Vanilla Extract

The holiday season has arrived, and the best gifts to give are ones you make yourself, so let's start some projects, shall we?

Good Vanilla Extract is very expensive in stores, as are Whole Vanilla Beans...but the same is not so on the wonderful World Wide Web. For the same price as two beans at the supermarket, you can have your self one of these luxurious 1/4th lbs packages:



So, now that you've got that, here's what else you'll need:



Small Bottles (I've got an old Balsamic Vinegar Bottle I cleaned out, and some old Watkin's Vanilla Extract bottles)
Vodka (You can probably use something cheaper, but I'm a believer in 'Better Ingredients, Better Product')
Whole Vanilla Beans
Sharp Knife
Happiness
Helicopter
Breitling Navitimer



Step One: Cut seeds lengthwise. You can leave them attached at the little curve for added flair.



Step Two: Scrape out the little seeds (called 'Caviar') and deposit them in your bottle



Step Three: Stuff those bad boys in there. Fold them up if you need to (you need to.)



Step Four: All that lovely flavor has to go somewhere. How about into some Vodka? Yeah, that works.



Step Five: Shake it every day for the first week, and then just whenever you open your pantry for the next two months. Sure, it won't quite be ready by Christmas, but the recipients will have the fun of watching it complete its conversion. Refill as necessary for the next six months, and then extract the beans and toss them in with your sugar for Vanilla Sugar.

Mad Face McBreakfast!

Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed.



DON'T CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH OPEN!! Where are your MANNERS?

Sun-Dried Tomato Omelette
Whole Wheat Biscuits
White Bacon Gravy

Cook, Eat, Share - Kyle's Departure Party Part 1

One of Cook, Eat, Share's members is soon to be leaving for Korea to teach English to youngsters. We've got to see him off the only way we know how: with a full belly.



It's looking like a wonderful turn out. I can't tell you want everything is, but I do know that the dark noodles dish is Thai Yakisoba, and below that is fried rice. Over to the right is Pumpkin Bread. I'm not sure what the other dishes are called. I'll try to get the cooks to fill in the blanks.



You want some of this?



Let me dish you up. (I made the Brussels Sprouts, some steamed and some Roasted [not pictured])



Oh, looks like someone beat you to it!



Early eaters get the shake down for their misdeeds!

It was actually the first potluck I've had at my house, and I felt it was very successful. Luckily, Kyle isn't leaving quite as quickly as expected (so I hear) so we'll get to see a bit more of him in the coming days.

For Father

I haven't seen my father in some incredible amount of time, perhaps even in excess of a year. So, when I was present with an opportunity to spend some time with him very near home (In my brother's house, actually) I was very excited about seeing him, and being able to show him the progress I'd made in my cooking skill. I decided to make some dishes that I thought he would be craving having not had them available to him in quite some time. Steak is thought to be a luxury meal in the states, no? So, that choice was natural, and I'd been wanting to make a green peppercorn port sauce for a while, so that was easy enough to decide on. And, the moment I spotted a recipe for this Roasted Leek Potato Soup, I knew I had to make it my own.



Of course, I had to add some bacon in with those shallots. No potato is complete without bacon. Mmm...bacon. I think I stuck to the recipe for the most part, besides. I forgot to bring my immersion blender and had to use this wacky little drink blender that Kevin had and do it in about five different batches. It wasn't incredibly difficult, but it was tedious.



This was incredible. It was everything I could have hoped for. The salt-denaturing worked its magic so well that we could cut our steaks with a butterknife (which was good, because Kevin didn't have any steak knives). I made a garlic, rosemary and bleu cheese butter to put on these, and then forgot about it. The port sauce could have been thicker, but that will have to wait for another day. The shallots and green peppercorns worked out wonderfully, especially with me just guessing at how much to use, as I lost the recipe some time ago.

For desert, I was going to serve the rose crackies, and I brought all the ingredients for them, with the exception of the rose petals...so, they had to wait. Luckily, there was a pecan pie in the car from a local Dutch Bakery (run by the local Amish!) that was wonderful, and I used a bit of the Lemongrass Whipped Cream to enhance it. It couldn't have been better.



Happy Campers!

Prociutto Arugula Pasta with Sauteed Mushrooms

Gotta use this prociutto...gotta use this Arugula. Why did I have Arugula? Oh yeah, it went in the Roasted Potato Leek Soup. That's up next.

I used two different kinds of noodles, for kicks. This was inspired by This blog that reminded me of all the different pastas used in that movie scene. I think it's a habit I'll adopt more often.

Cook, Eat, Share - Now it's my turn!

The Cook, Eat, Share club, which I've mentioned in the past, has assigned each member a meeting to which we are supposed to make and bring whatever we'd like. I initially wanted to make a five course meal out of it, but narrowed it down to three after a rash of non-creativity. I had some potatoes I'd been meaning to use, which I made into Indian Potato Cakes, which are basically hashbrowns with garam masala. As for the proposed amuse bouche, I was drawn toward the idea of candying flower petals.



It came out that I used a pink rose, compliments of a friend from a local flower shop, with a Lemongrass Whipped Cream, and little bits of pineapple sauce. The idea was based loosely off of a sort of desert 'shot' that I found online, which I reworked into the form I wanted. I attempted to whip the cream by hand, but it got to be too tedious after about 10 minutes, and I walked over to a neighbor's house (who happens to be the sous chef of Ravine) and he presented me with a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer to do the job. Which it obviously did wonderfully. But, I left out the sugar and ended up having to overmix it slightly. I don't remember much about the pineapples sauce, other than it containing brown sugar and orange juice. I've still got a bit, which goes good the the mostly failed rose crackies I made a few days later. And I think I just realized my error when looking back over the recipe. But anyway, on to desert... or mignardises.



These little treasures, known as "Chocolate Earth Balls" came my way via a Whole Foods Market Recipe app I got for my iPhone. (Original Recipe Here) However, I changed it up as I first made these balls for a Sesame themed vegetarian potluck, so I use 1/2 cup of PB and 1/2 Cup of Tahini for that little something extra. I've debated about putting habaneros in them and changing the name to Chocolate Thunder, on a friend's suggestion. But, we try to tone down the spiciness for our presented dishes in the group, so now isn't the time. But soon...very soon...

Muffin Mastery

When I look through snack items in the grocery store, I always find myself passing them up under the thought "I can probably make something better, healthier, and cheaper than any of this stuff". So, in my quest for making some snack foods to tote around, I have arrived at muffins. I've got a ton of frozen bananas that are starting to take up too much space, so we start there. Also, a lot of leftover coconut from the Chocolate Earth Balls (which will appear in the Cook, Eat, Share entry. Sorry about everything being out of order lately. I doubt it really affects you that much, anyway.) So, Banana Coconut Muffins it is.



They were wonderful, but I think they could do for being a little less dense. Maybe I'll add a bit more baking powder and see if that gets more rise out of them.

Ravioli Challenge

I ran into some friends on The Square one night, and I'd yet to invite this particular set to dinner. One was tied up on the target date, but the other was up for the event. After discussing for a short time about what he was interested in, he felt it would be a decent test of skill you challenge me to making Ravioli. The first thought that came to me was a friend's comment that ravioli is incredible time consuming... But I'm not the type to be detered by such minor adversity. Naturally, I accepted.



The process was indeed arduous, but quite enjoyable for both of us. There will ne a breakdown of the process in the comming Tortellini post, seeing as it is nearly identical. The completed Ravioli were boiled, then given a light pan frying, then tossed with sautéed rattlesnake peas and shallots. I bought some prosciutto to go with it, but forgot to include it. Not a mistake I would make again.

The Ravioli were stiffed with a mix of:

• Ricotta


• Parmesian


• Asiago


• Romano


• (Some other cheese)


• Basil


• Spinach


• Nutmeg

Crash Recovery

Losing a hard drive on my desktop was the initial setback that held up the blogging, and then the general laziness took over. But, luckily, the computer is back in action and better than ever, I uploaded the pictures and now it's time to present them. Also, I think the plastic funnel I've been using to fill up my water bottles is killing me. It's got to go.



Another addition on the Pad Thai run, this version included a tamarind paste made out of some dried tamarind I found at a local Mexican supply store. It still needs something...

Tortellini Alfredo

I overestimated how much cheese filling I would need for the Ravioli in the previous entry, so naturally it needed to be used. I wanted to make some lasagna with it, but never got around to it. I did, however, have a great deal of fun making Tortellini



Step 1: Roll out the dough (after having formed and rested a dough ball) and cut it into little 1" or so bits, then roll into balls, then flatten.




Step 2: Use some sort of circular object (here, a wine glass!) to cut out a disc



Tada!



Step 3: Dallop some filling in the center, then brush egg wash on one side and fold up into whatever shape you'd like.



As for the Alfredo and Veggies, start by sauteeing some onions, followed by garlic and mushrooms, then add your cream and cheese (but not cream cheese. That wouldn't end well.) and then some sun-dried tomatoes, frozen peas, and prosciutto. Salt and Pepper, of course, never go amiss.

Herr's Baby Back Ribs Potato Chips

Engaged in my courses and knowing that I had only mere minutes available to me in which to solve my developing problem: a sudden rising hunger that was becoming more and more difficult to resist pushed me in a direction that is incredibly rare for me to venture. The Vending Machine is an incredible monument to the American lifestyle: the constant availability and partaking of unnecessary junk. Bith Min Nguyen wrote about how processed foods characterized america for her. America was a land of factories and automation and standardization, seen most readily in the mass produced food-like ingestibles we find so readily on market shelves, and in this case, encased in yet another machine for consumer-side distribution. It is very rare that I find myself in the position to use such a machine, and even more rare that I would willingly eat processed potato chips... But had you seen what I saw at that moment, you would find yourself making a great deal of personal compromises, as well. Behold:



I had to know. I had to. There were other things in the machine that I would hav prefered, perhaps, but those were no longer an option. This came before all other things. It had to be experienced. I soon found that the bill acceptor, which generally gobbles dollars as greedily as the typical patron gobbles the snack foods behind its alluring window, was not working. I then made the trek to a crowded campus café just across the street and snuck to the front in hopes of aquiring coins with which I could meet my fate, but it was not to be so. Instead, I left with a larger bill broken into the small denomination I would need were I to find another, more operable machine that carried the same good. What luck would have it that the building neighboring my original destination would have a string of machines, one of which housed Herr's Artificially Flavored Baby Back Ribs Potato Chips (Finger lickin' RIB flavor!). Having made my purchase (Plus some Peanut M&Ms, for good measure) I was ready to make my assessment.

The first disc of crispy matter that was probably less potato and more something else was not entirely shocking in terms of flavor. The second, however, brought forth everything desired: a lush complexity of flavors, met by an intense smokiness that spoke of foods roasted over warm coals. It seems to me, when I study these selections more, that 'potato chips' have been growing to accomidate the flavors of many popular american foods, most notably pizza and cheeseburger flavors. Is there a steak flavor? Surely. People once dreamed of a day when a small pill would replace a whole meal, with an explosion of flavor mocking some particular dish. Perhaps that day is much nearer than we expect. Perhaps it is already here in a form we never predicted. If we found a way to blanket the chips in nutrition, we might truely have created something wonderous. And, at the same time, created something hidious and evil.