Braisin' Hussy

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

I made cupcakes last night. I used a basic yellow cake recipe from Cook's Illustrated and added some orange extract. I had all this leftover chocolate icing from my cake, you see. I figured cupcakes are easy, good for D&D, and will use up the leftovers. Only sort of worked, as I still have icing left. Also, I was lazy and didn't want to sift my cake flour, so I just used AP. They could be a little on the tough side. I hope not.

Why didn't I make the yellow cupcakes from last year? Well, it was gross out and I didn't feel like going to the store to buy sour cream.

Today's food section in the San Francisco Chronicle has an article about cupcakes.

Cupcakes always make me think of this Strong Bad email.

Recipes for the cake and frosting I made (but not the cupcakes, since I haven't tried one yet) are below.

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Buttermilk Layer Cake
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking by Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times

Vegetable oil for greasing pans
2 1/3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 ounces butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
Chocolate Satin Frosting

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch cake pans and set aside. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla.

Using a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter until creamy. Over the course of 3 minutes, beat in the sugar. Over 2 minutes, add the egg mixture. Reduce the speed to low and alternate adding the flour and buttermilk in three parts, scraping the bowl.

Divide the batter between the pans and smooth the tops. Bake until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then unmold onto a rack to cool completely before frosting.

To frost cake, place 1 layer on a cake plate, rounded side down, trimming if necessary so it lies flat. Spread with a third of the frosting, top with the second layer and frost the remainder of the cake.

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Chocolate Satin Frosting
Adapted from The Joy of Cooking by Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times

1 cup heavy cream
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, cut into chunks
3 cups confectioners' sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp vanilla

Bring the cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes. Scrape into a food processor and add the confectioners' sugar, butter and vanilla. Process until smooth, then 1 minute more. Set aside at room temperature until thickened into a spreadable consistency.

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Monday, March 27, 2006

Rob came over last night for chicken and Doctor Who. Last time I made a chicken for him, it turned out blackened and undercooked. It's nice to know that some things never change. I tried a new recipe for roasting a whole bird out of Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. I should not attempt to roast whole birds. It's never as good as pan-roasting.

I hope you're not sick, Rob. I'm sorry.

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Friday, March 24, 2006

Poo, it's no longer my birthday.

I made the cake last night, but I haven't made the frosting yet. I'll be doing that after work. Also, I got a huge zit on my chin. What the hell, I'm 26, I should damn well be past that. Annoyance!

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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Wahoo, it's my birthday.

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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Happy second birthday, blog!

Posts: 534 (225 since March 22, 2005)
Recipes: 135 (50 since March 22, 2005, I've slowed down quite a bit)

I'm going to bake you a cake... tomorrow. I have D&D tonight, and that takes precedence.

Last night I had dinner over at Jon and Ryan's place. Got a little more face time with Nathan. I told him about my day at work, and he started crying. Can't blame the guy, it was intensely boring. If I couldn't speak, I probably would have started crying to shut me up. Eddie was over as well, and he and Jon made a really tasty jambalaya. It was pretty easy, too. I think I will have to make it at some point.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I had all the ingredients for this recipe. I had a chunk of feta in my freezer that had been there since July 2004. I finished off a bulb of lemon juice (gasp, I don't always use fresh lemons, I'm an evil harlot who shouldn't be allowed within 50 feet of a kitchen). This was a good "getting rid of things" recipe for me. And it wasn't half bad! The chicken was nice and moist. I burnt the top a little bit under the broiler, but it still tasted fine. One thing I'd suggest is to make sure you eat this hot, because feta hardens up strangely.

The original recipe called for a quarter teaspoon of table salt and an eighth teaspoon of pepper, but I just sprinkled both liberally. If you're not keen on eyeing things, use those measurements.

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Chicken with Lemon, Oregano, and Feta Cheese
Quick from Scratch Chicken

1 chicken (3 to 3 1/2 pounds), quartered
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 Tbsp butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 1/2 oz. feta cheese, crumbled (about 1/3 cup)

Heat the oven to 375. Coat the chicken with the oil; arrange the pieces, skin-side up, in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle the chicken with the oregano, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Top each piece of chicken with a piece of the butter.

Cook the chicken until the breasts are just done, about 30 minutes. Remove the breasts and continue to cook the legs until done, about 5 minutes longer. Remove the roasting pan from the oven; return the breasts to the pan. Top the chicken pieces with the feta cheese. Press any cheese that rolls off into the pan back onto the chicken. Baste the chicken with the pan juices.

Heat the broiler. Broil the chicken until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Serve with the pan juices.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

I defrosted a chicken. Something will be done with it tonight. I should find something new to do with it besides pan-roasting so I can put up a new recipe. This post should knock off the pancakes. Oh, sad and naked front page!

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Kenny, I have no idea what the hell is wrong with your blog. That's even more annoying than when mine doesn't show comments. I'm sorry. Hope it gets fixed soon.

Happy birthday, by the way.

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

I'm better now. I got to visit the family. It was awesome.

I have lots of food in my freezer. I poached some perch last week. Perch that I had bought in 2004. Thankfully, it still tasted like fish, and not like freezer burn. The poaching wasn't all that interesting- I used some chicken stock, wine, and the leftover steaming liquid from the last time I made mussels (sometime last year). I took the poaching liquid after the fish was done and reduced it. I'm saving it for who knows what. I took the leftover fish and shredded it, then made it into salad for sandwiches (openfaced on TJ's Garlic Naan- not as good as Deep or Pillsbury). It's pretty good. A little fishier aftertaste than canned tuna.

I need to do something involving chicken. I have three in my freezer. When I finish with those, I can make tons and tons of stock. Which will then clutter up my freezer. It's neverending. (Nanana, nanana, nanana.)

D&D tonight.

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Saturday, March 11, 2006

I'm sick. AGAIN. This is so lame! I can't go see li'l Nathan until I'm better.

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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

There's a new wee person in my family! I'm going to go see him later today. So exciting!

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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Oh, this poor cat.

Thanks to Debbie for the link.

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Monday, March 06, 2006

This was not as good as we were hoping. The lapsang souchong made it way too smoky to drink straight. It wasn't bad with tonic and some lemon. The smell was the most intriguing aspect of it. First whiff? Sweet. Second? Smoky. If you are a local friend, I will probably end up sharing this with you at some point, because I can't imagine that I'll get through it on my own.

It does photograph well, though. Please enjoy this shot of Qi with Stephen Fry hosting QI in the background.

Photo stolen from Lydia.

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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

I'm not entirely sure that these pancakes are any better than the Bisquick of my youth, but they were tasty and easy to make. They didn't make any more of a mess than using Bisquick.

D&D tonight.

No baby yet. Poor li'l Bruno. If only he'd known how disappointing a birthstone aquamarine is. In my opinion, the only one worse is August with peridot. Both of those stones are just so wishy-washy about their color. Be blue! Be green! Don't be pale and washed out, it's just sad. Take a stand, gemstones!

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Light and Fluffy Pancakes
Cook's Illustrated

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk (plus an extra tablespoon or so if batter is too thick)
1 large egg , separated
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil (for brushing griddle)

Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Pour buttermilk and milk into 2-cup liquid measure. Whisk in egg white; mix yolk with melted butter, then stir into milk mixture. Dump wet ingredients into dry ingredients all at once; whisk until just mixed.

Meanwhile, heat griddle or large skillet over strong medium-high heat. Brush griddle generously with oil. When water splashed on surface confidently sizzles, pour batter, about 1/4 cup at a time, onto griddle, making sure not to overcrowd. When pancake bottoms are brown and top surface starts to bubble, 2 to 3 minutes, flip cakes and cook until remaining side has browned, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Re-oil the skillet and repeat for the next batch of pancakes.

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