Last Days in Eastlake and Ohio...

Hello from NYC! So now that much of my entire life has been picked up and relocated to the city (and that many of my kitchen utensils have been successfully unpacked) I can start to tell you about my culinary adventures over the past few weeks.

Our story begins in Cleveland for the Rib Burn Off 2007. The lovely Mrs. Lindsay Bierman and myself made up Team Delicious in the competition. But more about that in a few. Personally, I made a couple dishes for everyone to enjoy and one in particular for a single guest. The Texas Cole Slaw from the Memorial Day 2007 feast made a comeback appearance for the festivities because its a total crowd winner. Here's the basics of it:

SLAW:
1 head Napa cabbage, chopped
4 large carrots, shredded
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
8 oz toasted pecans, chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, thinly sliced
*the original recipe had a garnish of fresh mint...we didn't use it in this batch*

DRESSING:
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp hot water
1 tsp sugar
4 oz sour cream (you could use creme fraiche instead...my version used fat free sour cream)
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1 orange, juiced
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp caynenne pepper
kosher salt & pepper to taste

Super simple and really great all together. The dressing has just enough sweetness to balance the tart flavor of the apples and onion flavor and the cayenne pepper hits you at the right moment after swallowing each crisp clean bite!
I also ventured into the realm of Key Lime Pie. The couple that lives next door to my parents in Ohio, Sue & Denny...are absolutely amazing folks. The RBO '07 wouldn't have happened and the RBO tradition itself wouldn't have started if it wasn't for them. Sue's dad LOVES Key Lime Pie. So the last time I saw him, a couple weeks before the big party, I promised him his own pie. As the event drew closer and closer, I realized that it was was more feasible for me to make that pie rather than do the entire BBQ themed cake I was going to attempt. The time didn't allow for alot of fuss and it wasn't really worth it for me to unpack all of my kitchen supplies to make a cake at this point before the move. I actually ended up making this pie twice, because the first time it was with condensed milk that had been in the cabinets for a really long time. Now condensed milk doesn't 'go bad.' It just looks that way over time. So the milk from the old cans had a caramel color to it and so did the resulting pie filling. IT still tasted great, but just looked like a caramel custard as opposed to a Key Lime filling. So the second time through, new cans of of the Borden's were used and the filling was a lovely light yellow. The crust was a basic graham cracker:

1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c sugar
4 tsbp melted butter

This bakes in a 375 oven for about 15 minutes and will really brown up and make the whole kitchen smell like cookies.

The filling was quick to prepare as well:

2 14oz cans condensed milk (note: condensed milk always comes sweetened. I didn't know that)
1 c Key Lime juice
2 whole eggs

*You could have used regular lime juice as well, but I think the Key Lime juice is a bit more pungent and adds more of a punch overall to the pie. All you really need is elbow grease to whisk the condensed milk smooth with the eggs and lime juice. It is balanced out with the topping:

1 c sour cream (again, I used the fat free variety)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsbp lime zest

This looked just as good as it tasted! I was going to use Splenda in the crust, but I'm glad I didn't because I don't think it would have held up as well as it did with regular sugar. The only wait time involved in it is the time you need to chill the baked crust before you put the filling (not the topping) the shell and the minimum of 2 hours the filled shell needs to chill in the refrigerator before putting the topping on. You are also supposed to chill the whole thing, topping and zest and all before serving, but I think its sturdy enough for you to go right from topping to table.

I gave Sue's dad the pie. He hid it from the rest of the party guests and took it home. I got the empty pie plate back about 2 days later. I think he liked it.

Onto the Ribs. The Missers and I took 3rd place in our debut year, so this year it was time to expand and improve our repertoire. This time around, we got a gorgeous rack of pork spare ribs at Rudy's Meats in Willowick. Thanks to the fast mind and hands of Lindsay, we had decided on a pineapple flavor for the ribs and we also went with a 24 hour brine of kosher salt, black pepper, and water. The sauce failed its first test run, we're not quite sure why, but it may have had something to do with eyeballed measurements and I'm thinking the addition of teriyaki sauce. No worries though, the second go round is what we went with.

1/4 c brown sugar
1/3 c flour
1/4 c white vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
14oz crushed canned pineapple (we used no added sugar pineapple chunks that we crushed in a food processor)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (we used regular table salt)
1/8 tsp black pepper

It might have seemed disconcerting to the eye because it was more of a rose color as opposed to the deep hue of regular BBQ sauce. However, the sweet heat was super prevalent. Note to those of you who don't want to use the juice that's in the canned pineapple - 14oz is the entire amount of pineapple in the large can! Or 1 3/4 cup of fresh crushed pineapple. Who knew Ms Jones could do math!? The best thing about it was the peppery aftertaste that even just 1/8 tsp left you with!

We brined the meat overnight, then baked it for a little over 3 hours in a low heat oven. Missers added a bit of teriyaki in the bottom on the baking pan to aid the steaming process. The ribs were finished with the sauce on the grill, allowing the brown sugar and pineapple in it to slightly carmelize on the meat. They smelled insanely good and once again, were good enough to get 3rd place overall. Out of 7-8 competitors (seasoned professionals I might add) that's not too bad for us. At least we could go to bed knowing that we placed two years in a row. That doens't happen very often in this contest!Most of the time, those who place are first timers or regular participants who have a good year. We were pleased to take home another ribbon. But next year, we've got our eyes focused on the trophy and jacket!

The rest of the spread at the party was standard Eastlake Heights picnic fare. Lots of fresh salads and slaws (the Memphis style cole slaw my mom made was to DIE for! The heat was totally unexpected but hit like a ton of bricks), roasted potatoes, homemade baked beans, pulled pork sandwiches, Sac's egg rolls, a huge fruit tray, Lindsay's mom's 'Poke Cake' (which gets devoured the moment its put on the table), various cookies, brownies, finger desserts, and Tyler's mom sent him with an apple pie. And as usual, we were standing outside at around 1:30 am grilling burgers and hot dogs because the round 4 or 5 munchies had set in. At that point in the night it was raining and most people were feeling the effects of fatigue and alcohol, so there was alot of smoke and a lot of laughter surrounding the grill. I think my mom had to step away, American cheese in hand, because she was giggling uncontrollably. We all went to bed that night stuffed to our eyeballs. What a culinary note to end my residence in Ohio on.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this entry...live from New York...

Coming soon...

A review of Kitchen Confidential: The Series

They only aired about 1/3 of the episodes they produced, so I have about 8 episodes that not even I have seen yet. But rest assured loyal fans, they will be viewed and commented on in full.

Also on the way from Ms Jones, full reporting live from the Eastlake Heights Rib Burn Off 2007. This time 'round, Missers B and Ms Jones are gunning for Sally, Ron, and all the other past first-place winners. Last year, we were 3rd in our first go-round...things will change this year for sure.

xx--

Pampering for the Face

AND for the stomach!

Ms Jones recently attended a 'Body Shop at Home' party thrown by a lovely friend named Dawn. While I was making my final purchases, I chose a random prize box which held a small piece of paper saying I had won my own 'BSAH' party! So the date was set and that meant one thing in my mind...what the heck am I going to serve to my guests?! Menu planning started right away.

On the invitiations, I said that 'refreshments' would be served. Now in my mind, that means stuff to snack on. BUT, as its been show throughout the years, and most recently show on Memorial Day, I'm always overprepared. So I wanted to make sure that I stuck to my guns this time and only soent the time and money that was NECESSARY to provide 'refreshments.'

If you couldn't tell from earlier posts, I live for Mediterranean cuisine. Its light, heart healthy, and full of fresh ingredients and flavor! Therefore, it was only natural to choose to stick with that theme. My homemade hummus is in high demand at social gatherings (or at least in my mind it is) so that needed to be on the menu. Since we were going to be testing face cleansing and moisturizing products, I wanted the guests to be able to have things that easy to pick up and eat. One of the first things that came to mind was mini spanakopitas. But phyllo dough is very crisp and crumbly when baked and I wanted to avoid as much of a mess as I possibly could. It would save my guests AND myself from alot of heavy clean up. In searching for alternatives using the spanakopita filling, a light bulb went off in my brain. Wonton wrappers. I would be able to bundle the filling up neatly and keep it sealed, while providing a crisp wonton corner for the attendees to hang onto as they eat.

I used a filling recipe from a June 2001 issue of Cooking Light Magazine:

1 (10-ounce) package fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped green onions
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

To prepare filling, place spinach in a large skillet or Dutch oven. Place over medium heat; cook until spinach wilts. Place the spinach mixture in a colander, pressing until barely moist. Combine the spinach and cheeses in a bowl; set aside.

Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the green onions; sauté for 2 minutes or until soft. Stir the green onions and the next 5 ingredients (green onions through 2 egg whites) into spinach mixture.

It made a substantial amount of filling and the original recipe used phyllo to make 20 teeny bundles. Using the wontons and half of the regular filling amount, I was able to use all of the wrappers and ended up with 48 bundles.
Now, to save myself time, I bundled and stored them in an airtight container the night before. Next time, I will fill them and promptly bake them. The filling was very moist despite the fact that I squeezed the life out of the spinach. I think they would have crisped more while baking if I would have tossed them in the oven right away. They had more of a wet ravioli look to them after sitting, filled, in the fridge over night. They were also a bit stuck together, making placement on the baking sheet rather time consuming.

Every techinique I came across for baking filled wontons (instead of frying them) called for a 350 degree oven for about 15-20 minutes. When I was perusing my latest issue of Cooking Light, they suggested spraying the wontons with nonstick cooking spray and baking for 4-5 minutes. But that was unfilled and straight from package to oven. So the former suggestion was going to be my best bet.
I probably could have left them in the oven for the full 20, but they browned and crisped on the edges after 15 minutes. The moisuture in the filling caused a bit of puffing in the middle of the wonton from steam release as well.

As an accompaniment to the hummus, I made a small veggie tray of celery, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, sweet onions, and sliced cucumbers. One of the guests was also nice enought to swing by South Side 6 in BG before coming over to pick up a couple bags of the best pita chips in Wood and Lucas county.

For dessert, I wanted to keep it light and simple. I didn't really stick with the Mediterranean theme here, because, quite frankly, bakalava, burma, birds nests, and rice pudding are really hard to make. I was going to throw together some sugar free Angelfood Cake with a topping of crushed pineapple, Cool Whip Free, and SF vanilla pudding mix, but all the stores around me were out of the sugar free cake! So when I was pillaging my way through the shelves at my local Giant Eagle, I came across a tart shell shaped pre-made Bavarian Sponge Cake. 1/4 of the cake was only 164 calories, so do the math to serve 10 slices of the cake, and that comes to only 65.6 calories for the cake par per serving. Still a calorie conscious alternative! So I put together the topping I was going to use on the Angelfood cake and just flopped it in the middle of the sponge cake. It was garnished with a fanned whole strawberry.

I'm sorry I don't have any photographs of the 'refreshements' posted this time...I was a bit preoccupied with entertaining the 9 other people in my apartment, haha. But duty calls. Everyone raved about the taste and presentation. That made me feel like there's a ton of great supper clubs in my future.

Coming soon, cookies for a golf tournament!

Memorial Day Feast!!

Lots of people choose to relax for their Memorial Day weekend. People like Anna & myself choose a different kind of relaxation. Like getting together a bunch of good friends and cooking for ALL OF THEM! You saw the menu in my last post, but here's the thoughts, reviews, and even recipes for our picnic.

Prep began the night before in the Goodwin's kitchen. I arrived @ 6:30 and I think we made it to the store a bit after 7:30. Because it was more cost effective, we decided to get just about all of the produce at Monnette's Market. This way, we could ensure freshness and save ourselves a few dollars in the process. For those of you who don't know about the more recently remodeled Bowling Green, OH Kroger store...its incredible. I lived in BG for 4 years and shopped at said Kroger for the same amount of time. When I walked in, it was a completetly different layout. I felt lost, but was really impressed with it overall. A good fresh salad bar, sushi, and 'Natural' food section. THe two complaints I have overall:

1) Starbucks. come on now. There's one in the student union on campus and directly off exit 64 on Wooster. We don't need one in the grocery store. I love my Italian Roast as much as the next extra bold fanatic, but seriously.
2)The aisles. They run in a way that hinders traffic slow in the store. Just positioned awkwardly.

I'm sure being the self professed foodies Anna and I are, we could have easily spent about 2-3 hours just poking around in the new layout. However, we were on a time schedule and thankfully, with a list. Therefore, we only spent about an hour gathering our menu ingredients. From there, it was decided to make a jaunt down Main Street to South Side Six; quite possibly the BG 'Diamond in the Rough.' Its a teeny party store that sells offbeat beer as well as the normal libation selection. However, the most fantastic thing about it lies behind the cash register. A small food prep area where they make (right when you order) Mediterranean food! Fresh made pita chips, using Soybean oil, oregano, garlic salt, and black pepper...Hummus that's to DIE for...and we think, one of the best falafels we've ever eaten. It was later in the evening though, so it was light salad time. They were gracious enough to make us Fatoush without dressing and lemony smelling Taboulleh. We also picked up three freezer bags full of pita chips and hummus for the picnic while we were at it. Reasonably priced too. I think we may have spent about $80-$90 on food total in BG.

Back to the kitchen in Perrsyburg to eat then get to really cooking for the party.
Pie crusts came first. Using the HG Recipe for Topless Cherry Pie, we processed the Fiber One in a minichopper. Next time, just to save minutes and to get a finer crumb, I think we'll use a larger processor. Mixed the crumbs with lite butter and egg substitute and made two crusts that went into the 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. While those were baking and cooling, we decided to get the Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes out of the way. They involved the most amount of prep time and bake time. Being the health conscious folks we are, we decided to use tofu for this recipe instead of oil, water, and eggs. We also made two batches of cupcakes to accomodate the amount of people we were expecting.
I pressed the blocks of Silken Lite Tofu for about 10 minutes, then crumbled them into a large bowl. I then blended in two packages of white cake mix with a hand blender. The only other item added to the batter was about 1/2 cup of water (necessary for a smoother texture for mixing. By pressing, I drained some of the natural moisture out of the tofu). After I reached the consistency I wanted, Anna had finished dicing up 16 oz. of fresh strawberries. We had mulled over the ideas for these Short-Cup-Cakes considering baking full strawberries inside or even a puree center, but we really like the idea of looking at the cupcake itself and seeing little bits of berries all over. They went in at 350 in the oven for about 30 minutes and we had golden topped Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes! That was the perfect time for them to go in at because it baked the cake all the way through and left warm strawberry pockets throughout. A slight browning on top also gave the cupcake the appearance of angelfood cake that had just come out of the oven.

My lovely sous, Anna, was hard at work making the filling for the two pies we were preparing. One Cherry and one Blueberry. Once the filling had set up properly, we left it to cool for @10 min before putting it in the cooled pie crusts that smelled amazing!
That night, all we wanted to get done was complete by about 12:30am.

The next morning, I went straight to the market about 9:30am to buy the rest of the produce we needed for salads, etc. Overall, I spent around $30 on a laundry basket full of fruit and vegetables that probably would have cost us twice as much if we would have purchased it at the regular grocery store. I'm sure the gang at Monnettes is going to miss me when I'm in NYC and not shopping there every Sunday morning. With my basketfull of produce, we got the big cooler packed with the other items we purchased, then headed to BG for the rest of the day.

After some necessary catching up with guests, it was time to get down to business.
We started in on chopping the ingredients for the Grilled Sweet Potato Salad.

Just to make things easier on ourselves, we modified the recipes for the salads, etc. slightly. As far as this recipe is concerned, we didn't use the peanuts or cilantro AND in the glaze, no cayenne or cumin, butthanks to a delightful measuring booboo, maximized the cinnamon to 2 tbsp. Overall though, it made for a GREAT smell and taste! We planned for more people than we had as well. We bought for a double recipe of everything, but only ended up using half that. We did notice that cooking this in the oven takes WAY longer than right on the heat of the grill. Roasting in the foil packet has a effect of the texture of the end result. Everything is tender, but still really moist and flavorful. No dry potatoes here! The sweetness of the onion, mango, potato, and red pepper meshed together so well!

Once that was all prepped and in the oven, it was time to dive headfirst into the Texas Cole Slaw.
Again, we bought enough for a double recipe, but this time, used 3/4 of what we had. So a 1.5 recipe yield. The salad part couldn't be easier to prep. Napa cabbage, Granny Smith apples (which is the reason we chose this recipe in the first place. Anna and I LOVE the tartness of the apple and thought it was a brilliant addition to the slaw) shredded carrots, toasted pecans, and red onion. We decided to leave out the mint...probably because we couldn't find any in the store, haha. The true modifications were made in the slaw dressing. No cumin or cayenne and Fat Free Sour Cream. It made a wonderfully light and creamy (didn't think that was possible...but probably because of the citrus) dressing which we were able to use sparingly to just lightly coat everything. A little went a long way, which was a good thing because normally, I avoid cole slaws because of the way the dressings weight down in your stomach. The slaw is bright in color and in flavors and its something I WILL be making again.

Rounding out the sides portion of the feast was the gloriously crispy and tangy South Side 6 pita chips and their house hummus. We also prepped a salad bar with mixed greens, stuffed olives, bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and red onion. All these items could also multitask as burger toppings. We always think ahead like that. A giant seedless watermelon was sliced and plated alongside everything. Check the slideshow for photos and let me know if you want individual photos of things for a closer look.

You can also see photos of the dessert table in the above show. Aren't the Short-Cup-Cakes adorable? The frosting was made using a Dannon Light N Fit vanilla yogurt cup, 1 package of sugar-free Strawberry Jell-o mix, and 1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip Free. I found that this provides a super light texture and flavor to the 'frosting' while still having a more substantial consistency. We didn't want to do a buttercream or anything like that because Strawberry Shortcake generally uses a whipped cream frosting. Not to say that you can't go all out and use whipping cream and confectioners sugar, haha, this is just our calorie counter friendly recipe. This version held up marvelously in a little bit of heat and piped really well through the pastry tip.

The pies were a hit as well. The Fiber One crust was slighty sweet and chewy. Really like a granola bar-esque feel in your mouth. We only ended up cutting the blueberry pie, which left everyone with purple toothed smiles afterwards. The cherry pie was saved and brought back specifically for Anna's dad to eat.

The standard BBQ meats, i.e. hamburgers (or Anna's dad's special Donnie Burgers) and hotdogs, were unphotographed. For the ovo-lacto-pesca veg crowd, we tossed some portabello mushrooms on there as well. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boca soy burgers...but there's nothing like the taste of a fire-grilled mushroom cap. With a little of the sweet potato salad on there...C'est Magnifique!

At the end of the night, everyone left with their bellies and hearts full. It never going to cease to amaze me how good food can bring friends together. Toss a bit of alcohol, dice, and a basketball game in there, and it makes for the perfect Memorial Day picnic.

I'd like to thank Anna for brainstorming this WHOLE thing, supplying the ingredients, and being in town for a lil bit. For that weekend, I was HER sous :)

If you want/need any of the recipes or further photographs, just ask. Ms Jones always aims to please.

Next up, the SPA munchies...

Review

So apparently the shortbread was QUITE the hit at the Olli house. I even got a cute lil note with it saying just how much they enjoyed it! This makes me feel confident that when i make it tomorrow, it will be just as good.

Anna and I have been talking a BUNCH about the upcoming Memorial Day feast and things are in pretty good shape. We plan on prepping most of the evening on Saturday, then doing the final prep between 2 and 6 on Sunday at the BBQ house. There's alot to be done and alot to be bought, but I think we're going to be able to pull it off without any major hiccups.

We've also been discussing the future of this blog when I move out to NYC. Its not only going to contain my rants, raves, and reviews, but also thanks to some sweet technological capabilities, instructional cooking videos! *A has so sweetly taken on the responsibility of being Ms Jones' Sous Chef. So its going to be quite the adventure watching a pastry chef in training paired with a sous in training. What it really boils down to is neither of us really have a grasp on what we're doing, so its going to be interesting documenting both of our progress right here in Ms Jones Kitchen.
Also under discussion is the eventual start of Sweet Cuppin Cakes. I think we're leaning towards our home base location in the Cleveland area. But the biz won't be officially started until 1) I've been able to pay off a good portion of my student loan, 2) I get enough experience post graduation under my belt to feel more confident in my own skills, and 3) we have enough capital to really do this on our own.

I have also been thinking about cupcake recipes...specifically ones using Marscarpone cheese. When I was fortunate enough to have cable TV access this past weekend, Giada DeLaurentis...as much as her pronounciations grate on my skin like a Microplane zester...had one that I really would like to try:

1 box white cake mix
2 egg whites
8oz softened Marscarpone cheese
scant 1/4 cup oil
1 cup water

So this, after the Memorial Day Feast and my spa party 'refreshments' are done, will be the first priority in Ms Jones Kitchen. Its time to be more creative.

Tonight, its recipe prep after making Tilapia.

I was also pleased to see that this blog is reaching people I never thought it would. I was contacted by a person who works for Fox Network, after she read my post talking about Anthony Bourdain's 'The Nasty Bits.' There was a short lived TV series on Fox not too long ago spun off his book 'Kitchen Confidential.' Apparently that series is now on DVD and this person wants me to review the set and post it on here! So that's something to look forward too :)

I have to email Lora Brody and tell her the shortbread was a supreme success!

ps - if you live in the Toledo area...EAT KATZ SISTERS CHEESECAKE!!!!!!

Puffs, the Birthday and the Raisining

Hello again faithful readers! Ms Jones back from another dry spell. It seems like I'm always apologizing for not updating you on the goings on in my kitchen. Regardless, its time (ie - slower day at work) for me to fill you all in.

The last time I was posting, I had just been to a Pampered Chef party and finished baking my first ever Friendship Breads. Alot has happened since then...I've made my first sets of Cream Puffs, Pastry Cream, a second round of Cream Puffs, more Friendship Bread, an incredible birthday dinner, and most recently, Oatmeal Cranberry Dark Chocolate Chip cookies and my first Shortbread. So shall we get to talking and photos? I hope you're all snuggled up in blankets with hot cocoa or tea reading with your eyeballs wide open.

Cream Puffs. I found the recipe I used from a recent 'Today' show segment and figured, it sounds simple enough...why not give it a go. When I start school in August, I'll be making these, so I may as well get a head start. I began by going to Cake Arts Supply to get a sturdy pastry bag and the largest round piping tip they had in the place. For those of you who aren't aware...the pastry used in Cream Puffs (and eclairs and gougeres,etc.) is called a Pate A Choux. Its different than most pastry doughs because it is cooked, then baked. You add flour to boiling water or milk and butter, then add eggs until you get a paste-like consistency. From there, you can pipe it onto baking sheets in a variety of shapes and when its baked, the liquid in the dough creates steam, which causes your pastry to puff up and become hollow in the middle. Using the recipe, i made small army of dough balls to be baked. I found the dough was relatively simple to make, just keep in mind to add the eggs one at a time. This egg addition process can't be rushed because you want to add each egg to the same consistency of dough. Adding more eggs before the others are fully incorporated could leave you with watery dough. You want the dough soft, but still stable enough to hold whatever shape you may pipe into.

Anyway, this recipe made an ARMY of quarter sized puffs and a few eclairs as well:

The end result was a perfectly hollow, lighty, buttery, and smooth pastry shell. My only mistake was leaving them sit out for too long. This dough is also pretty tempermental. It WILL dry out if you leave them sit for too long. Once they are cooled, which doesen't take that long because they're hollow, I highly recommend storing them in ziploc freezer bags OR in an airtight container until you are ready to fill them. If not, they'll become hard as a rock. This is why I had to toss 90% of these small ones and make a whole other batch of puffs to fill with my pastry cream. I also recommend serving them within 2-3 days of making them, if you're not serving immediately.

The pastry cream was also fairly simple to do. You just have to work quickly and really have your mis-en-place when you start to boil the whole milk and vanilla bean. Milk, when boiled gang, bubbles up QUITE fast. I almost had a crisis on my hands after turning my back for a split second. There was one ingredient that escaped me though. Coffee extract. I couldn't find it at any grocery or specialty store around here. So upon a tip from a WIlliams-Sonoma employee, I used instant coffee...1 tsp grounds per 1 tbsp boiling water. It actually turned the cream a coffee color, which was brilliant to match a slight coffee flavor. I also recommend using this within 3-4 days of making it.

I used the pastry cream to fill the new (and larger) cream puffs i made a few days later. As is the case with most projects in the Kitchen...it was easier to make said cream puffs 2nd time around. They didn't puff as much as I would have liked them too. I think they require a bit more baking time because of size increase...and the weather was really humid outside..so that played a factor too. But I snapped a couple pics before they were all eaten at work:

All feedback on them was positive. One got the top eaten off of it, and then there was a salesperson who asked if there was hummus inside of the puff. I laughed. Its not far fetched for a savory Pate A Choux to be filled with a hummus like substance...but not in this case. Wouldn't have gone well with the powdered sugar.

So the 12th of May was Ms Jones' big quarter century birthday celebration! For the big 2-5 a kind hearted woman at work, Anita, was nice enough to make a cake for me!!

Just how I like it. Plain white cake with a layer of strawberries inside and Vanilla BetterCream whipped frosting. And of course, more strawberries on top. Many of you don't know this, but Strawberry Shortcake is my ultimate favorite dessert. I LOVE anything simple with fresh ingredients...so this cake was perfect for my birthday! Murph, the morning show guy over at 106.5 and KC were nice enough to also get me a 4 inch personal Raspberry Lemon Cheesecake from Katz Sisters. Now the strawberry cake was cut up and made for sharing...but I took the selfish route on the cheesecake. A decent cheesecake is easy to find...cheesecake like Katz Sisters...you keep all to yourself.

The problem with my birthday is I like so many different types of foods, that I can never fully commit to picking a birthday menu. This year, it was a rough decision between sushi, fresh fish, and falafel. It must have been the day, but I was totally feeling the falafel. SO, I rallied up the Robers, picked out a complimentary salad recipe (thanks to Heidi's genius) and got the best falafel in town...Rumors. South Side Six is the only comparable place around here, but that's technically in BG. and the only thing i required was their homemade pita chips to compliment the hummus I picked up from Rumors as well. One dozen falafels there is only $6...so I spent about $10 for an amazing main course. The rest of our meal was a fresh zucchini, tomato, watercress, and sauteed mushroom salad. We seasoned the mushrooms with a bit of cumin and that perfectly played off the peppery taste of the watercress. It was served over field greens and then a touch of Heidi's signature 'House Dressing.' The dressing had mustard and a touch of sugar in it too. Things were prepared with my lovely birthday gift...a new 7-inch Santoku knife! Thank the culinary gods for friends who consider you stable enough to give you a giant knife for your birthday :) and despite the fact that we stuffed ourselves silly, we still managed room for cake. jRo put it best 'whether is fish or falafel...' we always end up with a great meal when we get together to cook.

Memorial Day weekend, my fellow foodie and partner in Sweet Cuppin Cakes crime will be back in town on vacation from NYC. Ah yes, NYC...that's another issue to be talked about soon enough. Apparently the kitchen in our new apartment is prime space for supper clubs...so those will be discussed as they get closer to happening. Our first SCC supper club though, will be held this Memorial Day weekend for Anna's visit in BG. We've been menu planning and this is what we've decided on:

APPETIZERS
Hummus - SS6 to save time
Salsa - homemade, of course
Pita Chips - SS6
Kale Chips - Homemade
Relish/Cheese Tray

SIDES
Sweet Potato Salad
Texas Cole Slaw w/Granny Smith Apples
Salad Bar

MEATS
Hot Dogs
Donnie Burgers
Black Bean Veggie Burgers

DESSERT
Strawberry Short-Cup-Cakes
Cherry Pie
Fruit Salad

Ice Cream

We love the idea of keeping simple, but also healthy. So alot of these things will not only be good, but super great for your body! For example, the cole slaw isn't made with mayo, the Cherry Pie is an HG recipe...SCC is going to be all about simple, FRESH, ingredients and taste. More on the Mem Day feast as it draws closer! Also more on the plans for SCC...we've got a number of brillant ideas already brainstormed, I can't wait to finally get them all down on paper. HINT: our signature giant cookie will look like THIS

Thursday night, I felt the itch to bake. It was time to whip out the cookie recipes. Something again, simple that 99.9% of people like....Oatmeal Raisin. This is a recipe I can do in my sleep and it turns out wonderful every time. I love the minimal amount of flour (1 1/2 cups) to the 3 cups of oats! Plus, the variety of add-ins is tremendous. This time around, I ended up with Oatmeal Cranberry Dark Chocolate Chip cookies:

Keep in mind too, there was also an oven full of them when I took these photos. Normally, I would have made them slightly larger, but I wanted to max the quantity, so I used my 1 tbsp. cookie dropper to made each one. I like the consistency of the ones that I had on the bottom rack more so than the top rack. Always a winner :)

I also decided to use a recipe out of Lora Brody's 'Basic Baking' for shortbread. I've said it before...Lora is a genius. Buy this book for your cooking collection:

BUY THIS BOOK! BUY THIS BOOK!

I gave this shortbread to a co-worker and am currently waiting to hear how it turned out. Looking at the actual result closely, you could see the teeny pockets of butter...so I'm thinking it worked out well. I'll let you all know whether it got the thumbs up or down as soon as I hear them. It wasn't tough to make either, all it consisted of is butter, flour, confectioners sugar. Couldn't be simpler. I just hope that it was pressed down well enough to hard together once its pulled out of the baking dish.

That's about all the updating I can give at this point my faithful few. I will be posting photos and final menus/reviews from the upcoming memorial day 2007 feast.

I'm making a list of cooking books that I want to have in my personal library:

Basic Baking - Lora Brody

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen - Harold McGee

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen - Jacques Pepin

The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion

The Produce Bible : Essential Ingredient Information and More

Mastering The Art of French Cooking - Julia Child

La Technique - Jacques Pepin

The Professional Chef - CIA

The French Laundry Cookbook - Thomas Keller

Larousse Gastronomique Recipe Collection

Les Halles Cookbook - Anthony Bourdain

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver

Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry

All of the America Test Kitchen Cookbooks

Anyone want to donate a cookbook to La Bibliotheque de Ms Jones? Let me know :)

more to come ...

Ms Jones and the Pampered Chef

So this was the product for the Baby Shower at church the other week...it took me a while to post them just because I was trying to keep things together at work, etc. But nevertheless, baby shower cake. It was rough to finish this because it was really humid the particular day I decorated it...which means as I was warming up the frosting when I was holding the pastry bag. I even had to put it right in the fridge onece it was finally done. Not my best work...though everyone at the party loved it. Inside was cinnamon swirl. Once again, impressed with the look of the basketweave pattern. Still can't understand why more people don't like it. Its old school and I dig it.

This week, I had a torrid affair with the Pampered Chef. It was actually the first PC party I had ever been to and thankfully walked out with most of my money still in my checking account. I did purchase a couple things for other people but I didn't over do it for my personal collection, which only consists of a springform pan set that's actually my mothers, haha. I'm considering hosting one even though my apartment is teeny and it would be a tight squeeze.
Anyway, at said party, the PC woman made a chicken and broccoli braid and a Banana Cream pie thingy. Pretty simple stuff. Here's my purchases:
1 can strainer
1 mini measuring cup set (ADORABLE for liquid measures up to 4 tbsp!)
1 pair of Bamboo Tongs
1 8 inch serrated Bread Knife (quite a steal for the price..and its lifetime guaranteed)
1 2-cup capacity stoneware oval baker
1 Citrus Peeler (it was like .75 cents and I was still using my fingers to do that crap!)

So overall, I was happy with my selections...could have bought WAY more...
Being who I am, I couldn't go to the party empty handed. So, I decided to bring the friendship bread I had finally gotten around to baking the night before. I made a loaf of Banana Walnut and also a loaf of Pumpkin Raisin.
If you've ever made Friendship Bread, you know its a 10 day process that you can basically add anything you want into it. Both loaves turned out great and my oven was quite accurate as far as baking time goes! I can't express how nice it is to have an oven that behaves!
The Banana Walnut was slightly drier than the Pumpkin Raisin, but that's a direct result of add-ins. I DID pull an America's Test Kitchen trick out and press the pumpkin before I put it in. I think the bread would have been way mushy if I didn't. Same principle that's used in the Pumpkin Cheesecake I love to make so much. And it turned the bread a warm orange color.
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste of both breads, because I used Splenda instead of sugar. In the whole recipe, there was about 1/4 cup of real sugar because I used 1/2 cup of the Splenda blend for baking. The rest of the additional sugar was substituted. I was concerned that it would be TOO sweet, an unfortunate side effect of sugar sub products...but it worked out well. Again, I partially attribute that to the mix ins I used.

I have one more batch of bread that I'm on day 4 of...I'm thinking about the Pumpkin Raisin again...maybe using chocolate as well for the 2nd loaf. Any suggestions you all have would be amazing.

I'm also looking for baking projects. So consider this a challenge to you all to give me one to work on. I haven't got ALOT of time on my hands...but the spare time I do have, I'd like to spend it making things for you all to read about :)

get to it! challenge me!!!

ms j