He asked me so very politely (seriously, so polite) if I would be interested in making him a Pineapple Upside Down cake for his last day. How can you say no to such a request?

I had never made a pineapple upside down cake before, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. It was super easy, and it looks so cool when it’s done.

I used an Alton Brown recipe (even his recipes are sexy), and make only two small modifications:

• I added rum instead of pineapple juice (duh)
• I made a warm syrup of pineapple juice and the cooked brown sugar that stuck to the pan, and drizzled it over the cake after removing it from the skillet

The proof of the pudding is in the taste, as they say (and yes, that is the CORRECT phrase thankyouverymuch), so I am looking forward to trying this tomorrow.

But I am sad that Matthew will be leaving. He really made our office fun for the last few months. Which is a feat.

Bon voyage, Minty (and wife Jennifer). Our loss is Chicago’s gain. Best of luck in your exciting future endeavors!

Before pouring the batter over the pineapples

Done! Look at that beautiful cooked sugar…

At first, I was thinking about baking six loaves of bread. After I stopped laughing hysterically, I had a more rational thought: muffins. But then, I thought – muffins? So boring, right? I need to step it up. So, I settled on BIG muffins. Big Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins with Cream Cheese frosting, to be exact. Something I’d swap for. Something I might keep, now that I think about it.

And since I really like to mix things up, I’ve decided to bring three pairs of giant muffins (wow, that doesn’t sound right), and three containers of Indian-spiced hummus.  You know me and hummus.

I met FSC Christina at yesterday’s Schenectady Greenmarket (they were the day’s Local Expert), and I ran my ideas by her. She told me that cookies and brownies and those kinds of items don’t go over very well at swaps (“it’s not a bake sale”, she said), but that muffins and hummus would be just fine. Christina is wicked cool, and I’m so excited that FSC will be coming to Schenectady! Y’all better give her a warm welcome.

What’s cool about this food swap – since it’s new to Schenectady – is that they’re offering 20 “SWAP Curious” tickets to folks who just want to come and scope out the scene, and be sure they know what they’re doing before getting involved in an actual swap.

Me, I just dive right in the deep end of the cold pool while ripping off the Band-Aids.

As of this writing, there are only 8 SWAP tickets (and 17 “SWAP Curious” tickets) left – GET YOURS HERE

If you’re going to the swap, let me know so I can say hello!

This recipe was originally published in the NY Times in 2006, and caused quite a stir. NY Times columnist Mark Bittman (“The Minimalist”) did a feature story about baker Jim Lahey, who owns the Sullivan Street Bakery in Manhattan and developed a minimalist recipe for bread that he thought “even a 4-year old could master”. The recipe, which requires a 12-to-18 hour fermentation and zero kneading, became an instant hit among novice and seasoned bakers alike, and is probably one of the most-read recipes the Times has ever published.

Let me first start by saying: I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Sure, you get to whip together a quick dough, and you get to just let it sit for 18 hours without kneading it, essentially letting the yeast (and time) do all the heavy lifting. The chemistry and biochemistry involved is rather intriguing. But, the final result in my opinion was less than spectacular. It was good, but it didn’t knock my socks off.

I feel badly for saying so, but I don’t think this is a recipe I’d try again. Especially now that I am extremely familiar with breadmaking, and I know that kneading is really not all that difficult, especially if you own a stand mixer. Your mileage may vary, of course, and if this recipe sounds good to you, then by all means give it a whirl. It’s simple, and the bread is good.

The recipe and photos are after the jump; as usual, my adjustments and comments are in blue.

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No-Knead Bread

From the New York Times, adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast (at first I thought this was a mistake; it’s not. The long fermentation allows for a smaller amount of yeast)
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water (how in holy hell do you measure 5/8 cup water? I mean, I figured it out, but no measuring cup I’ve ever seen has a 1/8 increment on it), and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky (that’s an understatement).

Stickiest dough I’ve ever worked with.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.

Bubblin’

Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers (this is impossible; no amount of flour seemed to mitigate the stickiness), gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. (I don’t think this actually doubled in size. It really didn’t seem to do much of anything but blob there).

Before proceeding – let me just reiterate: this dough was extremely sticky, and was damn near impossible to work with. It stuck like crazy to my cutting board, and no amount of flour could tame it. I was pretty annoyed through the whole process. 

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.  This part was ridiculous. The dough seemed to melt into the towel, and about a third of it never made it into the pan. Here, take a look (and no comments about my pajama clown pants or my mismatched potholders):

Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

A little flat in the middle.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Results:

• I have to be honest; I wasn’t 100% sure what kind of bread to expect here. I had plenty of time to think about things while waiting for the dough to ferment, and I guess I surmised that it would be a simple loaf, based on the ingredient list. Yup. It turned out to be very similar (in texture and in taste) to the French Country Bread I made a few weeks back.
• But seriously; 24 hours and all I get is one stinking half-flat loaf?
• I don’t understand the hoopla. It made a decent loaf of bread. Decent. Nothing earth shattering. I heard an interview with Mark Bittman recently, and the interviewer fell over herself telling Bittman how the recipe “changed her life”. Really. Changed your LIFE? You may have some thinking to do.
• This seems like the kind of bread that would be fantastic with some tapenade, or some soft cheese. Hmmm…I have some goat cheese with fig preserves in the fridge….

That’s it. A short post.

Anyway, the 2012 Bread Challenge continues – deterred temporarily by my convalescence from septoplasty. Sunday I made my favorite kind of bread – Indian flatbread, also called naan.

There are countless recipes for naan around, but I chose the one in the most recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Because it was handy, and I am a recipe masochist. I really need to stop using CI recipes, because I always end up making mistakes and/or modifications, for one reason or another. But those recipes look so damned good in the magazine that I can’t help myself!

This time around, there were a few ways that I deviated from the written word.

First, the recipe called for instant yeast, and I only had active dry. I made a couple modifications (proofing the yeast first, and adding it with the liquid instead of the dry ingredients), and it turned out ok. But, it’s probably best to just follow the recipe as written. There really is a difference between the various types of commercially-available yeasts.

The recipe called for whole milk yogurt (in fact, it explicitly stated “Do not use nonfat yogurt in this recipe”). But I could not find it in the grocery store! I swear I looked over every inch of that dairy case, and highest fat content yogurt they had was 2%, pineapple flavored. So, I went with nonfat plain Greek yogurt. Worked fine.

This recipe called for using a cast iron skillet to cook the naan. I do own a cast iron skillet, but I wasn’t going to use it on my new ceramic-cooktop stove (it’s not recommended; cast iron can scratch the ceramic and permanently damage the cooktop). But the recipe research concluded that using either a grill or a stone inside the oven produced inferior results. Damn you Cook’s Illustrated and your scientific method. I thought about it and thought about it, and decided that I was going to use the cast iron skillet on my cooktop anyway, and just be REALLY CAREFUL not to move it around and scratch the ceramic. And I got away with it – I didn’t scratch the ceramic. But I was in such fear the entire time that I probably will never do that again.

Overall, this recipe worked out pretty well, and I was happy with the results. With a little concentration, I could actually get it right next time.  Recipe and photos after the jump. 

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Indian Flatbread (Naan)

from Cook’s Illustrated, May/June 2012

• ½ cup ice water
• 1/3 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
• 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Combine water, yogurt, 3 Tbsp oil, and egg yolk.

Process flour, sugar, and yeast in food processor until combined. With processor running, add water mixture; process until just combined and no dry flour remains (about 10 seconds). Let dough stand for 10 minutes.  Add salt to dough and process until dough forms a satiny, sticky ball that clears the sides of the bowl. Transfer to floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Shape into ball, and place in large oiled bowl. Refrigerate 16 to 24 hours.

Divide into 4 pieces, shape each piece into smooth tight ball. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15-20 minutes.

On lightly floured surface, shape each ball into 9-inch round, sprinkling with flour to prevent sticking. Using a fork, poke entire surface of round 20-25 times.

Poke! Poke! Poke!

Heat 1 tsp oil in cast-iron skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Wipe oil out completely with paper towel.

Mist dough lightly with water. Place dough in pan, misted side down. Mist top surface with water, cover pan with lid. Cook until bottom surface is browned in spots, 2-3 minutes. Flip naan over, and cook on second side until lightly browned, another 2-3 minutes.

Kinda looks like a pancake.

Flip naan again, and brush top with melted butter. Keep naan warm in 200 oven, on a plate or stone, while cooking the remaining dough rounds.

Serve immediately.

Results:

• As I was typing the recipe into the post, I realized I forgot to add the vegetable oil in the first step. I really have to start paying more attention when I cook. That, and my nonfat yogurt substitution, notwithstanding, this naan turned out pretty well. It wasn’t *exactly* restaurant quality naan, but that’s to be expected. I don’t have a tandoor in my kitchen, and I bet you don’t either.
• My yeast modification: I used 1 tsp of active dry yeast, and proofed it with ½ cup warm water and a pinch of sugar. I then added the egg yolk and yogurt, and proceeded with the recipe. It seemed to work okay. Maybe I’ll try this recipe again sometime, and actually follow the instructions. But I say that a lot.
• Interested in seeing exactly how this is made? Cook’s Illustrated has video of it on their website, access to which is free for 4 months. I’ve also shared a slideshow of my preparation below.

And Bob loves pizza – some weeks we’ve been known to order it two or three nights. Crazy.

A few weeks ago, I proposed an experiment to him – let me make homemade pizza, instead of ordering it. If you don’t like it, I won’t make it again. But if you do like it – and I’m betting you do – we can have really great, fresh pizza and we’ll save a lot of money. He agreed.

And it worked out pretty well – the pizza tasted great, and Bob was semi-converted. But it wasn’t quite right – I was still making and eating an 8-cut plain cheese pizza. So my pizza problem was only half-solved.

Until I stumbled across a simple (and versatile) pizza crust recipe that called for turning the dough into 4 personal-size pizzas, instead of one giant one. I feel kinda stupid that I never thought of this before. Now, it’s not that I’ve never heard of personal pizzas. I moved out from under my rock years ago. I just never thought to apply them to my life situation.

But now I have, and I’m a changed woman.

Last week, I made plain pizza for Bob, and peppers & onions for myself. Tonight – inspired by a pizza I had at Wheatfield’s a few weeks ago – I made roasted tomato, olive, peppadew, and feta topped with mesclun mix and drizzled with balsamic reduction. The crust puffs up so perfectly, and it’s done in eight minutes. Eight minutes! I was happier than a pig in Pizza Hut. And Bob was pretty happy, too.  I know he’ll probably never give up takeout pizza forever, but I feel like we’re at least moving in the right direction.

I now keep a batch of the dough in the freezer at all times, in case the pizza urge strikes. I’m pretty excited about all of the possibilties that are now in front of me (bacon! hummus! avocado! wild mushrooms!). Today, in fact, I bought myself a pizza peel. I’m not sure how I went 40 years without one.

Roasted tomato, feta, peppadew, and olive pizza, topped with greens

Bread Challenge Update: I promise my next bread post will be coming soon. I made naan this week, but I can’t seem to get the post to write itself. I’m working on it!

I'm confused.

Hannaford had mangoes on sale for 99¢ each today, so I bought one. My rationale was that I need to eat more fruit. But now I have questions.

1. How do I know when it’s ripe?
2. If it’s not ripe, how do I ripen it?
3. How do I eat it?
4. Any suggestions for how to use it?

I suppose I *could*just Google it, but what’s the fun in that?

Can you help me?

I started by taking a beginner Wilton Cake Decorating class at A.C. Moore sometime in 1995 or 1996.  It was a blast, and I was pretty good at it (I think). I followed up with the Level II and Level III classes, and from there I began offering myself up to friends and their go-to cake maker. Friends and co-workers began asking me to make cakes for bridal showers, baby showers, kids birthdays, parents anniversaries, and weddings.

My skills improved markedly over the years; some of the early cakes were not really that good – I was still developing technique. But the later ones turned out pretty good (not quite professional, but better than average). I actually even almost became an instructor; Wilton recruited and accepted me, but the job would have involved me driving three hours round trip twice per week, and the pay wasn’t enough to even cover the cost of gas.

I took photos of just about every cake I ever made, and I thought it would be fun to share them here.  I love looking at these photos, because every one of them tells a story from my life. Since I made the majority of these cakes for family and friends, I was usually present at the events where they were served, so the photo gives me an instant flashback to my past and often brings me a smile or a laugh.

Why did I stop making cakes?

Two reasons: I began to resent the smell of buttercream, and I also developed carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ve since had surgery to repair the carpal tunnel, but I never really got back into making cakes after that. Though, two years ago I briefly re-entered the field to make a wedding cake for a co-worker. But, nothing since then. I’m just not that into it anymore.

Some of my favorite photos and stories after the jump, plus a gallery of all the cakes I could find photos of.

One of my earlier birthday cakes, from a time when most of the men in my life were Yankees fans (and when I possessed a crappy camera, apparently). This particular cake was for my sister’s ex-boyfriend Craig (we’re all still friends, so it’s ok). I have another similar cake that I made for my ex-husband, but I’m not showing that one here. We’re definitely not still friends. A birthday cake for my former co-worker Theresa’s daughter. This one reminds me of Blue Circle Cement, where Theresa and I worked. She’s still there; I moved on rather quickly. But I still have fond memories of my co-workers – so many great people.

Another wonderful memory. This is the first wedding cake I ever made, for my friends Wayne and Cheri in 1996. Also co-workers from Blue Circle Cement. Wayne and I worked together in the lab, and he taught me so much – about cement, about fixing things, about life. He also introduced me to Car Talk on NPR, for which I am eternally grateful. Wayne was much older than me (he was close to retirement when I started working there), but he was truly one of the greatest friends I’ve ever had. Wayne passed away last year, and I’m still crushed by the loss. He and Cheri were a big part of my life back then, in so many ways, and I miss him terribly. Rest in Peace. A birthday cake for my friend Debbie’s son’s 1st birthday. I don’t remember the year; it was definitely not 1994, even though that’s what’s printed on the photo. I’m thinking more like 1999. Debbie was a friend I met through our Daughters of the American Revolution chapter (yep, I’m a DAR). Debbie and I had a lot of fun together back then, but I’m not sure where she is and what she’s doing now. I’ll send some good thoughts out into the universe for her and her family. I hope they’re doing well. For my cousin Gabby’s 8th birthday in 1997. Gabby is 22 now, and probably doesn’t like the Rugrats anymore. This cake was fun; Gabby gave me one of her school folders that had a tiny postage-stamp sized picture of the Angelica character on it. I made a photocopy, enlarged it about a million times, and created a wax-paper stencil that I traced onto the frosted cake with a toothpick. I then did the outline with black buttercream, and filled in the lines with colored gel. She loved it! For my friends Marlene and Chris‘ wedding, in July 1997. One of my favorite cakes. What this picture doesn’t show is where the side of the largest cake got crushed in the box as I was bringing it to their reception hall. My fiance (we got married three months later) drove a Mitsubishi Eclipse at the time, a tiny sports car with an even tinier back seat. The cakes were in the back (why not the trunk? I have no idea), and Mike took a corner too fast or something, sending the cake flying into the wall of the back seat and flattening it on one side. There was a lot of yelling that happened on the rest of the trip (and the rest of the marriage, if we can be honest). Luckily, I always brought extra frosting and decorating bags with me. I managed to disguise the damage, mostly by turning that side of the cake towards the wall. No one noticed. Marlene and Chris will be celebrating their 15th Anniversary this summer, and they just welcomed their beautiful baby girl Jules into the world! Congratulations and best wishes for a lifetime of happiness, you guys!

This is hands-down my favorite cake of all time, made for my friend Kelly’s first baby shower (her baby is now in middle school!). Our friend Jen (party planner extraordinaire) asked me to make a cake using Kelly’s theme – Noah’s Ark. I spent weeks before the shower hand-piping each of those animals out of royal icing and crafting the ark out of gingerbread. I’m still amazed at how cute those little animals all turned out. Days before the shower, I baked the cakes. The night before (I’ve always preferred to work at night), I began to assemble the cake. First, I assembled the bottom tiers. Then I placed the boat cake on top (which was made from half of a football-shaped pan), and decorated everything. Lastly, I thought it would be a good idea to stabilize the layers by inserting a dowel all the way through the center of the tiers. This would prove to be my fatal mistake. About an hour later (around midnight), I noticed that the boat cake had split in half and was beginning to crumble onto the round layer beneath. All the frosting in the world wasn’t going to fix it. My husband was just getting out of work, so I called him frantically crying, begging him to go to the store and buy me shortening, powdered sugar, eggs, and another box of cake mix. When he finally got home with the goods it was around 1:00am, and I had to bake another boat cake, allow it to cool, and then finish decorating the whole thing. Yes, I was up all night. I went to the shower later that morning, having gotten no sleep at all. But that cake looked AWESOME!

This one makes me a little sad. I made it for the wedding of my friends Brian & Julie. It makes me sad because I haven’t seen Brian or Julie since my divorce seven years ago (I hate that friends are often forced to take sides). I guess posting this photo is my way of telling them  how much I miss them and would love to see them again. If anyone still keeps in touch with Brian, will you let him know?

I made this one for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary in 1996. My grandmother cried when she saw it, because she never had a wedding cake; she and Papa had taken their vows in front of a Justice of the Peace and never had a reception. I was so glad I was able to give them the beautiful cake they never had. Grandma & Papa passed away in 2008, within three weeks of each other. They had been married 62 years. 

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Photo gallery below. Click on any of the photos to open the gallery.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I prepared “Black & White Hummus”, which consisted of black bean and white bean hummuses (hummii?), served with pita chips. There were 34 other chefs at the event, serving everything from pasta e fagioli,  surf & turf bruschetta, and chicken wontons to cookie dough brownies, bread pudding, and tiramisu mini cupcakes. Plus lots of beer and wine.

The event, summed up in a few bullets:

• My hummus was not a big seller. The people who tried it loved it, but it was generally met with more scowls than smiles. Apparently, hummus is still an “unknown” food in these parts. People are afraid of it, for whatever reason. And I realized that it was mostly men that were terrified of trying it. One guy actually said to me, “If you show me what a baby hummus looks like, I’ll try it.” Sigh. 
• Since I wasn’t able to give away much of it, I had quite a bit leftover. This is where fate stepped in. At the next table was my friend Marc Renson, owner of Ambition Cafe in Schenectady. We had been chatting all evening, and Marc tried (and really liked) both versions of my hummus. Towards the end of the night, I mentioned to Marc that I was pretty sure I was going to have a bunch left over and didn’t know what I was going to do with it. He turned to me with a serious look on his face, and said, “I’ll take it. I’ll serve it at the restaurant. We’re doing a ‘Dining Out for Life‘ event on Thursday, and I’m sure I can work it into a special or two.” I took him up on the offer (and there may be some $$ in it for the Boys & Girls Clubs), and Marc proudly served the hummus as part of a sandwich special during the event! He was gracious enough to mention me a few times in his Facebook posts, too. So, my hummus, while not what I’d call popular, has been able to help raise money for two very important causes. Which is pretty great.
• I didn’t win. First place in the Appetizer/Entree – Amateur category went to someone else. But a little birdie told me that the judges scored my hummus very high, and I actually came in a very close second. This is hearsay, of course, but I’ll take what I can get. Get a list of competitors and winners here. Congratulations to all!
• The event had a very special surprise “celebrity” guest: Gianni Russo, the guy who played Carlo Rizzi (abusive husband of Connie Corleone) in The Godfather. Forty years ago. I’m not really sure why this guy is still famous, but people seem to enjoy having him at events. He’s appeared at a bunch of Schenectady events over the past few years; someone told me his son lives around here.  It would have been nice if he had actually paid attention to where he was and didn’t thank everyone for helping the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts (the giant Boys & Girls Clubs banners hanging around the room didn’t clue him in). I really dislike that kind of carelessness. It just makes me think that he thinks he’s far too important to pay attention to details. Anyway, he yakked on and on about how he “beat Vito Corleone’s daughter and look at him now.” Nice. Some interesting “facts” I found about this guy on Wikipedia: Russo claims that he has personally known three popes, five United States Presidents and every Mafia boss in the United States. He also claims to have had romantic trysts with Marilyn Monroe, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Liza Minnelli. Over the years since the beginning of his career, he has owned a Las Vegas restaurant called Gianni Russo’s State Street, dated Dionne Warwick for more than a decade and claims to have successfully defeated 23 federal criminal indictments on a variety of charges stemming from alleged organized crime associations. Sure.

Gianni Russo, star of stage and screen.

Wendalicious, her hummus, and the extra chin that magically appears whenever someone takes out a camera.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS

As an added incentive for you to buy a ticket, I will be one of the amateur chefs! I’ll be serving samples of my “Black & White Hummus” – black bean hummus served alongside classic white hummus.

I spent most of today in the kitchen of the B&G Club, making the hummus. It’s amazing how much time it takes to prepare enough food for 200 servings! My hummus recipes take about 15 minutes (tops) to make at home, but it took me FOUR HOURS to make two pans of hummus! The most tedious part was picking the leaves off seven bunches of cilantro. Holy crap that was tedious. But, I think the results will speak for themselves.

The participants will be competing against each other in a few categories:

• Professionals: Pasta Dish, Appetizer, Entrée, Soup, Dessert
• Amateurs: Appetizer/Entrée, Pasta Dish and Dessert

I was told today that it’s a friendly competition, and that it’s all for fun, but I am in it to win it. Go big or go home!

Seriously, I am excited to be taking part in such a fun event. I hope to see some of you there! Let me know if you’ll be coming, and be sure to stop by and say hello if you do! I’ll share photos of the event on Tuesday.

I’d like to extend a very special thank you to the manager on duty at the Clifton Park Hannaford store yesterday. I needed to buy 40 cans of beans (as well as limes, lemons, and cilantro), and he helped me clear the shelves and was super nice about the whole thing. He even gave me a peek into the back of the store – which was fascinating in its emptiness (a story for another time). Thank you, nameless manager! I’ll make sure to figure out your name and thank you personally next time I’m in the store.