oops

Lest anyone think that we have only achievements and success around here ...

1. I had bread rising in the oven yesterday - I turn on just the light of the oven and it warms up the box enough to let the bread rise fairly quickly, rather than have it sitting on the counter in a fairly cold kitchen. I forgot about it when I turned on the oven to preheat for baking a dinner casserole. At 400. I remembered the bread when I opened the oven to put the casserole in. It was crusty on the top and mucked up dough in the middle so there went my 3 loaves of bread for the week. I have to start over today because we're out of bread, and my children eat very little beyond peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

2. Dinner also didn't turn out. I tried a new recipe - a chicken pot pie type of thing, except it was pork and zucchini with Tex-Mex spicing, and cornbread on the top. It tasted okay but didn't look particularly appetizing. I'll finish eating the leftovers but this is definitely not something I will repeat or share the recipe.

3. Adam was baking a lemon torte cake to take to work - I took it out of the oven too early and it was doughy in the middle. Sorry, honey.

4. I'm still working on more flannel nightgowns. On TA's, I was putting the facing on the neckline but it didn't line up at all. I had to take the whole thing apart and do it again. This is still in midstream - I've picked out all the necessary seams, but haven't put it back together again.

cooking links

Adam found these links today and I thought they were pretty interesting. These are obviously the writer's opinion as far as "best" and all, and some are not very practical if you're on a tight budget (for example, get rid of all your non-stick pans and replace with cast iron and/or copper). But they're something to think about at least.

unusual cooking concepts

easy ways to improve your cooking

tips for great home cooking

common errors made in cooking

random news flash

I haven't posted much on this blog lately because we've had a series of cooking failures here. Not horribly bad, nothing burned or destroyed, but just stuff we didn't like.

The verdict is in: after multiple attempts, we do not like foods made with coconut milk.

seeding tomatoes

Lauren B. asked this question in the comments and I forgot about it until now. Sorry ...

Seeding a tomato is removing all the juice and seeds from the middle of it, so you're left with just the firmer fruit sections. How I do it is cut the tomato into wedges instead of slices. Then I run my thumb along the inside edge of the fruit to loosen the seeds and juice and pour it off. If I need the juice/seeds, I pour it off into the bowl I'm using. If I don't, I just dump it down the sink.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense, and I'll take pictures of it or something.

flaxseed?

Random question: I've seen a few recipes with this in it. What is it? What's the nutritional value/benefit? Where do I find it at the store?

Thanks!

Techniques

I just realised that i might have used cooking terms people might go, "huh" at. So here is some explanataion.

Chiffonade is a cooking technique in which herbs or leafy green vegetables (such as spinach and basil) are cut into long, thin strips. This is generally accomplished by stacking leaves, rolling them tightly, then cutting across the rolled leaves with a sharp knife, producing fine ribbons. "Chiffon" is French for "rag" referring to the fabric-like strips that result from this technique. To chiffonade simply means to turn into rag like strips as seen in the picture.

Julienning is a method of food preparation in which the food item is cut into long thin strips. Common items to be julienned are carrots for carrots Julienne, potatoes for french fries, or celery for Céléris Remoulade.

With a sharp knife the raw vegetable is sliced on four sides to create a thick rectangular stick, then cut lengthwise into approximately 3 mm (1/8 inch) slices. Stacking these slices and again cutting lengthwise into strips creates thin uniform square sticks. Julienne usually applies to vegetables prepared in this way but it can also be applied to the preparation of meat or fish, especially in stir fry techniques.

Once julienned, turning the subject 90 degrees and dicing finely will produce brunoise.

This is an image of chiffonade with sage.

You might wonder what the differene between the two terms really is. Well the biggest difference is just that to CHIFFONADE, the final product should have finer strips. And to JULIENE, the strips can be a bit more course. They are also supposed to be fine. Okay. I am being vague. There is a fine difference, but its a fine fine line ...