The Smells in My Kitchen

[Eaquae Legit]

All I can say is, the second rise IS important. You can really tell if you don't give them enough time to double. That is far more important than timing it.

[steph]

Mmmm. Cinnamon rolls. I have some in the freezer, ready to rise and bake. Too bad it's Fast Sunday tomorrow. (The first sunday of every month, we [mormons] all fast from food and drink [unless you have a medical condition that interferes with that plan]. We also donate what we would have spent on food that day for helping those who can't afford food and housing.)

Tonight, I made mac & cheese with gouda, edam, fontina, bacon, onion, garlic, nutmeg and almond. 1/2 of it was for dinner tonight and the other half is for a big family dinner we're having on tuesday. (Yay, i get to eat it again!)

[Gravity Defier]

We also donate what we would have spent on food that day for helping those who can't afford food and housing.

Mormons are cool; pass it on.

[steph]

Mormons are cool; pass it on.

[Eaquae Legit]

Bacon sounds like it would be amazing in mac and cheese. Like, really.

I think I want to start experimenting a tiny bit with mac and cheese. I really, really like the super-simple recipe that Rei and I currently use, but it would be fun to try it with bits of bacon! Or with some more different cheeses. I also kind of like sometimes making it with some cauliflower as well.

I kind of want to make enchiladas sometime soon. Anyone feel like posting a recipe? Also some Nepalese salsa, which I just randomly started craving right now. Alas that I do not have any fresh coriander!

The room-smokey tempura got turned into sushi and brought backstage of the play Rei was in. I was amused and flattered at all the attention it got. It had too much mirin and the tempura wasn't quite right. But apparently it was impressive and tasty. The night before, I had thrown together tom yum soup from a packet of paste, and that got attention as well, which was just plain amusing (seriously, dude, all I did was add tofu and carrots...). And then at the cast party I brought down one of the trays of Deb's cinnamon buns, which I am still hearing about. I know it's vain, but I love it when people notice my food.

[LilBee91]

I'm going to attempt fried zucchini tonight. I have leftover zucchini from my bread and my roommate has leftover breading from her parmesan chicken. Clearly they belong together.

[Young Val]

Ali, my favorite enchiladas are these, from Rick Bayless: http://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/view?recipeID=167

I've also had a submission of enchiladas for the Kitchen Challenge, which, by the way, will officially begin tomorrow when I get the first challenge up, I swear. I just need to take my photos tonight, and then the whole thing'll go up tomorrow (it's not the enchilda recipe, though, so sit tight for that one, unless the submitter would like to post it here).

[Luet]

I love Rick Bayless and was so happy when he won Top Chef Masters. If I ever go to Chicago (maybe to visit Alea?), I am absolutely going to eat at Topolobampo. And not just because it is so fun to say.

[Petra456]

Friday I was in a really really bad mood so I decided to make brinner! I've never attempted to make homemade pancakes and we just happened to have buttermilk on hand, so it seemed perfect. Earlier that day our neighbors from across the street brought us some garlic they just picked out of their garden, so fried potatoes were a must.

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for the pancakes and they turned out amazing! Although, I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to double the recipe.

I never ever want pancakes from a box ever again! The same neighbor who gave us the garlic has blueberry bushes out front, so we had fresh picked blueberries to make it perfect!

Blueberry pancakes, fried potatoes, sausage, and over easy eggs <3

[VelvetElvis]

Oh, I miss fresh blueberries so much.

[Gravity Defier]

If I ever go to Chicago (maybe to visit Alea?)

Yes! You should definitely visit Alea in Chicago. Then I can invite Josh and Josh, too, and we can go mini-golfing and batting.

[VelvetElvis]

I read that as mini-golfing and bathing

[Gravity Defier]

bathing

Hopefully but not together.

[thoughtreader]

I had an upset tummy today, so instead of having me make dinner like planned my mother in law made some chicken soup with rice. it was very nice.[/url]

[VelvetElvis]

bathing

Hopefully but not together.

For sure keep the mini golf on dry land. Wouldn't want to hit the wrong ball.

[steph]

I made THE best pulled pork this weekend. In the dutch oven. In the campfire coals. Holy cow, yum. I can't wait to eat the leftovers.

[Young Val]

I love Rick Bayless and was so happy when he won Top Chef Masters. If I ever go to Chicago (maybe to visit Alea?), I am absolutely going to eat at Topolobampo. And not just because it is so fun to say.

I was in Chicago this past Sunday for all of 6 hours and David and I wanted SO much to eat at one of his three restaurants there (and would even have settled for one of his department-store outposts) but apparently Rick Bayless doesn't do business on Sundays. All closed.

[mr_thebrain]

i saw on food network, there's a pizza factory in springfield ill that has a 60" pizza that gets delivered to your table by crane... that sounds like a heck of a lot more fun than some ritzy restaurant.

[Syphon the Sun]

i saw on food network, there's a pizza factory in springfield ill that has a 60" pizza that gets delivered to your table by crane... that sounds like a heck of a lot more fun than some ritzy restaurant.

The Pizza Machine? Less than two blocks from my office. I can feel your jealousy from here.

[mr_thebrain]

that'd be it

[buckshot]

Topolo is super good and a great experience, but you can spend a lotta loot on a meal there!

[Platypi007]

The smell in my kitchen right now is pierniki.

In July a couple of my friends went to Poland for their wedding (though they were married months ago so that he could stay in the US, they wanted to have a big Polish wedding with his family). As a thank you for my feeding their cat and picking them up from the airport they got me a few small gifts from their trip, including a small tin of Katarzynki, which is Torun gingerbread coated in chocolate. I loved it so much that I started looking for a recipe right away.

Having found one, I decided to try it out tonight. I ended up having to alter it a little--it ended up looking like pancake batter but it was supposed to be rolled out and cut, I didn't think pouring pancake batter on my counter and running a rolling pin through it was a good idea so I added more flour and refrigerated it for an hour, did the trick!

So now I have a dozen large cakes of it, I melted some chocolate for a few of them. So far they seem to be very similar to the ones my friends brought me, only a lot larger (and not as golden, since the ones in the tin include caramel coloring).

One thing I want to try next time is using some rye flour (in the ingredients on the tin) in the mix.

Polish Pierniki is the recipe I worked from, though I cut the whole thing i half and ended up adding four more ounces of flour (so that'd be 24oz in the end).

So my recipe is as follows:

• 1 cup honey
  7oz sugar
  4 large eggs
  24oz flour (I used all purpose)
  1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  1/8 teaspoon (pinch) black pepper
  1/8 teaspoon (pinch) ground nutmeg
  1/2 teaspoon salt (I added this, too)
  3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 f.

Heat honey in saucepan until it begins to boil, remove from heat. Mix the sugar and eggs together and then add the dry ingredients, then add the honey.

Form into a ball, cover with plastic and refrigerate about an hour.

Roll out on a floured surface to between 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch thick and then cut out into whatever shapes, I used a mason jar ring to make circles since it was all I could find. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes, turning once.

I just melted and tempered some dark chocolate to dip them in rather than making the icing that he made.[/list][/url]

[LilBee91]

Belated picture-whore post.

Smitten Kitchen cinnamon rolls:


My not-so-good attempt at fried zucchini:

[Gravity Defier]

*drool*

[Dr. Mobius]

On a completely random note, I have those same paper plates. Mine unfortunately don't contain cinnamon rolls, though.

[Luet]

I also have those paper plates, which are also lacking cinnamon rolls.

[VelvetElvis]

I have neither paper plates nor cinnamon rolls.

[Platypi007]

I have different paper plates, they also lack cinnamon rolls... :(

[starlooker]

Normally, my husband is the cook. But, today, after church, I decided to make French toast and scrambled eggs.

Awesome. Oh, God, awesome. I am stuffed and happy.

[Petra456]

Last night I decided to make lasagna soup. Originally we were going to try and make this with homemade noodles and ricotta, but it was hot and we were tired to we decided to go store bought for everything. While I was making the soup I was really skeptical as I kept tasting and adjusting the seasonings, it just wasn't right. I ended up using about three times the amount of tomato paste it called for.

Although, at the end when I added the cheese, it turned out amazing! Now I know it is something I really like and I do want to put the effort into making noodles and cheese : )

[Eaquae Legit]

That sounds awesome and delicious. Recipe?

We made borscht tonight. The dill and allspice combo is such a tantalising smell...

[Petra456]

I used this recipe, but I followed it very loosely. It also made a TON of soup, I ended up freezing about half of it for later.

[Eaquae Legit]

Lots of soup is perfect. I will be looking for things to make and freeze, once we move.

Edit: Totally forgot to say that it looks really yummy. It reminds me of lasagne Hamburger Helper, which is a childhood-comfort-food thing, except the soup is full of delicious from-scratch goodness instead of weird boxed preservatives. I really can hardly wait to try it. Gotta see if I can find me some veggie Italian sausage...

[Petra456]

I'm really hoping it freezes well, i've never actually froze soup before. I just put it in a freezer bag, then put that in another freezer bag, I let it cool in the fridge before freezing it. I have no clue if i'm going about this the right way or not, and haven't thought you look it up on google yet : )

[Eaquae Legit]

What I may do is leave out the noodles before freezing, so they can be freshly al-dente when I reheat the soup.

I really love soup. I would have it at least once a week, except Rei isn't such a big fan as I am. My dad used to make a huge big pot of, essentially, packaged onion soup mix, sliced carrots, sliced celery (including the leaves), and rice. He'd simmer the living daylights out of it until the rice started to split, and I still love that soup. The carrot and celery flavours would come out into the broth. Then a few spoonfuls of parmesan on top - yum!

Or one I had once that was basically onions, stock, spinach, and cilantro, pureed. Dip some fresh pitas in, perfect!

I love soup. I really do.