Archive for Don't try this at home!
Merry Christmas!… I mean Belated Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I know, it’s a little late, but better late than never! I am really excited to share my Christmas Day meal with you. Usually my boyfriend and I make the big trip across the country back to Boston to spend the holidays with our family. This year we decided to stay here in LA and I was super pumped to make my first big Christmas dinner. Even though it was just Matt and I, I made a 6 pound Prime Rib Roast, with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Sauteed Asparagus. Dessert was one of Matt’s traditions, A Classic Apple Pie. But before I dive into the roast, check out my tree! It was perfect— short, fat and plump! And sparkled with White, Gold and Silver Ornaments!
Onto the roast. I did my research prior to making my decision on how to make a roast. There are so many different ways to cook and prep them. Slow roast on low heat, cook it fast on high heat, or even cook them in a clay pot in your oven (yes, my sister tried this method!) I found this recipe here by Ida (Barefoot Contessa) that got rave reviews on FoodNetwork.com. Since this was my first, I stuck to the recipe instead of making any significant alteration. This was a high heat- fast cookin’ recipe, so before I did anything, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed my oven to make sure I would not get any smoke or fire from the 500 degree oven. Scrubbing your oven is a must prior to cooking anything at such a high heat!
So I rub her (the roast of course!) down well with lots of salt, pepper and fresh crushed garlic, put her in a glass pan and into the oven she goes. The first 30 minutes or so was no issue. She was cooking up well and I had no smoke… awesome! Then a little bit of smoke billowed from the oven… no need to worry, I must have just missed a spot… okay time to turn the oven down… fab.. smoke stopped… and she looks beautiful! Fab! 45 minutes later I up the heat again to 450… and oh god… the smoke… it wouldn’t stop! I had 2 fans going, had to temporarily take out my smoke detectors, open all the windows in our little LA apt and smoke was just seeping out of every crevice of the oven possible… there I as panicking that I was about to set my kitchen on fire and I just couldn’t figure out what had happened or where all this smoke was coming from!
After a frantic 30 minutes, the roasts internal temp finally hit 145 degree and she could come out a rest. That’s when I found the smoke culprit… my glass roasting pan had cracked through the center and all the wonderfully tasty drippings were slowing flowing there way to bottom of my newly cleaned oven. Bummer! Luckily I did not burn down my kitchen and was able to save what was left of the drippings in the pan for a delicious gravy! And, I learned a valuable lesson— never use a glass roasting pan with an oven heated to 500 degrees!
Despite a smoky mis-hap, the roast was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!! (Had a bit of a smokey flavor too!) The whole meal was fab! I was super full after one serving— but my BF went back for seconds and thirds (and going back for more is always a good thing!) My first Christmas Dinner= A tasty success!
Dessert, as I mentioned above, was a traditional apple pie. Believe it or not, I am not a huge pie fan. I like it from time to time, but I’ll take a layer cake over a pie any day. My BF, on the other hand is the complete opposite of me. He could eat pie for every meal and not even give a cake a second glance. For him its not a Christmas without a pie- so I stuck to apple. (I have to say his mom make a kick-ass apple pie, so I have some kind of idea why he likes it so much!) I have to admit I cheated a little bit too… usually I would have made my dough for the crust from scratch, but as I was more concerned with the success of my prime rib, I bought the Pillsbury Ready Made Pie Dough. I prepped the pie earlier in the day, that way when we were ready for dessert, I could pop it in and we could have warm pie fresh from the oven—mmmm— that’s the kinds of pie I like! I made it a bit festive too by using Christmas Tree Cookie Cutter on top for ventilation, instead of just scoring with a knife. I love adding those little touches to make food a bit more exciting!
Anyway… we ate pie (which was gone in under a 24 hours!), drank Hot Totties and fell asleep by 7:30 on the couch watching a Christmas Story… It was a perfect LA Christmas!
Hope all your holidays were wonderful and bright!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Mexican Sugar Skulls!
Last night I spent well over 4 hours in the kitchen… it was delightful yet completely exhausting! I made fresh butternut squash soup, roasted a chicken and potatoes for dinner and made some Mexican Sugar Skulls… well actually, Mexican White Chocolate Skulls!
I was so excited to finally try out the mold that I got while exploring Olvira Street with my parents. There were many different kinds of sugar skull molds for me to choose from… big ones, little one, skulls on a sticks and even skull accessory molds like sombreros! But I opted for the Frida Kahlo Skull Molds. Frida Kahlo was a famous Mexican painter who was well known for her amazing self-portraits. I studied her work in grad. school while getting my degree in art therapy, mainly because her work was seen as highly symbolic; she used her art work to express her person pain or struggles. Anyways, that’s a discussion for anther day and another time, but these Frida Skull Mold’s were freakin’ adorable, so I absolutely could not pass them up!
The packaging for the molds provided a
recipe for creating the sugar skulls, but last night I was looking for simplicity, so I opted to use white chocolate that I had on hand instead. This made the process super simple… I melted the chocolate gradually in the microwave (50% power, 30 second interval and stirring in between each). I gently spooned the melted chocolate into the molds, tapped them on my countero t remove any air bubbles and then into the freezer they went for 30 minutes and… done! The white chocolate Frida Skulls popped right out and looked great!
I kept them in the fridge until my frosting was ready. I used Royal Icing to frost on some details to high light the skulls detail. Royal Icing in known for setting up super hard and should stick well to the skull… well in theory anyways… (Random Baking Tip: NEVER put Royal Icing down your kitchen sink… always throw any extra you don’t need in the trash first, then clean up your icing bowl… Royal Icing can do a number on your pipes!)
So I had some icing issues last night. After I had colored the icing the consistency changed a bit, then my kitchen was so hot from all the cooking I was doing that the frosting was becoming super soft and warm, then the chocolate skulls were sweating from the heat, preventing icing to stick to the skull. Also trying to see all the lines and details was almost impossible… I swear I almost went cross-eyes! After quite a bit of frustration and lots of trial and error I had one skull that turned out something like what I had wanted it to and here it is! Super cute huh?!?! These eyes on this skull kinda look like how mine felt after I finished with them! I think the next time I try these I am going to pick up some dusting sugar. The sugar may stick better to the skull and may provide color in many of the little detailed lines that I had so much trouble seeing! No more going cross eyed for this semi-pro. baker!
My skulls were super simple, yet felt so impossible at times to complete! After seeing all the crazy-intricate art work that has been created on these sugar skulls on the Mexican Sugar Skull Website, I have a new found respect for anyone who makes these for a living! Its amazing! The coloring are stunningly bright and the detail on some of them is freaking awesome! Check them out for yourself by clicking here!
Happy Baking, Chocolate Molding and Piping Frosting!
-Kristy
2 Kittens… or maybe A Kitten and a Pig in a basket!
So as I mentioned in a previous post, I have begun an advanced cake decorating class at Gloria’s in West LA. The first cake we did was Two Kittens in a Basket from one of the Wilton Year Books. My cake, on the other hand, looked more like a Kitten and a Pig in a Basket… take a peek for yourself! What do you think?
Initially this cake was turned out to be a bit easier than I anticipated, because it built off of alot that I had already learned. I already knew how to do the leaves, flowers, basket weave and boarder on the cake. The Kittens were supposed to be made out of the round ball cake mold from Wilton, but I had to settle with more of an oval shaped mold as that was all I could find. That’s what I get for procrastinating! It was nothing a little carving couldn’t fix. There I was, carving and frosting and feeling like quite a pro!
So things were going great till I had to put fur on the kittens. This required the grass or spaghetti tip, and perfect frosting. The tip I had, perfect frosting.. not so much. Since I had decided to make a chocolate cake, and recently learned how coffee and espresso can enhance the flavor of the chocolate cake– I thought I would get a little creative and substitute fresh brewed coffee for the water that is supposed to the added to the classic butter cream frosting recipe. Well, I should have waited for the coffee to cool a bit, because after I added the coffee and a ton of powered sugar, the frosting would not stiffen when whipped the way it was supposed to. The frosting was super soft, kept clogging up my piping tip, and made the fur mush together in some areas. Granted it tasted fantastic… but appearance could have been better!
Overall I would say this cake was a success and a hit at work. One important Lesson was Learned: Never add hot coffee to butter cream frosting when cake decorating!
Next week… AIR BRUSHING! I’m SO Freaking Excited!
Happy Baking and Decorating!
-KM
Substitutions Suck!
Last night I decided randomly that I needed some FunFetti Cupcakes in my life. I hope, that all my readers know what FunFetti is, and know that it is the best boxed cake ever made! I picked up a box at the grocery store and headed back home to make these most festive treats. Well after mixing in the water and oil, I made the horrible discovery that I had used the remainder of my egg for breakfast that morning. Being maybe a bit lazy, since the cupcake desire was a 10pm impulse, I decided I just was not in the mood to run back out to the store. So I googled what I could substitute for eggs. Lots of options came up. Oil and baking soda, vegan options, milk, and apple sauce. As I happened to have an abundance of apple sauce stocked in my fridge (The little individual cups are perfect for a mid morning snack!) the apple sauce substitution seemed my best bet… or maybe not…
These cupcakes were HORRIBLE! Such a disappointment. They didn’t rise, became hard, turned an ugly brown color and tasted more like a crappy apple cake then my delicious boxed treat. Hence, there’s no photo for this blog entry. I had to throw out every single cupcake I made. In my eyes, throwing out cupcakes is like throwing out tickets to see the red sox in the worl series… it just simply should not happen!
Lesson learned tonight… Substitutions in baking SUCK!
Happy Baking… and NOT Substituting!
-KM
