hide in book. bake a cake.

Yesterday after work, I came home, made a pot of tea, and started reading.  You could call it hiding in a book because I was tired but did not want to do anything I needed or should do.  I was not tired enough to take a nap.  Reading was lovely.

But . . . I had come across a recipe from Orangette yesterday that was for an everyday cake.  What Americans call everyday cake is really the only type of cake I can truly say I like.  A cake that can stand on its own without frosting.  A cake that you can drizzle a bit of frosting on if you wish or spread with a cream cheese frosting.  A cake that may actually be better the next day.  A cake that takes to a bit of toasting so it is hot through with crisp blackened bits (I like those but the rest of my family does not).

This everyday cake Molly wrote about had ricotta cheese and raspberries in it.  Which made me go "hmmmm."  It sounded a lot like my blackberry buckle, which also is what I consider an everyday cake.

I had to give it a try.  It is lighter then my blackberry buckle which is based on an Italian vanilla cake (which I have never posted the wheat version of.  Oh well!  Another tweak to a recipe needed).  I walked to the grocery that has recently opened near us, picked up supplies,  and gave it a try.  It is a lovely everyday cake, especially with a cup of tea and a book to hide in. 

Be aware, I baked it after during dinner yesterday.  There is half left at this point today between two people.

ricotta raspberry cake (or everyday cake)

Note:  adapted from Molly over at Orangette.  I took her suggestion on a recipe tweak and tweaked my own for my own taste.

1/2 cup butter, salted and room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

12 oz fresh or frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cover the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with parchment paper.  Butter paper and pan.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Mix in ricotta.  Fold in flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda. 

At this point, I mixed in the berries.  Next time, I will not.  Put the batter in the pan.  Drop the berries over.  Sprinkle with sugar if you wish.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes.  With the fruit, baking time will be highly variable.

Tea.  Book.  Enjoy.

There is a lemon blueberry cake a friend from work tried.  There may be more cake in my future.

sourdough chocolate chip cookies

Recently, my Beloved asked me for sourdough chocolate chip cookies.  I put it on my chalkboard and pondered.  I bought some butter.  I found some time.  I gave it a try. 

The boyos wonder why all chocolate chip cookies are not sourdough now.  All the boyos except Koda Bear have tried these and the cookies disappear quickly.  I have been letting the cookie dough sit in the refrigerator and only baking a dozen at a time.  The flavor deepens a bit every day.  I would suggest giving these a try.

sourdough chocolate chip cookies

sourdough starter

1 cup flour

3/4 cup water

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup chocolate chips (or as many as you like)

About 8 to 12 hours before you mix the cookie dough, mix the starter, 1 cup flour, and water together in a medium bowl.  Cover and let get bubbly in a warm place.  Take a bit out for next time.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla together.  Scrape in the starter and egg.  Mix well.  Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Mix in the chocolate chips. 

Put in a container that you can seal and put in the refrigerator for at least twenty four hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Drop teaspoons of dough on the baking sheet.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes are until golden.  Let cool about five minutes before trying to take them off the sheet.

They are really nice with a cup of tea.

It is the type of week I have had.  A cup of tea and cookies after work have been needed.

grown up rice krispie treats

I take my lunch to work most days.  I admit to it being fairly simple at this point in my life, a sandwich.  My go to is pb&j, homemade bread, homemade jam.  Or prosciutto and jarlsberg.  The Tall Short Person left roast beef in the refrigerator when she and Koda Bear went back to Oregon.  I will probably be eating that in my lunch next week.  With being sad.

What helps the sads?  Mugs of sweet tea.  Something sweet.  I will admit that most of the time my lunches look like something a kid would bring to work and one of my favorite sweets for that is a rice krispie treat.  Might help the sads a little bit.  At lunch, I have also been reading cookbooks and came across a recipe that was billed as a French rice krispie treat.

Now I am a rice krispie treat purist.  The only thing I ever change is I ususally use brown rice puffs.  No chocolate.  No peanut butter.  Just the basic recipe off the Kellogs box.  No nothing added.  The recipe I found had chocolate in it.  That had to go.  I added more vanilla.  Made them simple.

A little tiny grown up rice krispie treat.  It does help the sads.  It is lovely.  I will have to pack some in my lunch tomorrow.  If I get bread baked before work!

crispy topped brown sugar bars

Note:  This is based on Dorie Greenspan's recipe. 

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons water

2 cups brown rice puffs

1/2 cup (4 ounces) butter

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon fine himalayan salt

3/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a 8 x 8 inch square pan with parchment paper, letting some hang of the ends to easier pull out the bars.

To make the caramel puffs, in a skillet big enough to stir, put the 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water.  Put the heat on underneath it at a medium or medium high.  Stir the water and sugar together.  Bring to a boil.  When a bit of color starts to show and the sugar mixture thickens a bit, add the brown rice puffs.  Take the pan off the heat.  Stir the puffs until it appears all the caramel is absorbed.  A white sheen will start appearing.  Put the pan on the heat and stir for about another three minutes.  Each bit of cereal should be covered with the caramel and darker in color.  Pour out on parchment paper or a silpat.  To clean the pan, fill with water and bring to a boil.  Pour out.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugars together.  Mix in the vanilla.  Mix in the salt and flour.  It will take some work but it will all come together.

Press into the 8x8 inch pan.  Cover with about half the cereal mixture.  Bake for 22 minutes or until golden.  Golden will be hard to see. 

My house was cold, so I just pulled the bar out of the pan and let it cool.  The suggestion is to put it in the refrigerator before cutting.  Pull out by the paper and cut into small squares.

Really quite lovely and all grown up.  Maybe it will be all I take to lunch.

smoked salmon hash

I have been receiving the Sunset Magazine for years.  It lets me pretend I am back in the Pacific Northwest when I am sitting in the heat of Houston.  I will admit that the recipes I have tried have always left something to be desired, usually in terms of flavor.  Or at least the recipes I have tried.  I was reading the latest issue and there was a recipe for smoked salmon hash.

I always think of hash as something that is a bit clean out the refrigerator and easy.  I started reading the recipe, knowing it came from a restaurant, and just decided it was much too work.   But I make picadillo which is a Mexican hash and decided I could improvise.  This is somewhere between the too.  Very delicious.  I served it with chips but rice would be good.  Tortillas.  Fried or poached eggs with runny middles.  We just kept it simple with the chips. 

smoked salmon hash

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, peeled and chopped

six small golden potatoes, diced

one sweet potato, peeled and diced

six brussell sprouts, sliced fine

1/2 cup cranberries

1/2 cup raisins

1 teaspoon or to taste salt

1 teaspoon or to taste pepper

1 teaspoon or to taste cinnamon

1 small pinch ancho

1 small pinch chipolte

3 can smoked salmon (I used Brigham Fish Market smoke salmon, supposedly they will ship their canned fish if you call)

In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the onion.  Let get some color and start adding the potatoes.  I add the potatoes as I dice them so it is a little bit of a process, just a bit at a time.  Once the potatoes are in, add the brussell sprouts.  Add the sweet potato.  Add the raisons and cranberries.  Add the spices. Stir between each addition.

Cover and let cook ten minutes.  Stir.  Cover and let cook ten minutes more.  Test for doneness.  If done, serve, if not done, cover and let cook for ten more minutes.

I can see this with scrambled eggs in the morning.

yes, yes, yes, but where . . .

Pirates of the Caribbean have been quoted a lot lately.  When anything is empty, but especially beverages.  Actually, I cannot even say that has been true.  It has been rather random. 

I had seen a recipe for cranberry margaritas recently.  Miss A said she had tried one and that it was too tart.  I just did not think it would need to be.  But then I twisted it to add a large bit of ginger.  The spice came through very subtly.  And I used the last of the tequila in the house. 

Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  But where did all the tequila go?

Served in my second hand glasses, it turned into margaritas that were quite tasty and now in the past.  I guess I will need to be less of a hermit and go shopping.  Oh well.

cranberry ginger margaritas

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 cup cranberries (I used frozen)

1/2 cup peeled and sliced ginger

Cointreau

Good tequila (if you do not have a budget, Don Julio 1942 is pretty yummy)

ice

In a medium saucepan, put the sugar, water, cranberries, and ginger.  Bring to a boil.  Turn down to a simmer.  Let simmer for 15 minutes.  Turn off and let the syrup cool.

Margarita proportions are:  1 part Cointreau, 2 parts tequila, 3 parts simple syrup, in this case the cranberry ginger syrup.  Mix in a jar.  Put the lid on and shake up.  Serve over ice.

Quote pirates.