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Remember the other day when I said I was going to try to make the Tunnel of Fudge cake again, except this time I would not forget the brown sugar? I did try again. The second attempt was for Duncan’s birthday party with friends. A photo: 
This isn’t an attempt, dear reader, to extort validation from you, because I already believe this photo to be gorgeous, and you won’t change my mind if you say otherwise. BUT when isn’t a picture worth a 1000 words? How about when you want to tell a sad tale about how incredibly ugly something turned out and the picture makes it seem otherwise?
This is what I came across right after I put Duncan’s birthday cake in the oven:
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- Ready for the Oven
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- In the Roasting Pan
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- Final Product
My parents hosted us for Thanksgiving this year and I had only one assignment: Pumpkin Cheesecake.
The recipe isn’t too demanding, except 1) it’s very important to plan ahead so that the eggs and cream cheese come to room temperature 2) mixing between each and every addition makes the recipe a little fussier than is fun and 3) doing the waterbath is a new experience for most of us. Planning in advance to bring the cream cheese and eggs to temperature is easier said than done. You don’t want the cream cheese to end up too warm. So when children and a dirty kitchen conspired to make me start later than I had planned, I ended up shuttling the cheese and eggs between countertop and refrigerator trying to keep them safe, yet still at room temp when I needed them. You will be relieved to know that no one died or got sick!
The directions suggest running a knife around the side of the pan while the cake cools. But unfortunately I think this damaged the sides of the cake. How can I make the sides look better?
Fortunately, despite shortcomings in presentation, the cake was delicious and seemed to be appreciated by all. It had just the right level of spiciness. The graham cracker crust was my favorite part–it was spiced as well, and just delicious.
We have three square foot gardens this year. The ornamental Kale is the beautiful ruffly plant on the first row. I adore how it looks. I think it is so beautiful. Unfortunately, I feel a bit guilty about it as well. The reason: I know that the leaves are good for decorating a plate, but people always ask me how you eat them. Do you eat ornamental kale? Does anyone have a good recipe?
I planted different vining (indeterminate) tomatoes at the back. They should get very tall. There are several basil plants, which are an essential for me. I love to make pasta, and basil is an essential ingredient in almost every dish. Hopefully, my heavy use of basil compensates in part for my cosmetic only use of the kale.
I haven’t grown oregano before. We’ll see how it goes.
Kale, Tomatoes, Basil, Oregano, Parsley
Duncan is having a dog-themed birthday party on Saturday. Just now, he noticed me leafing through the Baker’s Catalogue, and spied an elegant dark chocolate bundt cake with a glossy deep chocolate glaze. He asked me if I would make him that for his birthday. I said, “Well . . . I was going to make you a pawprint cake to go along with the dog theme, remember?”
He thought for a second, and then his whole face brightened. With a cherubic smile (and with no sense that he was about to say something disgusting) he said, “We could tell them that it was dog poop!” I guess his longing for elegant cakes is not the marker of the sophisticated young gentleman I momentarily (nanosecond) thought he was.
Ugh. It’s very hard to write in my gratitude journal when I feel so low. I am down about Pdad and I parting ways on the voucher question. I guess I take it as a symbol of how different we are. I wish I could write a perky post about how I’m thankful for differences, but I really don’t feel that way. Accepting other’s differences, especially accepting the fact that Pdad and I are different people and that we are both okay–that is a battle I’m still fighting.
Anyway, I am thankful that I ate no Snickers bars today. I had a couple of Sweettarts.
Also, I got up very early, 6ish? (Although the sleep deprivation–Duncan was up repeatedly last night crying–might have something to do with my low mood).
Finally, I overdid it and made a German chocolate cake and the frosting from scratch this morning (for the bereaved family’s luncheon after the funeral)–despite no sleep and very, very needy children. Probably shouldna have. : ( But, if I were making a cake for my own family, I would not want to make one out of a mix. I would want to make the tastiest one I possibly could. I could do nothing to compensate for my friend’s family’s terrible loss, but I could put all my love and effort into a really good cake, so I did.
Later one of the church ladies dropped off my cake pan. She said she didn’t get any, but she heard from the family that it was excellent and my bereaved friend got the last piece and really liked it. (Not to be competitive or anything–but you know that’s who I am–there were lots of other cakes there). That made my day.
Improve your pasta:
1. Use plenty of water and a large pot. The noodles need to boil freely to cook properly and not turn out sticky.
2. Salt the water. Use at least 1 tablespoon of table salt. You want your noodles seasoned on the inside, not just the outside.
3. Do not use oil. If you use plenty of water, you won’t need it, and oil will interfere with the ability of the sauce to stick to the pasta.
4. Try using the smallest number of minutes on the package. I used to always test my noodles. Now I simply time them. It is much simpler.
5. Reserve 1/3 cup of the hot cooking water. This will allow you to adjust the consistency of your sauce if necessary later. I find that many homemade sauces benefit from a bit of the cooking water. You won’t forget to reserve the water if you set your glass or metal measuring cup in the colander. The measuring cup will serve as a visual cue when you are just about to pour off the water.
As with almost everything I know about cooking, I got these ideas from Cook’s Illustrated.com Their website and other publications are content worth paying for.
My other WFMW posts include:
Vacationing with young children;
Hair care for fine hair;
Reading Rx info;
Cook’s Illustrated;
stickers and kids
grocery sack as giant disposable glove
white noise & swaddling
Visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer for other Works-For-Me-Wednesday tips.
Shannon over at http://www.rocksinmydryer.com has a themed Works-For-Me-Wednesday this week. We are blogging about what brands or products work for us.
Cook’s Illustrated has changed my life. It definitely works for me. I have always thought of myself as a cook and as a person who liked to cook. Unfortunately, the truth is that after leaving home for college I didn’t have much opportunity to cook. So, when my dissertation was finally finished, and I finally had a husband and children to cook for, and a kitchen to cook in, I didn’t know that much about cooking. Enthusiasm, yes. Knowledge, no. That’s where Cook’s Illustrated comes in. These are the people who do America’s Test Kitchen on PBS (I haven’t seen much of that because we don’t have TV). They publish cookbooks (often available at Costco for a good price), and two magazines, Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country, and also have websites for each of these magazines.
If you are a cook into experimenting and tasting and intuition-style cooking, the “art” of cooking, then this is probably not for you. (I admire you! But I don’t recommend these products.) However, if you want someone to go into great detail and tell you exactly what to do, this is for you. They thoroughly test their recipes (the problem with getting free recipes from the internet (and from cookbooks, for that mattter) is that often they are not thoroughly tested. The problem with getting recipes from friends and family, is that they are often not specific enough to allow you to duplicate their results.
Cook’s Illustrated recipes work. If you are a novice cook, you can make these recipes. They will tell you what to do, how to do it, and why their way is the best way. Their recipes are fabulous. You can make food that is far better than what you order at the restaurant. I have been amazed at what I am capable of when I follow their directions. Two things I particularly like are their taste tests: the best olive oil, the best peanut butter, etc., and their equipment ratings: the best food processor, the best waffle iron.
My favorite Cook’s Illustrated product is The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. If you are only going to get one item, get that one. It has all the basic recipes you will need, and little sidebars with tasting and equipment advice. My second favorite would be my membership to Cook’s Illustrated.com. Although membership to the website costs money, for me it is totally worth it. I love being able to input my ingredients and get suggestions for recipes (and remember these recipes all work and have that fabulous level of detail in the instructions). The website is also nice becuase it includes all of their tastings and equpment reviews, and will automatically print out a shopping list for whichever recipe you’d like to try.