Fresh Yeast

So I'm trying to find fresh/compressed yeast. I've looked at several places and asked bakeries, and they've all shown me active dry yeast, which is not what I need. I'm looking for the wet, clay-like yeast that comes in a cake form. Anyone have any idea where I can get it? I've even looked online.

Blueberries!

Last week my little family went and picked blueberries. There's a place that does it in Bartow (BMB Farms) that's not too far from our house. We were pretty excited to do this, 1) because we love blueberries, 2) they were only $10/gallon and 3) we thought it would be fun. The people at BMB Farms were very nice and even provided our daughter with a popsicle. They had tons of blueberries left even though they said it was the end of the season. I thought I'd share some photos...

So, what are we going to do with 12 cups of blueberries you ask? Well we've made 8 jars of jam (recipe here), a blueberry crumb bars (recipe here) and a blueberry dutch baby (recipe here). 

We have about 2-3 cups of berries left and amazingly, I'm not sick of blueberries yet. :) I think I'll put the rest in a pie with other assorted berries. Post to come. 

Sponge Layer Cake with Jam

I recently received two fantastic books for mother's day. One is the Baking Bible; From the Oven to the Table and the other, 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats. Bored and wanting to try something out I picked out a recipe from the Baking Bible for Sponge Layer Cake.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
pinch of salt
3 tbsp raspberry jam
1 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease 2 8" cake pans and line with wax or parchment paper. (I greased and floured them and they did fine)

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl using a wooden spoon or handheld mixer until the batter is pale in color and light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

Sift the flour and salt together into a separate bowl and carefully add to the batter, folding it in with a spatula.

Divide the batter between the pans and smooth over with a spatula. (the batter is very thick)

Place pans in the center of the oven and back for 25-30 minutes until well risen, golden brown and beginning to shrink from the sides of the pan.

Remove from the oven and let stand 1 minute.

Loosen the cakes from around the edge of the pans using a palette knife. Turn the cakes out onto a clean dish towel, remove paper and invert the cakes onto a wire rack.

When completely cool, sandwich together the cakes with jam and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.


Well, this turned out good, but it didn't look like the picture. I had 9" cake pans instead of 8" for one so my cakes were bigger but thinner. Also, I didn't use "self-rising" flour. I thought it wasn't really important, but it is. My cakes were so flat! Whoops. Lesson learned. At least it still tasted good. I bet it would be even more delish if I had actually followed the directions.

In other news, I must admit that I have a slight obsession with Chai tea. Now that it's hot out I love it iced but it's so STINKIN expensive. Seriously, $3.60 for a grande? Ouch. So, thrifty as I am I bought a whole box of Tazo Chai tea at target on sale (for under $3, and decaf I might add!) made a small pitcher at home and pour it over ice and milk. I had a delightful cup of iced chai at my house that was just as good as Starbucks for the cost of less than fifty cents. 

Yummo.

French Toast Tutorial

So a few weeks ago I made a confession that I didn't know how to make french toast. I had directions but every time I made it, it turned out goey and undercooked in the middle. I didn't know what I was doing wrong! So off to my friend Michelle's house for a late lunch and a little kitchen lesson...

We followed her recipe;

3 eggs, dash of milk, a little salt (her mil's secret ingredient) and then a little bit of vanilla (my contribution)

mix it up.

add some cinnamon

(she added cinnamon after each bread dipping so that each piece got a good amount)

She used a griddle set on 350 degrees. I don't have a griddle so she said to put the stovetop on medium to medium/low.

here's the secret: leave it alone.

I was flipping them waaaaaay too fast. Just let them be. Let them get to know one another. 

flip 'em. (eventually)

You can add extra butter to make sure the other side crusts up real nice.

And voila! Real french toast! No soggy gross mess! Whoo hoo!

Now here's where Michelle really outdid herself; she made homemade syrup. Yeah. delish & super easy. Who knew? 

Here's the recipe: 1 cup sugar + 1 cup brown sugar + 1 1/3 cup water.

Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. Pour into a container.

that's it. seriously. 

yum.

Thank you Michelle!

Slap Your Momma Pasta!

This pasta is so good that I think it was a runner up for the Seven Deadly Sins list. I have to thank my friend, Michelle Hannah for making me attempt to make my own pasta one day a few weeks ago when we were both cranky and needed a pick me up. We ignored our needy children and made pasta. Because sometimes... that's just what you gotta do. I'm also thanking Pioneer Woman for these recipes. If you are not familiar with her, you're missing out. Michelle's also the one that's introduced me to her and now I am in love with several of her recipes, use her photoshop actions for some of my pictures and follow her on twitter. I'm a big stalker fan.


Ok, so the pasta!


Her recipe is here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/homemade-pasta/


And here are the directions:
Ingredients

• 6 whole Eggs
• 3 cups All-purpose Flour

THAT's it. Seriously. What is in our store bought pasta?? I halfed this recipe because it was just for Jason and I. I had enough leftover for leftovers for one of us, so she's right on the money.

Preparation Instructions

Rule of thumb: Two eggs per one cup of flour  

Make a well in the center of your pile of flour and crack in your eggs. Slowly mix together with your hands. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead (roll, punch, push, etc.) by hand until dough becomes smooth and pliable, adding flour to the board as necessary.

Let the dough rest for a little while before rolling it out. You can sort of figure on one egg per person to determine how much dough to make. Example: Two eggs and one cup of flour would make enough pasta dough for a dinner for two.

When you’re ready, roll it out on a floured surface as thinly as it’ll go. The noodles will plump up quite a bit when they boil in the water, so the thinner you can roll it, the better. Cut the noodles really thin. You can use a sharp knife (if you can keep it in a straight line), a pizza wheel, or a long pizza/bread cutter.

Jason and I got a pasta maker for Christmas. Instead of rolling it out, I sent the dough through the machine to thin it out and then through the attachment to cut it into strips. It worked beautifully. The first time Michelle and I made the pasta though we did it by hand like she directs. It still worked great, this was just easier and faster.

To cook the noodles, just boil them in salted water (very important!) for probably two minutes. They cook lightning fast, so don’t let ‘em go too long.

I was afraid that they would clump and stick together but they separate in the water very nicely. It looked like real pasta! Definitely don't cook them long. Because they're fresh, it really only takes about 2 minutes of cooking time. 

Then the rest of the meal I did shrimp alfredo.

I sauteed the shrimp in butter for about 7-10 minutes

And then followed Pioneer Woman's recipe for alfredo sauce. OMG. To. Die. For.

You can see her recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/fettuccine-alfredo/

(I love how many pictures she posts!)

And directions:

Ingredients

• 1 pound Fettuccine Noodles (homemade!)
• 1 stick Butter
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 2 cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according directions.

In a saucepan or skillet, warm butter and cream. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Grate Parmesan cheese and place half of it into a large serving bowl. Pour warm butter/cream mixture over the top.

Drain pasta and immediately pour it into the bowl.
Toss a couple of times, then sprinkle in the other half of the Parmesan.

Toss to combine, thinning with pasta water if necessary.
Serve immediately as a main course or accompaniment to meat or salad.

And this is what the final product looked like:

So it looks good, but doesn't come close to showing just how amazing this dish was. The pasta tasted so fresh and because I used fresh (meaning a block that I grated) parmesan cheese, it almost sent me over the edge. My husband said that we can't go back to boxed pasta, and he's right! There's no comparison. And with really how easy it was to make, there shouldn't be any excuses to do so either.