a physical hard bound copy. Mmm.  Tangible work.

"All the worlds a stage", and, "we are the artists". 

Pumpkin Spice Bagels

I used to have this profound love for bagels.  I ate them everyday for breakfast for at least two years.  Then I worked at a bagel shop and eventually came to loathe them.  As you can tell, not so much anymore.  Otherwise this post wouldn't exist.

This was a bit of a mix and match recipe.  With the left over pumpkin from the Soufflé, and the urge to make fresh bagels for breakfast, pumpkin spice seemed the best option.  That and Anna doesn't really care for Cinnamon Raisin bagels, and with that being the recipe I was basing this off of, a few things needed to be tweaked.

Pumpkin Spice Bagels Ingredients (using smitten kitchens outline for Cinnamon Raisin Bagels):

prepare the night prior to morning of baking.  two day process.

Sponge
1 teaspoon instant yeast
4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour (I used whole wheat flour)
2 1/2 cups water, room temperature

Dough
1 teaspoon instant yeast
3 3/4 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons malt powder, or, 1 tablespoon dark or light malt syrup, or honey, or brown sugar 

pumpkin spice mix:

1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon allspice
1 cup canned pumpkin

To Finish
1 tablespoon baking soda
Cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
Melted butter for brushing (optional)
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Day one:

Start with the sponge.  Mix together yeast, flour, and water.  Mix together until you get a pancake like batter, and let stand for, at most, two hours with cloth over bowl, or until mixture appears bubbly and/or has double in size.

During those two hours, there is some downtime.  Catch a flick, game, get some dinner, the choice is yours (obviously).  Me, I decided to organize everything for the next step by combining things that go into the mix together.  I did manage to run some errands and grab some chipotle before resuming though.

Right.  After your two hours are up, it's time to make the dough.  Add the yeast, and stir.  Add all your ingredients, minus 3/4 cup flour, and the pumpkin spice mix.  Mix your ingredients until your dough can form a smooth ball (I found using my hands to be the best.  I don't have a dough hook, and the mixer failed with smoke coming out of it), my mixture was a bit dry, so i ended up adding the pumpkin spice mix, and then worked in the 3/4 cup of flour we've been hanging on to.  Remove dough from bowl, and on a floured work surface, knead for 8-10 minutes...

...the finished product should be moist, not wet, not dry.  If crumbly and dry, add some water, if tacky and sticky, add flour.  You want it to be firm, but still pliable.  Once you got your dough in order, start breaking off chunks, making them into rolls...

...the choice is yours for how big you make them.  I got 15 out of my batch.  The original recipe says it will make, "12 supersized bages, 16 regular bagels, or 24 small bagels."  I aimed for regular.

Once you have your dough rolled, cover with a damp cloth and let sit for 20 minutes, this is your retarding process (unless you saw that cup of sugar out of the corner of your eye that you forgot to put in, which in that case, you would put the dough back together, knead, and roll the dough out again). Once your 20 minutes are up, you have one more step before shaping the bagels.  Get a bowl of water, as close to room temp you can get, and drop a ball of dough in.  If it floats, or sinks and floast within 10 seconds, you are ready to form the bagels, if not, return to pan and retard for another 10 - 20 minutes, testing until you obtain a floater. Once done, start shapin' your bagels :]

Poking a hole in the middle with one finger, and then using the other finger, i found that spinning them like you would your fingers around each other was easiest.  You want a 1"-2" hole, and as even a thickness you can get all around the bagel.  When finished shaping, place on parchment lined baking sheets that have been lightly greased...

...once you got that down, grats!  The hard part is over.  Now it's time to loosely cover them with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge until morning.

Day 2

It's time! 

Preheat your oven to 500ºF, with rack in the middle, and bring a large pot of water to a boil with 1 TBSP of Baking Soda added in.  Once a boil is reach, you want to keep it rolling, and add the bagels in batches that fit most comfortably...

...let boil on each side for 1-2 minutes.  Shorter the chewier, longer the firmer.

When moving your bagels from pan to pot, lay down some cornmeal where they once were and return bagels to original places as they are done boiling.  Once you have boiled all your bagels, put in oven for 5 minutes at your 500ºF preheat.  Once 5 minutes are up, switch the pans around on the racks, and rotate 90º, while also reducing the temp to 450ºF.  Bake for another 5 minutes, longer if you want darker bagels.  When time is up, remove and transfer to bake racks to cool for 15 minutes...

...voilá!  You are now ready to feast on your freshly made bagels :]  You can mix and match any ingredients you like.  I found it easier to find a reliable source, and use other recipes for reference to apply the difference.  Good stuff.

- B

Pumpkin Spice Soufflé w/Bourbon Sauce

Anna and I have been talking about this for some time now.  We just needed the motivation to go out and pick up some Ramekins.  All it took was a night off work ;]

I was surprised by how easy these actually were.  The process was similar to the start of making Macrones.  Whisk up some egg whites, soft peaks, sugar, stiff glossy peaks, etc etc.

Ingredients for Soufflé (with some notes about what we changed):

• 1/2 cup whole milk (we don't drink whole milk around here, so a huge container was out of the question.  We settled for half and half.  Worked great)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided, plus additional for coating ramekins
• 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin (from a 15-oz can, not pie filling)
• 10 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

*If using 6-oz ramekins, you can get 8 servings out of this.  We cut the recipe in half and made two small ones for ourselves, and one large one for two others.

Ingredients for Bourbon Molasses Sauce (you can use good ol' whip cream too):

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, divided
• 3 tablespoons bourbon
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses (not robust or blackstrap)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

*This one we didn't cut in half.  We figured we'd make it full and just use what we needed.  This is a very delicious sauce, however, a little goes a long way.  To much of it will take away from your Soufflé.  Pour your amount wisely ;]

We're missing some photos with the process...but at least there is the end product, yes?  Recipe directions from gourmet. You can get to the Bourbon sauce from the link as well.

Soufflé

• Whisk together milk, cornstarch, spices, and 1 Tbsp granulated sugar in a small heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking, then simmer, whisking, 2 minutes.
• Remove from heat and whisk in pumpkin. Transfer to a large bowl and cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in lower third. Butter ramekins and coat with granulated sugar, knocking out excess, then put in a large shallow baking pan.
• Beat egg whites with salt in another large bowl using an electric mixer until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar a little at a time, beating, then beat until whites hold stiff, glossy peaks, 1 to 2 minutes more.
• Fold one third of whites into cooled pumpkin mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Divide mixture among ramekins, mounding it.
• Bake soufflés until puffed and golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately.

A bit of a hodge podge tonight.  A DELICIOUS hodge podge ;] 

Ingredients:

Rosemary Flatbread 

- 1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon chopped rosemary plus 2 (6-inch) sprigs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup olive oil plus more for brushing
- Flaky sea salt such as Maldon

Pistachio Pesto (makes 2 servings, or, double and prepare as needed)

- 3/4 cup fresh basil
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup of shelled pistachio nuts
- 2 cloves garlic, skins taken off
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- zest of a lime, juice of half
- 1/8 cup grated parmesan or asiago

Twist on the Eggplant

- 4 puck sized flatbreads
- 4 puck sized Eggplant slices (just under 1" thick)
- 2 serving of pistachio pesto
- 2 - 3 roma tomatoes, sliced
- Cheese:  Edam, Swiss, Havarti.  All good choices.  You're decision for the amount used.
- Olive oil, for baking sheet
- salt and pepper as desired

Process:  Rosemary Flatbread

So simpe, you don't even need a visual explanatino. ;]

In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder, chopped rosemary, and salt.  Make a pocket in the center of the mixture, and add oil and water.  Stir together unil doughy.  Once obtained, knead on floured work surface, or inside bowl (doesn't need to be much).

Preheat oven to 450ºF

Now, you can choose to make one large flatbread, 3 individual sizes, or puck size bread.  I chose to make them puck size, since I was going to be using them later and wanted them to match the size of my eggplant.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes to obtain finished product.  If making the Eggplant dish, only cook for half the time, or until soft (not doughy).  Set on rack to cool.

Process:  Pistachio Pesto

Pistachio has always had a weird connotation with me.  I've never really had much of an urge to try the things, until pudding.  Yes.  Pudding.  Pistachio flavored pudding gave me the idea to buy Pistachio nuts.  How that works, I have no idea.  I don't even think the flavors are remotely similar in any way.  Pretty good though.  I'd sit down and shell a batch to eat, but i'm not going to run through to streets screaming, "Pistachios! Pistachios!" ranting obnoxious details about how delicious they are.

Right.  Now start shelling ;]

You can definitely buy them pre-shelled if you'd like.  Might be a tad more spendy.  I found the shelled ones to be cheaper, and if your local grocer offers the scoop and bin you can buy just the amount you need.  Regardless, they are not the cheapest nut in the box.

It doesn't get much easier than this.  Combine all your ingredients in a blender/food processor.  I found using the lowest setting worked best, and it may just be that my blender isn't the greatest and doesn't want to combine anything if you go any higher than low.

If more oil is needed past the 1/3 cup, have at it.  If you're against more, you can always use the other half of the lime for juice to get a smoother consistency.

Process:  The twist on roasted Eggplant

I made a similar dish to this a while back (Roasted Eggplant w/Tomatoes and Mint).  Same method of cooking, but with other delicious things on top.

You can leave the oven at 450ºF for this as well.

Greae baking sheet with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Align sliced Tomatoes and Eggplant as desired, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Throw in oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, the tomatoes should be roasted, and eggplant should be beginning to soften.  Add a dollop of pesto on top of each eggplant slice, just enough to spread and cover, and arrange roasted tomatoes on top of each eggplant.  Note:  I decided to do this after the picture.  Just imagine a nice green layer of pesto under those tomatoes ;]

Throw in the oven for another 5 minutes to let the eggplant cook some more with the pesto.  While this is going on, you can add pesto on top of the flatbread, and top with cheese of choice (I chose Edam).  After the 5 minutes, you can add the prepared flatbread on top of the eggplant/tomato combo, and cook until cheese is melted.  By this time, you'll have cooked the flatbread a bit more.

There you have it!  My twist on Roasted Eggplant.  Maybe add a tomato under the cheese in the middle, and garnish after melting.  Beautify it :]

Also, Anna and I decided to make puppy treats for our canine companions this christmas:

- B

Except it's, "puppy," in our case ;]

Vegetable potpie.  Comfort food for finals week

The following recipe is based off of cookstr.  We didn't have a shallow enough dish to use full proportions, so we halved everything that went into the pie, but also added some white cooking wine.  The crust stayed the same.  Also, being on a budget, I threw in the bag of frozen mixed veggies.  Worked great.

Cream Cheese Crust Ingredients: 

NOTE:  crust needs to sit in fridge for 30min before use

• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 ounces cold cream cheese cut into 3 pieces

Ricotta Ravioli w/Asparagus Walnut Pesto

The leftover Asparagus needed to be used up, so that is what I set out to do.  With some leftover Basil from the Frittata, something about Pesto just sounded right.  Pesto:  A trigger word.

The recipe was originally vegan, and had multiple recipes to substitute the ricotta cheese, ravioli shells, etc.  So, I just made it my own and tweaked along the way.

Ingredients (this recipe used for reference):

• 1 lb. fresh green asparagus
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 lime, zest and juice
• 1/2 ripe avocado
• cayenne pepper
• salt/pepper
• nutmeg, a dash
• 1/2 lemon
• 5 sweet grape tomatoes
• 1 cup Ricotta Cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped basil
• wonton wraps

Mediterranean Orzo

It tasted great, though not entirely what we expected.  We missed some ingredients at the store and didn't realize until halfway through cooking.  That, and we were a bit lost with the Artichoke.  I've steamed Artichoke and eaten it that way (which was delicious), but this called for grilling until brown'ish, and after that I didn't understand what to do.

The parmasean was a good choice, but the left over goat cheese we had was not.  Also, the tomatoes were a bit distracting.  At this point you could ask, "so what was good?"  Answer:  The pasta, the sauce, the parmasean, and the Asparagus.  4 -4.  We ended up at par.

This was the process though:

Ingredients of choice

The Asparagus was to be blanched.  Before dicing (I think).

Artichokes get cut in half and placed on the grill.  Not a good idea.  It might have been if I knew what I was doing, but I didn't quite understand.  So next time we will be buying some packaged Artichoke Hearts.

All the things Anna did in the dish turned out great.  Blanching, pasta, sauces, etc.  Delicious.

Overall, I gave it a c-.  I still enjoyed it, and it really was tasty, there were just a few off factors.  Will we try it again?  Yes.  With all the right ingredients too ;]  Give it some days for the pallete to crave though.

But hey, we made some awesome White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Biscotti to redeem ourselves.  That turned out awesome.

- B

present day

Win.

63 days ago, I had tried to make this dish.  I used a larger pan and it turned out to be very similar to thin pizza...just without crust.

There always needs to be room for failure though, yes?  Otherwise, we don't learn.

Ingredients (serves 1-2):

1 medium sized potato
3 roma tomatoes, diced
3/4 cup green onions/chives (chopped)
1/2 cup chopped Basil leaves
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
crumbled goat cheese, for topping

Preheat oven to 400ºF

Coat the potato(es) in oil, and sprinkle with salt.  Place in oven for 40 - 50 min, or until skin has started to crisp.  Once out of even, reduce heat to 300ºF

After potato(es) have cooked in the oven, dice, and add to pan with olive oil and fry until crisp again.  In the mean time, dice up your veggies and whip up your eggs.

Once potatoes are fried up a bit, add your veggies, stir, and then add the beaten eggs on top.  Now cover with lid, and throw into oven for 15 minutes

I didn't have a lid for the pan I used, so I covered with another pan of equal size.

Once teh 15 minutes were up, I took off the lid and broiled at 500ºF for about 5 minutes.  That seemed to finish it off.

le fin! Top cut, and serve as desired.

-B

Love the movie.  Love the food.  Le fin.  Actually, not really.  Have to post about the food too, yeah?

Ratatouille:  layered and ready to go into the oven

Yet another first time dish for me.  I love everything that goes into it, but have never taken the time to make it.  However, kudos go to Anna for this beautiful dish.  All I did was slice up the veggies.  I layed an oval dish as well, but it didn't look near as great as her.  She has the eye I wish I had for arranging food.  Takes two to make a whole though, doesn't it?

ingredients

Recipe based off of smitten kitchen:

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup tomato puree (we just blended up some Romas)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant 
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme 
Salt and pepper
Few tablespoons soft goat cheese, for serving (we forgot this, and remembered shortly after finishing)

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Puree tomatoes and add to oven safe dishware of choice.  Preferably oval.  Ours was about 8" - 10" in length and an inch or two in depth.  Mix in garlic, salt, and pepper.

Slice up all your veggies, thin as possible.  Thinner the better for layering around the dish.

after layering, your thyme should be sprinkled over the veggies.

Before throwing this in the oven, you should cut out a piece of making paper, equal to the size of the dish being used, and cover while cooking in the oven for 45 - 55 minutes.  Cook until veggies have released their juice, and the tomatoe puree is bubbling around the edges.  It should look a bit like this when coming out:

This next choice is all you.  Eat as is, top with cheese, put on bread, have couscous, noodles, rice, etc.  The variables are endless :]

Our choice was, Penne.  We also had a side of red sauce.

-B

At it again with recipes from Smitten Kitchen.

Roasted Eggplant w/Tomatoes and Mint

I've always though that Eggplant sounded disgusting.  Yeah.  I, "thought," that.  Past tense.  It might have had something to do with the word, egg, being in there.  Anna helped eliminate that fear, and showed me the light to this delicious Vegetable.  Those thoughts aside, Eggplant dishes have become a favorite, and are always invited to a dish.

(recipe from smitten found here)

Note:  My first time trying capers was in this dish.  Wasn't a wow factor for me, but I think I would like them more in other dishes.  The topping for the Eggplant is very salty, which includes salt, vinegar, and capers.  I'd give it another whirl, and maybe town it down for a more mild topping.  However, very delicious with bread :]

My preperation of the dish in pixels:

sliced eggplant on baking sheet with olive oil, salt, and pepper

after being cooked for 15min at 425ºF, and then sprinkled with more salt/pepper, and back into the oven for 10-15min

mix topping while eggplant is in oven

Voilá!  We have, Roasted Eggplant w/Tomatoes and Mint! :]

Can't forget dessert! ;]  Complete with a dark chocolate, coconut, graham cracker bottom, a custard filling middle, and another layer of dark chocolate on top, I give you:  Nanaimo Bars

An incredibly sweet treat.  Would defiinitely tone down the filling in the middle.  That chocolate graham/coconut layer on the bottom is not to miss though.  Delicious.

-B