Squirrel Season

I love Fall, it is truly my favorite season … I love the color change, all the comfort food and all the smells that come with it. I love hunkering down in the house and cooking soups all day. However, I feel a bit like a squirrel. All I want to do is can, store, freeze and stock everything I can find. I’ve been busy – it’s been great!

I took a canning class in the Spring, hoping to learn everything I could, but made the mistake of taking a beginners class. I’m currently on the hunt for an intermediate or higher level class – bring on the pressure cooker! Unfortunately, I know enough about canning to do the basics, but not enough to be fully confident in my abilities, so I’ve been freezing all of my soups and sauces, just to be safe.

I started with a weekend of Strawberry Jam, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Grandma Ally’s Pickles*. I was so excited to make Grandma Ally’s Pickles with my daughter, Ally, but she took one look at the kitchen frenzy, turned tail and ran :) And so I made them without her, but will take great joy in watching her eat them all!

I then moved on to Celery Root Soup, Marinara Sauce and Borscht. Now I realize that my soup choices are a little left of center. Don’t let them scare you! These two soups are my absolute favorites and are sure to please. I can’t get enough of them!

*Grandma Ally’s Pickles are the reason I started this blog. When my Grandmother passed away, her recipes were lost. My Aunt had my Grandmother’s belongings, but wasn’t able to find them. Alas, one day out of the blue, I received an email from my Aunt with a scan of all Grandma Ally’s recipes, written in her own hand. I cried. Pickles were her specialty and it seemed a shame to not share them with those I love.

Cake!

"There is no problem that cannot be solved with cake. It’s the right answer to everything." At least, that is what Molly Wizenberg says in her book, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table.

When I read this, I immediately wrote it down. It sounds simple, but I do believe it’s true. Food for most people is comfort. That is one of the reasons I like to cook – to make those around me happy. It makes me happy too!

While I’m not the biggest fan of cake, I do believe chocolate eases every ache. So, I took Molly’s words and my love of chocolate and decided to share my Chocolate Cake recipe … This recipe is super easy and very versatile. I dream about this cake. Really, I do. I will often have dreams about cooking, but I had this particular dream about 15 years ago in which I had made this cake for a party. I woke up that morning and had to make it! It is nothing less than moist, chocolaty, goodness. Enjoy!

Update (8/7/11): I tried a variation of this cake last night for my anniversary and yum! Earl Grey Lavendar! I bought earl grey lavendar tea off the shelve and let the tea steep extra long with 4 tea bags in 2 cups of water. I used the tea in place of water in both the cake and the frosting. I absolutely love tea, almost as much as I love chocolate - the combination of the two was wonderful!

Bread, Bread, Bread!

For those of you who know me, know that I don’t eat bread often … For some unknown reason, I get the hick-ups every time! However, I love bread. David loves bread. Ally loves bread.

I was amazed when I did a cost comparison for bread made at home vs. bread purchased in the store.  David and I broke it down and found that we were averaging $4.30 a loaf at the grocery store. We then took the cost of the flour, yeast, etc. and figured out the cost per loaf at home is approximately $1.80 per loaf! Wow!

This really got me excited to figure out as many bread recipes as I could and to pledge myself to never buy bread from the grocery again, only to be met by complete failure. I had tried making bread for weeks, with flat loaves every time.

As a result of my absolute despair, David and Ally enrolled me in a bread making class, where I found out that my water was not warm enough to activate the yeast (must be 110 to 115 degrees). Alas, the weight was lifted from my shoulders and the bread frenzy began.

The class at Sur La Table was awesome and the instructor did a great job at providing us with a basic Sourdough recipe that could be transformed into everything. And the nice thing is that the machine does all the work for you, there is no hand kneading necessary.

My favorite variation is the dinner loaf … When you do the final rise add rosemary, Beecher’s cheese, roasted garlic and then sprinkle kosher salt across the top of the loaf after you put on the egg wash. Yum! Yum! Yum! This bread is definitely worth the hick-ups :)

Cooking Camp!

Ally spent the last week at cooking camp … and, I was jealous! I dropped her off Monday morning and immediately wished that I could stay and have fun too :) She learned everything from knife skills, to baking, to soups, to desserts, and even table etiquette. David and I were treated to daily samples of all the yummy things Ally learned to make. My favorite was the Frittata, which Ally made for breakfast on Saturday morning! We added broccoli and substituted all the dairy with goat dairy, which I would recommend. Not just because it is healthier for you, but the tang of the goat ads a whole other level of flavor.
  
Many thanks to Anne, Ally’s gracious host and cooking teacher, who was brave enough to take seven children into her own home for this camp - filling her kitchen with laughter, good food and amazing smells.

Welcome!

I grew up in a house where everything came out of a box, the freezer or the microwave. Then, I met my husband. He grew up in a house where everything was homemade, organic, and above all ... yummy! The first year of our marriage, my mother-in-law took a brave step and bought me the Joy of Cooking for Christmas. At first, I wondered what kind of hint this was? And then, I started cooking and I haven't stopped since!

Now, I love to cook. There's a very large part of me that takes great comfort in making people happy with food. It's like a big wooly sweater on a snowy day. It's love, it's comfort, it's fun, it's social, it's me :)