I scream, you scream, we're all making ice cream!

      Well I've had a busy week this week, but it was well worth it.  I've been wanting to do a post about ice cream for you, but I wanted to have a little more fun.  We were very lucky to have the first grade class from Low-country Prep join us a Hopsewee Plantation where we did a fun do it your self ice cream party.  Now there are a few different methods for making ice cream.  There are many machines that live in the freezer for churning your ice cream or there is the old traditional ice cream churn that uses ice and rock salt to get the ice cream cold enough as you are churning it.  The method that we used is very similar and uses the same general principals, but instead of a large batch of all the same kind of ice cream, we made small individual batches in plastic bags.  Ice cream base goes in a zip lock bag (with accoutrements) then that bag goes in another bag with ice and rock salt and you shake and squish to your hearts content until, almost like magic, you have ice cream.
      This is a great treat for a group of kids, like we had, but if you are going to do it, there is a little but of preparation a day before hand. A true ice cream base is like creme anglaise, but with cream as well as milk.  Start by making a double boiler with a pot large enough to put a mixing bowl in without it touching the water.  In another pan scald
2 cups Milk
While that is heating, take your mixing bowl and whisk
6 egg yolks (save the whites for another recipe, maybe an egg white fritata)
3/4 cup sugar
until they become thick and light. Then slowly whisk in the hot milk and put on the double boiler whisking until it becomes thick.  Be very careful not to let it go to long and overcook the eggs.  They will scramble! As soon as it thickens remove it from the heat, place in an ice bath.  Whisk in
1 cups cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Now this needs to be completely cool before you use it for making ice cream, so I suggest going ahead and making it a day before your party.  
I also made a coconut milk ice cream base for all of those with milk allergies out there.  I cheated a little with this one, but it still works pretty well, 1 and it's really easy.  Just
1 package of vanilla pudding
4 cups of so delicious coconut milk
Mix them together and chill.
Now the real fun begins.  We set this up with several different kinds of fruit: strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and bananas.  You can always use some other fun scatterings like m&ms, reeses cups, chocolate chips, coconut flakes or maybe some caramel.  You won't need a lot of stuff in your baggies because remember you are just making a single serving of ice cream.  Next you will add
1/2 cup ice cream base
to a sandwich bag.  Then that bag will go inside another with at least
1 cup ice and
1/4 cup rock salt
make sure both bags are well sealed and shake and squish to your hearts content. This will take  about 10 minutes, but in the end you should have a delicious, fun ice cream.  This is a great way to keep those hands that are so full of energy busy and even teach them a little about science. 


     And it makes mom's happy too! So don't forget to just have fun.   

Corned Beef Hash

      Sadly, because of our work schedules, Mark and I don't get to spend as much time together as we would like.  So when we get to actually sit down and have a meal together I try to make it a little special whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Today I made Corned beef hash from scratch with a poached egg and a mustard cream sauce for breakfast.  If you've never had home made Corned beef hash before don't thumb your nose up at it.  This tastes nothing like the canned stuff that smells like dog food.  If you take the time to do it right is really is a nice treat.  When I make this for just the two of us it is a big hearty portion, and plenty for a full meal.  I usually buy a Corned Beef Brisket and cut it into thirds and wrap two of them up and freeze them for another meal. 
The night before your special breakfast set your slow cooker on warm and add
1 TBS Pickling Spice
1 Bottle Beer (use something light like a lager or ale)
10 oz Corned Beef Brisket
Cook for at least 5 hours or just over night: by morning is should be falling apart.  I usually cool it down a bit so that I can chop it.  Then in a small pot bring
1 Large red potato, small diced
to a boil, turn it off and strain, you really just want a quick blanch on them most of the cooking is going to happen in the frying pan.  Next finely chop
1/2 of a sweet onion
1/4 of a green bell pepper
1 cup mushrooms
      Now the real cooking begins.  Put one small pot on filled about 2/3 of the way with water and add about 2 TBS vinegar, this is going to be for your poached eggs.  Heat the water so that you are just getting a few bubbles floating up from the bottom.  REMEMBER: Poaching is a term for a temperature, not really a method of cooking.  You want your water to be between 160 and 180 degrees.
      While all your water is heating up get your skillet hot and add a couple table spoons of butter, or if you've got it laying around bacon fat certainly wouldn't hurt!  When your pan is hot (careful not to brown the butter though) add in your vegetables and blanched potatoes, stirring them occasionally so that they get a nice sear.  Season with
Salt
Pepper
Onion Powder 
Smoked Paprika and
A dash of Cajun Seasoning for some heat
      Next add in your chopped corned beef and continue to let it cook while you are  making Mustard Cream Sauce, once it gets a nice sear on it pull it out and plate it up before poaching the eggs. 
For the Mustard Cream Sauce, melt in a small pan
1/2 TBS Butter and mix in
1 tsp flour
Stir continuously and let it turn just a little brown, this will happen very quickly, so keep an eye on it.  Next stir in
1/2 cup cream
1 TBS stone ground mustard
a large pinch of salt and
a few grinds of fresh pepper
Let come to a boil and remove from heat
      Now I tried to take some pictures of poaching eggs for you, but the camera was unhappy with the steam on the lens, so I didn't get any good pictures, but if you have the temperature of the water right, and good fresh eggs, it is really easy.  I would suggest that you do this one egg at a time until you get some practice, then you can do more.  In a banquet kitchen I've done as many as 20 at a time in a large pot, but like I said, one at a time for now.  What you are going to do is take a large slotted spoon and start the water in a very slow swirl then drop your egg right in the center and let it be.  Some people will tell you that you need to take your spoon and push the white over the top of the yolk, but I find that messing with it just makes you break the egg up, it's best to just let it do it's own work.  After about a minute, minute and a half you will see that the whites are cooked, but your yolk will still be beautiful and runny.  Very gently pull it out of the pan with your slotted spoon and put it right on top of your hash.  Repeat for your second plate, or for as many eggs as you want on each.  The poached egg is especially beautiful because it kind of makes it's own sauce, and it's just a wonderful extra little pleasure to break that yolk on your plate before you dig in. 

 
      Finally you will top it all off with your mustard cream sauce and garnish with a few green onions.  Now enjoy a job well done!

A Day in the Life

I'd like to thank Courtney Page for the picture

      On Sundays at work we serve brunch from 8 until 2 in the afternoon.  Today was a pretty standard Sunday shift at the Okra Grill with the exception of one thing:  it's the first Sunday I've worked since a partially horrible co-worker left us.  It is amazing how different the day can be when you aren't having to resist the temptation to stab, burn or otherwise hurt someone with one of the many implements of destruction laying about.  Today, despite the fact that we served almost 900 people there was very little screaming and very few mess-ups.  The food went out in an orderly and timely fashion and everyone seemed pleased with their meal. Best of all there was a unity in the kitchen.  We were working together, not against each other and that makes for a nicer day for everyone. 
      Its funny, though,  the tricks your mind plays when you are tired.  Time slows down and speeds up at will.  Little snips of songs, or phrases begin to run through your head over and over until you forget what it was you were doing.  Something else happens too, slowly your sense of purpose begins to diminish, and any wit you might pretend to have blurs into stupid phrases like "your mom's a . . . pancake" (for example). But by that time everyone else is in the same state as you are, where you begin to get that goofy tired.  We are all cracked out on caffeine, or red bull.  Then the boss comes around with some sugary snack he picked up at the store, only really compounding the issue, but you're too tired and hungry to care what it might do to your diet or sugar level because that one piece of bacon 3 hours ago is not a meal.
      When you are finally done feeding the masses everyone takes a moment to rejoice before you realize that you've got cleaning to do.  Not just wrapping up and putting everything away but a deep cleaning.  All of those things that didn't get done the rest of the week.  Scrubbing walls, moving equipment and the like.  When you are done, and everyone gets to go home, it's like a dream.  You go home, rest, or go out to the beach.  Anything to get your mind off the day. 
      Everyone talks about it.  About the escape.  About being done.  But the truth is, we all love it.  Anthony Bourdain said in Kitchen Confidential that cooks are all like pirates.  We are the outcasts of society, the people who couldn't live in the grind of a normal job.  We spend our days armed to the teeth, making dirty jokes and torturing ourselves.  We are covered in scars, and a new cut or burn is more like a badge of courage than something to worry about.  There is something, though, about and adrenaline and the rush of a service completed and well done.  The pride of a beautiful plate or a delicious special, and the joy of creation.  Every perfect dish gets a little piece of your soul.  It might seem strange, but this is why we do it.  This job that most people think we are crazy for even considering, much less making a career of it.  It's the passion that drives us.

Four and Twenty Black. . . Berries

      Pie is delicious.  Better than that, an outstanding pie is really simple to make.  There are some basic principals that are important to know when making your crust.  First know that it's all about the fat, specifically COLD butter.  Basically the way this works is that you are layering the butter in between the flour.  This is what causes flakiness in more things than just a crust.  It makes croissants fluffy and oh so lovely, it makes your biscuit crumble, it's what makes puff pastry puff.  If you melt or soften the butter you loose this effect because it evenly mixes in the dough and it is those thin layers that give the desired effect. 
      You can do this in a food processor, but I like to get my hands dirty, so this is the hands on method.  Start with a big bowl mixing together:
3 cups AP Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 TBS Sugar
      Then with a box grater you are going to grate into the flour
3 sticks frozen butter
      Gently mix everything together and then with your fingertips rub the pieces of butter into the flour, if it begins to feel like it's getting warm throw it in the freezer for a few minutes.  You will want it to look like wet sand, well, clumpy wet sand.  Next you will need some ice water and some kind of large flexible scraper or spatula.  Basically you are going to sprinkle some of the ice water into the flour butter mixture and then with your scraper let the dough fall onto itself.  You are going to repeat this process until most of the dough is sticking together.  This is preferable to kneading, or just stirring the water in because the kneading process will form gluten strands, which again, will effect the crumble of your crust. Next press it together into a disk and refrigerate for at least an hour.
      My pie is a mixed berry pie.  They sell big bags of the stuff at costco and they are really great to have around for lots of things like smoothies, cobbler, pie, or to mix into an ice cream.  Fresh berries are in season now too, so this is a great time to do some berry picking and really make this pie your own because you can use this recipe to make any kind of berry pie.  Mix:
1 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
Then mix this with
4 cups of berries, frozen or fresh
the zest and juice of 1 lemon
 Set aside and clean off your counter so you can roll out the dough. 
Cut your chilled dough into 1/3 and 2/3 pieces.  Roll out the larger piece so that when you set your pan on it there are 2 inches extra dough all the way around.  Fold it into quarters so that it's easy to transfer into your pie pan.  Then unfold it again and carefully lift the edges so that it falls evenly into the corners at the bottom of the pan.  Cut the edges with a pair of scissors along the outside edge of the pan. Be sure to save those cut edges, they are going back into that smaller piece of dough to be rolled out for the top of your pie
      Now if you notice I've got a little bird sticking out of my pie.  This is a pie bird.  Absolutely not necessary, but it's kind of fun, and it does serve a purpose.  The pie bird allows all the steam and juices to escape safely without injuring your pie.  So if you have one, now is the time to put it in the middle of your pan, otherwise we will vent it in another fashion later.  Have no fear!
      okie, so into your prepared pan and bottom crust goes the berry mixture.  Then you are going to dot the top of the berry mixture with
3 TBS butter
Next brush egg wash:
1 egg, beaten
1 TBS water
on the edges of the bottom crust, so that you get a good seal between the two layers.  Roll out the remainder of the crust, again remember that you want it to be bigger than the actual pie so that you have some extra room to work with.  Again fold your dough and gently set it on top of the pie (cut yourself a small hole if you have a pie bird) and open it up to cover the pie.  Now again with a pair of scissors cut around the edge, leaving about 1/2 inch from the edge.  I like tucking this under the first edge and crimping them together.  It leaves a nice piece of crust, for all of those lovers of pie crust, and it makes for a very nice seal. 
      Then cut a few slits around the top to let that steam vent. Brush the top of the pie with more egg wash, and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar, this will give your pie nice color and shine. Then once the oven is 350 degrees put it on the bottom shelf and bake for about 45 min.  You want the crust to be nice and brown and the filling to be bubbly and delicious.  Make sure the insides do boil, because you need that heat to make the pie set once it cools, otherwise you will just have juices everywhere.  This is where that whole picture of grandma with pies on the window ledge comes in, you gotta let it cool, don't be tempted to eat it too soon. If it doesn't cool, it won't set and then you will just have a mess.  Don't worry you can heat it up again later.   Serve it up for dessert with a bit of whipped cream, ice cream and a nice glass of wine or maybe a hard cider, or just some fresh lemonade.  And remember, sharing is always preferable to eating alone!

imagine all the people . . .living for today

yes, this is me in a really horrible bikini and floaties

 

I was sitting at the pool today wishing I was a kid again: remembering how easy it was.  First of all, here I am at a pool and there are about 8 other people just laying out.  No one but me is swimming.  Remember when you went to the pool and you just played around?  I would spin around in circles, and have underwater tea parties.  We would jump off the diving board a hundred times, play sharks and minnows, and time each other to see how long we could hold our breath.  Those were the good days.   When friends were those kids down the street with the busted knee and the cool bike with ribbons and a bell.  What changed, and why does it suddenly matter so much what other people think?
I wish I could go back to being 10 sometimes. I wish that it was as easy as asking, "hey, wanna be my friend?"  What I really wonder is why can't it be? Why do we have to make it so hard on ourselves, on each other.  Imagine a world where we all looked at each other through the eyes of a child.  Imagine if we laughed out loud at the things we thought were funny and if it were ok to cry when we were sad or hurt, and if it was ok, really ok to want your mommy. 
It makes me sad that we are all so jaded and so shut off from each other.  We live our lives in this shut in world where we are so disconnected sometimes even from ourselves. So I say let's go back.  Let's reach out.  Let's have fun.  And remember that it's ok to love, even if it means you might get hurt. 

Chutney

Went to the store the other day and was so excited to see mangoes on sale.  So I grabbed 6 of them, some ginger, jalapenos, red bell peppers, red onion and headed home.  Chutney is an Indian condiment that has a complex flavor profile.  It sweet, spicy and sour all at the same time.  Chutney is one of those things that I love having around to eat as is or to add to dishes like curry chicken salad or simply add it to some yogurt or cream cheese (maybe both) with some chopped cilantro for a nice dip. 
The process itself is fairly simple, but a little time consuming, what with all the chopping and what not.
Start by finely mincing
1 red onion
1 jalapeno, seeds removed
1 red bell pepper, inner pith removed 
3 garlic cloves
2 oz ginger
if you are unsure of your knife skills I guess it's ok to put it in a food processor, but try not to grind them into nothing, you want to have a little texture. 
next peel and small dice (the size of your pinky nail)
6 mangoes
1/2 pineapple 
now in a large pot you are going to sweat your vegetables in a little bit of oil.  Then add the fruit and
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup sugar
Let simmer on low for about an hour, until most of the juice is reduced and your kitchen smells utterly divine. 
Taste your creation it will need a little salt and pepper, but most importantly check for that balance of flavor between the spicy (add some cayenne), sweet (sugar), and sour (more vinegar).  Trust your instincts and don't over think it.
I canned mine for safe keeping.  I ended up with four 12 oz jars.  Makes for nice added color to your pantry

An Introduction

   
      I suppose it's about time I tell you some things about myself.  I am 26 years old.  My family (the one that lives in the house with me) consists of my dear husband, Mark, a giant puppy (he's 4 and comes up about mid thigh) Bailey, and two cats Icarus and Jasmine.  We live in a little apartment right near Charleston harbor, and all in all we have a pretty good life.
 
       As for myself, there are a lot of things that I am very passionate about.  I love music, especially Irish and Appalachian folk music.  Odds are that if you ask me to sing for you I will have to decide just how many people are going to die in the song I choose, but I find that they are such beautiful, passionate pieces.  Singing is a spriitual release for me, even when it is about murders somehow it sets my soul at peace.
     Also, in case you haven't figured it out yet I am a very passionate about cooking.  I am a professional cook (of course) but aside from that I still come home every day excited about something I can cook for myself and my family.   I have to say, it's really wonderful to work with something I love enough to want to do it when I come home.  I feel lucky.

    I also just generally truly enjoy creating things.  Aside from making delicious food, I knit, sew, quilt, and make jewelry. Unfortunately I don't have as much time as I used to do work on all of these fun projects, and my knitting as definitely suffered since I moved back to South Carolina.  I create when I can though, and when I can't well I enjoy the things I've already made.  I love when someone asks me where I got a dress or a new pair of earrings being able to tell them that I made them myself! People are always so amazed that you can make things yourself. 
        All of these things, though, still don't really make who I am.  I am an independent woman  strives, above all else to treat others the way I want to be treated.  I am not going to pretend that I succeed, but it is always close to my thoughts.  I am a Christian not because I go to church every week or because I shout my faith to the world, but because I attempt every day to bring myself closer to Christ.  I do my best to embrace those around me that might not share the same ideals as I, or those who are less fortunate than myself.  I try to show love in my actions and words.  I am not perfect, but that doesn't keep me from working towards it every day. 
         In the end I will say I am a dreamer.  It's funny, I remember when I was young, maybe in 3rd or 4th grade I described myself the same way in a horrible poem my teacher had me write.  I think though, even at that young age I knew it.  I am a person who wants to see the world as a place where everyone is kind, and everyone does those things that they should do, the important things: hugging your children, laying in the grass watching the clouds, dancing in the rain, singing out loud with gusto (even when you sound bad), smiling often and doing what's right even when it hurts and isn't fair or easy.  This is the world I see when I close my eyes, the world I hope my children might one day realize. 

        So, there, in short, it a very little bit about me, but we all have to start somewhere. 

Carrot Ginger Soup and . . . Timetravel?

      With the change of seasons I always feel like making something different and exciting instead of the same old thing I've been stuck on for the past couple of months.  In the fall it is squash and hot cider, winter leaves me yearning for beef and mushroom stew.  Summer has me wanting all kinds of BBQ, banana pudding, cornbread and watermelon salad.  Today, though, I was feeling carrot soup.  This soup is light and fresh and the bright color really screams spring.
Really simple to make, and this recipe makes about 2 quarts of soup.
Start with
1 medium onion
1 bulb, fennel
1 1/2 lbs, carrots, peeled
2 oz,  fresh ginger

     Slice all the vegetables very thinly and be sure to slice the ginger against the grain so that it breaks up easier in the blender.  Sweat them in a large pot with a little bit of olive oil.  Deglaze with
1/2 cup white wine

then cover with
4 cups, filtered water

Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  cook until all vegetables are soft.  Add:
1 1/2 cup, cream
1 TBS, salt
1 tsp, white pepper (black is ok, but the white won't show up in the soup)
1/4 tsp, fresh grated nutmeg

     Next the soup goes into the blender.  You should be able to do about half at a time.  You want to puree it until completely smooth.
      I served mine with a faux creme fraiche since I couldn't find any of the real stuff at the store.  Pretty simple, but you still get that nice nutty taste that makes the real stuff so delicious.
 2 TBS, sour cream
1/4 cup, cream
pinch of salt

     Combine these ingredients and whip until it forms stiff peaks.  Serve with just a dollop (this is a very specific measurement, so don't mess it up) in the soup and a touch of nutmeg on top to garnish.  This is a great, healthy way to start a meal or just eat it along with a fresh salad for a delicious spring time lunch.  Hope ya'll enjoy! I know I did.

and now for random thoughts of the day!!!
       Today, while cooking far too many omelets at the same time I got to thinking about time travel.  I know, it's random, but that's kind of the point.  So here goes  If you can either travel through time, or travel through space it seems to me that   even if you traveled just 1 hour into the future while occupying the same space you would be left in the endless vacuum of space.  So the earth spins on it's axis at approximately 1100 miles/hour  and it's moving around the sun at 67,000 mph, then solar system is moving within our galaxy at oh. . . 560 mp thousand mph and then our galaxy is moving away from all the others at 670 thousand mph.  Ok so we travel one hour forward in time and the earth is maybe 1.3 million miles away from where we started. 
So there you are.  Eva's theory on why time travel would probably be pretty stupid.

Leg of Lamb, and other Easter Treats

  Today is Easter Sunday.  When it comes to dinner around our house Easter has always meant lamb.  This year was no exception.  One of the guys at work told me that Publix had leg of lamb on sale for $5 a pound, so I headed on over.  It was gone in lamb, but no worries we'll just cone it and make a beautiful lamb stock to use later.

So we boned the lamb, and went ahead and cut it in half since we were only feeding 4 people. Then I trussed the little guys up (they were still plenty of food to feed at least 6 people a piece), and made a simple marinade for them:  Dead sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, garlic, shallot, rosemary, oregano, a splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil. They sat like this for two days and got tastier by the moment before we put them in our little rotisserie.  Started them out at 400 because I was too lazy to actually sear them, but them knocked them down to 300 and let them cook for another hour.  (for those of you who are wondering, you can just do this in your regular oven, the rotisserie is just a bit of fun)

 Unfortunately while all of this was going on we were starving, so we had to make some little Easter snackies.  First was a ham and carrot wrap with herb cream cheese (pulled our herbs fresh from the garden).  And of course, it's not Easter without eggs, so we made a bit of egg salad and served it on crackers.

Now don't worry, we didn't let our lamb stock go to waste, oh no.  We made a delicious lamb and mushroom risotto.  If you've never had risotto before it is like creamy pearls of rice that have been cooked slowly so that the starch is released (in this case into my delicious lamb stock) and finished with cheese and butter.  This particular recipe starts with shallot, garlic and a mix of chopped mushrooms sweat down in butter. Then we add arborio rice and make sure it's coated with the butter before deglazing with white wine.  Now the stirring begins: we stir, and we slowly add hot stock and stir some more, and more stock, slowly, ever so slowly until the rice is cooked and it has become creamy.  It can be finished with just butter and Parmesan cheese, but I happened to find Marscapone so I added a bit of this wonderful Italian cream cheese to make the risotto extra rich and creamy.  

Last, but not least some glazed carrots, a green salad and a loaf of fresh baked bread -- not to mention some wonderful company, finished this rather delightful meal.  Any so ends my first ever post.  If you are worried that this one didn't have any real recipes I'll be getting some to you soon.  Hope y'all enjoyed and be sure to eat some tasty food!