Dropped the ball…

So, I’m super duber sorry, that I haven’t been keeping up with my posting.  I’m going to work really hard this week to finagle my schedule so that I blog every night before I go to bed…no matter what.  Currently, the issue lies in the fact that I tend to go over to my friend’s house most nights and we get so tired I just pass out on my friend’s couch.  Silly, I know.  I will be working on either bringing my laptop with me to these excursions or try not to get so sleepy!  Hehe.

I know I’ve only been doing this for about two weeks, but I have to say I’m really loving it.  I really just adore cooking right now.  I even love cleaning up everything after I’ve cooked.  The whole process is really relaxing and I always feel so accomplished.  I’d really like phasing out using a microwave, but sometimes, it’s just easier to heat leftovers up that way.  My manager told me that if people knew just how much bacteria and radiation is in a microwave they’d never use them again, and I’m not surprised.

Although I can’t remember everything I ate, I took a few pictures of the things I was most proud of.  We’ll begin with today.   I was at some sort of Butterflies party(It’s like a tupperware party, but with purses, jewlery and scarves.  Pretty damn awesome, to be honest.) and a lady mentioned making eggs benedict in a muffin tray.  The idea sounded super cool to me, so that’s just what I did.  First, I made the hollandaise sauce.  (Since, obviously I can’t have any storebought stuff.)

Can I say what an adventure that was?!  At first I was really dissapointed because it wasn’t getting thick like the recipe said it should, the I went to answer the door and when I came back, VOILA~ it was thick.  I added the butter too fast though, and I thought all was lost, but then the recipe had an answer for EVEN THAT.  It said, “If it begins to split because the butter was poured in, but the mixture into a blender.” And it worked.  It was the sexiest hollandaise saw you ever saw!  I didn’t have any ham, which normally goes on an egg benedict, so I used some of the local, grass raised shredded beef I had.   I topped it off with some diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper.  It was delicious!  Even Kody liked it.  Oh, and I put it over half a slice of wheat toast.  You need the bread in there for it to really be eggs benedict.  I swear, I thought I took a picture of it, but I guess not, but I do have a picture of one of the leftover ones I packed for dinner at work:

Just one egg was really filling.  It looked even prettier when I did the whole set-up on tiny plates.  I was kind of pretending I was making eggs at a fancy restaurant to add more fun to it.

Here’s the recipe:

Classic Sauce Hollandaise

INGREDIENTS

7oz salted butter

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon fine grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

If you have unsalted butter, you can add a ¼ teaspoon salt to the sauce.You should not need to add any salt if the butter is salted but check the seasoning at the end anyway

PREP WORK

All you need to do is assemble the ingredients and get your cookware together.

HOW TO MAKE AT HOME

Technique for hollandaise

First, we need to melt the butter. This needs to be done five minutes or so ahead of time so that the milk solids can sink to the bottom. This is important for when we whisk in the butter as it allows us to control the consistency of the sauce.

Place a large pot filled to a third with water on to boil. Choose a stainless steel mixing bowl that sits on top of the pot but does not touch the water and place the egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and vinegar into the mixing bowl.

Turn the heat down to just under a simmer, this is the ideal heat and won’t cook the yolks too fast. Sit the bowl over the water and gently whisk the yolk mixture in the bowl over the water and they will slowly start to heat and increase in volume.

Don’t forget the purpose of the whisking is not to aerate the mixture so much as to avoid the yolks catching and also ensuring even thickening. You will notice the yolk mixture becomes a little thicker on the bottom and around the edges. Keep a towel around the outside of the bowl so that you can remove it from the heat if it starts to form lumps from heating to fast.

Keep the yolk mixture moving constantly by whisking continuously. You will notice the bubbles that form will get smaller and smaller and soon become the larger part of the yolk mix as the runny yolk cooks. The only thing that is important to remember at this stage is that if it starts to catch, lift the bowl above the pot to slow down the heating. In around five to ten minutes, the yolk mixture should be holding it’s shape like a soft whipped cream and the texture should be as smooth. This means the yolks are cooked but not to the point of being scrambled and you have made yourself what is called in French cooking a “sabayon”.

Sabayon can also be made with yolks and sugar. This is the base for many well-known recipes like parfait and semi fredo (parfait with a fair amount of alcohol like tequila added and served semi frozen). Often this technique is also used as a base for decadent cake baking.

Next comes the whisking in of the butter, make sure the butter is boiling hot. Place the sabayon bowl onto a damp cloth so it won’t spin while you whisk. While whisking fast slowly pour on the butter keeping a steady stream of butter but keep the stream as thin as possible.

Don’t add more butter than you can whisk in, if the sabayon is overloaded it will split the mixture (be patient especially if you are a beginner). At first, the whisking is quite easy but as the butter is slowly incorporated, it becomes a little tougher. Add the butter slower at this stage to compensate.

As you near the milk solids, be at your most diligent not to add too much as the hollandaise is more likely to split at this stage, then slowly pour in the milk solids while still whisking, this will loosen the hollandaise and set the consistency. Usually adding all the milk solids is the correct amount of moisture that the hollandaise needs, but it can be too much so add slowly in case you don’t want the hollandaise to be that thin.

Alternatively, if you have added all the milk solids and it is still thicker than you would like, add a little boiling water to compensate. Variation can occur due to the size of the eggs. Check the seasoning, transfer to a small stainless steel bowl and cover with cling film. Keep in a warm place until serving time. You can make the hollandaise up to two hours safely before you need it.

If the butter has been added too fast and has split slightly, you can use a blender to blitz the emulsion and save it. Please remember to keep the sauce warm, if it cools too much the butter will start to set and you guessed it “split”, the most dreaded of all kitchen terms to a chef.

http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/hollandaise_sauce.htm

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I also mixed some long grain rice with sauteed ground beef, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and parsley with the remainder of the strained tomatoes I had from earlier.  I added some thyme and salt to it for added flavor.  I will be honest, I shouldn’t have added the parsley.  I think it actually detracted from the taste.  Other than that it was decent.  I wouldn’t call it my best, by far.  I didn’t get a picture of the finished product, but I did take a few as I was cooking it:

The top picture is me boiling the rice and sauteeing the beef.  The second is all the veggies I was getting ready to add to the beef.

For breakfast, I’ve been having wheat toast(again, the wheat bread is made with whole grain flower, etc at the co-op.  Once I have a little more time I’ll be making the bread and pasta myself.) I added penut butter and sliced strawberries.  Can I say just how delicious this little treat is?

If you’re curious about the peanut butter, it’s not organic–I don’t think–but it’s about as “real” as you can get.  It’s simply ground peanuts and water.  After I’m done with this container of this one, I’ll start grinding my own peanut butter at the co-op.  (Call me crazy, but I’m super excited about grinding it up myself!)  But yeah, this is a great breakfast when you pair it with an apple and milk.

And now comes my big screw-up.

This may look good, and to some extent it was.  It was just a little “too much” for me, if you know what I mean.  So, silly me, decides that I want to make alfredo sauce.  Well, instead of looking up a recipe I thought, “Well, I saw Justin make it once, and kind of paid attention, so I may as well try it myself.”  Well, half&half, milk, butter and gouda cheese –might– make alfredo if portioned and heated properly.  What I ended up with was the cheesey soupy stuff you’ll ever see.  In order to remedy this, I cooked up some rice and mushrooms and was like, “well, now it’s legit a soup.”  It lasted for a couple of days, and made a decent leftover, but I really don’t think it’s something I’d really like to eat again.  It was just REALLY rich and dare I say it?  Too cheesey.  And this is coming from someone who LOVES cheese.  Oh, and there’s some thyme sprinkled on top for added flavor and to make it look fancy. 

Instead of eating three big meals a day, I’ve kind of started to eat smaller ones and snack througout the day.  This wasn’t actually on purpose.  It started out that I would get full from just a tiny serving, but then get hungry later, so I’ve started taking snacks to class and work with me.  Typical snacks are an orange, a cut-up apple, nuts, raisins or strawberries.  I’m loving the snacks. They’re pretty awesome.

I feel like I’m always eating, but I’ve gotten a few comments on how I “look” like I’ve lost weight.  I’m not sure if it’s true since I don’t currently have access to a scale, but hey, I’m not complaining!

As an aside, for those of you that live in Iowa City, I’d love to see you at the community Potluck on Friday, April 30 at North Market Park.  It’s an event that I’ve decided to host and it’s going to be awesome!  Here’s a link to the facebook page, definately RSVP and post what you’re going to bring: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=107572779279807&ref=ts

I’m sure you’re all wondering if I’ve begun to encounter any dificulties so far.  The short answer is not really.  Mostly, I’ve been really wanting chocolate.  (I’m a girl, of course I want chocolate!) And a lot of the pure cocao is expensive.  But, I did find some powedered cocao at the co-op.  No additives, no nothing.  I’d have liked to find the actually cocao bean, but no luck.  I added it to my milk and discovered it really doesn’t like to be mixed with milk.  It literally stayed dry.  It was kind of crazy.  I did get some of it to mix together and it made a pretty decent chocolate milk.  I look forward to finding more uses for it.

Something I find difficult is eating fresh produce and meat before it goes bad.  I acknowledge that a lot of things are cheaper when you buy them in bulk, but since I don’t eat things fast enough to really justify it, I’ve basically been buying things meal by meal and that really works.  It’s a smaller price tag and the food doesn’t go bad, so it’s a win-win situation for me.

I discovered today that my milk has “Vitamin A Palmitate” or something added to it.  Which means, that I techincally can’t drink it.  However, I’m guessing it’s just because it’s skim milk since the whole milk doesn’t have anything added to it.  So, once I’m done with this current gallon of milk, I’ll be buying whole from here on out.  This for me is scary.  I really only drink skim milk.  Plus, whole milk has the cream top on it that I’m going to have to wrap my mind around.  I KNOW that it’s healthy and I can use it to make butter or yogurt or whatever, but it LOOKS like it’s rotten and I’m already a bit of a freak about milk.  (I won’t drink it once it reaches two days before the sell-by date.  I know it’s a bad habit, but it starts to taste bad to me.  It’s probably all in my head, but it’s in my head to stay right now.)

On a random note, I’ve started knitting a scarf.  Not food related, but it is MY blog, so I figure I can add whatever else I’m doing right now.  It’s pretty sweet so far.  It’ll be my first thing I’ve ever finished knitting(if I finish it, and I WILL!)

I absolutely adore scarves(I wear my favorite green one all the time) so I’m really excited to be making my own.  I’d love to start knitting more and even to some extent perhaps start sewing my own clothes, just for fun.  I think Kody and I are going to design our own t-shirts for our potluck, which will be really exciting.

This is already kind of a long entry, so I promise tomorrow I will post another busted excuse for not cooking and another lengthy reason for why I’m doing this.  And maybe some other stuff.  There’s a lot I’ve decided I want to do with this.  Some of it involves figuring out how to customize this site as well as getting in touch with farmers, doctors, etc.  Our famers markets don’t start until May, so I really won’t be getting in to the super awesome entries until then, so I have to start figuring out other things to add, especially since just reading what I’ve eating is kind of boring and not at all as imporant as the whys, hows, and whos.

Thanks for reading all!