{Baking @ home} ~ Apple Cake in Autumn

One of the stars of a tea I had recently with

a newer friend was

an Apple Cake that I made for the first time last year. 

This cake has been shared with two familes and

Mr. Husband and I are going to enjoy the rest of it

in this last week before the Nativity Fast!

I made it for my friend's birthday and was just 

tickled that she had some of it on her actual birthday.

It's a lovely cake. 

GF Cheesecake ~ NYC Cheesecake that is!

So I made GF Cheesecake on Monday...
from Gluten-Free Baking Classics
that Ginny suggests.


We had gotten some organic oranges
and I zested them... 

I saved the orange zest, froze them in two small
freezer bags... 

I used the lemon zest that I froze earlier.

I baked the crust first as instructed,
for 12 minutes.
{I realized later that the recipe said to take the sides
off before baking the crust but it was fine with
the sides on, cooled well and was less work!}

The rest of the GF crust I rolled out...

between two parchment papers and chilled for
a good hour or so in the fridge
{I kept it flat on the cutting board the whole time}.

5 packages of cream cheese.
We are talking some serious cheese cake here.

I have a set of three kaiser pans 
as the cheesecake cookbook
the joy of cheesecake suggests;
I  found this cookbook for
two dollars for Mr. Husband
when we were dating.
*
Note: the above picture shows it with the
unbaked crust put on the sides after
the crust was baked for 12 minutes.

I wasted some time in trying to cream the
cream cheese in my beloved mixer.
I learned, once I started slowly pouring the sugar in
to the mixing bowl with the cream cheese,
that the cheese would 'relax' quickly.
Soon, with the additional ingredients,
including 5 eggs + two yokes !
{I told Mr. Husband that this pie is a heart attack
on a stick! He said I should name my blog post as such...;) }
the mixture was quite runny and
easily poured into the spring-form pan.
*
The orange zest,
perhaps because it was so fresh and moist,
stuck to the beater in the mixer more than once
and I mixed it back in by hand just before pouring.

I used the 9 inch pan,
not remember what sizes I had at the time;
it was supposed the 10 inch. 

The crust was easy to put on the sides,
as it was chilled before hand.

It baked beautifully,
first 15 minutes at 475, then 50 minutes at 300 and
then 15 minutes with the oven off and the
oven door not opened.

I made this for our Tuesday book club.
It admittedly took many hours to do
but was really enjoyable.
{And I listened to much of
Lukacs' 5 Days in London
while I was baking, so it was a very British afternoon:) }.
And I know for next time that I don't have to worry
so much about the cream staying hard.

 

Everyone loved it,
the others who had made cheesecakes before
commented on how mine did not crack
and we enjoyed it with some strawberries that we had
frozen in our freezer.
*
It was really good, very creamy.
I actually liked the GF tart crust that I made for the
lemon chiffon pie from the same cookbook better
and think I will go with this next time.
{The cookbook said that this was an option, FYI}.
I also may lessen the sugar a smidge as I found it a bit
on the sweet side.
The only thing I wish was different on the whole
with this cheesecake, which everyone loved,
was that it was a bit more creamy than Mr. Husband
and I would like it to be.
It did not have the same 'denseness' and texture of
the cheesecakes we have loved and that
the fork has to work just a little to get a bite.
*
That said,
Mr. Husband and I are happy to eat more of this
cheese cake as dessert left overs!
It's still in the fridge and looks beautiful!

Baking Bread ~ Many Different Ways

Early last week
Mat. Anna blogged about making
French onion soup
and she made it in a non-enamel Dutch oven.
*
I was intrigued;
Mr. Husband has a Dutch oven
(I had long thought of getting an enamel one
as my impression was that it would be
difficult to care for it otherwise)
and so I learned from Mat. Anna that
one can use Dutch ovens for many things
that are just cast-iron.

Well,
last Friday made the artisan bread again.
I got the Dutch oven out;
it was dusty and needed a good cleaning.

It has some rust spots that
I have been told can be taken out
and that it will be OK once it is re-seasoned.
Any advice on this, of course,
is welcomed!

I used it as is anyway,
as I really wanted to see how it would be.
The dough did not rise as high...
I left the knife on top as I did not want
to forget to score it again!

But it gave us a really nice warm
bread that reminded me of potato roles.

 

Soon the little loaf was just one small slice!
I ate mine warm with honey!
It was great and the Dutch oven worked just fine!
*
Today I am thinking of making a beef stew;
I got some organic beef broth and beef
and found a non-tomato based stew recipe
that I am going to use with it.
*
It is so nice that the weather has been
a bit cooler...
*
It was wonderful on Sunday to go to liturgy
and to see church family...
*
How are things for you?

My Ukrainian Mother's Pancakes

When I first moved back to Ottawa,
after being there for the fall and winter
semesters when I was still in library school,
I lived with my Ukrainian family for about
1 month or so before I landed my next apartment
and got my first job,
which to this day remains one of the ones
I loved the most.
*
One of the things we would do was
having pancakes with local honey,
fresh sour cream, berries... pots of tea
(they were very hospitable and taught me
a lot about hospitality, and had tea just for me,
since I never have caffeinated teas).
*
I remember eating at their table,
first a white one with a tile top and later
a wooden one of the same size,
I remember not only the food being
so warm and delicious,
I remember the love and quiet close
society this family had with one another.
*
I, who have always been on the more willowy side,
was always told to eat more!
*
Well, one of the things I asked my
Ukrainian Mother before I left was to come over
one last time and for her to teach me how
to make her pancakes, along
with a few other dishes.
*
Finally this weekend I made them!

What I loved was that I got cooking lessons
that were from scratch, not from a book.
I am slowly making my way through
Stand Facing the Stove: 
The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking 
and one of the things that I am learning through it is
culinary history and how cookbooks
were not always standardized and that
women taught other women as they had
big kitchens as before everything changed,
food was not pre-canned, chickens were not bought plucked,
not to mention de-boned and ready to be cooked immediately.
One of the things we have lost through these changes,
though there are many new conveniences and things
we take for granted, like sugar being inexpensive
and flour being prepackaged and ready to be used with ease.
*
The way my Ukrainian Mother taught me
was the old way.

1 liter of milk
melt some butter/coconut oil/olive oil and add it
(all three oils together being best)
Lightly lightly oil the pan,
adding more oil, almost no oil at all,
with a bit of cheese cloth, being careful as the pan
will be already hot,
(I used paper towel scraps to lightly re-oil with a bit of butter)...

I melted the oils.

Added the three eggs and beat them in the milk
and oil...

The flour you add last
and add it until the mixture,
with the three eggs added already,
until it is the consistency of a fresh (liquid) sour cream
(that I had many times there) or pourable honey.
I think I added about three cups,
but I did it a bit at a time and tested the consistency.
I did not have enough easy arm power
to get the mixture smooth, as my first
dump of flour had been too much at once,
so I used a blender to mix the batter and then
poured it back in my shorter but still substantive
8 cup Pyrex measuring cup with lid.
Once it had just a little bit of give when I
used my wooden spoon to stir the top
of the mixture while still in the blender,
and it was not at it's most 'runny' stage,
but more like a runny sour cream or liquid honey,
I called it good and was ready to use it.
 

Mr. Husband wanted savory ones
so this was my own addition to
this particular recipe...
based on crepes we had previously.

FYI, when I was first making the pancakes,
I realized that the batter was frying up a bit 'dry'
and I added a little bit of olive oil to the batter,
which righted the matter immediately.
*
It finally dawned on me to fry up the
non-hormone laden turkey bacon
before adding it to the finished but still
in pan crepe/pancake/blini. 

Put some fried turkey bacon, some
(we had organic) mozzarella cheese in the middle,
carefully flip over half the crepe...

Have it melt a little bit
and quickly but carefully move to the waiting plate.

I covered this plate with another while
making others,
so that they would all stay warm.

 

The savory pancake I enjoyed with some
Canadian Maple Syrup
and the plain ones I loved best with
sour cream and honey!

The adventures and misadventures of preparing for our third Thanksgiving

It all was going fine,
this past Saturday morning.
Sunny, I was happy and cutting my loaf of
newly baked artisan bread for
bread crumbs to make
what I still hope will be dubbed
the best stuffing we've ever had
since it's a fancy made-from-scratch variety.
*
Then everything fell apart for a bit of time.
I spilled almost half of the noodles for our lunch
in the sink instead of in the colander.
The sauce to go with them was thin, runny
and bland.
I was suddenly doing too much at once and
my peace broke into shards.
We ate our half-hazard lunch,
Mr. Husband valiantly went grocery shopping
and then the Epic Fail that was to be our
soup broth
was discovered.
The broth that a few days ago in the crock pot smelled
wondrous had become a unmitigated disaster.
Horrid taste, smell and even looked bad.
I had to throw it all out,
breaking Mr. Husband's Dutch Heart.
Mr. Husband's phone somehow had the volume turned off
and he did not get my calls to him
to ask him to buy at least 8 cups of chicken stock
while he was at the larger of the two local grocers.
He had to go out again to our nearby
you-can-walk-to-it store
with the trusty red cart.
He also came back with this pizza for dinner:

He knows I don't like meat on my pizza and wisely
choose this one, half pepperoni, half cheese.
My Mr. Husband is brave, valiant and did more
than save the day.
He saved my butternut squash soup,
which I can say happily
tasted wonderful when all was said and done
(I tasted tested it). 

I made this apple pie yesterday.
Mr. Husband helped muchly with it.
I realized that my toaster oven has a 'warmer' function
so I plan on warming this pie in it come late this afternoon.
French Vanilla Ice Cream is in the freezer.
The list of all that needs to be done today is numbered and waiting.

Je suis Canadienne.
My little Canadian Flag is on display.

 

My kitchen as of this morning.
You know,
I really love this kitchen.
*
I have a list of all I need to do to be ready for tonight;
the chickens are already prepared with
butter, onions, garlic, and fresh thyme and
are resting in the fridge till 5 pm.
*
Mr. Husband is at work.
I already have all of the serving dishes out for tonight's meal.
Mr. Husband has been telling me that maybe I don't need such
elaborate meals and since it is for Thanksgiving Dinner
I did not think it elaborate
but he said we have at least 8 dishes of food we are serving;
I am not one for counting things per say and told him
no, it can't be that many and then looked at my menu.
Sure enough,
he was right.
*
I am hoping to do an early American / late Canadian dinner
with an organicTurkey and already found the recipe for it.
I've never done a Turkey and will get a small one
(not sure what small in Turkey size means yet)
and so last night I was already making a menu for this,
with more than half of it being pre-made
so that Mr. Husband will see that I can do it both ways;
it's my way of making up for the epic soup stock disaster.
We've both agreed that while I will try to make soup broth
again, I will have soup stock ready in the pantry as a backup.
*
We've also realized that I need to have things like
a good thick pizza and other quick pre-made or
ready to be reheated leftovers ready
when I am spending a day in the kitchen doing prep for
dinner parties that are, admittedly, more elaborate.
*
It's a real learning curve as most of my Ottawa dinner
parties were more a shared event of everyone
bringing a dish, or a bottle of wine or a
delicious dessert.
*
I do have help with this meal but
one couple could not due to travel help out this time.
Anyway, it's a great learning experience, I love being in the kitchen
and am really excited for tonight!
It's been great also to learn what I can make in advance to have the day of
a more calm enjoyable experience!
*
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone!
And for all on the old calendar,
blessed Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos!

Question as I prepare for Canadian Thanksgiving...

First, I made three loaves of bread yesterday!
Forgot to score them so they are very 'natural' looking :)
The Artisan bread is going well for me!
Meanwhile my question...
I will be, since I can't get Turkey quite yet,
roasting two chickens on Monday afternoon DV
that I will have prepared in advance.
I am also making stuffing and hoping to roast some
root vegetables.
My question is can I do this at the same time? 

Above is a possible one layer oven which would be
two chickens and stuffing together, if
the one chicken fits in the white dish.

Remains to be seen.

Or can I bake simultaneously using both trays?
Like above?
With chickens on top
and stuffing and root veggies below?

Or should I bake them separate but then keep them
warm in the 'warming' setting (100F) after
they are baked separately? 

I can do them separately if that would make for
better dishes!
Just wondering if anyone knows...
I've told Mr.  Husband more than once
that my dream kitchen would have a stove with 5 burners
and 2 ovens! :) :)
One can dream... 

I am using my two new to me Thanksgiving Cookbooks
and a Lemon Pie recipe from my 1950's Joy of Cooking.

Really great recipes!

Can you believe I got both cookbooks for a total
of 5.00! Yep, it was a deal and a great one at that!

 

I have a list for what to do everyday until Monday night!
It's great fun planning a traditional Thanksgiving dinner...
Can't wait to tell you all about how things went
and what I did based on the two cookbooks I found!
I will keep researching my cookbooks meanwhile...
I am off to the library, speaking of cookbooks, to pick up 3 more!
1 on bread with Gluten Free (GF) recipes and two on GF recipes
in general for book club that is coming up soon!
I am so excited to be learning these skills!
If anyone has suggestions for my cooking/roasting question,
I am all ears...
Thanks!! :)

St. Nicholas Eve Meal for Mr. Husband

I made Mr. Husband and I salmon
the way I did first
years before
when my parents came to BC
for my undergraduate graduation.
*
Salt, Pepper, bit of garlic
onion and lemon slices on top of
salmon.

We used our nicest China and silverware.

 

When I made this dish the first time

it was in about year 2002

so ten years ago!

I know a bit more about cooking now

then I did then

and the public librarian of our little

cute town's library

helped me out and wrote me the above recipe!

I, of course, did not use butter

as per the recipe since it is a fast time.

*

I fried up potatoes in oil

and we had a nice salad with the meal

and a small bit of good sprouted bread 

on the side.

*

For dessert we had a treat of a 

Lenten coconut sorbet with a triple berry sauce.

*

I love Mr. Husband very much

and am so glad that we had these days together

and that I am his one and only 

Mrs. Wife.