food

Organization is the Spice of my Life

Posted by Nat on Sep 19, 2010 | Comments Off on Organization is the Spice of my Life

I’m such a nerd.  I love it when things are organized.  It makes me feel calm and like I might know what I’m doing in at least one venue of my life.

When we first got married, Michael and I bought a super-tiny condo near downtown San Diego.  It was 1,000 square feet + a garage + a tiny storage unit.  No patio, no outdoor area for a grill- nada.  Our kitchen was neat, but not huge, and I wanted to keep our spices out of the cupboards.  I found these containers at the Container Store and in the spices went.  Even though that was our first place, and we are currently on our third, we still use these spice containers.  I love having easy, fast access when I’m cooking, without hunting and pecking for common spices.

Originally I handwrote in permanent marker the names of the spices.  However, at a recent visit to the Container Store I saw that they make nice stickers for them, so I redid them and am again in spice-organization-heaven.  By the way, do you know how to erase permanent marker from plastic? All you have to do is color over it with a dry-erase marker and then rub it off with a paper towel- it all comes off.  I had to do it a few times, but it totally worked.  Love it!

We are going to be remodeling our kitchen in the next year or two, and I plan on still keeping our spices out.  I love the colors, the names, and the access.  We may put them on a backsplash instead of the fridge, but they will be out in the kitchen with us somewhere.

How do you organize your spices?   I love seeing how people cook and what they do in their kitchens.  If you do something with yours, please post a link with your comments- I’d love to see!

A Thank You Party

Posted by Nat on Aug 7, 2010 | 3 comments

Don’t you think throwing a nice party is sort of a craft?  It’s definitely an art form, and it’s hard to do well, I think.  Anyhoo…..

My mother was adamant about a lot of things when we were growing up (I’m the youngest of 3, and yes, I was worried they would forget about me so I acted out just for the recognition).  One thing that I still thank her for today is the fact that she taught us such good manners (as I’m typing this I’m hoping that no one sends me a comment that reads: “Yo, you were totally rude to me and this is what you did….”).  We always said please and thank you.  I’m finding myself doing the same with my kids- maybe it’s in the DNA.  In this case, it’s a good thing.

As a working mom, one of the hardest things to do every week is leave your kids somewhere.  Doesn’t matter where it is, or even if you think it’s actually good for them to go to childcare/preschool/etc.  It’s just hard to leave them.  When we found our kids’ preschool/childcare place, it was a huge relief because we LOVE their “school.”  The classes are small, the teachers are amazing, the two women who run the place are flexible and helpful, and they still consider me the boss of my children.

I told Michael that I wanted to celebrate them this summer by giving the kids’ teachers  a thank you party.  It was so fun to plan something like this.  If you’ve been around since I started this blog you may remember this post about asking their food and drink preferences.  This also sort of built the excitement for them- they were all a-twitter the day or two before the actual party.  I thought I’d share a few of the things we made for them.

Pear Rosemary Martinis

You can find the original recipe for these here at Epicurious.  It had really great reviews, and I actually made these a few years ago for a friend’s bachelorette (ah, those were the days), so I knew they were yummy.  However, I had to alter the recipe a bit to make it work for us.  The original recipe calls for pear brandy.  Pear brandy is a bit expensive, and with everything else we were doing I needed to cut some corners.  So instead, I used some regular run-of-the-mill brandy, regular (nice) vodka, and some Absolut Pear.  My version of the martini is at the bottom of this post.

Caprese Kabobs

These are fairly self-explanatory, so I’ll just post pictures.  I got our little mozzarella balls at Trader Joe’s along with one of those huge basil plants.  I covered them with wet paper towels so the mozzarella cheese wouldn’t dry out before the party, wrapped the platter in saran-wrap, and popped it in the fridge.  Then I drizzled them with a slightly sweet balsamic vinaigrette right before serving.  Yum- and so pretty.  I liked this because it wasn’t too heavy before a nice, hearty Italian dinner.

Tiramisu

I also found this on Epicurious, here.  It was delicious!  This was my first Tiramisu.  My biggest challenge was finding the lady fingers, but once I found those we were good to go.  Warning:  do not be troubled by the filling while you are making it.  I tasted it and was concerned that it didn’t taste good, but something about sitting overnight in the fridge and setting makes it taste oh-so-wonderful the next day.  And it was great because it was one less thing to worry about the day of the party.  I used Sweet Marsala instead of dry.  Tasted fine to everyone!  And I used a trifle dish because it just sounded pretty and many commenters on the site said it made for nice presentation, so I followed suit.

Lastly, a couple of other pictures.  One is of my china.  We pulled it out, and I’m so glad we did because I. Love. My. China.  I remember calling my mother when we registered, worried that I was picking a rather fancy one that was a bit more expensive.  My mother said something like, “Do not pick a cheaper china just to be nice.  Pick the one you want and people will buy it.  You will regret it if you pick one you don’t like just to save people money.  If they don’t want to buy you china, they will buy you something else.  Get the china you want.”  She said this, of course, in the way that all mothers have- the guilt fell away and I got my china.  Thanks, Mom!

Finally, I took this picture towards the end of dinner- we turned out the lights except for some distant lamps, and lit the candles.  It was so relaxing to eat in a dimly lit room- and everyone looked stunning.  🙂  That’s my amazing husband in the background.  I am totally in love with him, by the way.

So, who can you thank?  How would you thank them?  This was so much fun, and I think we’ll do it again next summer, for shizzle.  Nothing can replace confidence in those who care for your children, and thanking these wonderful ladies felt good.  Great.  Awesome.  And I got toasty-buzzed in the process- who can beat that?  Okay fine- I was a bit hungover the next day.

Here’s that Pear Rosemary Martini recipe (my version):

1 cup simple rosemary syrup (see below)

375 ml (1/2 bottle) plain vodka

375 ml (1/2 bottle) Absolut Pear vodka

3 tbsp Brandy

5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

For the syrup:  boil one cup of water with one cup of sugar, stirring to dissolve.  Once it boils, reduce to a simmer for 2 minutes, adding 4 rosemary sprigs while simmering.   Once it’s cool to the touch, remove the rosemary. Completely cool before adding to the liquor.

Combine all of the liquids in a pitcher and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours.  Before serving stir it up.  If you have time and a mesh strainer, it’s good to strain the pulp out of the lemon juice.  Garnish with a sprig of rosemary.  Caution:  these go down easy and sneak up on you!

Hat Cake! …A Tutorial?

Posted by missmusic1976 on Jun 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Hat Cake! …A Tutorial?

This might be a tutorial.  I’m not sure.  You tell me.   And WARNING:  lots of pictures and looooong post ahead!

A few months ago Michael’s family started planning his grandmother’s (GG’s) 90th birthday celebration.  90!  I should be so lucky….  Anyway, we had just come off our birthday season with the kids and I felt like I had my cake-making chops back in order.  When I was in college and living in Dallas I really got into making fun, fancy cakes, and then one bad wedding experience turned me off of them for quite a looooong time.  But I kept all of my cake stuff knowing that someday I’d have kids and such.  Thank goodness for that- some cake stuff is not cheap!

I’ll throw in my tips that I’ve learned.  Much of what I have learned is through trial and error, and also the best Girl Scout Leader in the world, Mrs. Kelly.  She was awesome (no uniforms!) on many levels.  She got us all together with cake kits for a day of cake making and I was hooked.

I think the best thing to do when you want to make a cake that is anything other than 2 round layers and some frosting is to have a plan.  I was reminded of this when I started thinking about GG’s cake. I decided to make her a hat cake- she loves hats and has a bazillion of them.  I had a relative plan in my head, and I figured out the pan situation ahead of time, but that was where my plan ended, which came back to bite me in the rear later.

I went to Michael’s Craft Store to get a few things. I came back with this cake mix, which I wasn’t expecting to find:

If you aren’t aware, that’s Duff, the Ace of Cakes.  Apparently he has his own line of stuff- and boy is it expensive.  But the mix wasn’t too bad price-wise and I was too curious.   Let me just say:  YUM.  Delish.  So soft, so moist, and just like making a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker cake (add eggs, oil & water and you’re good to go).  (Personally I don’t care for Pillsbury mixes- too light and crumbly when I make them.)  The cake was just dense enough to hold up to any kind of construction, and it was just plain yummy.   My philosophy with cakes is that the cake itself doesn’t *have* to be from scratch, but the frosting should.  I don’t have issues with using pre-mixed dry ingredients, but I do have issues with scooping frosting out of a can that’s been sitting on a shelf for Lord-knows-how-long.

Back to the tutorial…  I love parchment paper!  I use it as often as possible because it guarantees things will come out nice and clean.  For the base of the cake I used two 10-inch cake rounds.  I traced the pan on parchment and cut it out.  Then I spray the pan with baking spray, set the parchment paper on the bottom, and spray again.  One thing I like is that it comes out clean and there isn’t white gunk all over the bottom of the cake.

Top left:  this is the little dome I used to make the top of the hat.  It’s a Wilton pan used to make baseballs and such.  It comes with a ring to set it in so it bakes flat and doesn’t fall over.  Smart, eh?

*Trick!*  Top right:  After baking, I carefully invert the cakes onto the cooling rack after they’ve been out for 10 minutes or so.  Problem:  they are upside down.  To handle them now would be certain death to the cake, though- they’d fall apart.  So, I place another cooling rack on them upside down (bottom left), and gently flip them all over inside the rack .  Voila!  Cakes are uprighted and cooling their heels (bottom right).  I leave the parchment paper on the bottom- keeps the crumbs on the cake and my counter a bit less messy for the moment.

Another tip:  don’t try to do a cake all in one day.  Especially if you have a lot of decorating to do.  It’s not worth the stress.   To keep my cakes fresh I let them cool completely.  Then I lay out two long pieces of foil in a cross (left).  It’s hard to see in the photo, but then I do the same again with plastic wrap.  Then I place one layer on the cross.  Wrap it up in the plastic wrap, and then the foil, making sure you keep it totally air tight.  I like to fold the last piece over and make a little fold.  It makes me feel better (right).  Then you can make them a day or two ahead and they will not be stale by the time everyone bites into them.

Some of my favorite tools- a really long, serrated knife for leveling (it’s HUGE!) and a cute cake tester.  I never bake anything longer than 20 minutes before checking on it.  We don’t have a brand new oven, and it’s not reliable for temperature, so I check all things often.  Cake testers help when you’re not quite sure- chocolate cake is especially deceptive because it just smells good and is so dark.

Top left:  if you’re going to have any sort of tiers you might want to get cardboard rounds.  They don’t show because you cover them up with frosting, and they make slicing and serving the cake a lot easier.  I had a bunch of 10-inch rounds, so I just cut one down for the little dome for the top of the hat.  Top right:  Frosting!  I love this recipe– the whipping cream really makes a huge difference.  Bottom left:  I used this cake stand, and to just give myself peace of mind I put a dollop of frosting on the platform to assure myself the cake would not fall off if tipped.  Bottom right:  first layer up!

I have seen many cakes topple over because they were not leveled.  Most cakes, unless baked in special pans with special stuff, naturally dome at the top.  You have to flatten them  to make sure everything stays nice and level- enter… THE KNIFE!  What I love about leveling:  you get to TASTE …the …CAKE.  Yum and HOORAY!  Bottom right:  You can see the construction of the actual hat.  Notice the little piece of cardboard under there.

So here’s where things got dicey and the pictures sort of fade to black.  I also bought this stencil that Wilton makes.  I had visions of making her cake say “Happy Bday” without having to pipe the words out myself.  Given the shape of the cake, though, I realized I’d have to cut the words from the stencil.  No problem.  Then I realized I’d have to cut the letters apart so they could follow the curve of the cake.  No problem.  Then I tried using the letters with a pearl dust.  I followed directions- spraying the letters with cooking spray to prevent them from sticking.   Yeah…..not so much.

This is where my plan sort of fell apart.  The original letters didn’t work, and I had rose pearl dust everywhere.  I had to smear the whole top of the hat to sort of blend in the dust, but it ended up looking pretty.  I tried to write the message with little pearls that I also bought, but hated the way it looked.

Fast forward a few hours, and below is what I ended up with.  I had to break out the piping tips and write it myself- but it turned out great.  It was still missing something, though.  Good thing I bought flowers!

I decided to use the white and pink flowers, given that I ended up not using yellow on the cake at all.  Left:  flowers in the vase (see my little Jack watching- so cute!)  Center & Right: Thankfully the flowers came with straws to hold them up, so I just cut them a smidge longer than the stems so that I could stick them in the cake and not have too much flower touch the cake itself.

The finished product!  I think it turned out wonderful!  I wasn’t sure about it until I put the flowers in.