Boeuf Bourguignon--A Delicious Experiment

Boeuf Bourguignon was the Daring Cooks challenge for May, and it was actually quite fun.  Something I'd never thought to try as it just seemed too intimidating.  It was a fair amount of work, but the results were enjoyed by all.  It really is a delicious dish.  I suppose what I made is, in fact, a misnomer, as instead of Bourgogne (Burgundy) I used grape juice.  We don't use alcohol, so that was a change.  Not the only one--used sliced bacon, and hubby (who does all my shopping) could not find small onions, so I suggested canned small onions.  Not until they'd cooked in the dish did I read the label--they were pickled--definitely a bizarre taste, so we removed them from everyone's plates!  One of these days, I'll figure out how to make something entirely by the recipe, but it's definitely not in my dna!!!!!!!!!   :)

 Beautiful bacon from Zaycon foods--extra to use for something later.

 Next time I'd not put all the meat in at once--didn't give it a chance to brown up as well as it could have.  Didn't think about it until it was all in there!

 Beautiful mirepoix!  How I love this combo for almost everything. 

 Mirepoix sauteing.  Can almost smell it's deliciousness while typing.

Boeuf Bourguignon, or more correctly, Boeuf Jus de Raisin!

Anyway, it was a dish that was greatly appreciated and one (a few weeks removed from all that work) that I'd consider making again.  Because I just can't seem to figure out how to put a recipe on here without it spacing out--literally, I'll just say to look it up online--Julia Child's is classic, of course.  As you can see, it was served over rice--and quickly disappeared with hubby, me and our daughter's sweet family all here.  May try this when my son and dil are here later in the year--am sure she's tried it in the original form and would like her opinion of it with juice.  

Blog-checking lines: Our May 2012 Daring Cooks’ hostess was Fabi of fabsfood. Fabi challenged us to make Boeuf Bourguignon, a classic French stew originating from the Burgundy region of France.

Magnificent Mother's Day

Mother's Day started Friday with a delivery of these from my son, Adam and his sweet family in NY (with a note attached saying next year we'd be together since they're moving back west after his residency--YAY!):

Later, that evening all sorts of fun and delight broke forth when my daughter, DL, and sweet family drove into the yard.  Lots of hugs, kisses, sweetness and goodness with six of our grandchildren, and their parents here for a couple days.  We had a great time.

  Saturday, Trey and Adam (12 & 10) super helped Randy and I in the garden.  Should clarify by saying mostly I supervised all they did and I did a bit of weeding and replanting of containers they brought up to me to work on.  It looks so nice out there and all grandkiddos love playing in the water--jumping over my darling ladybug sprinkler DH got me years ago, filling cups with water to try soaking each other with, watering with my can or the hose.  Flowers and plants greatly appreciated everyone's efforts!

Sunday girlie girls and boyly boys, their mom and I used embroidery floss to stitch together the little top I'm working on for Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Trey & Sabrina under pulling their threads through; Sagie, Sydney & Spencer (with mom's help) sewing.  It was great working together and love each one of those precious stitches.  Some still needs to be done so will do that myself, but just barely as I love what they've already done!

 Little Spencer watering...that little boy has so much energy and is a joy to watch.  He also has a collection of rocks he started last time they were here that's amassing on our front porch--think he needs a book about rocks for his upcoming birthday?

 DL made this fantastic couched floss cover for a gratitude journal.  She included information from onethousandgifts.com to be thankful for three things each day so at the end of a year you've listed over 1000.  Such a cool idea.  Some of what she printed out with ideas of what and when to be thankful

Trey made this wonderful walking stick for me--love the area he carved out and sanded for me to hang on.  Stick has lichen on it--fantastic.    Batiks DH gave me--aren't they lovely?!

Kiddos each did a mosaic paper picture for their momma, then I glued them together and added glittered words.  Love that saying!

 Adam, Trey, Sabrina and DL sewing.

Sabrina stitching--super concentration on her part for sure!  Randy and Fred made a delicious dinner of ham, new red mashed potatoes, and strawberry spinach salad.  Sagie helped me make chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, pretzel pieces cookies--just yum!  All in all, wonderful day and weekend.  Thanks everyone!

Yummy Nutmeg Cake and Nazook--Armenian Baking

This was a fun and delicious baker's challenge from the Daring Kitchen . Jason, from dailycandor.com, used two recipes from his heritage this month--love that! 

Baked Nutmeg Cake

Slice Of Deliciousness...The Cookie-Type Crust Is Fantastic

Cashews Sprinkled On Cake Before Baking
The only difference between my recipe and his for the nutmeg cake is that I used some whole wheat flour and cashews for cake top instead of walnuts.  The cashews were salted and gave a saltiness to the cake that I liked a lot.  I did use his directions for a food processor--so easy!

Armenian Nutmeg Cake   Oven at 350 degrees                                                           1 cup milk--lowfat is ok                                                               1 teaspoon baking soda                                                                     2 cups whole wheat flour                                                              2 teaspoons baking powder                                                                        2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed                                                               3/4 cup butter, cubed                                                                     1/2 cup or little more, walnut pieces                                                      1 egg                                                                                         1 to 1-­1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg                                                                                      

Mix the baking soda (not baking powder) into the milk. Set aside.  Put flour, baking powder, and brown sugar into a food processor. Pulse until uniformly mixed. Toss in cubed butter. Pulse until uniformly mixed into tan-colored crumbs.  Pour HALF of crumbs into your 9 " springform pan. Press out a crust using your fingers and knuckles.   Crack egg into food processor with the rest of the crumbs still in it.  . Grate 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Toss into food processor, too. Pulse until well-incorporated.   Pour in milk and baking soda mixture. Continue to mix until a slightly lumpy tan batter is formed.  Pour batter over crust in.  Gently sprinkle nuts over batter.  Bake 30-40 minutes. It's ready when top is golden brown, and when it passes the toothpick test (comes out clean).  Cool cake in pan, then enjoy!

Nazook Cut Open

Baked Nazook

Rolling Up Nazook

Apricot Filling Spread On Nazook Dough

Rolled Up And Cut Nazook On Silicon Mats

   Nazook

Pastry dough:   2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted        1 cup oatmeal      2 1⁄2 teaspoons yeast         1 cup sour cream                              1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter (room temperature)                                                                                                                                    Filling:   1 1/2  cups all-­purpose flour, sifted    1 1/2 cups sugar    3/4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)                           2 teaspoons vanilla extract                                                                                                                                                                               Wash:  yogurt                                                                                                                                                                                                      Make Pastry Dough:  Place sifted flour into a large bowl. Add yeast, and mix in.  Add sour cream (used half sour cream and half yogurt), and butter.  Use your hands, or standing mixer with paddle attachment, to work it into dough.  If using a standing mixer, switch to dough hook. If making manually, continue to knead for about 10 minutes, or until dough no longer sticks to bowl or your hands. If it remains very sticky, add some flour, a little at a time.   Cover dough and refrigerate for 3-­5 hours, or overnight if you like.  

Make the filling:  Mix  flour, sugar, and the softened butter in a medium bowl.  Add vanilla extract. Mix the filling until it looks like clumpy, damp sand. It should not take long. Set aside. I used thawed and drained apricots with sugar and butter, so it became a spread.  Next time I'd use more sugar--it was a bit tart. 

Make the nazook:  Preheat oven to 350°F   Cut refrigerated dough into quarters.  Form one of the quarters into a ball. Dust your working surface with a little flour.  Roll  into a large rectangle or oval. The dough should be thin, but not transparent. (this is a marvelously easy dough to work with!)  Spread 1/4 of  filling mixture across rolled-­out dough in even layer. Try to spreads close as possible to edges on short sides, but keep some of the dough uncovered (1 inch) along long edges.   From one long side, start slowly rolling dough across. Be careful to make sure filling stays evenly distributed. Roll  until you have a long, thin loaf.   Pat down loaf with palm and fingers so that it flattens out a bit (just a bit).  Apply egg yolk wash with a pastry brush.  User crinkle cutter (or knife) to cut loaf into 10 equally- sized pieces.  Repeat with remaining pieces of dough.  Put onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Place in oven for about 30 minutes, until tops are a rich, golden brown. Allow to cool and enjoy!  (do NOT know how to fix my recipes from shifting all over the place--sorry!!  hopefully you can figure it out.  Also, go to Jason's site and watch the videos--really helpful.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at Daily Candor, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Blocks

Just 17 blocks away from finishing all blocks for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler Quilt. Mostly, it's been fun. Some have been a major pain to do, but am glad for getting them done. Wish it had crossed my mind to make notes about those harder ones since my friend wants to borrow the book. One thing I do know is carefully reading the directions helps tremendously, but isn't that true of just about anything worth doing? Rambler, Snail's Trail, and Silver & Gold are names for these three blocks. Generally, I send a picture of completed blocks to my daughter, dil, my eldest granddaughter, and a friend to share my progress...they've all commented on block names. Some make perfect sense, others none at all. Keep being amazed at what creative minds are out there--for coming up with designs I just can't fathom how they did, and then naming them such fun names most of the time!

Never thought I'd do all those blocks--just planned on doing a few for a table runner or such, but started at the first and just couldn't resist doing them all. Try it, you just might get addicted to making small blocks, too.

HEAR ME ROAR...TIGER BREAD!

Sandwich made using Tiger Bread roll. Used corned beef, coleslaw, thinly sliced pineapple. Spread a little mayo and horseradish on the rolls first.

Tiger Bread Round Loaf

Isn't this great looking bread? It's Dutch Crunch bread or tijgerbrood (Tiger Bread). Some call it dragonette bread and a tiny little girl started a bit of a kerfluffel by insisting it should be called Giraffe Bread. Basically, it's the topping that makes the design, so could probably us

any bread. The Daring Baker's challenge for March gave two recipes as a starting point. One was a soft roll and one was brown rice bread which I opted for, but didn't shape them in pans. For one thing, haven't seen my bread pans since we remodeled the kitchen four years ago! For the other, just love using my baguette pan and also decided to just shape a round loaf and

make a few rolls.

Would definitely do things a bit differently next time. Although, as badly as my wrists were feeling for hours after making topping, not sure I'll make this again! It requires a LOT of

whisking! Couldn't find my electric hand mixer and the bowl of my Kitchenaid was full of rising bread, so finally used an old-fashioned eggbeater. Even then, it took a lot of beating to get to right consistency. Mashing potatoes for St. Patrick's dinner with a masher didn't help, either.

I cannot figure out how to get the pictures where I want them, so they're all mixed up! Made the round loaf and rolls and two baguettes. The picture under the round loaf shows it and rolls with the "goop" all over the top. Next two pictures show how I form baguettes...flatten dough with rolling pin, then roll in both sides, pinch those together and flip over onto baguette pan (do not know why waited so long to buy one of these--absolutely LOVE the bread made in it). Picture with eggbeater shows how the topping looks when it's ready to spread. Directions said it should be like stiff royal icing dripping. It took a whole lot of mixing! Spread it with a spoon over risen bread. It's a fun bread and go to the Daring Kitchen to see all the variations people did!!

Blog-checking lines: Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

I'VE BEEN BUSY!

Backs of 9 and front of one of Sylvia's blocks--like ironing seams open most of the time.
Ham/swiss cheese roll-up
Fruity spicy pork chops done in crockpot, served on rice.

Interlocking seasons sample block.

Sylvia blocks in sets of 20.

Alternate blocks for Starry Night.
Close To My Heart Blocks.

Looking at my last couple posts, you'd think the subject of this blog has changed. It hasn't and sewing busyness has abounded here...just haven't posted about any of it lately. My main goal for the first of this year has been to get four Starry Night quilts I somehow decided to start last January as part of, and in addition to, a mystery BOM Wish Upon A Quilt offered. The original blocks were black background with mostly Kaffe Fassett materials--couldn't resist being hooked by the name and his fabrics. Additionally, have been wanting to do a mystery quilt. Why in the world the decision was made to make four made sense at the time, but at the time it also escaped me that 12 blocks would not a quilt make!!!! Lo and behold, in late 2011 a kit came with directions that showed directions for the 13 alternate blocks and finishing for the top. Geesh, was I surprised and at that point getting rather sick of making four of everything. So making four of 13 more blocks just about frazzled the sandsnipe as mom used to say! (hmmm...not sure that's exactly what she said but something nonsensical like that)

Anyway...4 sets of alternate blocks (one of original fabrics, another similar from my stash, and two batiks) got cut out and are in production. Original set is all done, about 3/4 done with one batik, other two sets have centers done and are just waiting for all sashing to get done. It's been very overwhelming and boring doing just those, so got the wild idea to not just do a few of my favorites blocks from Sylvia's Bridal Sampler as originally planned, but to do them all in order--I'm plum crazy I know, but since a month ago, I've finished 70 in red/black/white and love them all. It's become addictive--there are some I wonder at the sanity of doing (fool's puzzle in a 6.5 inch size--AM I NUTS???) but most of them are really fun and new to me. I'm having my husband take pictures of them in groups of 20.

Have been cutting out each block or drawing the paper piecing patterns while watching t.v. So far I've jumped ahead on a few--had to do a Dresden block and hexie Grandmother's Flower Garden since had never done them, and for some sanity did a simple 9 patch in between some of the craziness.

Did 13 blocks for Close To My Heart quilt from Fab Shop Hop in February, too.

Am also working on wedding present quilts for my grandniece and her new hubby, along with one for my hubby's nephew and his new bride. The first one is an easy but beautiful strata quilt in batiks of her favorite colors, the second will take me a long time to do--it's called intersecting seasons or something like that. I adapted it to use 2 inch strips and loved the sample block I made up--it's not exactly her colors, so will be a pillow top maybe, but good experience to try it out.

In between all of that, I've been doing Daring Kitchen baking and cooking challenges I described in an earlier post. This month's cooking challenge turned out deliciously, but realized too late I'd failed to completely read all the rules and instead of braising in an oven or on the stove top, I used a crock pot...oh, well! The next challenge I'll be more precise. :] My fruity spicy pork chops in a crockpot were made by searing peppered/salted chops in oil, removed to a plate. Then put into pan a couple cups of chopped onions, some chopped celery and about 1/4 c. chopped hot peppers (all of those were cut weeks ago and frozen, so VERY easy to put this together). Added in some chopped garlic, couple bay leaves, some cumin to cook until translucent, then added soysauce and chicken broth to de-glaze pan and a cup of raisins, about same of dried strawberries. After that cooked well, put chops into crockpot wth a bit more broth and poured sauce over. Let cook about 7 hours on low, served over brown rice. Very spicy and yummy.

Oh, that picture of bread is ham/swiss cheese roll-up bread--so easy to do--just mix up a two-loaf recipe or use bought bread dough. Roll out into a rectangle and sprinkle with diced ham and cheese, or anything else you want to put in there and roll up from both sides then pinch to seal, flip over and bake on parchment, silicon pads on a pan or just put on a greased pan. A joy of this was the cheese that oozed out and made little chips--yummiest part.

So, enjoy the pictures--since I'm so challenged at getting them right where I want them, they'll all just be at the beginning, so you can totally ignore all my ramblings if you want.

Blog-checking lines: The March, 2012 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Carol, a/k/a Poisonive – and she challenged us all to learn the art of Braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman’s technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book “Ruhlman’s Twenty”.

Potato Hot Dog Muffins

Sorry about quality of pictures! Took them with my phone, but they do show what I did to make the muffins. There is a site called The Daring Kitchen... http://thedaringkitchen.com/about-the-daring-kitchen that I came upon recently. It has two challenges each month--you can be part of both or just one. One is cooking, the other is baking and crazy me decided to sign up for both. Thankfully, they don't happen at the same time. It can be quite intimidating to see what others have done, but I decided it just sounded like a lot of fun. This month for baking, it was quick breads. It could be a loaf, muffin, popovers, some even made pancakes! Some tried several different kinds. While I had good intentions, it ended up that potato hot dog muffins were something I wanted to try.
The mix was done in Cuisinart and wouldn't do that again since they turned out tough. I've used this machine for 30 years and made several kinds of dough, but it wasn't good for these. The idea for these came from a memory of tater dogs on a stick (like corndogs) that were sold at Natoturium Amusement Park in Spokane, WA where I grew up. Just used a basic muffin recipe and then added mashed potatoes--these were small red ones. Put a dollop of mix in bottom of each cup and then added piece of hotdog, and then covered with more dough.

Might try these with link sausages another time. Anyway...go look at all the fun ideas people came up with here: http://thedaringkitchen.com/recipe you can click on a picture to go to the blog for it.

Blog-checking lines: The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.